Yes, earlier versions were a pain. The “last known good” was RealPlayer 5, then it entered a period where it started adding useless features and the player increased in size and it had annoying defaults.

ALL THAT was gone, however, when Real decided back in 2003 to open source its player (and thus HELIX was born), and thus the name of the commercial media player switched from “RealOne” (which was the peak of the worst) to REAL PLAYER 10.

Real Player 10 was, unlike past versions, both slim, nice on the eye, and it is free from all the nasty “features” and defaults of past versions.

In other words: all the kids above who are saying that Real is crap have surely NOT TRIED RealPlayer 10.

Not only that, RealPlayer 10 has a very nice Linux version, with Mozilla/Firefox plug-in. It’s so good that I end up installing Real 10 for Linux on every new Linux installation that I setup.

The last install I did, was trying to install some crap software… Firefox and Google toolbar!
But, since there was a box that I could uncheck, the nasty softwares weren’t installed!

When it is finished, RP *ASKS* if it can be the main player or if you wish to assign file types manually.

I assign file types manually(I’m able to do this).

For the record, RealPlayer plays MOV files better than QT.
Y’all need to pay attention when you are installing any software… it would save us all a headache from reading FUD posts.

Not so sure about the SuperPass or store features ( the latter doesnt work outside the US yet anyway ) as other firms already offer similar household name services for free or without the baggage – including the dire AOL-like ‘ virus masquerading as a service ‘ reputation.

Maybe RealPlayer should be looking to trim down ,background this beast and figure out how to work in a quieter way with more established partners .

We are taking a very new direction with the new RealPayer: as noted above, a direction that is much more aligned to what we have done on Linux and on the Mac as well as in our other consumer applications such as Rhapsody.

Ben Rotholtz, General Manager, Web Services and Syndication, Real

Real player is more like a virus or a spyware than a cool app…

It is absolutely true that RealPlayer has been over-loaded with too many agendas that damaged the consumer experience. The product that created the revolution of Internet media way back in April of 1995 took some awkward side-steps around the turn-of-the-century and alienated many of our early proponents. We are addressing the issues head on — see http://rws-blog...llations_g.html

During installation and after installation there were very serious knife fights in the back-alleys of the operating system: Most directly with the operating system itself (life can wear cruel shoes) and sometimes other media players, such as QuickTime. Ultimately every application had to preserve the ability to maintain the playback of media-types: Losing the media-types meant that you were deep-sixed and no longer visible to the consumer.

The territorial knife fights were all about maintaining various forms of consumer visibility and discovery. Playing common media types such as MP3’s was one thing but everyone also employed cheap tricks: desktop icons, memory hugging system tool tray icons, etc. Some of us even employed theoretcially useful methods, such as breaking news alerts, to promote card-carrying, ad-waving reminders of RealPlayer’s existence through the Message Center.

The player-wars had a deep and negative impact on the faceplate of the RealPlayer – how the application installed and how it functioned. In retrospect, there had to be better ways to function when diplomacy broke down. It may have seemed like an evil plot, but it wasn’t: the need to survive could and did outstrip the consumer experience on Windows: By contrast our Linux and Macintosh versions of the RealPlayer have not been controversial. Similarly, Rhapsody and RealArcade do not have sullied histories.

Over the past few years we have thought long-and-hard about our legacy and our responsibility to the Internet community. With the launch of the new RealPlayer at the end-of-June, the new RealPlayer becomes our video platform. Many of the same installation and consumer friendly functions from Real’s other consumer products, such as Rhapsody, are being actively applied to the new RealPlayer. More importantly, many of the targeted complaints and diatribes from the early supporters we lost have been taken-to-heart and best practices for transparency are being actively applied. We recognize that we must re-earn your trust.

Hope you take Michael up on his offer for a beta and please let us know what we can do to create a better consumer experience.

This new release seems to be solving non-existant problems. With Firefox now I click on a video clip I want to download and it downloads in the background – as many as I want.

I love his “we fully support DRM” schtick and then immediately after that says they’ve done everything they can think of to benefit the end user. Oh ya!? What planet are you on when you think DRM helps the end user? Quite funny!

…Dale