RealPlayer Blog

Real’s Response to stopbadware.org

The folks at stopbadware.org have sent their second alert in less than a month calling RealPlayer “badware” because the organization takes exception to the Message Center in an older version of the player, and a flaw in the un-install process in our current version.

I actually admire what stopbadware is trying to do to keep consumers safe.  But in this case the only thing bad is the report itself.  Here’s why: Not a single claim raised by stopbadware actually hurts anyone. 

Yet the report cites such egregious practices as promoting movie trailers or security software that consumers can enjoy by using Real’s software.

Message Center tells consumers about video they can enjoy using RealPlayer (film.com is owned by RealNetworks) or security and performance software they can download from McAfee because they are Real customers.

The truth is that I actually found the Message Center in the old RealPlayer to be annoying too.  So I turned it off.  Not rocket science.  And certainly not the sin stopbadware alleges. 

And here’s the thing: lots of our customers told us they didn’t like the Message Center either.  So guess what?  We turned it off in our current version so not a single person ever sees it unless they go and turn it on.  Stopbadware even gives us credit for this improvement in the user experience. But that’s old software so I’m not sure why we’re talking about it.  We announced the availability RealPlayer 11 on May 31st of last year¬ nearly a year ago. RealPlayer 11 is the default application you download from RealNetworks today.  And it has won the acclaim of The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), USA Today, Businessweek and Wired for being consumer friendly and innovative.  That’s why millions of people around the world have downloaded it since.

Stopbadware raises a second claim with respect to the current version of RealPlayer: That we install the Rhapsody music player engine without explaining the connection between it and RealPlayer, and then we fail to remove it during the RealPlayer un-install process.  Well, they have a point here.  But it’s not that consumers will be hurt by this oversight.  It’s that someone failed to explain the connection between the two (RealPlayer is a universal media player, so we install support for all major media formats like Windows Media Player, QuickTime and, yes, our own Rhapsody), and that we also didn’t catch that in the un-install process. (though to be fair, the Rhapsody player engine is listed in the windows control panel add/remove programs and can easily be uninstalled from there)  As far as we know, no one has been hurt by this mistake.  In the software business we call that a bug and we fix it in our next version of the software. 

We will continue to make improvements to RealPlayer, and I think you’ll see that just like we did in our current version those changes are intended to give consumers more innovation ¬like being the first to give people the ability to simply download Internet video ¬and a better experience.  That’s why we simplified the installation process and why removed extraneous features and promotions. 

Let us know what you think.

-Jeff Chasen, vice president for RealPlayer

Realplayer Gold Version Released

By Matt Spragins, Director of Product, RealPlayer

On Thursday, November 15th, we launched the new RealPlayer Gold version simultaneously in 10 languages as well as the Mac Beta version.  Now, around the world, consumers can control their internet video viewing experience and even transfer it to an iPod with the Plus version.

This commercial release version includes many customer experience improvements identified through the beta experience as well.

Please visit http://www.realplayer.com to download the new RealPlayer and upgrade to Plus to transfer your videos to DVD or your iPod.

RealNetworks Issues Patch for Vulnerability

RealNetworks has issued a patch for the vulnerability identified by Symantec on 10/18 that users can download here - http://service.real.com/realplayer/security/191007_player/en/

For more information about these patches and how the new RealPlayer has been improved, please visit the RealPlayer blog at www.realplayer.com/blog.

Matt Spragins - Director of Product, RealPlayer

UPDATE - RealPlayer Security Vulnerability

Real has created a patch for RealPlayer 10.5 and RealPlayer 11 that addresses the vulnerability identified by Symantec on 10/18. Real will make this patch available to users via this blog and our security update page (http://service.real.com/realplayer/security/en/) later today.

Those users with RealOne Player, RealOne Player v2, and RealPlayer 10 should upgrade immediately to RealPlayer 10.5 or RealPlayer 11 and install the patch to ensure this security vulnerability is addressed.

Russ Ryan – General Manager of Product Development for RealPlayer

RealPlayer Security Vulnerability Under Review

RealNetworks has been alerted by Symantec to a potential security vulnerability affecting RealPlayer 10.5 and RealPlayer 11 (beta). We are investigating the situation and plan to have more details available and a recommended course of action in the coming hours.

We will update this blog and the RealNetworks “Security Updates” page (http://www.realnetworks.com/support/updates.html) as soon as more information becomes available.

Russ Ryan – General Manager of Product Development for RealPlayer

The RealGuide and the Best of the Web

Adam Dubov, Sr Dir Media Properties

Over the past five years the RealGuide has been the place to promote the latest and greatest in the world of entertainment, celebrities and the best audio and video content to more than forty million RealPlayer users. The RealGuide is immediately visible as a tab within the RealPlayer.

With the release of the new RealPlayer we’ve launched a new section of the RealGuide to bring our users a daily compendium of the best and most compelling downloadable and recordable video from across the web. The RealGuide “Best of the Web’ video hub now brings you the best online video content to download or record with the new RealPlayer.

We recognize that the underlying format of web video is much less relevant to consumers these days than the content itself. With the explosion of web video content there is also a decided move to better quality, both in terms of subject matter and production value. We believe that the RealGuide “Best of the Web” video hub in the new RealPlayer can help you find the best of both.

You can spend (waste) many hours trawling through the seemingly limitless amounts of web video on the big aggregation and UGC sites and never be truly satisfied with what you’ll find. Automated popularity or mass ratings alone do not guarantee that a clip is worth your time to watch. A savvy editor’s pick, in conjunction with an active feedback loop from the audience, can craft an experience that weeds through the dross and presents the most entertaining daily gems from the truly staggering volume of web video that’s out there.

We also believe that over time consumers will continue to expect better and better web video content. Cell phone clips will always be compelling when they capture the truly unexpected or newsworthy events, but if you’re going to take the time to download or record content to view at a later time you’ll want to ensure that you’re experiencing the very best audio and video quality in your “must see, must have” clips. This will become increasingly important for offline video content burned to DVD and transferred to high resolution portable devices.

The RealGuide “Best of the Web” video page features a growing range of online video content: We’re interested in bringing our users the best funny stuff, crazy moments caught on tape, cute critters, unbelievable stunts and pranks, all manner of vehicular mayhem, bloopers and for lack of a better term, what we call WTF?! moments. If we find it entertaining, enlightening, amazing, unbelievable or absurd we believe that there’s a high probability that you will too. We’re also offering vintage and cult-classic full-length movies at two bandwidths – 300kbps for easy streaming and higher quality 700kbps to watch, enjoy and record using the new RealPlayer.

The RealGuide also provides content from trusted content partners who support RealPlayer 11, such as Metacafe, Stupid Videos, with new content partners joining us online every day.

Our goal is to create an entertaining, compelling web video “newspaper” tossed onto your virtual doorstep every morning filled with recordable video content best enjoyed with, and brought to you by, the new RealPlayer.

At RealNetworks we’re in the process of reinventing the Guide and we’re very interested in what you, the engaged, smart, discerning Internet consumer is interested in from the world of entertainment, information and most particularly, in the exploding world of web video. In the coming months we’ll be building in more interactivity, enhanced commenting, sharing, publishing and subscribing functionality around our “Best of the Web” video offering. We also welcome your feedback. We’re most interested in what web video sites you’re going to, what sites and video you like, what excites you and how we could improve the Guide. The one constant with the Internet, and with the exploding world of web video in particular, is that it’s always changing. We want to continue to bring you the “best of the best” so please, enjoy the show, keep checking back for what’s new and remember to hit the feedback link and let us know how we’re doing and what you’d like to see.

 

RealPlayer Beta Update Released

By Matt Spragins, Director of Product, RealPlayer

Good news all! We’ve just posted a new RealPlayer Beta build to www.realplayer.com that resolves several bugs that have been reported to us over the past month. To those of you who are active participants on this blog, we thank you for your feedback and keep it coming. This is the first of several beta updates that we plan to do over the coming months.

Note – if you have already downloaded the RealPlayer beta, you will need to download the new build for these fixes to take affect.

One piece of feedback I’d like to address at this time relates to how the RealPlayer browser plug-in interacts with Flex applications and Shockwave files. This specific issue was also recently posted here on John Dowdell's Macromedia blog.  

Here are the facts as we know them today regarding this issue:

1. Real does not replace or modify anyone’s flash/swf files.  The RealPlayer browser plug-ins do run their own swf’s beforehand in certain cases to properly determine where videos are placed on a web page.

2, There have been some reported compatibility issues with our implementation (in particular with flex applications) - most of which were just addressed with this recent software release. 

3. Because RealPlayer is still Beta software, we will continue to monitor user feedback and provide updated builds in the coming weeks.  Please report any issues to the RealPlayer feedback form. 

It is our mission to ensure RealPlayer is a great software application that provides a great user experience and allows people to watch video whenever, wherever they choose.

Performance & The New RealPlayer

Ben Rotholtz, General Manager Web Services & Syndication

The performance of RealPlayer has been dramatically improved. But what is performance and why should you care?

Ultimately, performance enables you to use your time more efficiently and get more out of life. To begin with (there’s always a beginning) performance can be measured in many different ways, such as installation, startup, workflow, video playback, bandwidth negotiation and reliability.  Performance can be thought of as the synchronized combination of these functions.

The first impression of RealPlayer performance is how quickly we can get you into the driver’s seat through an installation process that is just four clicks easy – and doesn't leave you with interfering or confusing defaults. No need to restart your machine after installing (though you will need to close your browser during installation to enable the “Download this Video” plug-in). Then hit the ignition and RealPlayer starts up much faster than previous versions, first time and every time. The benefit to you is that you don't have to wait to play.

We've improved workflow. Features and controls are in a logical place at the logical time.  You spot a piece of video on some web site, the content looks interesting but it’s not convenient for you to watch it at that time.  No need to start-up the RealPlayer. Hovering above that video is the “Download This Video” button.  Hit the button. No need to watch the entire clip while you download.  You can navigate to a different site or even close your browser and the clip will be downloaded (or recorded) in the background faster than you could watch the clip itself.

Time-shifting video from tens-of-thousands of web sites with one simple interface translates to an enormous time-saving benefit.  The new RealPlayer puts you in control of web video so that’s it on your schedule and in your lifestyle – offline, burned to a DVD and by the end-of-the-year available for transfer to portable devices. This is one more faceplate of performance.

Behind the scenes of web video time-shifting are workflow enhancements that you don't ever need to know about but that are constantly working for you. You don’t have to care about what format is being used (Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media or RealMedia), what player is used and what method of delivery is being employed (on-demand streaming, live streaming, progressive). Our goal with this release was to rationalize video content across the web and make it as effortless as possible for you to easily play back web video in your own environment when and where you wanted.

Then there’s the video playback itself within the RealPlayer. You can play videos back in RealPlayer full screen theatre mode. There’s no need to wait for Mr. Buffer to navigate around some interminable network router that is mindlessly tossing packets overboard because it’s overwhelmed.  We've tuned the video engine to deliver smooth, full motion, playback.  As the inventors of streaming we applied these video performance improvements to video streams as well so your on-line experience will be better.

We've also strived to make this a much more reliable RealPlayer which will always save you time.  Put another way, we've fixed a lot of bugs. That said, we are in beta as a consequence there are still bugs that will occasionally get in your way and impede performance. We've staked our reputation on providing a great experience with the new RealPlayer and we'd like to enlist your help to identify any problems that you encounter.  Let us know what you think.

Here’s to better performance.

New RealPlayer is Now Available

By Matt Spragins, Director of Product, RealPlayer

The new RealPlayer beta is now available for download.

Please visit http://www.realplayer.com to download the new RealPlayer.

After using it, please come back and give us your feedback.

Response to Rafat Ali’s Open Questions to Rob Glaser

by Rob Glaser

Last week, Rafat Ali posted a number of questions to me on his site (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-dh-some-open-questions-to-rob-glaser/).  Here are my responses (for ease of reading, I’ve included the original questions below verbatim).

Rafat Ali: Just because a piece of streaming online video doesn’t have a DRM protecting it, doesn’t mean it is not copyrighted. How do you address that?

Rob Glaser: The new RealPlayer is just like a VCR, a DVR, or a photocopier: It knows nothing about whether or not a piece of content is copyrighted.  Like these earlier video players, the new RealPlayer facilitates many legal and appropriate uses, for instance downloading public domain content and content for which the owner has given permission.

Rafat Ali:  1.5 million RealPlayer downloads daily? Really? Where is the growth coming from, and what's the real breakdown in terms of growth subscribers?

Rob Glaser:  We don't breakdown these numbers, but as your question implies, there is growth in many parts of the world.  In 2006 we had the largest number of RealPlayer downloads in history.  We're hoping that the new RealPlayer helps make 2007 even more successful.  We also think people will use the new RealPlayer even more than they’ve used previous versions. Others seem to agree. (for instance http://www.abiresearch.com/blog/digital_home_blog/368).

Rafat Ali: What’s the future of RealVideo and RealAudio format? No major media company is planning anything new with those formats, and in fact tons are moving away from it....why should we care about the new RealPlayer when we are not even using any of those formats?

Rob Glaser: Formats are important, but delivering great products to consumers is even more important.   RealPlayer is a multi-format player that adds value to content in many formats, including Real, Windows Media, QuickTime, and Flash.  That said, Real remains committed to developing world-class codecs for content providers.   Indeed, we have some interesting format-related products in the pipeline, but that’s for another day….

Rafat Ali: Sharing in the new player: you mean we install the new RP11, need to download the video first (say from YouTube), wait for that, then play it in RP11, then share from that software, and then the friend at the other end gets an e-mail linking back to the original online source? Why not just use YouTube’s (or any other site’s) sharing functionality to share it, and that’s 50 times faster.

Rob Glaser:  This is not about replacing the on-line experience YouTube and others offer; it is about giving consumers more control over their web video experience.  The new RealPlayer gives the users lots of control over Internet video -- watching it offline, burning it to CD or DVDs, storing it in a library, etc.   Sharing content links directly from the RealPlayer library can be really useful.  A number of people who’ve tested the pre-beta have told me that they love watching a few seconds of a video on a web site, then using RealPlayer to download a copy for later viewing.  Then if they like it they go ahead and share the link with friends.

Rafat Ali: What’s to prevent YouTube and others to offer the download functionality? They will when they can do it legally.

Rob Glaser: RealPlayer enables downloading across thousands of sites on the entire Web.  Two weeks ago I was in Japan and Korea and I tried it on a few major local video sites.   Guess what – it just worked!   

Because the new RealPlayer is not limited to a single site or format, it’s far more valuable to consumers than something that's limited to one Web site or format. The new RealPlayer makes downloading easier for site designers and for consumers, thanks to the simple one-click feature built right into RealPlayer.

Rafat Ali: In the end, RealNetworks has more fundamental issues to address than a software update here and there. Yes there’s the games part, yes there’s Rhapsody, but the format war was lost by Real a few years ago. Microsoft money can only carry them so far.

Rob Glaser: With all due respect Rafat, I don’t understand what you’re talking about.  Our first quarter revenue was $129.5 million, an increase of 50% from last year. We’re very focused on continuing to develop new products and services that deliver great digital entertainment experiences to consumers.  Based on the initial reaction to the new RealPlayer as well as the continuing success of our other products (including the ones you mention), we think we’re on the right track.