I feel like I shouldn’t have to say this, as just about everyone I know cringes when they hear the name of this product. But the latest beta of Real Player isn’t just a crappy audio player that tries to take over your computer, make itself the default player for all media and serve up ads and “updates” that you don’t want… It now breaks your Flash content!
I think that Real is trying to rebrand itself as not being the media player that everyone hates. And they have added this nifty new feature that somehow hacks into the browser, adds items to the Flash Player menu (how the hell do they do that???) and allows you to save and record Flash video to your hard drive with a single click. I have to admit, it sounds tempting. And on the sites where it does work, it really is pretty easy. But before you get too tempted, read some of the following:
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/jd/archives/2007/07/real_problem.cfm
http://blog.jaycharles.net/?p=9
http://rws-blog.rhapsody.com/realplayer/2007/07/realplayer-beta.html
http://rws-blog.rhapsody.com/realplayer/2007/06/new-realplayer-.html
Make sure you read all the comments. That’s where the real problems arise.
Supposedly they are coming up with a fix for it. But just the fact that they are adding menu items to the Flash player, and intercepting server calls, or whatever the hell they are doing… I think I’m going to avoid it permanently. I advise you to do the same, and warn your clients too.
Thanks for the update (and I’m sorry for the hassle).
I wasn’t satisfied with the replies either, but Emmy Huang spoke with Real folks on phone last week and had a good impression… convinced me to cut them some more slack. But changing the world’s existing web content, breaking some of it, not even offering creator opt-out (much less creator opt-in)… that’s pretty serious.
Is there any other public record for the concerns Sony has about this Real release?
tx, jd/adobe
Yes, I think that’s the scary part of it for me. I don’t think any browser plugin should go in and alter another plugin, interfere with its native operation, or hijack it, particularly if it has the potential to break what that plugin is doing, and especially if it DOES break it. I’m glad that they are willing to fix it so it doesn’t break existing stuff, but I still think it’s unethical to create a program that operates in that way. I wouldn’t hesitate to categorize that under the term malware.
As for Sony, I don’t think there is any public statement by them, and I can’t speak for them, but I’m sure there is some concern over the possibility that Real can be used to record their content (it currently does not work with that content that I can tell), and naturally they would like their players to work and came to the company that created those players, expecting us to fix them.
And that is the most painful part. Companies create applications for clients, and suddenly those apps do not work. The company that created the app can’t do ANYTHING at all to fix it. I can’t change my app to make it work. The client can’t do anything. The only course of action is to tell the end users to uninstall Real Player – if they contact the client asking about it. Most will just percieve a broken product and move on. It’s pretty evil, IMHO.
Well I never liked Real Player since….. 1998(?)
I prefer to don’t watch the contents than installing it.
And finally, now Euronews website have an option to choose between Media Player 9 and Real Player. 🙂
try this, http://www.codecguide.com/download_real.htm
Yep what 5566 said: Real Alternative is the way to go. I have not befouled my boxes with real player for several years. I have never seen a company do determined to perpetually piss off users and shoot it self in the foot. Boggles the mind.
Thought I’d back you up Keith:
http://www.flashcomguru.com/index.cfm/2007/8/1/real-bug
I am Russ Ryan, the General Manager for Product Development for the Real Player.
After the report from Jay Charles that the Real Player 11 Beta broke applications using Flash Server when the Flash 9 NetConnect API was used, our engineers discovered that we were not handling optional arguments correctly when we installed a proxy for the API. A fix has been posted to the realplayer.com site today.
We are very concerned about places where we might break existing and future applications. We would like to invite anyone in the Flash development community that is interested to help us test early versions of each of our releases by making sure that it works well with their applications. If you are interested, please send email to rp-product@real.com indicating your interest.
Russ, thanks for responding. I am glad you are working on this with the intent to fix it. You can surely understand how frustrating it is to have someone else come along and release a product that breaks your product and leaves you in a situation where you are powerless to do anything about it.
I still feel that the way Real Player is implemented in this regard is unethical and irresponsible. The browser has a plugin architecture. Plugins are designed to work within that architecture, and applications are designed to work with those plugins. I’m not entirely clear what Real Player is doing, but it’s obviously hijacking and subverting the process somewhere along the line, in this case, breaking the whole thing. Even if this specific bug is fixed, this is NOT how your software should be operating.
I hate realplayer. The offical version often pop up some window when I drag the progressbar. I use media player classical and Helix for many years. It works very well,RM,RMVB etc… No spam happened.
Last week I had a project that involved converting a lot of .rm files to .flv files (don’t ask) and I reluctantly installed Real Player after I vowed to never use it again for it’s adware/spyware/pop-up/pop-under/system tray madness, file type takeover annoyances etc.. etc.. about 5 years ago. I normally use Real Alternative but the codecs don’t reproduce the true quality so I wanted the “Real” thing.
Now I don’t want to look at it for another 5 years.
At the least, please add a “select all” and “deselect all” radio button for the people who know how and want to NOT make it the default player for all media types (take a note from Quick Time – their default is QT related filetypes only). The Real install for me was about a 5 minute process to make sure I didn’t add toolbars, register for emails, not serve pop up ads and program binding, not launch on start up yadda yadda… ever so carefully. Even then it gave me add ons I did not expect!!
The plug-in hijack is icing on that annoyances cake.
After my project was over, I uninstalled it. I can only imagine what’s left in my Registry. I’m afraid to look.
Side note: The Bonjour service that comes w/ iTunes is poorly implemented too. The service it performs is a nice feature (finds other devices on your LAN), but it has no API in the Advanced Tab of iTunes or QT and it’s a service I don’t need to always be on. I don’t know about the MAC but on the PC the Services name of Bonjour is:
“##Id_String1.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##”
This is the least descriptive name I’ve ever seen and it automatically starts every time you boot up unless you go in and turn it off.
Bad news… the flashplayer problems remain.
http://blog.jaycharles.net/?p=13
arghhh… thanks for telling me. I’ll have to check my stuff again. Can we send Real a bill?
I personally hate Real Player as well, for these very reasons. Their software has always been intrusive; however I am surprised they would go so far as to hijack a popular plugin to try and gain popularity for theirs. It is indeed unethical and irresponsible, and as a Flash developer it is also upsetting. They should be ashamed for ever attempting to do this.
Does anyone know how to uninstall Real player it is taking over my computer
Just for the record, I recently installed what I assume is the latest version of RealPlayer-Plus (or whatever it is named at this point) and I have all the same objections as those listed last year by the above responers. RealPlayer took over my Windows Vista pc and converted my files to a format that only RealPlayer can read, it constantly sends data from my pc back to its homesite, locks my pc at various unannounced times, etc. I would like to uninstall but am not sure I can convert media files that once were readable by Windows Media Player but now cannot be read by anything but RealPlayer. I really don’t like and I should have known better than to install it, but I like the playback features such as slow motion. Yet I think the installation was a disaster, and I can do without slomo.