Fmeh

RealPlayer 10 was a really good piece of software. It loaded very quickly and just did the job really efficiently. It was the most efficient player out there that had the kind of options it had (I've love its ability to rewind streams).

So then they release v11. What a piece of bloatware crap. It takes anywhere between 8-15 seconds to load up, and then once you've loaded an audio file into it after it first loads, it takes 5 seconds for it to actually start playing the song. I'm sorry, but that's crap. Its only redeeming option is how it adds a context menu to videos playing in your browser so you can "download this video". Nice option, I'll give them that.

If you have the latest and greatest machine, maybe RealPlayer 11 will be okay for you. If you're one of those people that don't mind having extra programs running in the background, I believe there are some options to make it "quick load" so it's always loaded into memory so when you do access it, it will happen quickly. If that kind of thing works for you, then maybe RealPlayer 11 will be a good thing for you. I'm not one of those people--I don't like anything extra to run if I'm not currently using it. Call me obsessive.

Anyway, another thing about RP11 is that you have to uncheck a couple things when you're installing it or you'll get the Google toolbar and some other crap. At least it isn't the awful Yahoo toolbar, but still, and at least they give you the option of not installing them, unlike some of their tactics from v7 and earlier.

I've given RealPlayer 11 a test run for two weeks, and I'm going to be uninstalling it to put v10 back on because I like to hear an audio file within 5 seconds after clicking it, not 15-25 seconds.

What is your experience with this?

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