NPR's Car Talk Switches Back To RealAudio 377
taped2thedesk writes "Today, NPR's Car Talk, a 'call in talk [radio] show about car mechanics', announced they were switching back to RealAudio, after dumping it for Windows Media a few months ago. When the show switched to Windows Media, Real took notice and convinced the show to switch back, by addressing various listener complaints about their player (many of which were fixed in RealPlayer 10). The hosts say: 'We believe [Real have] made a serious and successful attempt to address those things that our listeners complained about most... They even offered to serve the audio for free online, which defrays an expense we'd otherwise have to cover.'"
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
Another interesting tidbit I came across was that they also have an alternative for the number one buggy movie player, Quicktime (which I likewise refuse to install). Now I can view both formats with none of the buggyness, and also have only one media player to worry about. Less is more.
Media Player Classic (Score:5, Informative)
If you need a test station may I suggest O'Franken Factor [airamericaradio.com]
car talk shows online (Score:5, Informative)
I know the site used to have archived "favorites" of many, many shows when it was hosted by cars.com. However, I don't see the favorite clips listed anymore...
Re:Personally... (Score:1, Informative)
Personally I hate it when people force me to use the browser plugins. I don't want to have to keep a web page open just to listen to some audio, or WORSE, watch some video. Please let me put it in its own compact window!
Ogg Icecast? (Score:5, Informative)
I found a list here:
http://www.icecast.org/streamlist.php [icecast.org]
Not as many as I had hoped to find.
steveha
Re:*nix support at Real (Score:5, Informative)
https://player.helixcommunity.org/ [helixcommunity.org]
Downloads are available here [helixcommunity.org]:
MS2.1 had problems playing back non-realaudio/realvideo datatypes -- if you need these, M2 is a better bet.
Nightly builds are also available -- see the player webpage for details.
BBC adware-free (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's actually not too bad... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What's so hard... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
This is probably a little offtopic, but what the heck.
Interestingly enough, Rob Glaser, founder of RealNetworks [wikipedia.org], has 'crossed streams' with Microsoft. In fact, he was a top executive there before moving on to found RealNetworks.
So it's little wonder that the battle between Microsoft and RealNetworks is so fierce at times - there are no enemies like old friends.
I already get CarTalk w/o ads or Real -- VCR it! (Score:5, Informative)
An old radio, a sound card, and a few shell scripts -- that's all it takes.
Re:Media Player Classic (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
It's true (Score:1, Informative)
And all that stuff I turn off when first installing Real? That stuff should be off by default. Group all that crap (MessageCenter, Real Guide, etc) together into one place labeled "Extra Features" or whatever. If user wants it, they can turn it on from there.
The GUI just sucks ass. It needs to be cleaner.
Real's done some good things lately - especially with their codec [doom9.org]. If those things were fixed, I might use it as a stand-alone media player. But for now I'll stick with MediaPlayer Classic.
mp3 streams (Score:4, Informative)
Luckily the GENIUSES at Science Friday [sciencefriday.com] help make it possible by maintaining a rather concise list [sciencefriday.com] of NPR streams of various formats, including mp3.
But these are all localized streams, and likely not localized to your location. Would be nice if there was a national stream available for free in an open format.
One would think donations from large organizations like Real Media would make it possible to offer MORE choices, not less.
Re:realplayer 8 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Software I won't install (Score:3, Informative)
Start->Run
mplayer2.exe
View->Options->Formats
Select all media types you don't play in winamp.
The only thing I've found that won't play in Mediaplayer 6.4 is Microsoft's latest 6 channel pro audio codec (and I have only seen one file that uses it, since you have to pay for the encoder and it isn't useful for most normal audio). Everything else can be played if you install the codecs (you might need to go to Microsoft and do search for their 6.4 network codec pack)
Re:what are the pluses again? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's actually not too bad... (Score:3, Informative)
Ran SpyBot right now. After a full scan in Advance Mode, nothing except a few cookies.
Now, I do notice that RealPlayer uses an embedded Internet Explorer window. So if it got a tracker cookie, that would be a red-flag on AdAware. But, so would going to just about any major website on the planet, so... Are you sure that Ad Aware didn't just report a cookie that Real's website spewed out?
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
Free-Codecs.com [free-codecs.com]
and
CodecsDownload.com [codecsdownload.com]
These two domains are mirros of each other, and also good source of many video codecs and even some free/OSS media players.
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Software I won't install (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Public Radio should not even use MP3 streams. (Score:3, Informative)
Real.com has issues (Score:2, Informative)
1) Open real.com in a browser on each computer
2) Realize, cool! They've customized it for each browser
3) Download the completely free player
On the windows box it goes like this:
1) Click big orange "Download Now" button
2) When page is through loading, look on the right side of the screen and click "Download Free RealPlayer"
3) Install it. Note: you're never asked for any info to get the installer.
On the Mac:
1) Click big orange "Free Download" button
2) Hmmm... 9.95 per month after trial. Darn it.
3) Hit back button
4) Squint at page and squint and (if you're on a laptop scrolldown). But don't scroll down too fast... you're looking for legalese size and placement text that reads:
Mac OS 8-9.x users click here
Free RealOne Player for Mac OS X
6) Realize that that's two links (and two seperate links) and click on second line.
7) Enter your email address and a password.
8) Go hunh? Why do I need a password to listen to music.
That's when (I)...
1) Realize almost everything I want to listen is also in either QuickTime or Windows Media Player format (both available for Windows and Mac)
2) Wonder why am I working this hard? It took me less time to figure out my iPod (without opening a manual) that I've wasted on this.
3) Decide, heck... I'll just listen to Car Talk on the (get this) radio!
4) Remember that this kind of non-sense is why it's been years since real has part of the software I install when I buy a new machine.
5) Post to Real's site, Car Talk's site and Slashdot on the off chance someone at Real cares enough to listen to why people arn't using their product.
Re:realplayer 8 (Score:4, Informative)
Another happy Real Alternative User!
Re:BBC adware-free (Score:1, Informative)
If you have not actually TRIED real 10... (Score:5, Informative)
So I tried Real 10. So far...no crashes, and if you disable the browser feature it's JUST AS FAST AS REAL 8...and for any of you that ACTUALLY have an open mind and want to try it, here is information from the Helix community forums on how to optimize Real 10.
>
>
> I work for RealNetworks, and I am the first to admit RealPlayer is not my favorite media player. For video, Media Player Classic (MPC) is, and yes, I use MPC to play my RV9-EHQ aka RV10 content.
>
> Previous RealPlayers have been pretty impolite to put it mildly, and along with so many other computer users, I have been ticked off by its behaviour in many ways. It has been possible to make it well mannered, but it has included being forced to delete certain files to prevent that annoying Message Center. However, it has not been spyware in a long time, even though one old player did send back some usage information. That's long gone, but it's hard to be forgiven for that mistake.
>
> Considering how past players have created such a bad reputation, this post is probably futile, but anyway... Thanks to those few positive posts though, especially for the Linux and OS X players. It is nice to see someone taking the time to give it a another chance.
>
> This RealPlayer 10 is better than before, it is fast, small, and does not run +10MB services in the background, like one well known example, name withheld. However, this post is not really about performance, even though a lot could be said about improvements in this area. More importantly in this discussion, it is also better in terms of its behaviour, albeit less better than me, many of my co-workers, and all of you, had hoped for.
>
> Here's what you need to do when installing:
>
> * Choose Custom Install
> * Uncheck all the boxes you don't like for stuff on the desktop and quicklaunch bar. There is nothing hidden by a scroll bar, at least not with my computer screen size.
> * Check only the media types you want it to play. This is the only time you will be asked this, it will never try to take back any media types. Now, is this really so bad compared to other software, in regards to media types? It's not as polite as MPC, but I have other media players which take over media types, and there is not even an option to customize this..
> * Start RealPlayer, you may have to create an account. Everybody hates this, and wish it would go way. Agreed, but RealNetworks has to make money somehow, and the number of users is a needed measure to document. So use fake information if you like.
> * Then go to Tools->Preferences->Automatic Services, Click Configure Message Center, then uncheck "Check for new messages". Click OK on the "warning" that comes up. Now you will never be bothered by the Message Center. In previous versions, you could not disable the Message Center completely, without deleting certain files. Minor improvement, it's still opt-out, but at least it's possible. Check or uncheck Auto-update in its sub-menu as well.
> * Go to Tools->Preferences->General and set On startup display to "Player only". That way, no browser, and it starts much quicker.
>
> So to summarize, a few clicks are needed to opt-out, you have to "sign in" the first time. Yes, somewhat annoying, but that's about it. It could have been better, but compared to many other examples, it's not that terrible. Since it has been so very bad in the past though, it clearly should have changed more to make a shining example, but since it is RealNetworks' main vehicle for generating revenue, there is a lot of nervousness about changing things too quickly.
>
> Download the free RealPlayer 10 Beta here, with no re-direction or sales tricks:
>
> http://www.real.com/freeplayer/?rppr=slashdot [real.com]
>
> A
Re:Ogg Icecast? (Score:3, Informative)
Eerily familiar (Score:2, Informative)
I run a much smaller site and recently switched over to Windows Media.
Having worked at a streaming dotcom a couple of years ago, I was shocked how bad Windows Media had become.
The encoder was a lot less inuitive than Real's, plus it failed frequently (every other day) with our 24-7 stream.
Plus backward compatibilty, which was easy with Real, is nightmarish with Windows Media.
If the easy player link works for us too, I might switch back as well.
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
Included are some testimonials from (allegedly) actual Real co. employees.
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Other sites making the switch unsuccessfully (Score:1, Informative)
Re:It's actually not too bad... (Score:5, Informative)
You do realize that the AdAware engine is not psychic, right? Nor does it use a heuristic to identify mal-ware.
AdAware -- much like a virus checker --, identifies Trojans and ad-ware by "signature", some array of bytes unique to the annoyance in question. Until somebody examines a program, decides it is mal-ware, extracts that program';s signature and adds it to AdAware's signature database, Ad-ware doesn't "know" about it.
For all we know, Realplayer installs -- or is itself -- mal-ware, but no one from Ad-ware has gotten around to labelling it as such. After all, RealPlayer Ten is rather new.
And people can legitimately disagree about what is ad-ware: surely RealPlayer has claimed that all its versions of Realplayer did nothing illegitimate, as RealPlayer maintained that it wasn't popping up ads, but "informative messages", and that phoning home uniquely identifying information about its users was a positive benefit for those users.
Don't misunderstand me: AdAWare is a useful product, but it's no panacea and it -- like a virus scanner -- will unavoidably always be a bit out of date. In the case of RealPlayer, I'd trust RealPlayer's track-record of untrustworthiness.
Not hidden on Real's site anymore... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Informative)
Wikipedia Political Liberalism article [wikipedia.org] is saying:
Notable among these are "free market liberalism" (the most common use of the term in Europe) and a broad swath of left-of-center United States politics, sometimes called "American liberalism"..
Also Wikipedia's Liberalism article:
One usage of the term is for a tradition of thought, that tries to circumscribe the limits of political power, and to define inalienable individual rights. This is the most common usage outside of the United States.
See: classical liberalism or libertarianism.
Political Compass [politicalcompass.org] is saying in its FAQ:
20 You've got liberals on the right. Don't you know they're left ?
This response is exclusively American. Elsewhere neo-liberalism is understood in standard political science terminology - deriving from mid 19th Century Manchester Liberalism, which campaigned for free trade on behalf of the capitalist classes of manufacturers and industrialists. In other words, laissez-faire or economic libertarianism.
In the United States, 'liberals' are understood to believe in leftish economic programmes such as welfare and publicly funded medical care, while also holding liberal social views on matters such as law and order, peace, sexuality, women's rights etc. The two don't necessarily go together.
How to make RealPlayer 10 play nice (Score:3, Informative)
Here's a step-by-step guide [doom9.org] on how to install RealPlayer 10 with all the nagging features turned off. And the guy who wrote it should know - he's a senior engineer for RealNetworks.
Re:Declarifying the topic... (Score:1, Informative)
"They even offered to serve the audio for free online, which defrays an expense we'd otherwise have to cover."
It's hard to turn down free hosting.
Save the streams with mplayer too (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:1, Informative)
I too dislike Real and their wares so I decided to check out Real Alternative. When I followed the link you gave it popped open an activex installer for a browser plugin. I cancelled that and turned browser pop-ups back on and reloaded the page. Again ieplugin.com's crap and this time it also opened a popup for gamesplayground.com and a premium rate dialler. I'd like to try Real Alternative, but if they are in bed with these scumbags I don't think I want Real only content enough.
I'll stick with my Winamp, 5.03a of course;-)
Re:Not hidden on Real's site anymore... (Score:3, Informative)
Not bad, many many years later you can finally get to it in 2 clicks, and they still want to use a crappy web installer.
Sorry Real, too little too late. Real treated the customers like crap. Spam, Popup ads, couldnt find the link to download, application took over your system, file assocications, and the list goes on.