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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Joshua Nightshade

I've never liked RealPlayer ever and have always found it to be bloated and annoying since like 5.

Fmeh

If you know of any good media players that let you rewind a live stream, let me know.

Joshua Nightshade

Well I don't really listen to live streams very much so that's never been a feature I've needed.

I like Winamp though but I don't know if it does what you want.

Walker

Agreed.

It annoys me no end that the BBC still use it for regional news bulletins, despite everything else being ported to the iPlayer.

I bet you still have to put in a fake email address and fake password when you first run it too.

Mine goes something like this:

Email address: adsfasdfkjlgfkwiodakl@adfkalwklekljadfds.com

Password: adkfkdfjaqadfasddfalkjadsf

I'd love to know what Real's database tables look like after 10+ years of users doing that upon installation of every version of their software.

I can't be the only person who entered a load of gibberish because I just wanted to play the damn media file that somebody stupidly encoded with Real Encoder.

I haven't even bothered installing it since I got Vista. It makes me angry.

Edav Nomad

I'm not sure any can do that unless it somehow records the stream. At least I've never heard of such a thing.

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Ewan Took

It's annoying. When I'm messing with friends and families PCs I always remove the start up using regedit. That and Quicktime.

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"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

Vaelissa Cortes

I hate Real Player with a passion. If it's needed, I just use Real Alternative.

Fmeh

RealPlayer has done that at least since v10. I love the option. You can even save if you can find the temp folder it puts it in, or in bloated v11 you can just click the record option and it will act like a DVR.

As far as WinAmp, that's just about as bloated as RealPlayerV11--it takes just as long to load and to finally start playing a song. You have to shut off at least 4 options to make it act like a normal player and not bring up a popup window near the icon notification tray every time the song changes and not try to run in the background all the time. At least it has the options to change though, and at least WinAmp handles 24 bit wav files--it's the only one I know of that handles those.

Fmeh

Ugh--qttask.exe ugh ugh

Don't you just love how they set it up so if you disable it from starting in msconfig, it just makes another copy of itself so you HAVE to remove it from the registry to keep it from loading..... or you can remove the qttask.exe file altogether, but potentially that could cause program functionality problems....

Walker

If Quicktime and Safari for the PC have taught me anything, it's that Apple lack considerable clue. You'd think they'd work on that if they really want to convince PC users that Macs are the way to go.

Even as I type, there is a vulnerability in Safari for the PC that's so serious, users would be best uninstalling it altogether. Apple are happy to leave it unpatched for the time being though.

ETA: http://www.macworld.com/article/1338...ttackcode.html

MS actually patched their side of the problem today, and advised people to avoid Safari until Apple patch their code.

Midi Reifsnider

Both RealPlayer and QuickTime drive me insane. You think you've got the little blighters and then you check your processes and there they are. Wee buggers.

Fmeh

Yes, and if you install iTunes they also install 3 windows services--Bonjour service, Ipod Service, and one other Itunes-related service, and they're all set for Automatic as well no matter what setting you have in Quicktime OR Itunes--you MUST shut them off by hand in services.msc if you don't want them running.

(Apple rant removed)

prinţesă nină

the ghost of phillip lives on!

Smokergirl Lowenha

Real Alternative installs codecs for Media Player Classic, so you get Realplayer compatibility within Media Player Classic, I use this all the time now, they also do a Quick Time version, so Quicktime runs on Media Player Classic if you like.
No bloat, and you can view real Player files.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...lternative.htm

Fmeh

Wow--okay, another plus for Vista--RealPlayer 11 takes 2 seconds to load on Vista as opposed to 10 seconds on XP. Okay--I don't know what to think about that....

Beezle Warburton

Free-Codecs.com :: Download Real Alternative 1.80 : Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer/RealOne Player

Or what Smokergirl said.

I also use this instead of Acrobat Reader:
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

Foxit isn't all bloaty for simply reading a pdf online.

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Walker

If you use Real Player a lot, it's probably something to do with Superfetch.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...rformance.mspx

Fmeh

Very interesting. Not something I expected. I'm impressed, quite honestly.

Richie Waves

Wouldn't put realplayer anywhere near my PC

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My lastfm

Oooh, Betty! the cat did a shit in the hat

Walker

It's very cool! The performance gains are pretty obvious across the board, from the time it takes to login, to the responsiveness of your favourite applications... but I'm aware it can cause problems on low memory/single core systems if you commonly use applications with big memory footprints.

prinţesă nină

whats so cool about having half your progs preloaded into memory eating at performance? id rather wait a few more seconds for a program to start than run 24/7 with it cached in memory.
sounds pretty evil to me.

Walker

If what I've read at Tom's Hardware is true, then it is somewhat more clever than you are assuming, in that it dumps applications from memory when more demanding applications require the resources. As Superfetch only loads applications into memory when the computer is idle, it's not something that affects performance whilst you're using the computer either.

Also, if you're not using those extra GBs of memory, then why not let the OS utilize them to improve performance?

If Superfetch really was dumb enough to keep the same programs in memory 24/7, detrimentally affecting the performance of any demanding applications I cared to use, then I'd have switched back to XP long ago. As it happens, Superfetch is one feature that would seriously prevent me returning to XP.

It is now time for you to groan, my dear.

Troy Vogel

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Daisy Rimbaud

Actually I still prefer to use hi-fi.