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RealPlayer 11 Is a Real Rip Contender 226

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the making-enemies-on-all-sides dept.
rishimathew writes to tell us TechNewsWorld is reporting that the new RealPlayer 11, not even out of beta yet, has a lot of great new features including the ability to easily rip streaming videos from sites like YouTube, Revver, and Heavy.com. "With the release of RealPlayer 11, the company is boldly moving into another dicey realm: ripping streaming video. Sure, there are lots of means out there to capture video from sites like YouTube Latest News about YouTube, Revver, Heavy.com and such. There are programs like WM Recorder (US$49.95) and Replay A/V ($49.95), as well as Web sites like Keepvid.com and Mozilla Latest News about Mozilla Foundation Firefox add-ons like VideoDownloader. I've tried some of them. Few, though, can match the slick ease of use of RealPlayer 11 -- and it isn't even out of beta yet."
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RealPlayer 11 Is a Real Rip Contender More

RealPlayer 11 Is a Real Rip Contender

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  • Holy Fucking Slashvertisment, Batman! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:32PM (#20402931)

    I've tried some of them. Few, though, can match the slick ease of use of RealPlayer 11 -- and it isn't even out of beta yet.
    Alright, alright, I get it, I should buy RealPlayer 11. Enough already, Salesman! You've won. I submit. Here, I will tender all my cash to you. Give me one ... no, two ... no fifty licenses! I need them. I want them all, I don't care if it isn't out yet, I want it. I need it. I have to have it.

    MY LIFE IS NOTHING WITHOUT REALPLAYER 11!

    What? Limited supplies?

    Holy shit, give me the license now or I'll kill you. I'll kill you just like I killed that mother of four for my son's tickle-me-elmo doll. I'll do it. *makes stabbing motions* Ha-HAAAA! *stab, stab, stab* Ha-HAAAA!

    I'm a sick man ... daddy ... needs his ... RealPlayer 11!

    • Re:Holy Fucking Slashvertisment, Batman! (Score:5, Informative)

      by Propaganda13 ( 312548 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @05:43PM (#20405423)
      I was going to download, but then I realized that the rip would be in a native proprietary format. Unless, of course, you pay them.

      • Re:Holy Fucking Slashvertisment, Batman! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @07:27PM (#20406309) Homepage Journal
        Not only a proprietary format, but Real has always been very aggressive about going after people who try to interoperate without paying for the privilege. Which makes the fancy ripping features of RP 11 just a little ironic.

        • Re:Holy Fucking Slashvertisment, Batman! (Score:4, Informative)

          by Ilgaz ( 86384 ) * on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:44AM (#20408253) Homepage
          I am following your blog, they say actually secured (e.g. DRM) content can't be ripped and the people from industry should already use a secure media format (doesn't have to be Real) if the content was such precious.

          Digging the file from your browser/quicktime/flash cache is already possible and I don't think Youtube will go after them since half of content there are ripped from commercial TV and they make money from it already. What Real does is to make it more practical for average user.

          Before Real we should speak about a certain company who advertises their "Pro" version of player when user clicks browser plugins menu to "Save as source" (rip!). They have a file metadata/flag (in spec) to disable that option in plugin but it mysteriously gets ignored. This is going on for years now.

  • What's the second generation of YouTube video? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rueger ( 210566 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:34PM (#20402957) Homepage
    Oh boy, now instead of mediocre YouTube video quality, we can enjoy second or even third generation copies of bad video of frat boys and drunks.....

  • Yea but if history tells me anything (Score:5, Informative)

    by DustyShadow ( 691635 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:34PM (#20402969) Homepage
    ...it will be the worst hijacking player of all time. I've never used Real Player because of the sole reason that it would never let me disassociate it with file types. Don't play nice, fine...you don't get installed...ever...again. Some reputations just can't be fixed, and Real ruined theirs long long ago.

    • Re:Yea but if history tells me anything (Score:5, Informative)

      by Otter ( 3800 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:52PM (#20403273) Journal
      From TFA:

      With the latest version, installation was trouble-free and surprisingly well-mannered. In the past, Real had an irksome habit of planting icons on the desktop without an owner's permission, as well as making a power grab to associate all multimedia file extensions with the player.

      This release of the software is very scrupulous about modifying a system that it has been invited to enter. What's more, the program, by default, will only claim as its own files not associated with any other applications on a computer.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by DustyShadow ( 691635 )
        Like I said, their reputation has already been ruined. What website uses real media these days anyways? I've gotten by this long without it. There are too many random media players out there. I don't need another. If Real wants to get anywhere, they should just change their name.

        • Re:Yea but if history tells me anything (Score:5, Informative)

          by Angostura ( 703910 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:59PM (#20403375)
          "What website uses real media these days anyway?"

          The BBC for one. And the free version for the Mac is excellent. Don't know about the Windows version.
          • Only because their licensing agreement (or whatever they had) finished, and now they've jumped on the Windows Media Player bandwaggon.

            Real streaming stuff is now only used:
              * By people who want DRM but want cross platform
              * People who don't know about MP3
              * Companies who's contracts haven't expired yet.

        • Re:Yea but if history tells me anything (Score:4, Informative)

          by everphilski ( 877346 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @03:02PM (#20403413) Journal
          /shrug. Sucks to be you then. The rest of us will enjoy. I have the latest version (non-beta) at work, no popups, no annoying links, no annoying file associations. My CD's play in Windows Media Player, as do my MP3's. Just because you can't change, or comprehend that a company can listen to customers and change, doesn't mean they won't change.

          • I have the latest version (non-beta) at work, no popups, no annoying links, no annoying file associations. My CD's play in Windows Media Player, as do my MP3's. Just because you can't change, or comprehend that a company can listen to customers and change, doesn't mean they won't change.
            ..or change back.

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Tsiangkun ( 746511 )
            Oh cool, "not fucking up my computer" is a new feature in
            VERSION 11 !

            I think it is great that you can give people second chances,
            and third, and fourth, and fifth, and sixth, and seventh, and eighth
            and ninth and tenth chances too . . .
            but really don't you see the pattern here ?

            Real's reputation is horrible, and they deserve to
            have a horrible reputation. They have been a shitty
            company.

            I don't do business with shitty companies like Adaptec, SONY, and Real.
        • Like I said, their reputation has already been ruined. What website uses real media these days anyways?

          Not sure you're quite getting this.

          The new RealPlayer plays everything. No, that's nothing new, but given its ripping feature, what that means is that it will also *rip* anything. This is totally seamless, too - you'll be on a web site like YouTube watching an flv file and up pops a tiny little "download this video" button (you can turn that off if you want). You never even actually need to deal with th

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Ecuador ( 740021 )
      I 've also had horrible experience with Real Player in the past.

      Once, I really needed to install it for a course. The professor was ingenious enough to have notes in some streaming format that required Real Player (real alternative couldn't handle it). Instead of setting up something like a VM for it, I was in a hurry so reluctantly decided to give Real Player another try (don't remember which version, it was around 2004). Despite my previous bad experiences I was unprepared for what awaited, as Real Player
    • As somebody who, back in the Win9x days (I forget, 95 or 98) installed a early version of RealPlayer that hijacked my entire sound card while in Windows (neither system sounds nor sound from other players would play, whether RP was running or not, although I could get sound in other programs like Warcraft 2) I can certainly appreciate your view on this. That was, however, roughly a decade ago, and while I still don't care for the company and certainly won't claim they've been perfect angels since then, every now and then you should give somebody a second chance.

      RealPlayer 11 is actually a pretty good product, considering its beta status (the version I downloaded had a couple showstopper bugs on Vista, mainly involving volume control, so I don't use it much). RP10 is absolute garbage on Windows - huge, slow, bloated, ad-filled, and aggressive system changes set by default (although they can be unchecked) that I really don't care for. The version for Linux is actually a good product though - I prefer Amorak for casual listening, but for some video formats RP is a better bet than anything else I have installed.

      Also, Real has recently begun selling DRM-free MP3s through their Rhapsody online music store. The tracks are ripped at 256kbps (same as their DRMed versions) and cost the same as well. Most of their catalog is still DRMed, and the Rhapsody player itself isn't going to win any awards from me for being great software, but moving even a little away from DRM earns them big points IMO. Now, if only they would make it possible to purchase MP3s on Linux it would be even better...
      • Yeah, I really like the Linux player, hopefully they port this one properly. Its clean and does the job.. thats all people really want.

        Oddly enough MPlayer for Windows does a good job too (I like MPUI front end actually the most)

  • Obligitory (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ralphus Maximus ( 594419 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:35PM (#20402983)
    Buffering........... Cheers, RM

  • If it's from Real I won't use it. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by casualsax3 ( 875131 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:37PM (#20403001)
    It's unfortunate, but I'm among those users so horribly scarred by Real so long ago that I'll just never use another product by them. I think it's the name - it just makes me nauseous now. It could be the best app on the planet - but unless they change the name I just won't go near it. End of story.

    • Re:If it's from Real I won't use it. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MMC Monster ( 602931 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @03:11PM (#20403531)
      I used RealOne player as my sole audio player for quite some time. Once it was set up, it worked quite well. (The setup was a b!tch, though). I made the mistake of downloading version 2 when it was available. It was definitely a downgrade rather than an upgrade, and I did go back to version one for a while. I finally realized that I wanted to use a player that respected me, and started using winamp.

      (Of course, now I'm using amarok, but that's another story...)
    • Gratuitously abuse users, and many won't come back no matter what.
      Remember Belkin and their "hey, let's randomly replace requested web pages with Belkin ads"? Still not buying them either.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by poopie ( 35416 )

        Gratuitously abuse users, and many won't come back no matter what.

        Here's another one: Remember x10 and popunders?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by rinkjustice ( 24156 ) *
      I've used realplayer almost exclusively for Linux, where it's been a multi-featured godsend. I know Real burned Windows users really bad, but Linux users got hella use out of RealPlayer 10 Gold.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Tsiangkun ( 746511 )
      me too. I don't use applications that are on version 11, and tout not taking over all my multimedia files as a feature. Give me a break, VERSION 11 !. This company deserves no love or sympathy. They already demonstrated how much respect they have for their users with the previous slew of shitty releases.

  • And the company are still die-hard spammers, no? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by seebs ( 15766 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:38PM (#20403007) Homepage
    So, back in the day, Real spammed. A lot. They spammed constantly, they spammed everybody (like IETF role accounts), and they did so unrepentantly, with forged addresses in the headers and everything.

    Has anything changed?

    I somehow don't think so.
    • So, back in the day, Real spammed. A lot.

      Two words: Maria Cantwell. The woman who thought that YOUR email system was installed so she could use it to sell you Real products.

      She's now a Senator, and still clueless.

      • Re:And the company are still die-hard spammers, no (Score:5, Informative)

        by seebs ( 15766 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @04:50PM (#20404877) Homepage
        Ahh, yes. It was "her" address (actually, a /dev/null box, as they later confirmed) that was put on all the spam, to give the impression that they gave a fuck whether it was bouncing or not. They didn't. I think it's funny that they apparently never complied with the law that she claimed was a good anti-spam law. I mean, it's bad enough that she was involved with legislation that was utterly worthless; so far as I know, their spam never even complied with that worthless legislation. Insult to injury, that.

  • Change in tactics? (Score:5, Informative)

    by jma05 ( 897351 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:40PM (#20403045)
    Amusing, given that they sued companies which made software that ripped real streams back in 2000.
    • That was my impression. My how times have changed.

      Streambox VCR showed some real promise for a while there, before Real decided it should not exist as a product. This was back when their primary revenue was from content creators - now that it's not, their priorities seem to have shifted.

      • That was my impression. My how times have changed.
        They must have a completely different bunch of people in charge nowadays. You definitely wouldn't catch the old "Progressive Networks" as they were then called, putting out this kind of software, not to mention all the open source stuff and Linux players they've been releasing more recently.
        • To be fair, the Helix server has been out for over 4 1/2 years now. They've been working on changing their ways for some time.

    • Re:Change in tactics? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @06:33PM (#20405893) Journal
      Yes, that's why it's news... The sheer irony of it all.

      If Real would have endorsed or adopted such copying capabilities into their player circa 2000, they might have had a chance of staying relevant through the years. Now, when there are hundreds of other programs that can easily do the same thing, it's not even a notable feature, except for the ironic aspect.

  • Alternative: (Score:5, Informative)

    by UncleTogie ( 1004853 ) * on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:40PM (#20403047) Homepage Journal
    Wait for Gutsy and use clive [ubuntu.com]...

  • Crapware? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by TechwoIf ( 1004763 )
    Does it still load a ton of unless features and hides settings to turn off most of the undesirable ones? Last time I used it, it hog most of the system resources and did nearly everything but played the video.

  • I haven't read the fine article (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LordSnooty ( 853791 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:43PM (#20403095)
    Yay, so now I can convert streaming video in one proprietary format into another local storage proprietary format? Joy.
    • I'm suspect it just downloads the swf or whatever file, although I could be completely wrong about that. In any case, RealPlayer 11 claims it can play Flash movies, which suggests it would work even with local ones... thus, downloading the file itself makes the most sense.
  • > as well as Web sites like Keepvid.com and Mozilla Latest News about Mozilla Foundation Firefox add-ons like VideoDownloader.

    I'll take a wild guess here and assume that everything from the first Mozilla through to Foundation can be ignored.

    As far as using any Real product? Sorry, but their past behavior condemns them to a future of being completely ignored.

  • Couldn't agree more... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by xgr3gx ( 1068984 )
    I remember the early days of real player. Back when you could legally download full southpark episodes from comedycentral.com in real media format at only 50MB each, it was great!
    Not horrible quaility either back around 1999, and even for today's standards. Then came the blinking try icon, ok I found where to disable that.
    Then came registering, then the brutal automatic association of every media file to real player if you didn't carefully check your installer options.
    The the annoyware tactics to upg
    • It's not worth it anymore when you can use two free products: iTunes and VLC Media player. Those two products are good enough that you probably don't need anything else. And if you do, WinAMP is there to pick up the slack.
  • You can use VideoDownloader [javimoya.com]'s extension and any other Web sites. However, it doesn't seem toi work with MySpace and YouTube videos anymore due to recent changes/upgrades.

    I also use free Orbit Downloader [orbitdownloader.com] for Windows to download streaming videos. This works fine for me.

    Both are free.
    • There's also a Firefox extension called DownloadHelper - I use that. Hasn't failed me yet.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by antdude ( 79039 )
        Oh nice. Thanks for the tip. Unfortuanely, I use SeaMonkey (Mozilla's suite) and I don't think it is supported. :( I sent an e-mail to the support about it.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by antdude ( 79039 )
          I got a reply:

          Thanks for your interest in DownloadHelper.

          Sorry but no. DH is ot available for those platforms.

          Regards, /mig

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by yo_tuco ( 795102 )
        "Firefox extension called DownloadHelper..."

        Do you know how that compares to the VideoDownloader [mozilla.org] extension?

  • I think RealPlayer 11 rocks (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have been using the RealPlayer Beta over the past month to download videos from Youtube, Yahoo Video & Google Video. Sometimes when the video gets too long, it is a better idea to store them to disk so that you can time-shift the viewing.

    One additional feature that I like is the way rewind and fast-forward works. Very close to a full DVD like experience. Plus the ability to play back almost all relevant formats makes it the best player available today.

    One request would be to allow me to move my videos

  • I can rip my entire YouTube music library to an iPod. YES!

    RIAA Disclaimer: the above statements are facetious and in no way condone or indicate that I will do anything illegal. Honest.

    • Ok, yeah.. I'm sold, putting YouTube on my phone.. thats a sweet deal, ahaha who needs a $500 iPhone and worse a $200 at&t phone bill. lol

  • Ease of use? (Score:4, Informative)

    by VE3OGG ( 1034632 ) <VE3OGG@@@rac...ca> on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:55PM (#20403315)
    Now, surely you jest... I find unplug [mozilla.org] works very well, and is quite reliable, and is very easy. If you have access to a unix box, you can even issue a simple conversion (or write a simple script):

    ffmpeg -i filename.flv filename.mpg (or ogg, or mp3, or...)

    If no Linux box is available, then you could always just watch it straight through VLC. And the nice thing about all of this: it is free (as in beer and as in choice). And of course you get to not support a company that has (rightfully) earned the ire of many IT people the world over...

  • RealPlayer.... Isn't that a virus? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MarkToronto ( 1145669 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @03:02PM (#20403417)
    I treat RealPlayer like a virus or mal ware. Everytime some jackass installs it on my computer I immediately get rid of it. That and Adobe Reader. Down with bloated software !!!

  • Am I the only one (Score:3, Funny)

    by Cro Magnon ( 467622 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @03:04PM (#20403431) Homepage Journal
    who read it as "RealPlayer 11 is a Real Rip Off"?
  • ...when there is 'mplayer'. It does stream dumps for just about any playable stream out there. That's how I'm ripping the "Play again" content on the BBCs radio sites for time shifting onto my Rio Karma digital music player.
    • On Linux color calibration is off. I have not found documentation on how to fix this in XOrg. Real player is hte only one that displays videos that are not too dark or oversaturated if your on linux.

    • mplayer (Score:2, Informative)

      by giorgosts ( 920092 )
      $ mplayer /movie.rm -dumpstream -dumpfile movie.avi
  • Do they put commercial in the saved video like at the beginning of the video or every 10 minutes?

  • Someone saying something nice about Realplayer? (Score:5, Funny)

    by jollyreaper ( 513215 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @03:09PM (#20403513)
    Is this another Dvorak troll masquerading as an article?

  • Saving YouTube videos (Score:5, Informative)

    by ThePyro ( 645161 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @03:21PM (#20403683)
    Am I the only one who just copies the videos directly from the FireFox cache folder? It's pretty easy to find them - they're huge compared to the other cached stuff. Just copy the file, rename to .flv, and you're ready to play it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rs79 ( 71822 )
      "Am I the only one who just copies the videos directly from the FireFox cache folder?"

      No. Even my grandmother does this.

  • Is RP 11 when Real finally starts supporting streaming H.264 ? The article doesn't say, but inquiring minds want to know...
  • How did this get through Firehose? For starters, the description makes no sense, I read it 3 times and i still don't fully get it. Now let's add Real, a company who squandered it's good position in the marketplace, to become an irrelevant player in the streaming media world. I once used Real on my website, but now it's a laughable notion to use it. MP3 + flash has killed it completely.

    I can only hope that [buffering...]

  • So...... (Score:5, Informative)

    by demachina ( 71715 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @03:28PM (#20403791)
    ...you work for Real don't you rishimathew. It looks like all three of your Slashdot submissions are about Real. Nice free advertising for them, good work /. editors.

  • All is not well... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Herms ( 577068 ) <aherrman@gmailFREEBSD.com minus bsd> on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @03:32PM (#20403853)

    Few, though, can match the slick ease of use of RealPlayer 11 -- and it isn't even out of beta yet.
    Also, few can match the problems caused to completely unrelated software by simply installing it. The mechanism they use for flash video ripping is (as far as I've been able to tell) pretty much undocumented and, as it currently stands, breaks lots of stuff. My company's product breaks in a couple ways, even though our product has nothing to do with Real Player and doesn't serve video. Here are some links with info on the problems: I also created a wiki page on the osflash site to document them and workarounds/fixes if they're found: http://osflash.org/flashcoders/realplayer_bugs [osflash.org] I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Real gets sued by someone over RP11. Either for stream ripping or simply for breaking Flash related products.
  • After all, the stream has to be buffered somewhere on your system. It doesn't get deleted until you navigate away. For example, with YouTube, I just save the /tmp/Flash????? file to watch later with xine. Maybe this only works with linux ...
  • It's a real rip alright. Just like everything else from Real.

  • I was in the pub just last night (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bertie ( 87778 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @06:43PM (#20405985) Homepage
    And there was a girl there who I hadn't met before. She used to work for my company, but now works at RealNetworks, managing what content they make available for purchase or something. Now, like most of you, my first reaction was "boo, hiss" when she told me who she worked for. But she swore to me that their top brass have seen the light and realised that annoying the living shite out of all your users isn't a good long-term business plan. She was raving on about their new player that's about to come out, particularly about its ability to save stuff from Youtube etc., and advised me to give it a chance, because it wasn't the RealPlayer we all know and hate from the past.

    And I probably will give it a chance, purely because she's extremely attractive...

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