Being a student it's easy to switch off from the outside world and live in your own little bubble. As I've always had an interest in current affairs, I made a firm resolution that I wouldn't allow myself to fall into this trap. Whilst buying and reading a newspaper is something I do as regularly ... Read review
Advantages: Allows me to watch the news! Disadvantages: Adverts, not particularly intuitive.
Being a student it's easy to switch off from the outside world and live in your own little bubble. As I've always had an interest in current affairs, I made a firm resolution that I wouldn't allow myself to fall into this trap. Whilst buying and reading a newspaper is something I do as regularly as I can, whilst at home I often find myself skipping through BBC News 24, Sky News, CNN, and ITN News 24 to see what's going on in the world. Without the ... ...I can't do this, so the internet provides my main form of detailed, up to the minute news.
Of all the news websites available, I tend to favour BBC News, mainly because it is detailed, has a large number of options, is well-written and reported, and has extensive coverage of all kinds of things, as well as a comprehensive Sports section, which is another area I am particularly interested in. Whilst reading stories is fine, some of ... more
Being a student it's easy to switch off from the outside world and live in your own little bubble. As I've always had an interest in current affairs, I made a firm resolution that I wouldn't allow myself to fall into this trap. Whilst buying and reading a newspaper is something I do as regularly as I can, whilst at home I often find myself skipping through BBC News 24, Sky News, CNN, and ITN News 24 to see what's going on in the world. Without the aid of cable or satellite in my room (I wish!) I can't do this, so the internet provides my main form of detailed, up to the minute news.
Of all the news websites available, I tend to favour BBC News, mainly because it is detailed, has a large number of options, is well-written and reported, and has extensive coverage of all kinds of things, as well as a comprehensive Sports section, which is another area I am particularly interested in. Whilst reading stories is fine, some of the video content on the site is interesting, and adds new depth and dimension to the written word. Being able to stream News 24 coverage live is also a great way of keeping tabs on breaking news.
To do all of this, I was informed that I needed to download Real Player. So, off I went. Firstly, if you want the free Real One Player, and not the paid for version (which doesn't really offer much more in terms of features for the money), you have to search hard for it. Eventually, after a bit of looking (it's in the top right hand corner of the main page), and clicking through several clever screens which try to make you download or buy the full Real One player, I was able to download the Real One Free player. The download process seems to have changed a bit of late, with a Real Download Manager now lurking around, although I was able to download using the standard Windows dialog box and "Open" and/or "Save".
Upon running the setup file, you are greeted with a pop up box asking you to accept the terms and conditions. Once read and accepted, the installation begins. You are then asked to make Real Player the default application for a number of file types, you can do as you wish here. I decided against making it the default player for anything other than Real Media files. After this, the program launches for the first time.
The interface is nice and modern, and fits well with the image of Windows XP. It looks fairly similar to QuickTime, and is silver/grey with green and blue Real branding.
Standard options are accessed via the file menu, or the controls on the player itself. A media browser similar to that found on Windows Media Player offers a range of content for you to peruse and view/listen to.
Real One Player is versatile in what it will play, and tries to be a master of all trades. It provides decent quality playback of all files, but it is streaming content that is its forte, and the area for which Real is known.
Streaming media such as the BBC News and sport takes a few seconds to buffer on my ethernet connection, but it is then uninterrupted and fast. However, the quality is often quite blurry, although this has more to do with the encoding of the content - it is done in a way to make it accessible to all forms of connection. Internet radio plays flawlessly most of the time.
However, whilst the Real One Player is a useful tool to have if you are on a fast line and view a lot of streaming content, it is not quite as intuitive as Windows Media Player, and doesn't offer the quality or options of Winamp or Power DVD, and that is why it is not my first choice player for MP3 and DVD files. There is something clunky about Real Player, and it can take a few seconds to respond to commands. The interface and controls are not really to my liking, and it does crash quite often.
There are also often annoying ads or pop-ups that accompany use of Real One Player, though not as many as in previous versions. These provide an unwelcome distraction, and will test the patience of the casual user.
Overall, Real One Player (Free) is a fairly average player, and one that is worth having only really for its streaming media capabilities. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to view news, sports, music videos or other streaming content over the internet, but as an all-in-one program it is slightly disappointing, and does not deliver consistently high quality performance accross the board to justify using anything other than the free version. I certainly wouldn't pay for it.
Advantages: Pleasant interface and playing music is easier. Disadvantages: Too much like other media players, a bit unstable and sound loss is frequent.
...RealNetworks, their integrated media application RealOne Player. My first impressions, having used Microsoft’s Media Player were that the two were surprisingly similar! The application is set out with the clip player at the top, the media browser below and a button bar at the bottom. The player is very much orientated around the Internet, with the media browser used to connect to various web pages from the button bar. The web, radio and channels ... ...people who sign up for RealOne membership can receive extra benefits, but must pay a monthly subscription.
The most noticeable improvement from Real Player 8 is the fact it can play files stored your computer as well as off the Internet. This simplified with My Library, similar to that of MS Media Player. This is basically a catalogue of the music and video files on your computer (only what you want in it) and you can filter the files by artist, ...
goodematthew 08.06.2002 (09.06.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of RealOne Player
Advantages: easy to use, easy access to files Disadvantages: pay for extras, 'adopts' files.
I have RealOne player and have now decided not to use it anymore.
Although it is simple to use and allows a library of music, video files and the like, It does not have that many options if i wanted to be creative with my files.
In windows media player i can loop any music or video file. Can't with real player. Some music and video files wont play on realone, but will on media player. To get the upgrades to be able to play the files that i can't, ... ...The only big bonus with realone is the way you get the channel links to radio and tv broadcasts. this has been a helpful aid in discovering what is happening in the world. I regularly use it to listen to some of the radio stations in the United States.
My personal opinon is that Realone is good for the begginer and is quite an eye opener, but when you get used to having it and using it you realize it's been cleverly made to help you part with your ...
mixture 18.03.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of RealOne Player
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Advantages: Free, easy to use, becoming very common and popular. Disadvantages: N/A
Realplayer is a multimedia player. It functions very similar to Windows Media Player, but has a different interface and is compatible with a wide-range of file extensions.
Realplayer is the second-most used multimedia player, second to the windows one. Real have their own file types, real movies is one of the most common.
I find it much better than Windows Media Player, the main reason being that it uses less RAM (system resources), therefore it runs much quicker on slower computers (like mine).
I have realplayer set up as my default player now and very rarely do I use Windows Media Player. The interface is very easy-to-use. It also includes pre-set radio channel's, just like the new verison of Windows Media Player has.
It functions very well and is compatible with almost every file type you can think of, including of cause ...
darrenloud 22.02.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of RealPlayer(Plus)
Advantages: Totally free. Invaluable. Disadvantages: None that come to mind.
! ACDSee, Adobe, Ahead, Quicktime, loads of Microsoft stuff, RealOnePlayer, IBM ViaVoice, Norton AntiVirus, WinZip and so on. Again, most of it was over my head but I did recognize some familiar names amongst all the rest! He pointed out one bit that he said that I would need for reference should ever the PC go down and need to be rebooted from scratch. That was the software licenses and all their numbers. Print it off and keep it safe were his words.
8. He showed me that you can click on an asterisk after each bit of software information and a new page would open with a directory listing - whatever that is, `cos I didn`t understand at the time and still don`t!.
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bwanamdevu 19.07.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Belarc Advisor
Advantages: Support for many file formats, easy to use, automatically selects the best quality reception depending on available bandwidth Disadvantages: Unstable
I have tried many different programs for streaming media, and RealPlayer is the best one that I have found. Virtually every type of streaming media can be streamed using this single program, with the exception of proprietary technologies such as VIVO and ASF.
Another great feature of the program is that you only need to todnwload the components you plan to use, which means that it doesn't take long to download. However, if you later find that you're missing support for a file format which you need to play, RealPlayer will automatically alert you and ask if you want to download a small update.
My only complaint with this program is that it is quite unstable. It very often crashes, and often the amount of time it says it will take to rebuffer keeps going up and up and up into thousands of seconds, instead of down, as it should ...
