Real Paves The Way For Free Media Player

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Real Paves The Way For Free Media Player

2002-11-03 10:08:30

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor..._pcworld/106457

Tue Oct 29, 9:00 AM ET
Matt Berger, IDG News Service:

RealNetworks Tuesday will release the underlying software code for its open source media player, a move that should allow developers to create free versions of the player to run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.
[...]
Multiple Formats:
Without any modification, players built with the Helix DNA Client will support RealAudio and RealVideo, MP3, MPEG-4, the standard low bit rate video codec H.263, and 3GPP, a file format used by the mobile phone industry.
[...]
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Wow, yet another MPEG-4 decoder for free from a big player (besides QuickTime 6, iTunes and so on...)

Real Paves The Way For Free Media Player

Reply #1 – 2002-11-04 09:30:58

For MPEG-4 playback it links to FAAD2, hence you will not see a commercial (or one that is not completely open source) player based on Helix with MPEG-4 audio support.
Also they only give the RealAudio and RealVideo codecs in object code, not in source code (I couldn't find it at least).

Menno

Real Paves The Way For Free Media Player

Reply #2 – 2002-11-04 14:09:56

Quote

For MPEG-4 playback it links to FAAD2, hence you will not see a commercial (or one that is not completely open source) player based on Helix with MPEG-4 audio support.

Yes, more and more people link to FAAD2 these days... So there is no own implementation from RealNetworks for a MPEG-4 decoder, I understand. Maybe they should use the PayPal link on your site then?

Nevertheless I think it's a good thing that companies with this market share now consider MPEG-4 as an important standard format. I just read the QuickTime 6 "white paper" from Apple, and it shows that they've understood what MPEG-4 is all about - at last... Of course it can also serve as another "weapon" in the everlasting fight against Microsoft for them, too.

Quote

Also they only give the RealAudio and RealVideo codecs in object code, not in source code (I couldn't find it at least).

As far as I understood the long message at Yahoo, this is on purpose. I cited only very short passages from it, as you probably know. By the way, are these "industrial news" on your website collected by yourself or by someone else, Yahoo maybe that might send you any business news with the keywords "MPEG-4" or "AAC" in it?

Real Paves The Way For Free Media Player

Reply #3 – 2002-11-04 17:59:00

Haha, yes, for the news, Yahoo helps me a lot :-)
But I look around on other sites as well.

It's quite an honour that these companies are using my code, but of course for open source only.

Menno

Real Paves The Way For Free Media Player

Reply #4 – 2002-11-04 19:23:08

Just some thoughts about this.
Real Networks, in my opinion the most horrible company producing media playback and creation software, and FREE, OPEN SOURCE, spyware/spamware/bsware/malware free ANYTHING does not go together and i can't even imagine something good coming out of this. If i was ever skeptical, it is now. And since i dislike Real so much, i'm not even going to check anything about this since it will cause a weird feeling in my stomach.

Real Paves The Way For Free Media Player

Reply #5 – 2002-11-05 10:03:34

i never install real audio products, its ridiculous how much they infest themselves in your computer system.

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