I want to play .ra and .rm files but I don't want to install the
RealOne player. Please recommend a few software that has NO bloatware
or spyware that can do the job. Thanks.

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 17 Jul 2003 07:19 PDT

Would you accept shareware, or do you just want freeware? Just to
inform you, it's possible we won't find freeware at all.

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Clarification of Question by whizhost-ga on 17 Jul 2003 08:52 PDT

I don't mind paying for a quality shareware.

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Request for Question Clarification by shiva777-ga on 19 Jul 2003 13:32 PDT

Hello. The program you want is Ultraplayer!
(http://www.ultraplayer.com) It's free, relatively light on resources
and easy to use. It plays RA and RM files as well as MP3's, AVI's and
most any media type. I use it as an alternative to Realplayer and
Windows Media Player. This program rocks. I was under the impression
that it had no spyware, but I took a second look at the user
agreement:

"In order to be as up-front and honest as possible with you, our user,
we want you to know the following:
 
So that UltraPlayer can remain free to users, we collect data
regarding your use of UltraPlayer.  We track application statistics
(e.g., how often users use the EQ) and combine it with anonymous
demographic data and anonymous usage information (like the genre of
songs that you play) to provide you with relevant advertising that is
only displayed between screen changes in the player.  This data
remains anonymous because it is tracked via a unique number that is
randomly generated during installation.  We also ask you to
voluntarily provide us with your email address so that we can notify
you of updates to UltraPlayer.
 
UltraPlayer is advertising-enabled software that may make periodic use
of your Internet connection. We do NOT track song titles, types of
files, the origin of the files played, how many CDs you own, or
anything else that would be an invasion of your privacy.  We only use
the information that we collect for statistical purposes (like being
able to know how many registered users we have).  At this point, we
mainly use it for impressing friends and family and for building our
egos."

I'm still not sure I consider this spyware, but you might so I decided
to post this as a clarification rather than an answer. If you're
interested, get the program and try it. If you like it, respond to
this clarification and I will post it as an answer. If not good luck
in your search.
Thanks,
-shiva777

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Clarification of Question by whizhost-ga on 19 Jul 2003 15:25 PDT

Unfortunately UltraPlayer does NOT play .ra and .rm files;
http://www.ultraplayer.com/support/faq.asp?FAQNumber=G2

And it does not support Windows XP;
http://www.ultraplayer.com/support/faq.asp?FAQNumber=G1

I need a player which is designed for Windows XP.

Hi Whizhost,

As someone who would also like to replace RealOne, I've been following
the threads here with interest. I've followed many red herrings and
reached many dead ends this afternoon to find a solution and
eventually found it in a comment left by MisterBig.

I am currently successfully playing both .ra and .rm files on a
Windows XP machine without any Real product installed.

The key piece of software is IrfanView.

IrfanView
http://www.irfanview.com/

As far as I can ascertain I had to follow three steps to reach the
solution.

1. Download and install IrfanView (822k). There is a link to Tucows
from the official site and I've included the link for completeness.

IrfanView Download
http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm

Tucows
http://www.tucows.com/preview/194967.html

2. Download and install the plugins (3.4MB). These include viewers for
many file formats including Real. The software seems to be highly
versatile.

IrfanView Plugins
http://www.irfanview.com/plugins.htm

Tucows
http://www.tucows.com/adnload/194967_75078.html

3. This should do the job, according to documentation. However I still
couldn't play Real files within IrfanView, as it reported a DLL error.
I downloaded the DLL directly from dll-files.com and all started
working fine.

dll-files.com
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?pncrt

Enjoy.

Poe

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Clarification of Answer by poe-ga on 20 Jul 2003 09:07 PDT

Apologies for not including that the software is entirely free (for
non-commercial use) and as far as I can tell, contains no spyware.

Poe

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Request for Answer Clarification by whizhost-ga on 20 Jul 2003 09:59 PDT

Poe,

Go to http://www.irfanview.com/ then click on "PlugIns" on the left
side menu bar and then scroll all the way down.

There it's stated: "REAL-AUDIO - (version 3.37): allows IrfanView to
play Real-Audio RA files" but it does NOT state that IrfanView is
capable of playing .rm files.

I've installed IrfanView and downloaded all their plug-ins and it
still will NOT play .rm files. Therefore your answer is flawed. I'll
be asking for a full refund unless you have a good explanation.

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Clarification of Answer by poe-ga on 20 Jul 2003 10:28 PDT

I'll investigate this further for you and find a definitive response.

However, I can say that I am playing .rm files without any problems,
so there is no obvious reason why you should not be able to.

These are .rm files that I created myself a number of years ago using
an old version of RealProducer. I'm using Windows XP Professional and
I have no Real software installed at all.

Are you receiving an error when trying to play .rm files or is the
software just not playing them at all? Also where have you found the
.rm files that do not play? Are you sure that they are valid files,
for instance will they play in RealPlayer or RealOne?

Poe

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Request for Answer Clarification by whizhost-ga on 20 Jul 2003 21:49 PDT

Poe,

The .rm files are definitely valid because they run fine on my
notebook which has RealOne installed. I'm also using Windows XP
Professional and I receive NO error when trying to play .rm files on
my desktop PC which has IrfanView (but no RealPlayer or RealOne).

Again, your answer is seriously flawed.

I dislike the RealOne player. I've asked for recommendations on 3rd
party software that contained no bloatware or spyware which can play
.ra and .rm files.

The researcher's answer is seriously flawed because the software he
recommended will NOT play .rm files. Therefore please refund my money
ASAP. Thank you.

www.jetaudio.com

www.enounce.com

* Jetaudio 5.1 is a bloatware (17.0 MB of thrash), it's bigger than RealOne! 
* Enounce 2xAV is a Real Player "plug-in" - you still need Real Player.

There must be something out there, please help.

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/streambox_vcr.cfm
or try a google search for realatlast

Here are the Realatlast codecs
http://snow.prohosting.com/coandco/downloads/realcodecs.exe use them
with Irfanview I think they only work with audio

The "realatlast" option is not for me. I'm looking for *real* software.

Whizhost, I'm no expert at audio software, but like you I was anxious
to find an alternative to the "Real Audio" series of players.  I've
had nothing but trouble with them; they adversely affect my computer
in a number of peculiar and mysterious ways.  However, although I've
looked and downloaded and tried numerous other sofware packages that
looked promising, in the end none of them solved the problem I kept
running into.  That problem is that Real Audio seems to own the .ra
and .rm file types and has not shared whatever of coding or internal
structure or whatever it is that needs to be shared with other
software makers so that these file types may be played by other than
Real players.  I'd be able to play anything and everything EXCEPT
these file types.

So alas, I'm back to using RealOne simply because they have such a
huge monopoly on internet sound and music and streaming audio, and
running a player that doesn't support these proprietary file types
just doesn't make sense since they're so ubiquitous.  I hope I'm
wrong, and am just posting my experience in the fwiw category.  I'll
be watching as eagerly as you for a possible alternative to the
unwelcome and disliked Real One.  Good luck!

--Byrd

Mplayer, this one is difinitely a winner :

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design6/news.html

It is free, open source and performs very well on Linux as well and
Windows. You can even download "live cds" with it on and there is no
need to install anything. It also plays the widest selection of
formats.

Another option is xine : 
http://xinehq.de/

This may not be appropriate for you, as you may be dealing entirely
with streams rather than downloads, but Real have opened up their
codecs so that other software manufacturers can create conversion
tools.

One such is dBpowerAMP which can easily convert .ra and .rm files to
any other audio format you so choose (eg wav, mp3, wma, ogg) which you
can then play with any standard audio software.

dBpowerAMP
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

dBpowerAMP Codec Central
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central.htm

If you follow this route, you'll need to install dBpowerAMP, then the
RealAudio codecs.

Hope that helps,

Poe

mikepb78,

Mplayer and Xine are NOT designed for Windows. They only run on Linux!