Real Alternative: Codec for Real Media

Posted on Oct 06 in Tech Stuffby ApplePrint

Real Player was once a very popular media player for its nicely compact file format and also common for streaming media content. However, the original Real Media Player is not that satisfying because of its heavy loading and forceful installation of other “unnecessary” side programs.

The bad thing about Real format is, only Real Media player is able to play it. Even my favorite VLC Media Player also unable to play Real format media. Today, you don’t have to worry about this, as the savior is here! Friedbeef had a wonderful review on this Real Alternative.

Yea…today, you don’t have to download Real Media Player to watch your favorite Real format media contents. Real Alternative is the answer.

Why Real Alternative?

• Quick and easy install
• It’s easy to make an unattended installation
• Proper uninstallation
• No background processes
• Use a player of your own choice
• Low on resources
• No advertising, no registration forms, nothing annoying

However, everything has its limitation:

• .smi and .smil files only play the first part of a clip. This is only a problem when the clip consists of multiple parts. These files are not very common. These files do play correctly when embedded in a browser.
• The RealMedia DirectShow splitter does not work with streaming content. You must use the included Media Player Classic to play streaming content.

Real Alternative is actually a media codec that allows you to play Real media file in any media player of your choice. So far, I’ve tested with the following media players:
- VLC media player: not working, only audio available. (maybe I missed out something?)
- KM Player: working fine
- Windows Media Player: working fine
- Media Player Classic: working fine

Download Real Alternative now and enjoy watching your favorite Real media videos. Once you have downloaded the installer, one thing I would like to mention is about Media Player Classic. You will be prompted if you want to install Media Player Classic during the installation. I recommend you to do so and set it as the default player for playing Real media content (default setting). Although other media players (listed above) enable you to play Real media content after you have installed Real Alternative, Media Player Classic is actually a light and powerful media player that is compatible with most media format (provided you have the codecs required)

This is how Media Player Classic looks like:

2 Comments

• jayhan says:

  October 7, 2007 at 11:23 am

  I use Real Alt before, it is very good. But since then i switch to the even better (imho) Storm Codec.

  But both are good ones, strange thing is, once u installed MPC, it will make ur WMP able to play many media files, haah

  and thanks for the link exchange! i will put urs to mine blog asap!

  Reply
• Wayne Liew says:

  October 7, 2007 at 12:31 pm

  I like Media Player Classic to act as Real Player alternatives. Too much notification from Real Player when I start it.

  Reply

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