Hack90.Use the Real RealPlayer

Hack 90. Use the Real RealPlayer

Install the official RealPlayer to enable streaming multimedia apps from your Mozilla-based or Konqueror browser.

It used to be that the Web was mostly a text-based medium. Along came images and sounds, and finally video content. It's nice to read a review of a movie, or a description of a keynote speech, but it's even better to be able to watch a movie preview and a live keynote speech directly from a browser. There are a number of different streaming audio and video formats that are popular on the Web, including the Real audio and video formats.

Recently, Real has decided to base their commercial player on their open source Helix player (https://player.helixcommunity.org). While Real has released Linux-compatible players and plug-ins for some time, this move helps ensure future Linux compatibility in the player and format.

To install the RealPlayer application and plug-ins, visit http://www.real.com and click on the Download RealPlayer link on the main page. The download will be in the form of a single executable file named something like RealPlayer10GOLD.bin (the site detects that you are running Linux, so it provides the correct file automatically). After the file is downloaded, open a terminal and change to the directory storing the file. Give the file executable permissions and then run it from the terminal:

 $ chmod a+x  RealPlayer10GOLD.bin  $  ./RealPlayer10GOLD.bin  

The RealPlayer install script extracts temporary files into the current directory and prompts you for a directory to use to install the program. Since you are installing this as a user, pick a directory such as /home/username/RealPlayer. The installer will extract all the RealPlayer files into that directory and set up the Mozilla plug-ins, but not the actual media player. Once the installer is finished, run the realplay program to perform the initial setup process for the player itself.

 $  ~/RealPlayer/realplay  

Now the plug-in should be ready to use. If you use Konqueror, you might need to first scan for the new plug-in. To do this, launch Konqueror and click Settings Configure Konqueror. In the window that appears, scroll down and select the Plugins option from the list on the left and then click Scan for New Plugins. Click OK to close the settings window.

Now when you click on any Real Audio or Video content, your browser will prompt you to open it using realplay. Then RealPlayer will open in a separate window and start playback.