macnn/electronista
06/26/2007, 2:10am, EDT
Tuesday, June 26thRealPlayer beta released: no Mac, iPod support (yet)
RealNetworks on Tuesday released a beta of its new RealPlayer v11 media software for PCs. Announced in late May, the company's new media player software can record and download videos from tens-of-thousands of Web sites with a single click. The new software displays a "Download this Video" button in a Web browser whenever playing a video and allows users to to view other videos, switch to another site or even close their browser -- while the video downloads in the background. The software also enables users to share their videos via a new "Share Video Link" feature that will email friends a link to the original location of the video. It supports multiple, simultaneous video downloads as well as most popular formats including Flash, Windows Media, QuickTime and RealPlayer. It is available now for Windows XP/Vista.
In addition, RealPlayer v11 automatically recognizes and will not download video content protected by DRM (digital rights management) systems; however, users can burn videos to CD -- for playback in most DVD players -- with the free version, while RealPlayer Plus ($30) allows users can burn video to DVD. The company said that future versions of RealPlayer will enable users to transfer their online video content to video iPods and other personal media devices and that Mac OS X and foreign-language versions of the new RealPlayer will be available later this year.
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How long before RealMedia gets sued for the "Download this link" icon. Why not? They sued XM for a similar feature in their portable receivers.
Real hasn't been relevant in 5 years. The fact that they don't have a Mac client shouldn't be a concern to anyone.
Right....if the CEO was that bad, and they were doomed a long time ago, why are they still around?
Why is Real still in business? Does ANYONE still use them? I know I personally don't bother with any web site that doesn't support Flash video or QuickTime.
Nice you have such discriminating tastes. But there are people who still use it (gee, just read a couple of posts above yours and you'll see).
Real hasn't been relevant in 5 years. The fact that they don't have a Mac client shouldn't be a concern to anyone. The fact they don't have a mac client for a beta shouldn't be a concern, just like not having a windows client for some quicktime software wouldn't be a concern. it is a BETA, after all. Plus, it shouldn't be a surprise, since last month they said they wouldn't have a mac client up front.
once upon a time nasa was one of the QT success stories. now you need real to see much of the videos, and I've had it with real's takeover of your media types.
This is so unlike any other media software. I've NEVER (heavy sarcasm included) had iTunes hijack my media types.
apple needs to get nasa back into the QT fold - say what you like about their operations, watching what they do in space is stunning and inspirational. ditto BBC - they were once the fair-haired boy of QT, and now - not so much.
Maybe people need to understand something. Providing video on-line is costly. Why are these sites using Real? Because Real pays them to. Why aren't they using Quicktime? Because Apple's too cheap to pay them the conversion costs (or too full of themselves to think that Quicktime is so much better that people should just use it without any compensation).
What? You can't stream Real content full screen. We all know from Quicktime that its impossible to do that, especially without paying the company for all the expertise and time it takes to figure something like that out. You must have paid for RealPlayer Pro to get that type of high-end functionality.