RealPlayer 11

[Moinul]

Hey everyone,

 

Realplayer 11 was announced a while ago and I have been testing it since. Its cool as. The newest feature is that it allows you to record all video that you see without the protection of DRM.

 

Here's the article,

 

New RealPlayer simplifies capturing video off the Web

 

There's a ton of terrific video on the Web, and a lot more stuff that's plain goofy. (For evidence, look no further than some of the homegrown videos on YouTube.) You'd love to save clips on your computer to share a laugh with friends or watch off-line. Only the process, at least for non-techies, is too darn complicated.

 

On Tuesday, with the "beta" arrival of the latest RealPlayer software, RealNetworks hopes to simplify things. RealPlayer 11 is billed as the first media player to let you record and download videos from thousands of websites with a single click. The free software was unveiled this month at the D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, Calif.

 

The pre-release version I've been testing is buggy. But for the most part, the program's chief bragging point ? making it a cinch for you to capture unprotected video ? works as promised. And RealPlayer 11 is less bloated and not as intrusive as earlier versions of the software.

 

Here's what getting Real is all about:

 

How it works

 

After installing the software, a "Download This Video" button pops up whenever you move your mouse pointer over a video anywhere in cyberspace. Just click on the button to start downloading clips. It's as simple as that; you do not have to separately launch the new RealPlayer.

 

What's more, you can choose to download a clip at any point during the video, and the scene will be captured from the start. The download will proceed in the background even if you pause or stop watching. And you can download more than one video at the same time.

 

It's addictive. At YouTube, Grouper, Metacafe, ESPN and USATODAY.com, among other sites, I fetched videos just because I could, covering everything from make-believe iPhone commercials to highlights of Bobby Nystrom's Stanley Cup winning goal for the 1980 New York Islanders.

 

Videos are stored in the Downloads & Recording section of your RealPlayer library. The clip name is displayed, along with the date you imported it, the length and the Web address of the video source.

 

You can watch videos full-screen or burn copies to a disc. You'll have to spring for a $29.99 RealPlayer Plus version to burn to a DVD; the free version lets you burn videos to a CD, where storage is more limited. The Plus version sports advanced video controls, among other features.

 

You can easily share the video link via e-mail with friends by clicking on a button that appears when you move the pointer over the screen. You can also place videos in automatic playlists ("one hour of favorites" or "clips I haven't played for a while").

 

Real says future versions of the player will let you transfer footage to portable devices such as an iPod. How easy that proves to be remains to be seen.

 

The player can also serve as a repository for music files. But it is not integrated with Real's Rhapsody music service.

 

Restrictions

 

You cannot grab just any video. Clips that are embedded with digital rights management (DRM) copy restrictions are a no-no. So when I moved the mouse over a clip from the TV show House at Fox.com, a "Video Cannot Be Downloaded" button appeared in place of the Download This Video button. Confusingly, I often couldn't grab a video even when the Download button showed up.

 

Real won't prevent you from downloading copyrighted material that isn't protected by DRM. It's kind of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. As Real CEO Rob Glaser said onstage at D, "We're like a video recorder. We are a piece of utility software that has no specific knowledge of anything about the copyright."

 

Real is trying to be a responsible corporate citizen. If any videos you wish to download are accompanied by advertisements, the player will fetch the ads, too.

 

The new player is compatible with most major video formats, including Real, Windows Media, Flash and QuickTime. For now, it works only on Windows PCs through the Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox browsers. A Macintosh version is due later this year.

 

Hiccups

 

I ran into a few snags, which are probably attributed to the unfinished version I was testing. The player crashed when I attempted to transfer a couple of clips to a newly created playlist.

 

Post-crash, I received a message that my library may have gotten corrupted. Fortunately, I was able to repair the database.

 

The software crashed again after I'd downloaded a clip from Comedy Central of Steve Carell joining Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.

 

RealPlayer 11 is worth having for video downloads alone. Assuming RealNetworks successfully eliminates the bugs, it will be even more of the real

deal.

 

 

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edw...player-11_N.htm

free beta download here - http://filehippo.com/download_realplayer/

[rridgely]

Even if they paid me I would never install anything from Real Player.

[Moinul]

why not?

[Humpty]

why not?

Hi Moinul, I'm sorta in the same mind as rridgely but after reading your first post I will give it a run in a vm and see how it goes.

 

Before I do though, does it phone home?

[Andavari]

Even if they paid me I would never install anything from Real Player.

Ditto! They may have been popular in the past when WMP couldn't open too many formats and when it had a horrible bland GUI but in this day and age of K-LITE Mega Codec Pack, Real Alternative, Foobar2000, and Winamp nothing is needed from Real.

[Moinul]

Hi Moinul, I'm sorta in the same mind as rridgely but after reading your first post I will give it a run in a vm and see how it goes.

 

Before I do though, does it phone home?

I'm not sure whether or not you said was a joke. Forgive me, please. English is not my first language. In case you are serious. No, it does not phone home. It is a new the first and only player at the moment that can record video from the Internet.

[pwillener]

All previous versions did very much "phone home", so I don't believe they would suddenly stop that. Since the original poster did not provide a download link, I can't test it.

[fireryone]

Since the original poster did not provide a download link, I can't test it.

 

Yes he did:

 

free beta download here - http://filehippo.com/download_realplayer/

[DJpailo]

Real Player is a load of bloated rubbish to be honest. It never did any good for me, I never used it, and since the BBC have extended their TV shows compatiability on the internet to Windows Media Player, I have seen no reason to keep this.

 

Why would I want to record a video anyway? Youtube does not have any good videos either. tv-links.com ftw *shifty*

[Moinul]

After testing it for these days. I have to say that RealPlayer 11 has really become my number one choice for using it to view my videos and to listen to music. And the recording thing is awsome. I've been downloading all day. Mostly videos from YouTube. and just videos in general. Its so easy and so fast. I have not discovered any bugs yet and it hasn't even crashed once.

 

It makes me wander what will the final version be like if the first beta has already past all my expectations.

 

Conclusion

I give it a rating of 9.5/10.

 

It lost marks on its apperearance. Its similar to the WMP11.

[DJpailo]

After testing it for these days. I have to say that RealPlayer 11 has really become my number one choice for using it to view my videos and to listen to music. And the recording thing is awsome. I've been downloading all day. Mostly videos from YouTube. and just videos in general. Its so easy and so fast. I have not discovered any bugs yet and it hasn't even crashed once.

 

It makes me wander what will the final version be like if the first beta has already past all my expectations.

 

Conclusion

I give it a rating of 9.5/10.

 

It lost marks on its apperearance. Its similar to the WMP11.

 

what sort of quality are the recorded videos?

[Andavari]

what sort of quality are the recorded videos?

I wonder if it's just transcoding the videos into its own format, or leaving them as-is and just playing them back. If it's transcoding them the quality would suffer - not that YouTube videos have any mentionable good quality to begin with.

[Moinul]

 

what sort of quality are the recorded videos?

The quality is the same as when you're viewing it. Most of the youtube videos aint that spectacular in quality so thats what you're getting. I downloaded Starcraft 2 intro video and that was awsome quality. It is faster than the regular rate of downloads.

[Humpty]

Well peeps I made my own install Vista disk to get it as small as possible.Down from 3 gig to 900 meg.

 

Took out over a gig of language files along with quite a few things I thought I don't need.

 

To cut a long story short I needed a media player and decided to try Real Player.

 

Quite liking it and after unticking all places for it to check on the net it doesn't seem to phone home upon starting a song like WMP does.

 

Still playing around with it but at only a 14 meg download it seems to rival and maybe surpass WMP in some aspects ATM.

 

Thanks for posting about RP Moinul.

[JDPower]

Well peeps I made my own install Vista disk to get it as small as possible.Down from 3 gig to 900 meg.

 

Took out over a gig of language files along with quite a few things I thought I don't need.

Nice one, would be interested in hearing more if you get the time to post it.

[Humpty]

Nice one, would be interested in hearing more if you get the time to post it.

Use vLite to copy the install cd files to a folder on another partition (or where ever) then proceed to tick whatever you don't want such as language packs, defender and heaps of other stuff that you think you will never use.

 

Leave IE in there as it may cause connection probs and tablet pc as you will lose the snipping tool.

 

Follow the prompts and then make an iso of your slimmed down install which should give a prompt to make an unattended install as well.

 

Then I used "iso recorder" to burn the iso to dvd and bob's ya uncle.

 

Well that's only a brief summary but I'm sure with your knowledge that you will pick it up as easy as pie.

 

Personally I left in Chess Titans and Mahjong as these are the only games I play.Boring huh?

 

vlite link

 

Iso Recorder

 

P.S. - Took a couple of burns and installs till I thought I had right.