RealPlayer 10 now available for OS X (supports QuickTime fil... [Archive]

nagromme

Jun 30, 2004, 03:40 PM

OS X has never allowed RealPlayer to be as obnoxious as it was in OS 9... but I still have nightmares about the 9 days! Messed up every system setting and screwed up the opening of unrelated files... like text documents! A company that would even TRY to take over opening of SO many document-types makes me nervous.

But it's been OK for me in X--and useful for iTunes music shopping :D I'm on modem and I don't always want the full-quality (slow) preview... so I go to Amazon and find many of the tracks there on CD, where they can be previewed with Real. Terrible quality, but very quick. Once I know I have the right song, I click Buy in iTunes :)

Lancetx

Jun 30, 2004, 03:45 PM

Just say no! This won't make it's way on any of my Macs anyway. :rolleyes:

Makosuke

Jun 30, 2004, 03:47 PM

I downloaded this last night (was surprised to see it on Real's servers just after midnight when I looked just for the heck of it), and I've got to say it's a HUGE improvement over the previous version.

I was never a big Real fan, and the old version was a total mess, but it was the only way for my wife to watch her news streams without using the even-worse WMP.

The new beta looks better, the video seems to be crisper (either better post-processing, or the site I'm using feeds a different video format if your player supports it), playing starts faster, you can now skip around in a streaming clip and it'll start playing almost immediately (instead of either a long delay, or stalling entirely), you can resize or drag the window without the video freezing, and it seems faster in general.

I don't trust whatever Real is doing in the background, but they're still a necessity for some sites, and the free player just went from being a total joke to a relatively nice piece of software, and this is just the beta.

(Now if they'd just drop the silly overdone Windows-style interface for something a bit more Mac-standard...)

Butler Trumpet

Jun 30, 2004, 03:49 PM

a_iver

Jun 30, 2004, 03:51 PM

Woo hoo I better download it right away. I always needed a virtual paper weight. :p

AmigoMac

Jun 30, 2004, 03:55 PM

Yeah... still not free... only for 14 days. And what sucks more... is that on OS 9 or a stupid PC its free. I dont get it.. thats retarted.

Edit: OK never mind.. I was looking at Real One Player... .difference.

It's free and it's beta...it has been messing my brower and I deleted realone which let me hear my old radio stations... :mad:

Porchland

Jun 30, 2004, 04:00 PM

Good: NPR's "Fresh Air"
Bad: Intrusive shilling
Good: A major player developing for Mac
Bad: Intrusive shilling

dizastor

Jun 30, 2004, 04:09 PM

Non event, I've never had a reason to use realplayer... any video worth viewing online is in a format quicktime recognizes, and for everything else there is VLC and sadly WMP.

So.. woohoo for realplayer!

MacNCheeze

Jun 30, 2004, 04:11 PM

Why would you want Real Player on your Mac? I can't believe Real Networks is still around. Not worth the risk. :rolleyes:

-----------
Still waiting to buy my Mac...

Windowlicker

Jun 30, 2004, 04:12 PM

the only thing i use real player for is to watch south park. for a while ago I trashed my real one and changed to mplayer with real media too.

I might try this real player 10 when it reaches the final version. for now, I'm good with just downloading the beta and putting it on a backup disc later on.

sinisterdesign

Jun 30, 2004, 04:24 PM

Yeah... still not free... only for 14 days. And what sucks more... is that on OS 9 or a stupid PC its free. I dont get it.. thats retarted.

Edit: OK never mind.. I was looking at Real One Player... .difference.

yeah, i don't think any of us are rushing out to buy One. sometimes they do those timed trials w/ betas to force you to get the actual final release at a later date, albeit normally longer than 14 days. ;)

i haven't downloaded this yet, but may tonight just b/c the other posts have said it's a marked improvement over the previous POS player. i've also been leary of Real since the days of OS9 when it would try to hijack every media type on your computer.

lately, i've been a fan of Mplayer b/c it plays just about everything you throw at it (although the fact that it doesn't constrain proportions when you resize is kinda' annoying)

mmmbop

Jun 30, 2004, 04:31 PM

Just wait until the stripped-down, non-spyware version appears as a download through the BBC's site. You won't get any of the that RealOne non-sense.

sunnfun

Jun 30, 2004, 04:33 PM

I'm listening to european radio a lot and they are almost 99% either WMA or RM... Is there a way to use RealPlayer with AirTunes? THAT would be cool! :)

nsb3000

Jun 30, 2004, 04:34 PM

Why would you want Real Player on your Mac? I can't believe Real Networks is still around. Not worth the risk. :rolleyes:

-----------
Still waiting to buy my Mac...

The same reason I have Windows Media player installed on my Mac...because of the content available exclusively the Real (OR WMA) format online. NPR, the BBC World Service, Air America Radio, PRI, just to name a few...and none of these have QuickTime streams. Realone player has been a system resource hog, and I hope this version is better.

nsb3000

Jun 30, 2004, 04:37 PM

I'm listening to european radio a lot and they are almost 99% either WMA or RM... Is there a way to use RealPlayer with AirTunes? THAT would be cool! :)

I was thinking this as well. Apple should give you the option of having Airtunes send out all sound from your Mac...

iGary

Jun 30, 2004, 04:40 PM

Eff Real Player, having to give a credit card, and their suck-ass player.

Not this Pilgrim. :rolleyes:

stylewriter

Jun 30, 2004, 04:54 PM

Yeah... still not free... only for 14 days. And what sucks more... is that on OS 9 or a stupid PC its free. I dont get it.. thats retarted.

Edit: OK never mind.. I was looking at Real One Player... .difference.
They have always had a free version, thery just hide it well. To get the truly free version you have to look in the top right hand corner of their page for this link
http://www.ghearing.com/realplay.jpg

Look directly under "Free Games", annoying but free.

stylewriter

Jun 30, 2004, 05:06 PM

I was thinking this as well. Apple should give you the option of having Airtunes send out all sound from your Mac...

It's a lot more likely now that Real has released most of their protocols open-source via Helix (https://helixcommunity.org/). I'd expect to see a lot more streams requiring Real now that Red Hat (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/28/1225245&mode=thread&tid=162&tid=188&tid=99) is standarizing on Real.

wrc fan

Jun 30, 2004, 05:08 PM

Hopefully this means better quality MLB.tv, which is the only things I use the Real Player for. My Cube can't even play the Windows Media stream at a decent frame rate, while Real at least gets a decent framerate. So that's why I use Real.

unfaded

Jun 30, 2004, 05:19 PM

...man you people are really weird about Real Player.

I would think it's good that a major player wrote a Cocoa interface. And it IS free, you just have to look through the site a bit (they hide the free version as best they can). I just downloaded the free version without that stupid pass thing, and it is a much better player than before.

Good job, Real. One less reason to have to use a PC is ALWAYS welcome, and I don't know why you people aren't seeing that.

leftbanke7

Jun 30, 2004, 05:40 PM

The only reason I don't use it is b/c of the spyware issue.

AstroPlain

Jun 30, 2004, 06:00 PM

It may be Cocoa now, but it's still crap. This RealPlayer beta has a CPU-wasting loop (or memory leak, can't tell sometimes... maybe both), meaning that I'm wasting battery power just having it open and "idle".

gregorypierce

Jun 30, 2004, 06:17 PM

The only reason I don't use it is b/c of the spyware issue.

I keep hearing people say this, but IS there a spyware issue with Real player on OSX? I myself have not seen Real install anything nor any 'out of bounds' network traffic leaving my Mac so is this just people expecting there to be spyware because it exists on the Windows version or is there something that is being missed?

yamabushi

Jun 30, 2004, 06:24 PM

Keep this trojan away from my computers! I ignore any streaming media that requires Real software of any kind. It simply isn't worth the risks involved with using Realplayer.

Jeff Harrell

Jun 30, 2004, 06:38 PM

Non event, I've never had a reason to use realplayer...

One word: C-SPAN.

Sabbath

Jun 30, 2004, 06:43 PM

Just wait until the stripped-down, non-spyware version appears as a download through the BBC's site. You won't get any of the that RealOne non-sense.

Just when BBC implement wm format so I can watch their stuff, this comes along. The old software never worked for BBC video for me. Now it just feels like we're stuck between a rock and a hard place with real and wmp, although at least I can just use it in browser, and not in wmp.

boy

Jun 30, 2004, 06:50 PM

just downloaded this new beta and i must say, its a huge improvement from previous version.

it now gets along better with Safari, and isnt as buggy in that area.

Doctor Q

Jun 30, 2004, 06:53 PM

I'm wary of Real software because of all the intrusive settings that were on by default in previous players, for Windows too. I'd like to know the "real" details about privacy/security in this player before I start using it.

Pipian

Jun 30, 2004, 06:54 PM

How is it playing Protected AAC files?

dizastor

Jun 30, 2004, 06:55 PM

One word: C-SPAN.

OMG you have to be kidding. If I ever sat in front of my computer watching a live stream of C-Span I would hope someone would shoot me. I can't change the channel fast enough on the Television when I come to C-Span, I can't imagine downloading software with the sole purpose of tuning in. I prefer to sleep in my bed.

[/rant]

virividox

Jun 30, 2004, 06:59 PM

imma gonna pass on testing this one out. i let you brave souls do it for me

Surreal

Jun 30, 2004, 07:16 PM

i would laugh at all of your caution regarding spyware; but alas, i can not bring myself to install real on my computer.

I remember Real on os 9...and pc.

i will hate real for approximately ...3 more eternities. after that we should be square.

and i KNOW that there are sies that are exclusively real, actually 2 siutes in particular that i buy records from use real...and i simply find a computer already infected with real.

...o my, did i say infected...o ya, 3 eternities to go.

i will give it a chance some day, when i am VERY...VERY...VERY forgiving.

IJ Reilly

Jun 30, 2004, 07:27 PM

How is it playing Protected AAC files?

That's my question too. And Quicktime -- that's a first. Didn't Real approach Apple about this very thing, and Steve told them not only no but hell no?

gorkonapple

Jun 30, 2004, 07:29 PM

Yeah... still not free... only for 14 days. And what sucks more... is that on OS 9 or a stupid PC its free. I dont get it.. thats retarted.

Edit: OK never mind.. I was looking at Real One Player... .difference.

IT IS FREE!

It's the stupid service they sell that isn't as well as a PLus version of the player.. I have never paid for Real on a Mac ever.

brooklyn

Jun 30, 2004, 07:34 PM

Seriously, what the hell is Real Player used for these days? I have it on my Mac and totally forgot it existed until this announcement. I’ll do with out all the extra crap Real player has been known to install behind your back. I remember during my dark days being a Windows user and Real Player installing and running unnecessary resource hogging apps in the background. Hell no! It's too late for them to try and make any noise in the Mac world.

littlejim

Jun 30, 2004, 07:34 PM

Well, I'm up for giving this a try.

I live and die by the BBC streams (especially the comedy on BBC Radio 7 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/) ) - they don't do QuickTime, so RealPlayer is my choice.

elo

Jun 30, 2004, 07:52 PM

OMG you have to be kidding. If I ever sat in front of my computer watching a live stream of C-Span I would hope someone would shoot me. I can't change the channel fast enough on the Television when I come to C-Span, I can't imagine downloading software with the sole purpose of tuning in. I prefer to sleep in my bed.

[/rant]

How can you not like C-SPAN? It's one of the best developments ever for a well-informed democracy. I know a professor who bought a large-screen TV for the *sole* purpose of watching C-SPAN.

Spend some time with it. You will be hooked.

elo

stylewriter

Jun 30, 2004, 07:59 PM

That's my question too. And Quicktime -- that's a first. Didn't Real approach Apple about this very thing, and Steve told them not only no but hell no?
Any program can use Quicktime, It's embedded into all kinds of apps on Windows and MacOS.

stylewriter

Jun 30, 2004, 08:02 PM

I took it for a whirl and WOW!

It plays videos on my G3 400mhz MUCH smoother. Try it on this (http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.php?player=realplayer&type=v&quality=high&reposid=/multimedia/chappelle/showclips_s1/computer.html) Apple ad :rolleyes: .

littlejim

Jun 30, 2004, 08:09 PM

Well, I've tried it (albeit only on the BBC web site) and it -

a) Crashes Safari 1.2.1
b) Doesn't work on Firefox 0.9
c) Causes errors on IE
d) WORKS! - sort of - in OmniWeb 4.5

Back to 'real one' free player for me.

broken_keyboard

Jun 30, 2004, 08:20 PM

I think it's great - good work Real. They have even tried to make it Mac-like by using fade and transition effects. Also Real streams usually start right away on my slowish 512kbps DSL, whereas Quicktime usually spends 30 seconds buffering first.

There are only two small things I would like to see improved before the final version: smoother resizing and the option to turn off the HTML display to the right of the image on Real.com streams.

G3-Pwnz-G4

Jun 30, 2004, 08:25 PM

sigh...yet another "gem" from Real... :rolleyes:

in all honesty, there really isn't much of a reason to get this. there are barely any positive things about realplayer.

littlejim

Jun 30, 2004, 08:35 PM

OK. I've just tried it 'stand alone' using 'Open Location ...' and I'm now much happier - I can get where I want to be without problems.

Now to try it with iRecordMusic (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21432)

sunnfun

Jun 30, 2004, 08:36 PM

No, really, is there a way to funnel RealOne Output into AirTunes? Sort of like this: You grab the SoundOutput with something like Wiretap, encode it as an MP3 stream and pick it up with iTunes (which will play ANY mp3-stream) and play it through AirTunes on your stereo. That shouldn't be too hard, should it? I'm not a programmer (far from it :) ) but it should be doable...

The radiostations I listen to require RealOne since I don't like Windows' MediaPlayer and thats all they offer. Some used to have an MP3 stream a couple of years back as well but they all dropped it. Right now I either listen to it on the iBook or I plug the iBook into the stereo.

PS: So far the RealPlayer 10 beta works pretty much the same as 9, no problems.

puckhead193

Jun 30, 2004, 08:54 PM

so how much spyware does it install?

I was thinking the samething.... But Realone player stinked ON windoze, what makes this new one better?

synotic

Jun 30, 2004, 09:35 PM

Just to clear up some of the ridiculousness in this thread, here a few facts:

1. There never has been spyware ever on a Mac version of RealPlayer. If you think this has changed with version 10; it hasn't.

2. Although the Mac OS 9 version of RealPlayer was a pain and hijacked all your file formats, RealPlayer does not take over any file formats. It asks when you install it and doesn't bother you after that.

3. The new version doesn't even have an installer, it is just like good OS X citizens. It's distributed on a DMG and you can just drag it into your app folder. Anything it installs after that is no different from apps like Safari, Transmit etc...

4. RealPlayer now plays QuickTime files. Apparently from reading around RealPlayer also plays files better than QuickTime. Streams start quicker, quality is better and they also allow full screen for free.

5. RealPlayer has a fully free version, but I think this has already been covered.

6. RealPlayer has been completely rewritten in Cocoa. It now has all the niceties of any other Cocoa program. It doesn't quit the program when you close the last window. It uses webkit for its web browser and apparently is faster than Safari because it doesn't have all the extras.

7. Unlike QuickTime which is written in Carbon (currently, it seems like it was rewritten in Cocoa for Tiger) it doesn't have parts of it that look like its from System 7. Like getting movie properties. It also has true OS X preferences with beautiful icons.

8. RealPlayer even includes other niceties like nice smooth controls that fade in when you want to do changes like brightness and whatnot.

Anyways, I think that's most of it. I don't even use RealPlayer that much, in fact I rarely use it, but I think that most of the feelings in here are quite unfounded.

I also included a quick screenshot of Real's beautiful toolbar icons, excuse the theme, I'm too lazy to change it :)

Downdivx

Jun 30, 2004, 09:51 PM

Anyone who follows my posts of late will know I just joined a media distribution firm. We distribute copyrighted files over the internet and have to include some DRM to protect them. Up until this week we have not been able to support Macs because there wasn't any DRM for OS X. Apple has Fairplay, but they aren't releasing it to other content developers. The new Helix DRM is Mac compatable - so this opens a new type of content to Mac users.

Finally copyright holders can offer their content for the Mac platform, which means more, legal opportunities for Mac users. I'm not crazy about the Real player either - but it actually opens up a huge new area for all us Mac users. And its a sign that Macs are becoming more accepted by the industry and consumers!

W

Steven1621

Jun 30, 2004, 10:48 PM

real = annoying...enough said

idkew

Jun 30, 2004, 11:02 PM

Just to clear up some of the ridiculousness in this thread, here a few facts:
...

do you work for real?

seems like you registered just to throw some corporate pr fud into the thread.

synotic

Jun 30, 2004, 11:19 PM

do you work for real?Hardly. I just usually like to view things objectively and not make judgments before actually trying things out. For people who are unsure about whether or not they should install RealPlayer or not, I posted some things that hopefully cleared up some of the misconceptions.

seems like you registered just to throw some corporate pr fud into the thread.With the exception of a few subjective comments in there, they are facts. You asked if there was any spyware and I responded. Because that conflicts with your misinformed view you label it as FUD (actually misusing the term, if anything you're spreading fud)? MacRumors get linked to all the time, and I wanted to respond to some of the comments here. If you want to see some of my posts go to MacNN, I have about 1700 posts there, if that's enough for you of course.

a_iver

Jun 30, 2004, 11:20 PM

do you work for real?

seems like you registered just to throw some corporate pr fud into the thread.

I'm with you brother. Join date 6/30/04.... Wait that's the same date the topic appeared. Coincidence? Maybe, but I still don't like/trust Real or care enough to use it, even if what you are saying is true.

Download at your own risk, especially if you are satisfied with what you have.

cryptochrome

Jun 30, 2004, 11:31 PM

Who cares. I could already play real format. Hey, how about a version of Windows Media Player 9 that actually plays Windows Media Video 9 with the Windows Media Video 9 Screen codec? Which is pretty much every WMV stream out there?

~Shard~

Jun 30, 2004, 11:31 PM

Meh - too "Windows"y - I never liked RealPlayer, so I won't bother with this one. I can do everything I need to do on my Mac just fine as it is right now...

iBookman

Jun 30, 2004, 11:37 PM

When I went to stream a game on MLB.com with it the video was all choppy and was off from the sound. I got on there site and got the old version and it worked great.

broken_keyboard

Jun 30, 2004, 11:38 PM

Boy you guys are really hard to please... Just looking at it I can see the developers have gone the extra mile to make it Mac-like - they deserve the thumbs up in my opinion.

a_iver

Jun 30, 2004, 11:52 PM

Boy you guys are really hard to please... Just looking at it I can see the developers have gone the extra mile to make it Mac-like - they deserve the thumbs up in my opinion.

Oh, I'm sure they did work pretty hard on it. I'm just saying that I am more than happy with what I've got right now, so it makes no sense to pick up a copy if it seems they have a bit of a shady past. To make sure I don't trample on anyones feelings - I don't exactly know that Real has a shady past, but it seems that the majority of people don't like them. And those feelings have to come from somewhere. In fact I've never really had a problem with Real, because haven't used it hardly at all.

To make an application mac-like doesn't take a whole lot of work if you are using cocoa. In fact it would be harder to make it un-mac-like. But then again I'm no expert in development either. :)

må¥å

Jul 1, 2004, 12:20 AM

People CHILL its a Media Player use it if you want no one is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to use it. Try it if you like othewise keep it shut.

I tried it seems alright then again I don't need it since VLC and mplayer does read most if not all formats use the ADVANCE settings.

I have no reason to believe why people have to speak negativly about everything if it doesn't work for you SAD look else where if it does GREAT happy camping.

Where is the ENERGY @. :) :cool:

må¥å

Jul 1, 2004, 12:24 AM

BTW those Apple banners those were not negative infact those were in good fun adn games for competition who else do you know makes the most wide spread OS other than MS and Apple that the average user knows how to grasp.

LINUX is still regarded as half-baked and *NIX is enterprise.

(no offence to any LINUX users) trust is that no average user cares to take the time to investigate the OS and the many varities.

vniow

Jul 1, 2004, 01:02 AM

do you work for real?

seems like you registered just to throw some corporate pr fud into the thread.

Haha, I love this. Someone actually posts a positive view on Real and they're immediately called corporate PR FUD.

Hehehe....

sjk

Jul 1, 2004, 01:12 AM

I prefer Real over WMP on my Mac for watching interesting clips like "The future of digital photo display?" (http://news.com.com/1606-2-5234982.html).

iomar

Jul 1, 2004, 01:53 AM

This is a great news!!! I have already downloaded it and it is wonderful. I wish I could use Quicktime for everything, but the sad reality is that not all websites offer their content for quicktime. Real Player is the most popular player and I think 60% more times I have been forced to use it compaired to Quicktime and Windows Media Player. So we as Mac users should be happy that we have companies such as Real Media making software for the Mac platform. I am happy!

broken_keyboard

Jul 1, 2004, 01:57 AM

Oh, I'm sure they did work pretty hard on it. I'm just saying that I am more than happy with what I've got right now, so it makes no sense to pick up a copy if it seems they have a bit of a shady past. To make sure I don't trample on anyones feelings - I don't exactly know that Real has a shady past, but it seems that the majority of people don't like them. And those feelings have to come from somewhere. In fact I've never really had a problem with Real, because haven't used it hardly at all.

I suspect these are ex-Windows or OS 9 people. On those platforms previous versions of the player were quite invasive. They would install permanently running background tasks and if you tried to change your file type associations it would automatically change them back. However in my experience RealOnePlayer on OS X and now RealPlayer 10 have been very well behaved. They are satisfied to just be media players.

To make an application mac-like doesn't take a whole lot of work if you are using cocoa. In fact it would be harder to make it un-mac-like. But then again I'm no expert in development either. :)

It's not just the Cocoa widgets though - they have put in controller fading and window size transitions, quite impressive. I'm sure it is all done through ordinary system APIs but I'm still glad they put in the effort.

unfaded

Jul 1, 2004, 02:06 AM

Wow, it's really depressing how fast Real Player's browser is compared to Safari.

Dave Swift

Jul 1, 2004, 02:10 AM

I prefer Real over WMP on my Mac for watching interesting clips like "The future of digital photo display?" (http://news.com.com/1606-2-5234982.html).

Oh my god, that microsoft photo app looks distgustingly difficult to effectively organize photos with. Talk about useless eye-candy!

I thank my mac for iPhoto.

iMeowbot

Jul 1, 2004, 02:28 AM

I suspect these are ex-Windows or OS 9 people. On those platforms previous versions of the player were quite invasive. They would install permanently running background tasks and if you tried to change your file type associations it would automatically change them back.
The really funny thing is that on Windows, QuickTime is almost as bad. It also wants a permanent presence in the tray, and it loves to nag you to buy the pro license.
However in my experience RealOnePlayer on OS X and now RealPlayer 10 have been very well behaved. They are satisfied to just be media players.
Same here. It's nice that mplayer and VideoLAN offer alternatives, but mplayer still doesn't understand the concept of maintaining aspect ratios and VLC has a horrendously un-Mac-like interface that seems to become a different, even more horrendously un-Mac-like interface with every release.
It's not just the Cocoa widgets though - they have put in controller fading and window size transitions, quite impressive. I'm sure it is all done through ordinary system APIs but I'm still glad they put in the effort.
It's evident that they put some serious effort into optimizing playback this time around too. Nice job.

elmimmo

Jul 1, 2004, 03:10 AM

The really funny thing is that on Windows, QuickTime is almost as bad. It also wants a permanent presence in the tray, and it loves to nag you to buy the pro license.And installs resident-in-memory background bloatware (qttask.exe), and the same happens with iTunes(iTunesHelper.exe, iPodSomething.exe -even if you do not own an iPod!!!) and gives NO means to remove those. Apple is a crap-o-developer in the Windows platform...

Wardofsky

Jul 1, 2004, 04:12 AM

Dave Swift

Jul 1, 2004, 04:23 AM

Eh... Real player...
I've had bad experiences with them.

In the past the download page for the Mac player was almost impossible to find, it wasn't on Google, you'd click a link saying download for mac and end up somewhere else...

I don't think I want to use Real anymore.

For quite a while, all you've needed to do is go to www.real.com and you'd automatically be redirected to their OS X page. The "Free Player" link is small but clearly visable in the upper right hand corner. I understand a certain level of contempt for Real, but the whole speal that it's impossible to find the free version never made too much sense to me.

Capn_Moho

Jul 1, 2004, 04:34 AM

Who are you people?

Do any of you have any idea what you're talking about?

Well, a few do--and were subsequently childishly attacked--but this is yet another thread where I say, "I killed brain cells by reading it."

Sure, I too remember the old days of Classic Real, where I manually removed every portion of it right after installing it. But today, Real is one of the few companies who have built a program in the OS X spirit. It's a single Mac OS X package that one can put anywhere desired. That alone is impressive, even more so considering their history.

Not only that, they're at least trying to give Mac users full functionality--a far cry from Windows Media Player "9" for Mac OS X. Never bite the hand that's giving you, a small percentage of the world, something complete.

It may currently have a memory leak. That's why it's called Beta. That sort of thing is expected in fact, that's the least of a typical Beta problem.

I mean, seriously, at a minimum, read the thread before you repeat, over and over, "No way, Real sucks, Rah!"

In other words, Quit your b-- complaining.

Dave Swift

Jul 1, 2004, 04:42 AM

I mean, seriously, at a minimum, read the thread...

No way! Real Sucks!! RAH!!!!

djdarlek

Jul 1, 2004, 05:06 AM

Why would you want Real Player on your Mac? I can't believe Real Networks is still around. Not worth the risk. :rolleyes:

-----------
Still waiting to buy my Mac...

well us UK readers will be excited at least. www.bbc.co.uk streams all their digital content via Reals' questional network..

gekko513

Jul 1, 2004, 05:40 AM

Why so many negatives? Choice is good. You don't need to buy it of you don't want to.

Zaty

Jul 1, 2004, 06:15 AM

To all of you who say that you won't be using real player, it's great if you can live without it, but let me say that here in Switzerland Quicktime is practically unknown for streaming media. All (or at least all I know) websites offering any kind of streams use either WMA or Real or sometimes both formats, but like I said no one uses Quicktime over here. Why? I don't know, probably because we live in Windows centric world.

johnnyjibbs

Jul 1, 2004, 06:25 AM

I think the new player is much better. At least it has free full screen mode (although it's nice in QT Pro to be able to switch to another program and still have the movie running on the desktop in the background) and it is also aware of the dock, unlike QT Player.

I've played some of my QT movies in it and they do seem very high quality. I've had no problems either (although Safari did unexpectedly quit today for the first time since 10.3.1 but that may be unrelated).

People stop complaining. It's better than WMP.

Agathon

Jul 1, 2004, 07:28 AM

Some of you are just being mean. I've installed it and I think Real have done an excellent job. It's faster and better looking than the old version and it hasn't taken over all my media files. Performance with embedded clips is far far better than it was before.

And it's free, so what is there to worry about?

duffyb

Jul 1, 2004, 09:15 AM

Why would anyone want to play QT files with Real Player?

amols

Jul 1, 2004, 09:51 AM

Whooaa... crashed twice in five minutes. Little Snitch reported a dozen warnings during that period. Some things never change.

xy14

Jul 1, 2004, 11:53 AM

I've had RealOne for a long time and not once has it crashed. Now that I have RealPlayer, it doesn't crash and now I don't have to pay $30 for QT Pro. I have never heard of spyware on RealPlayer, and RealPlayer plays Protected AAC. I definitely love RealPlayer more than Windows Media Player, and now I sometimes prefer this over QuickTime. And no, I don't work for Real.

XForge

Jul 1, 2004, 12:16 PM

Why would you want Real Player on your Mac? I can't believe Real Networks is still around. Not worth the risk.

Is there a way to play Real streams without it? That'd be awesome because Air America streams in Real format, and I kinda like listening to them. Not sure if NPR's streams are Real-only or if they offer another choice.

big_scot_nanny

Jul 1, 2004, 01:37 PM

I've enjoyed this thread, as I was desperate to install realplayer so I could get mostly BBC content, but I was very wary after win98 experiences, and all the aforementioned highjacking of system files etc., and bloody installing itself into teh system tray any time a real file was played. aarrghhhh!

It was interesting to read coments from those that talked about the non-crapiness of the OSX version, esp the new version 10.

I downloaded it, installed it, and he presto, all the BBC content is mine, with no issues at all.

I'll let you know if anything suspicious happens!
Kev

Orge

Jul 1, 2004, 02:05 PM

Amazing!

Real crashed instantly whenever I sued to open a stream... Despite, re-installing/deleting preferences/etc it would never work. To be fair I didn't try too hard to fix it, but it was always annoying that I couldn't watch the streams from the bbc site...

Seems like this is quite a significant improvement over the last version (for the short period that it worked). Whilst its a shame that we still have to use this crappy video format, it still gets a thumbs up for making it a less painful experience.

mingso

Jul 1, 2004, 02:22 PM

CompUSAMacNerd

Jul 1, 2004, 03:39 PM

I'm listening to european radio a lot and they are almost 99% either WMA or RM... Is there a way to use RealPlayer with AirTunes? THAT would be cool! :)

You can stream www.di.fm through your iTunes, and then use Air Tunes that way. Its what I'm going to do. That way, you don't have to worry about WMA or MP3

Digitally imported is the home of Euro dance.

grobbins

Jul 1, 2004, 10:46 PM

Has anyone successfully download and installed the RealAudio 3.0 codec plugin with this beta version ? I connected to a stream which required this codec plugin, and everytime I choose to install it, RealPlayer hangs at the install stage.
Open up the Console application (inside the Applications/Utilities folder) and look for error messages in the console window when the player tries to do the upgrade.

blackpeter

Jul 1, 2004, 10:56 PM

This is actually a pretty good improvement to Real 9. I view lots of sports content on the web and most of it is in Real or WMP, so I use the product pretty frequently. I can tell you that it's pretty slick (for a Real Networks product).

sinclairZX81

Jul 2, 2004, 02:32 AM

bugger. it still won't play the BBC broadband stuff <http://asia-en.sg.real.com/partners/bbcnews/ifs/?x=y&pcode=bbcnews-i&cpath=R1R&rsrc=ifscons>. I live in the US and I need real journalism dammit! (and yes, I know it says "This service has not been designed for use on a Macintosh." on that page - I tend to think I can out-tech such caveats)

Wardofsky

Jul 2, 2004, 05:47 AM

For quite a while, all you've needed to do is go to www.real.com and you'd automatically be redirected to their OS X page. The "Free Player" link is small but clearly visable in the upper right hand corner. I understand a certain level of contempt for Real, but the whole speal that it's impossible to find the free version never made too much sense to me.

This is way back in the OS 9 days...

dernhelm

Jul 2, 2004, 02:17 PM

Why would anyone want to play QT files with Real Player?
No kidding. I don't even do this on my windows machines. AAC is even more of a mystery!

dernhelm

Jul 2, 2004, 02:22 PM

People stop complaining. It's better than WMP.

Ooh high praise! Although I do have to admit to using it for some NPR feeds, and a few various and sundry web sites that required it 4 years ago when their wasn't a better alternative and never switched. It's pretty awful, but you can live with it without too much teeth ganshing.

tkermit

Jul 2, 2004, 02:32 PM

I really like the new version...several things not working for me, though:

1. When I right-click on embedded media files and choose "Play in Real Player" (something like that) it starts the player, but doesn't open the file. It works when I repeat it.... :confused:

2. some embedded livestreams only show a still picture with sound, but work when I choose to use the player :(

3. Most media files start with a still image+sound and only start playing the actual video content 5-10secs into the video... what's up with that ?!

btw: I don't have any of these problems with RealOne

Guess it's time for me to wait for the final version (hopefully by that time the described issues will be fixed)

grobbins

Jul 2, 2004, 02:42 PM

I really like the new version...Guess it's time for me to wait for the final version (hopefully by that time the described issues will be fixed)
If you want the issues fixed, send a description of the problems, URLs to reproduce the problems, and a description of your system to the development team at the address in the player's About box. That's the best way to ensure that player will work well with the files and sites you want to watch.

tkermit

Jul 2, 2004, 03:09 PM

If you want the issues fixed, send a description of the problems, URLs to reproduce the problems, and a description of your system to the development team at the address in the player's About box. That's the best way to ensure that player will work well with the files and sites you want to watch.

OK, I sent them a bug report ( macplayer@real.com ). Really hope it'll get fixed, we'll see... Do you think they even read them ?

tkermit

Jul 2, 2004, 03:40 PM

WOW - that was fast. I just got an email from Real:

"Chris,
Thank you for trying the player and for the feedback. We will try and
check these issues on our end.

best wishes
Vikram Dendi
Program Manager"

:)

tkermit

Jul 2, 2004, 04:56 PM

Sorry for the third post in a row, BUT I have to say this:

I am REALLY impressed with Real right now. I've already gotten a second mail from another Real developer who has commented on my problems and has asked further questions. They really DO seem to be interested in their customers. :) .

I hope I won't get banned for saying something nice about Real :rolleyes: