RealPlayer Plus

[Garden Manager]

This is the paid for version of the free real player software. I have recently upgraded to it and i was wondering if anyone else here uses it.

I decided to upgrade because i like to download videos/tv programmes with real playetr and wanted to use thier DVD burning facilty to enable me to watch them on my TV. I have to admit i have been rather disapointed with the additional features i have paid for. So far i have been unable to burn a watchable DVD (despite having a high spec burner on my PC), and many will not burn at all despite real player's assurances that they are both compatible and suitable to burn to DVD. It also appears that higher speed downloading, another attractive feature of 'Plus' does not work with some sites. I feel that i have paid good money and  have little to show for it. To add further insult i now cannot even login to my account as the login screen appears blank when i go to do so.

I doubt very much that anyone can help me, i was just wondering if anyone who uses Real Player plus had had similar expereinces and to warn others thinking of upgrading to it to be aware of these issues.

I have now got to the stage where i have almost decided to give up the software go back to the free version and write off the money spent on it. Fortunately it was a one of fee rather than a subscription.

[Garden Manager]

[ceres]

Removed your double posting so you get all your answers in one place.

Have you tried searching for any Realplayer forums to see if these are common problems and if there are any solutions posted.  Can't you burn the DVDs in Windows Media Player (assuming you're on a Windows platform)?

[BarriedaleNick]

You will never be able to use any bit of software to download every single video on the net.  There will always be some videos that do not work because of some DRM or other - mainly because the providors don't want you to have the videos, they want traffic to their site!!
I use a bit of free software called FreeMake to grab video from youtube and other sites and it's been good so far - you can download and convert to many formats - http://www.freemake.com/free_video_downloader

Real do make some decent enterprise media stuff but most people in IT would avoid Real Player completely.

[Garden Manager]

Removed your double posting so you get all your answers in one place.

Have you tried searching for any Realplayer forums to see if these are common problems and if there are any solutions posted.  Can't you burn the DVDs in Windows Media Player (assuming you're on a Windows platform)?

Oops, sorry didnt realise i had double posted. Had trouble uploading post.

I have looked at other help sources to no avail.

If the video is downloaded using realplayer - and most sites i use seem to only allow realplayer downloading - then a DVD can only be made using real player plus. I guess its a format/DRM issue.

Thanks for your reply.

[lincsyokel2]

You will never be able to use any bit of software to download every single video on the net.  There will always be some videos that do not work because of some DRM or other - mainly because the providors don't want you to have the videos, they want traffic to their site!!
I use a bit of free software called FreeMake to grab video from youtube and other sites and it's been good so far - you can download and convert to many formats - http://www.freemake.com/free_video_downloader

Real do make some decent enterprise media stuff but most people in IT would avoid Real Player completely.

I disagree entirely with the first sentance.

Realplayer - heap of shite, doesnt support dozens of codecs, frequently falls over in a heap in the corner if confronted with anything new,  uses collosal amounts of memory and on install loads the realplayer toolbar onto your system, which hijacks your browser  and is spyware, phoning home with your browsing habits. No one with more than two brain cells  dedicated to IT woudl want to use Realplayer.  Ther eis also various hijacked version of Rrealplayer that load all sorts of viruses on, and you can never be sure where your copy came from.

All you need is

VLC Media Player - http://www.videolan.org/

Free, rarely ever crashes, plays most things, dozens of useful features

Then download and install the K LITE CODEC PACK  http://www.free-codecs.com/download/k_lite_codec_pack.htm

also free, not only contains codecs for every video and image format ever thought of, plus many you've never heard of, but also contains MEDIA PLAYER CLASSIC, one of the best video players ever. If VLC cant play it MPC can

You need no other media players than these, and you gain no unwanted crap or spyware installing them.

Finally if you want to grab videos off YouTube use BestVideoDownloader add on for Firefox http://www.bestvideodownloader.com/ , downloads in many formats, fabuloaus bit of kit. (you ARE using Firefox and not that heap of shite Internet Explorer, arent you?)



This advice is backed up by 20 years in IT support and installations.

[BarriedaleNick]

I am not talking about playing video in my firsy sentance - I am talking about ripping video from sites such as youtube or vimeo.  There are many ways of downloading video but I have never found one to be successful on every site for every video.  We have gone through several programs and websites and they all fail in some cases - we download lots and lots of video for educational purposes..
Currently Freemake is the tool of the day - has a lovely plugin for FF as well! We will see if it stays the course.
I agree that VLC and MPC are by far the best and simplest media players..every PC should have them installed.