RealPlayer

RealPlayer

File:Realplay 192x192.png
File:RealPlayer.png RealPlayer 11 on Windows
Developer(s)	RealNetworks
Initial release	4.0
Operating system	Cross-platform
Available in	English,Simplified & Traditional Chinese, German, French, Korean, Italian, Japanese as well as Portuguese.
Type	Media player
License	Proprietary
Website	www.real.com

RealPlayer is a closed source cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.

The first version of RealPlayer was introduced in April 1995 as RealAudio Player, one of the first media players capable of streaming media over the Internet. Version 4.01 of RealPlayer was included as a selectable internet tool in MS Windows 98 installation. Version 6 of RealPlayer was called RealPlayer G2; version 9 was called RealOne Player. Free "Basic" versions have been provided as well as paid "Plus" versions with additional features. On Windows, version 9 subsumed the features of the separate program RealJukebox.

RealPlayer 11 was released for Windows in November 2007, and for Mac OS X in May 2008. Versions of RealPlayer are also available for Linux, Unix, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and Symbian OS. The program is powered by an underlying open source media engine called Helix.

RealPlayer was a popular streaming media player during the early years of the Internet, but in recent years it has been surpassed in market share by Windows Media Player, and, since mid-2007, Apple's iTunes.

Features

RealPlayer, beyond its function as an audio/video player, also contains additional features such as:

• Media Browser based on Internet Explorer which allows web browsing while playing media.
• Playlist editor similar to other media players, supporting "drag and drop" and playlist randomize.
• Theater Mode (full screen mode) video playback. The paid version offers a skinnable Toolbar Mode which uses less desktop space.
• Visualizations - graphical animations or "light shows". Five are included with RealPlayer set-up. Others are available from RealNetworks, including a 3D Visualization Plug-In Surreal.FX.
• Continuous Play (Loop multiple songs) and Shuffle Play (Play tracks randomly, however realplayer will select the random tracks in sequence eg Track 1, Track 5, Track 2, Track 6, Track 3 etc.).
• Stay on top while playing option.
• Favorites menu to save and recall media locations for files or streams.
• Equalizer and Video controls. Crossfade and Gapless playback are included in RealPlayer Plus.
• Media library allows organization of media through track tagging and editing. The Premium version adds Audio Converter to convert between RealMedia, MP3, AAC, Windows Media, and WAV formats, and others.
• Recording audio, (RealPlayer Plus only) which records audio via a sound card.
• LivePause pauses streaming video clips without having to stop the buffering.
• Version 10.5 included Harmony technology, making the Music Store compatible with iPod and Windows Media DRM-compatible players.
• Both the basic and the plus version can burn CDs. The current burning technology is powered by NPI; formerly it was powered by Adaptec (Roxio). The free version can burn audio and data CDs; the premium version burns MP3 CDs.
• CD ripping into AAC (in MP4) (32 kbit/s - 320 kbit/s) (default), Real Audio 10 (32 kbit/s - 320 kbit/s), MP3 (32 kbit/s - 320 kbit/s), Real Audio Lossless, WAV (1411 kbit/s), Windows Media Audio (Requires Windows Media Player 10 installed) (64 kbit/s - 192 kbit/s) formats.
• RealPlayer Music Store allows users to locate, preview, and purchase songs, which cost $0.49 to $0.99.
• SuperPass - paid access to premium recorded and live video broadcasts. In the U.S., content like CBS Big Brother 24/7 is provided for a fee of around USD$39.99. For Europe (except UK), this includes live broadcasts of BBC World Europe, Al Jazeera English, CNN International Europe, Euronews in seven languages, BBC News recent news clips, MTV UK music clips, and custom content from SportsNews TV, RealTV, Vidzone, and Comedy Time. Costs 17.50 € per month.
• Video Download - version 11 for Windows and OS X allowed users to download videos from sites such as YouTube and store them on their computer in Flash Video format.
• Media Converter (RealPlayer SP) - allows converting to proper format and transferring video to iPod, cell phones, Xbox, PS3 and other devices
• Video Sharing (SP) - users can post videos to Facebook and Twitter directly from the software

Supported media formats

• RealMedia formats: RealAudio (*.ra, *.rm), RealVideo (*.rv, *.rm, *.rmvb), RealPix (*.rp), RealText (*.rt), RealMedia Shortcut (*.ram, *.rmm)
• Streaming: RealTime Streaming Protocol (rtsp://), Progressive Networks Streaming Protocols (pna://, pnm://), Microsoft Windows Media Streaming Protocol (mms://), Real Scalable Multicast (*.sdp), Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (*.smil, *.smi)
• Audio: MP3 (*.mp3, *.mp2, *.mp2, *.m3u), CD Audio (*.cda), WAV (*.wav), AAC/aacPlus v1 (*.aac, *.m4a, *.m4b, *.mp4, *.acp, *.m4p), Apple Lossless, AIFF (*.aif, *.aiff), AU Audio Files (*.au), Panasonic AAC (*.acp)
• Video: DVD (*.vob), Video CD (*.dat), MPEG Video (*.mpg, *.mpeg, *.m2v, *.mpe etc), AVI (*.avi, *.divx), MJPEG video playback from .avi files,Windows Media (*.wma, *.wmv and etc) (requires Windows Media Player 9/10), QuickTime (*.mov, *.qt) (Quick Time Player must be installed), Adobe Systems Flash (*.swf) (Flash or Shockwave Player must be installed), Flash Video (*.flv).
• Playlists (*.rpl, *.xpl, *.pls, *.m3u)
• Graphics: Bitmap (*.bmp), GIF Images (*.gif), JPEG Images (*.jpeg, *.jpg), PNG (*.png)

Formats supported by optional plug-ins

AT&T A2B (*.a2b, *.mes) Adobe Systems SVG (*.svg) Audible Audio (*.aa) Object Video (*.obv) Luidia eBeam (*.wbs) Digital Bitcasting Envivio (*.mp4) EVEN Technologies PSI Video (*.psi, *.fxv) LearnKey RealCBT (*.lkv) Liquid Audio (*.la, *.lmsff, *.lqt *.lavs *.lar *.la1 ) On2 VP5 (*.vp5) Netpodium Quickcast Image (*.npi) Nullsoft Streaming Video (*.nsv) LiveUpdate! Streaming MIDI files (*.mid, *.midi, *.rmi) Camtasia Video (*.camv) Ogg Vorbis/Theora (*.ogg, *.ogm)

RichFX (*.vpg, *.wgs) Mode2 CDs MIMIO Boardcast (*.mbc) BeHere iVideo 360° Movies (*.bhiv) iPIX 360° Movies (*.ipx) ScreenWatch (*.scw) Vivo Video Files (*.viv) MJuice Files (*.mjf) Blue Matter (*.bmt, *.bma) OZ.COM fluid3d IBM EMMS (*.emm) On2 VP4 (*.vp4) On2 VP3 (*.vp3) ImagePower Motion JPEG2000 (*.jp2, *.avi) 3GP Mobile Phone Video Files (3gp) AMR Narrow Band (*.amr) Adaptive Multi-Rate|AMR Wide Band (*.amr)

Plug-ins

RealPlayer has a wide variety of plug-ins. Some of the plug-ins are listed at the RealPlayer accessories page, but not all.

Audio Enhancement

There are four audio "enhancers" available for the latest version of RealPlayer. DFX, iQfx, Volume Logic, and Sanyo 3D Surround. Lake PLS, created by Lake Technologies, works only with RealJukebox, and has limited use. There are some registry tweaks which allow Lake PLS to work with RealPlayer 10. Lake PLS is still available on the RealPlayer website.

RealPlayer Skin Creators

RealPlayer has had two skin creator plug-ins: SkinsEditor for RealJukebox -- an easy to use skins creator made by DeYoung software. The second application, RealJukebox Skins Converter, converts Winamp skins into RealPlayer skins.

Playback Plug-Ins

Please see section Formats supported by optional plug-ins.

Radio Tuners

vTuner Plus and HMRadio are radio tuners specially created for RealPlayer.

Visualizations

The available visualizations from the RealNetworks site are: FrequencywurX, FyrewurX, FlamewurX, XFactor, Spectrl View, FluxWave, Puddle, Paint Drops, Polka dots, StickSterZ 1.0, Circle, On the road, Real Logo, Hubble Bubble. There are some more visualization plug-ins like Surreal.FX by RealNetworks, G-Force and WhiteCap by SoundSpectrum and SticksterZ 1.1 by Eric Metois.

Firefox Browser Download (Firefox Add-on)

RealPlayer has a browser download add-on for Firefox (currently v1.0) which allows users to download video from a video player window (pop-up menu above top-right side of video player).

ScrobrealPlayer

an audioscrobbler plugin that connects RealPlayer with the Last.FM social music network.

Editions

RealPlayer for Windows

RealPlayer SP includes audio CD burning capabilities, DVR-style playback buffering, multimedia search, Internet radio, a jukebox-style file library, an embedded web browser (using Microsoft Internet Explorer), and the ability to convert and transfer media to a wide range of devices: Music players such as iPod and Zune, smartphones such as iPhone and BlackBerry, portable gaming devices such as Sony PSP, and console gaming systems such as Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. Since version 11, RealPlayer SP has gained Flash Video support, DVD, SVCD, VCD burning (120-minute) and video recording (DRM is supported). The free version is not currently available for 64-bit versions of Windows. The BBC offers an advertising-free version for users of its website.

RealPlayer Enterprise (also labeled Education Edition) is a lightweight advertising-free version. It can be administered by RealPlayer Enterprise Manager. Most consumer features have been removed, and some plug-ins are not supported. The RealSched.exe update reminder can be disabled in two steps, and it is not reinstalled upon running the player.

The current stable release for Windows is RealPlayer SP 1.0.5 Build 12.0.0.343

RealPlayer for Mac OS X

File:RealPlayer browser.png

RealPlayer's browser showing the RealPlayer Wikipedia page.

RealPlayer for Mac OS X is distributed for free. The latest current stable release as of June 2008 is version 11.0. It includes Real's Helix playback engine for RealAudio and RealVideo, a 10-band equalizer and video adjustment controls, and a full-screen, resizable "theater mode" for video playback, as well as many features found in its Windows counterpart.

Since the release of version 10.0 in 2004, RealPlayer has become much more closely integrated with Mac OS X including features such as:

• QuickTime playback support (including full-screen viewing which Apple only introduced to its own basic QuickTime Player in 2007)
• An integrated Web browser based on Apple's WebKit framework, resulting in RealPlayer and Safari sharing cookies.
• Support for Bonjour to share Internet favorites.
• Cocoa user interface.

RealPlayer for Linux/Unix

RealPlayer for Linux/Unix is developed separately from the Windows and Mac versions.^{[citation needed]} The client is based on the open-source Helix Player which can be found at the Helix Community Website. It supports RealAudio/Video, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis. The interface depends on the current GTK+ theme.

RealPlayer for Symbian

The Symbian version of RealPlayer allows mobile phones to play Real Audio, Real Video, MP3, 3GP, AMR and other media formats. It is provided as freeware. In newer Symbian devices it can also be used to stream both audio and video content in the form of MP3 (music) and 3GP (videos).

RealPlayer for Palm

RealPlayer 1.6.1 (US) or RealPlayer 1.6.0 (worldwide) is available for free for PalmOne-made Palm OS 5 devices, such as the Palm Tungsten or Zire series. It is also compatible with RealPlayer Music Store tracks. However, they will neither install nor run on non-PalmOne-made devices like Sony's Clie line of PDAs. They also do not support modern Palm smartphones such as the treo 700p, 755p, or Centro, although the treo 600 and 650 are listed as supported devices. Their Web page regarding PalmOS support (shown above) gives no indication if support for those devices will ever be provided.

RealJukebox

RealJukebox was a computer program released by RealNetworks that allowed users to organise their digital music. It was first released in May 1999. By late 2001 the functions of the program had been integrated into the Real's core media player program, RealPlayer.

Criticism

File:Realplayer message center.JPG

RealPlayer's Message Center has been criticized for its pop-up advertisements

Past versions of RealPlayer have been criticized for containing features similar to adware and spyware. In 2006 PC World Magazine named RealPlayer (1999 Version) as #2 in its list of the 25 worst products of all time, writing that RealPlayer "had a disturbing way of making itself a little too much at home on your PC--installing itself as the default media player, taking liberties with your Windows Registry, popping up annoying 'messages' that were really just advertisements, and so on." In 2007, it placed RealPlayer, versions 1996-2004, at #5 in its list of the 20 most annoying tech products.

In 2008 StopBadware.org called RealPlayer "badware" due to failure to completely disclose software components it installs as well as those it leaves behind after being un-installed. Jeff Chasen, vice president for RealPlayer, responded by stating: "I actually admire what stopbadware is trying to do to keep consumers safe. But in this case the only thing bad is the report itself. Here’s why: Not a single claim raised by stopbadware actually hurts anyone."

The Message Center of RealPlayer has caused controversy due to its feature of pop-up advertisements. In previous versions of the program the Message Center had a reputation for being difficult to turn off completely, while in RealPlayer 11 it will not appear unless it is turned on by the user.

In 1999 security researcher Richard M. Smith dissected some of RealJukebox's network traffic and discovered that it was sending a unique identifier with information about the music titles to which its users were listening. RealNetworks acknowledged this, and the feature was removed in version 1.02. Their download page stated RealJukebox included privacy enhancements and gave a link to the privacy policy.

When RealPlayer for Windows is installed, a process called tkbell.exe will run automatically each time the computer starts up, and may appear on the list of active processes as realsched.exe. The process is linked to the Message Center and can also check for updates to the program. The process is non-essential and is not considered to be harmful, but has been seen as a nuisance by some users. It can be disabled by altering the settings of RealPlayer's Message Center.

Earlier versions of RealPlayer have experienced a problem with the volume control, where muting the sound in the program would also mute Windows system sounds.

See also

• List of video players (software)
• Comparison of video player software
• RealAudio
• RealVideo
• RealMedia
• Real Alternative
• iQfx for RealPlayer

External links

• Official website
• "How to get spyware-free RealPlayer through the BBC" - Boing Boing
• How to install realPlayer on Ubuntu
• Annabelle the Sheep - RealPlayer's visualization reacts to music
• RealPlayer SP launched as beta