Helix Player and RealPlayer 10 Released 323
kforeman writes "The RealPlayer 10 for Linux and its underlying 100% open source Helix Player are now both finalized. The RealPlayer 10 for Linux has many new features including a Mozilla plug-in, so you can now enjoy all those embedded media clips, as well as the latest RealAudio 10, RealVideo 10, MP3, Flash, and Ogg Vorbis and Theora support. The Helix Player is 100% open source, (now including the GPL!) and includes support for SMIL 2.0 and open source codecs Ogg Vorbis and Theora. Our goal is to make the Linux desktop a first class citizen and we think today's releases are a good first step in that direction."
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Spyware (Score:5, Insightful)
One question: Why? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Spyware (Score:5, Insightful)
And just how long do you think that they would get away with that in an open-source project?
K
Going against code. (Score:5, Insightful)
For christ's sake, you're all like one of those Windows users who will never touch Linux again because "it's all command line" or a Mac since "longhorn will have a 3D UI". Give the company another fucking shot, it's not every day we get a decent media player that supports Theora, Vorbis or their own codecs.
Re:Neat. (Score:2, Insightful)
Let me know when EFF clears Xine.... (Score:5, Insightful)
How is Linux suppose to be ready for the desktop if developers/users continue with 'patents be damned' attitude?
Xine and MPlayer aren't legal in many major markets. That rules them out for many of us.
Helix is legal and backed by RealNetworks legal department.
Re:One question: Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
I recently tried RealPlayer 10's beta for Linux. It's actually pretty slick (well, it was beta, so it was a bit unstable at times, but hey...) and plays Icecast streams in Ogg Vorbis pretty damn well (and you can get just plain Helix Player for that too, without RealVideo support). It was small, not too slow (Linux versions of RP are never ever slow!) and there's no trace of ads!
Yeah, Windows players are probably hell, but the *NIX players have the history of ruling, at least to small extent =)
But to be perfectly honest, the real reason I switched from RP8 to RP10beta was the support for XVideo extension and actual support for fullscreen playing. Makes watching some videos far less annoying when you don't need to maximize the window and fullscreen mode doesn't eat all processor. And, yuck, RP8 was a Motif app and RP10 uses GTK+2.
First Impression (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes ! (Score:4, Insightful)
Someone please put up a Debian-package !
Re:Neat. (Score:1, Insightful)
a player that only does Ogg[Vorbis|Theora] falls quite nicely into that slot.
does anyone know about the ability to create plugins? it'd be great to have a unified player that takes easy mp3/xvid/dvd plugins.
Re:Let me know when EFF clears Xine.... (Score:4, Insightful)
applying your logic, how can Windows be ready for the desktop when a huge fraction of users have illegal copies of Windows, Office and other software?
It doesn't work with Amazon's music clips (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Let me know when EFF clears Xine.... (Score:4, Insightful)
I would bet it's probably impossible to write *any* software which does not violate patents that have been given out and for every valid patent there's probably 1000 invalid ones.
These being the conditions, it's much better to ignore the broken system, that way *if* you ever get sued and *if* you loose, you won't have to pay tripple damages.
Not to mention that most of the world does not care about software patents. Only one country cares with 1/12th of the population on the planet. Worse, probably only 0.1% of that country would actually benefit or want software patents.
So, only about 1/12000 of the worlds population cares about software patents. They just happen to also be among the richest and most powerful and manage to buy ridiculous laws and "free trade agreements".
Re:Why is this forcing me to use IE (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Neat. (Score:4, Insightful)
Have you actually tried HelixPlayer, or the RealPlayer for Linux? They are, in fact, very nice, with simple clean minimalist interfaces using GTK. No ugly skinning, no bizarre file selection dialogs (just plain GTK file selection dialogs), no relying on keyboard shortcuts.
I like Mplayer, and I use it a lot, but HelixPlayer really is very nice, and I'm using it more and more. Don't knock it until you've tried it. Real seems to have turned a corner here and gone open source. HelixPlayer is a great open source project, and the RealPlayer based on it is not the intrusive email collecting mess that one used to associate with Real.
I know many here hate Real, and it's understandable given their previous efforts, but they do seem to have changed, and I think they're worthy of a second chance here... now if only they'd free up their codec...
Jedidiah.
Helix player for Windows (Score:3, Insightful)
So: Where.. or when, can I download Helix Player for Windows? I don't want or need Real's codecs on my system, but if the player is as good as people say I may consider using it instead of Windows Media Player for watching my downloaded movie files
The Story of A Shepherd Who always lied... (Score:2, Insightful)
Now it's the same story for RealNetworks, No ONE believe them anymore after their dark past.
Re:Going against code. (Score:2, Insightful)
History of what, killing children? Just because a couple of years ago they made a shitty product does NOT mean we should avoid them now. It was horrible, so what?
A bad product can be forgiven, and I don't see why all of a sudden "It's different" with Real. Netscape had a horrible product, they come out with Mozilla, we embrace it. But as for Real and Helix, avoidance is continued like they have the plague or something?
Re:No Ads Now makes is alright? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:No Ads Now makes is alright? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:No Ads Now makes is alright? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why don't you wait till they do, and stop using it then?
As it is, you are providing them no incentive to correct their past mistakes.
Re:Going against code. (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone who had to dig through the site numerous times to install "hidden" versions, I can understand being annoyed at Real, but I can't understand holding it against them. I mean, their business model has always included selling a "premium" player. It seems to me that the fact that they were giving away a gratis version should mitigate the fact that it wasn't prominently linked on the front page of their site.
Should we be angry at department stores for not putting their brand-name clearance racks immediately inside the front door, or is it understandable that they make you walk past the regular-price goods in order to get to them?
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to dislike the old Real. Making you dig through their site for a free version of their flagship product isn't one of them.
Re:Wrong ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Erh, US law does not apply outside USA. But with Bush Jr. in power, I suppose you can be forgiven this misunderstanding.
Re:Wrong ... (Score:1, Insightful)
perhaps you could write : its illegal in the US, the US always wanted to play a special role on the globe, so you have it here. But please keep other countries off this illegal stuff.
In China and India (which are 2/3) of the population of the world this is perfectly legal.