What to you think of RealPlayer?

[Renegade]

I've been watching the counter at s***ware.net soar for hate against RealPlayer. About half of all answers are for it.

I haven't updated RealPlayer in a while, but it just works. I've never had a single problem. I have v10.5 installed, and have no problems with it ever.

Mouser likes it. I don't know who else does.

Years ago it was horrible, but it's pretty good now.

I'd like to know what people hate about it, or like about it. That is if anyone has the time or inclination.

Cheers,

Ryan

[kimmchii]

why hate or like it? just ignore it and use real alternative.

[app103]

I'll let you know if I hate it or like it once I get it to work.

So far, every PC I have ever tried it on, I couldn't get it to work.

Not on a P1 with Win98 or WinME, not on a P3 with WinME, and not on a P4 with XP.

Funny thing though...Real Alternative DOES work.

[Renegade]

Strange - I had stability problems with it when it was G5 or whatever - but that was YEARS ago. I've had zero problems with it in the past 3 or 4 years though.

The RealMedia format is pretty good.

[mouser]

have to agree, i've never had any troubles with real over the years, and i use it constantly to listen to internet radio and watch cspan video.

[kimmchii]

The RealMedia format is the best, i download a lot from taiwan/china, all their torrensts are in rm format, i dont understand why the US/Europe hate the rm format, almost all of their releases are in avi.

and the player, real (and quicktime) alternative are lighter, better in every way, why bother with the original?

[tomos]

and the player, real (and quicktime) alternative are lighter, better in every way

I'm curious, esp re quicktime (it now downloads with itunes i think it is - a big download & one i dont want),
what do you use kimmchii?

Edit: or is the name of it Real Alternative ??!! 

[kimmchii]

Edit: or is the name of it Real Alternative ??!! 

no, it's QuickTime Alternative, you can download it here.

QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt, .3gp and other extensions) without having to install the official QuickTime Player. It also supports QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages.

As a bonus, Internet Explorer will play all QuickTime movies that are embedded in a webpage. You do need a media player that is capable of playing QuickTime files. The included Media Player Classic supports it and works very well. The QuickTime Browser plugin supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape and Mozilla. The QuickTime plugins include iPIX and QuickTimeVR.

Some advantages compared to QuickTime player :

- Quick and easy install
- It's easy to make an unattended installation
- No background processes
- Use a player of your own choice
- Low on resources
- Smaller size

[tomos]

no, it's QuickTime Alternative, you can download it here.

cheers,
got that!


on a totally unrelated note, I'm curious about your "footer":

form does not differ from emptiness,
emptiness does not differ from form.
that which is form is emptiness,  that which is emptiness form.

is that a quote from somewhere?
its a bit like that if you're drawing/sketching something - you draw the "something", you draw the spaces around it  - 
you draw the "form", you draw the "emptyness" 

[kimmchii]

on a totally unrelated note, I'm curious about your "footer":

form does not differ from emptiness,
emptiness does not differ from form.
that which is form is emptiness,  that which is emptiness form.

is that a quote from somewhere?
its a bit like that if you're drawing/sketching something - you draw the "something", you draw the spaces around it  - 
you draw the "form", you draw the "emptyness" 

, that's an interesting interpretation.
no, actually it's a quote from The Heart Sutra.


Emptiness

Emptiness is a key concept in Buddhist philosophy, or more precisely, in the ontology of Mahayana Buddhism. The phrase "form is emptiness; emptiness is form" is perhaps the most celebrated paradox associated with Buddhist philosophy. It is the supreme mantra. The expression originates from the Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra, commonly known as the Heart Sutra, which contains the philosophical essence of about six hundred scrolls making up the Maha Prajna Paramita.

[superboyac]

The actual realmedia format may be good, but its implementation was horrible, and that's what turned me off.  If I understood correctly, this question was about the Realplayer software, not the format itself.  I've always hated the software and probably always will.  Back in the 90's, I was able to tame the software to turn most of it's bloat off and not allow to take over all of my file extensions.  But now, fortunately, realmedia doesn't have a monopoly on streaming software anymore, as more and more websites are using wmv and quicktime also (not that quicktime is any good).  Oh and flash is being used more now also.  So, now that I don't need realplayer anymore, I don't worry about it.  I have realplayer alternative for emergencies, which I haven't used for at least a couple of years.  Sorry mouser, I know you like the format, but I say good riddance.

My universally most hated pieces of software (in no particular order):
Realplayer, Quicktime, AOL, Kazaa (is it even around anymore).

[Renegade]

For what it's worth (ahem while I plug the day job  ), you can play Real and QuickTime with ALShow once you've installed the Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative codecs from the ALShow Codec Center.

(Just since it was mentioned.)

[allen]

I used to hate Real, but it really seems to have cleaned up its act quite a bit over the last few years.  While it's too big/heavy to be considered my ideal media solution/player, I find it far more desirable than windows media player, itunes or jukebox.

I'm especially fond of Real's "Rhapsody" player/music service -- that's something they did absolutely right.

[nudone]

hey, allen is back. but for how long?

[tinyvillager]

I believe it's better than Itunes,Windows Media Player,etc.That being said i like the format more than i like
the player and i believe that's why it's not as popular.I also think Real networks as a company does a terrible
job at selling it's format to consumers.No hardware support,etc.

You can find Divx/DVD players at Wal-Mart now,that's impressive considering Divx has only been around a
fraction of the time of Real Networks.


In short i think flash,love it or hate,is the future of streaming media.Their even going to make it more linux friendly from what i hear. 

[allen]

hey, allen is back. but for how long?

I never left, I was just . . . not entirely present

[f0dder]

I hate(d) realplayer with a passion - but it's been years since I had it installed, so I've sorta forgot why. It was pretty bad, though.

The format might be technically good, but since only RealPlayer (and the hax0r alternative) support it, I hate that as well

[Cloq]

Realplayer is up there with AO(hell)L 

[allen]

Realplayer is up there with AO(hell)L 

That's a real compelling argument you have there, Cloq . . . I'll counter it with one of my own!

"Nuh uh!"

[Cloq]

Realplayer is up there with AO(hell)L 

That's a real compelling argument you have there, Cloq . . . I'll counter it with one of my own!

"Nuh uh!"

Lemmesee..

realplayer bloatware.. aohell.. check
realplayer installs junk into the registry and (in my experience) mucks up parts of the registry.. aohell.. check
realplayer installs other junk software if you aren't careful.. aohell.. check
realplayer sends back information without your consent... aohell.. (never could get myself to install it that far to "evaluate it") .. going to say check to that too. 

and my favorite, they both install junk on the desktop and system tray. how sweet is that!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125772-page,2/article.html