The media player will allow one-click downloading of Flash, Windows Media, QuickTime, or Real’s own format.
The world of media players is in for some shocking news, RealPlayer has upped the ante and will allow users to download online videos and burn them to a CD or DVD.
Apparently not content with simple playback features, it will soon allow users to to download most major media formats including Flash, Quicktime, Windows Media, and Real.
“The new RealPlayer gives consumers more control of Internet video than was ever possible before,” said Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of Real. “By floating a “download this video” button next to video seen on thousands of Web sites, RealPlayer makes it one-click simple. The new RealPlayer is a major step towards realizing our vision of bringing great digital entertainment to more people on more screens around the world.”
Unlike previous versions of RealPlayer, which simply ran as a regular desktop application, the new player, to supposedly be released next month, will weave itself into your Web browser.
Now I’ve never been a big RealPlayer fan, it always seemed bloated and inferior to other media players like VLC for instance but, it may prove to be a tempting addition to my PC if it works as advertised and allows for such “on-click downloading” as advertised. Sure Firefox, my browser of choice, has a number of video download plugins available yet, they seem to all have their quirks and none seem capable of ripping all and any video that I encounter. If this new RealPlayer is able to do so I just may switch over.
Now it does raise some questions however, like how media companies will feel about their online content suddenly being made permanent and portable, well RealNetworks general manager Ben Rotholz compares it to a DVR, allowing users to capture video so you can watch it later, rather than having to play it as you browse.
“Time-shifting of recorded or downloaded content is a natural next step in the progression of the online video distribution and consumption,” said Michael McGuire, vice president, Gartner, Inc. “For online video fans, the ability to capture, store and forward content is going to be transformative.”
This may be true but, I don’t think media companies will take kindly to watching their content become even more widley available than it already is. Say, for instance, that somebody posts a clip of David Letterman or The Daily Show on YouTube. Well, before Viacom has a chance to get it removed thousands if not millions of people will be able to rip and download the clip to their PC. Is this really “time-shifting” or is it copyright infringement? As usual the lawyers will sort it all out but, I don’t think it will be able to its case up in court.
Either way, despite this new functionality, unless it’s not as bloated and filled with browser hijacking adware and spyware like previous versions it’ll be a tough sell no matter how fancy the bells and whistles may be.
Details of the new Real Player:
- Consumers can download multiple videos simultaneously with RealPlayer, allowing people to save time and easily multitask. Users can also start downloading in the middle of watching a video, and the entire video will be captured.
- Consumers don’t need to worry about video format compatibility issues — the new RealPlayer supports videos created in the most popular formats, including Flash, Windows Media, Quicktime, and Real.
- Consumers can easily burn videos to CD (or to DVD, using RealPlayer Plus). The Video CD format used by RealPlayer can be played in most DVD players.
- Consumers can send links of their favorite videos to their friends with a convenient “Share with a Friend” feature. The link that arrives in their friends’ email will direct them to the online source of the video content their friend downloaded.
- RealPlayer supports both downloading and recording for popular streaming format (Windows Media, Real, and Quicktime)
- RealPlayer will only download/record video that is not protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management) systems.
- RealPlayer will first be released for Windows, and will work with both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Real plans a version for the Mac to be released later in the year.
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/software/New_RealPlayer_will_rip_and_burn_internet_video’;
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I always hated Real Audio. Too agressive if you do a “tipical installation” it will mess up your PC real good.yer” instead.
Hence I have bee using real alternative codecs and the “calssic media pla
But this will be truly a nice feature. May it be that like me everybody was sick and tired of real audio/player and they are doing something good eventually to get some market back ?
Is it still loaded with spyware? I think that was the reason I never installed it. Maybe it was some other stupid option they forced upon their users. Either way real player used to really piss me off so now I just simply use real alternative. This is however a very tempting addition.
theres also the fact that .rm are so damn small and are also streamable. my south park eps are like 30MB and at passable quality. its a damn shame they dont share their technology.
I use Real Alternative with MPC also. Real Player is bloatware in the extreme and this will just bloat it even more.
That said allowing non-tech-savvy people to download streaming video is a good thing it’s just that anyone in the know will have bene doing it freely and easily for years and years using lightweight programs like SDP Downloader YouTube Downloader etc. And burning can be done with freeware like CD Burner XP Pro.
I guess it would be nice to have a single application that did the whole lot but not at the expense of installing something as horrible as RP.
I hope not, otherwise I think everybody will avoid this one as well.