RealPlayer (once also known as RealOne Player) is a popular Media Player application developed by Realnetworks. This app can play most of the popular multimedia formats currently available and also includes full support for playback of RealAudio and RealVideo formats which are also developed by RealNetworks. It’s a versatile multimedia player and a media manager but you may find some of it’s features to be minor annoyances. For example, the Message Center drives me crazy with it’s constant flow of pop up messages. Luckily this (and most other unwanted features) can be disabled. A welcome addition in newer versions of RealPlayer is the Browser Record plugin. This allows easy downloading of embedded flash video content on sites such as Youtube.
Developer Description
The all-in-one digital media player that lets you find anything and play everything. Helix Powered RealPlayer is the all-in-one digital media player that lets you find anything and play everything.
Now it includes an option to install the Real Toolbar for Internet Explorer.
Features
- Media Browser based on Internet Explorer which allows web browsing while playing media.
- Playlist editor similar to other media players, supporting "drag and drop" and playlist randomize.
- Theater Mode (full screen mode) video playback. The paid version offers a skinnable Toolbar Mode which uses less desktop space.
- Visualizations - graphical animations or "light shows". Five are included with RealPlayer set-up. Others are available from RealNetworks, including a 3D Visualization Plug-In Surreal.FX.
- Continuous Play (Loop multiple songs) and Shuffle Play (Play tracks randomly, however realplayer will select the random tracks in sequence eg Track 1, Track 5, Track 2, Track 6, Track 3 etc.).
- Stay on top while playing option.
- Favorites menu to save and recall media locations for files or streams.
- Equalizer and Video controls. Crossfade and Gapless playback are included in RealPlayer Plus.
- Media library allows organization of media through track tagging and editing. The Premium version adds Audio Converter to convert between RealMedia, MP3, AAC, Windows Media, and WAV formats, and others.
- Recording audio, (RealPlayer Plus only) which records audio via a sound card.
- LivePause pauses streaming video clips without having to stop the buffering.
- Version 10.5 included Harmony technology, making the Music Store compatible with iPod and Windows Media DRM-compatible players.
- Both the basic and the plus version can burn CDs. The current burning technology is powered by NPI; formerly it was powered by Adaptec (Roxio). The free version can burn audio and data CDs; the premium version burns MP3 CDs.
- CD ripping into AAC (in MP4) (32 kbit/s - 320 kbit/s) (default), Real Audio 10 (32 kbit/s - 320 kbit/s), MP3 (32 kbit/s - 320 kbit/s), Real Audio Lossless, WAV (1411 kbit/s), Windows Media Audio (Requires Windows Media Player 10 installed) (64 kbit/s - 192 kbit/s) formats.
- RealPlayer Music Store allows users to locate, preview, and purchase songs, which cost $0.49 to $0.99.
- SuperPass - paid access to premium recorded and live video broadcasts. In the U.S., content like CBS Big Brother 24/7 is provided for a fee of around USD$39.99. For Europe (except UK), this includes live broadcasts of BBC World Europe, Al Jazeera English, CNN International Europe, Euronews in seven languages, BBC News recent news clips, MTV UK music clips, and custom content from SportsNews TV, RealTV, Vidzone, and Comedy Time. Costs 17.50 € per month.
- Video Download - version 11 for Windows allowed users to download videos from sites such as YouTube and store them on their computer in Flash Video format.
Supported Formats
- RealMedia formats: RealAudio (*.ra, *.rm), RealVideo (*.rv, *.rm, *.rmvb), RealPix (*.rp), RealText (*.rt), RealMedia Shortcut (*.ram, *.rmm)
- Streaming: RealTime Streaming Protocol (rtsp://), Progressive Networks Streaming Protocols (pna://, pnm://), Microsoft Windows Media Streaming Protocol (mms://), Real Scalable Multicast (*.sdp), Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (*.smil, *.smi)
- Audio: MP3 (*.mp3, *.mp2, *.mp2, *.m3u), CD Audio (*.cda), WAV (*.wav), AAC/aacPlus v1 (*.aac, *.m4a, *.m4b, *.mp4, *.acp, *.m4p), Apple Lossless, AIFF (*.aif, *.aiff), AU Audio Files (*.au), Panasonic AAC (*.acp)
- Video: DVD (*.vob), Video CD (*.dat), MPEG Video (*.mpg, *.mpeg, *.m2v, *.mpe etc), AVI (*.avi, *.divx), MJPEG video playback from .avi files,Windows Media (*.wma, *.wmv and etc) (requires Windows Media Player 9/10), QuickTime (*.mov, *.qt) (Quick Time Player must be installed), Adobe Flash (*.swf) (Flash or Shockwave Player must be installed), Flash Video (*.flv).
- Playlists (*.rpl, *.xpl, *.pls, *.m3u)
- Graphics: Bitmap (*.bmp), GIF Images (*.gif), JPEG Images (*.jpeg, *.jpg), PNG (*.png)
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