[jnibori]

FYI -


TOURBUS Volume 9, Number 32 -- 6 Feb 2004

((QUOTE))

One of the Internet's worst-kept secrets is that RealNetwork's
RealPlayer is kind of sort of spyware-like and that many of
RealPlayer's optional downloads--the extra stuff you can download when
you first get RealPlayer--are full-blown spyware.

Because of that, many people have abandoned RealPlayer and switched to
competing programs like RealAlternative at

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4094.html

RealAlterative is certainly an, um, alternative, but if you are
married to keeping RealPlayer on your PC, Mac, or *nix box without it
spying on you, there may be hope. My good friend Lee Overstreet
recently posted step-by-step instructions on how to download and
install RealPlayer on a PC without having it take over your life.
Just point your web browser to

http://www.uacomputerhelp.com/

and click on the "Installing Real One Player" link at the bottom of
the page. Unfortunately, Lee's instructions don't talk about how to
install RealPlayer on a Mac or *nix box and disable its spyware-like
features, but with 100,000+ people on our little bus of Internet
happiness I am sure someone knows where I can find this information.

If you are using the free version of RealPlayer, chances are you have
an old version. Might I suggest you completely uninstall your old
version of RealPlayer--for instructions on how to do this on a PC,
take a look at http://tinyurl.com/ytzw4--and then follow Lee's
instructions to get the newest version?

Better still, you could instead uninstall RealPlayer and then pay a
visit to our friends at the BBC.

Huh? Well, this is kind of hard to believe, but according to an
anonymous poster to the Boing Boing blog,

The BBC made a unique deal with Real Networks which disposes of
their spyware tactics. Basically, if a user clicks on a link to
download Real Player from a BBC website, the referrer script
sends them to a page where they can download an expiry-free,
spyware-free and nuicance-free version of the player. It's
because the BBC have such a stringent public service remit, that
it was offensive to charge people a license fee for BBC content,
then make them pay all over again for the facility to view/listen
to it.

You can download the (supposed) non-spyware-like RealPlayer from the
beeb at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/audiohelp.shtml?help

Four different versions are available:

1. One for Windows98, 98SE, ME, NT 4, 2000, and XP.

2. One for Mac OS X. [See?! I didn't forget those of you who
compute with fruit!] :P

3. One for Windows 95 or Mac OS 8 or 9.

4. One for Solaris 2.6/2.7 or Linux 2.0

The BBC also offers step-by-step installation instructions. Pretty
cool, huh? And, to listen to any of the BBC's countless online
broadcasts, just hop on over to

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/

and click on the station to which you'd like to listen.

Enjoy!

[Big-K]

See thats why i just use WinAmp, and Real/Quicktime Alternative.

[deuce]

Winamp 5 is all you need! No need to even mess with anything else, including Media Player. I've been using WinAmp since v2.3 and it's great ...and free.

[jnibori]

I just downloaded Winamp myself. I've heard other mention it too.

Thanks.

[Big-K]

V3 twert too stable, so they changed to v5. Im glad too. Great player. Nice media library capabilities, user friendly(sortve), very customizable, nice playlisting. And a built in audio analyzer.

[jnibori]

Much nicer (IMHO). Wish I would have played with this before I purchased THIS JUNK

The radio stations are the easiest to navigate I've ever used. The interface is pretty user friendly as well.


*EDIT/QUESTION*

Now, can I get rid of RealOne Player too, or should I keep that for certain formats?

[hewee]

JetAudio is nice too.

http://www.jetaudio.com/

[deuce]

If you want, go ahead and get rid of real player.

[jnibori]

I just did. Thanks.

[deuce]

Any questions with winamp?

[jnibori]

Not yet. I'm still kicking myself for not trying it before. No busy ads in my face; easy to navigate; etc...

[Gary R]

Does Winamp convert from .ra or .ram or .rm RealAudio Files to MP3 or .wav?
If not, what's a good FREEWARE program compatible with Windows 98SE (256 Mb RAM; 32 Mb Soundcard; DirectX 6.0a) that'll do this?
I looked at a webpage cited above, & what was there appeared to be shareware programs which have to be purchased.

[Big-K]

First of all, rm is a video format. Second of all, ram is a streaming audio or video format, so it cant be converted. I think that www.poikosoft.com/ might be what your looking for. Yes its shareware, but it can be reinstalled after the 100 uses. Theres just the splash screen and the please register thing. Other than that its works fine. It rips, converts, and burns audio.

[hewee]

Originally posted by Gary R:
Does Winamp convert from .ra or .ram or .rm RealAudio Files to MP3 or .wav?
If not, what's a good FREEWARE program compatible with Windows 98SE (256 Mb RAM; 32 Mb Soundcard; DirectX 6.0a) that'll do this?
I looked at a webpage cited above, & what was there appeared to be shareware programs which have to be purchased.

The free version of JetAudio should do that. But your need the paid version to convert to MP3.