BBC & Realplayer

Defiant · 17-05-2004, 17:36

Doe's anyone know if the BBC get paid for having all there media content on Realplayer. Now I never use it myself because it's naff but while I pay for a TV Licence dont think the BBC should be getting money for making people install that either ?

17-05-2004, 17:38

Typically a company will pay to have their media content in Realplayer as it is how Real generate their revenue. It is a common model for media playback companies to adopt, the playback client is free for the end user while the encoding tools and server streaming support is paid for by the content provider.

Defiant · 17-05-2004, 17:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by dr wadd

Typically a company will pay to have their media content in Realplayer as it is how Real generate their revenue. It is a common model for media playback companies to adopt, the playback client is free for the end user while the encoding tools and server streaming support is paid for by the content provider.

I thought it was the otherway around. They have a pay service after all even though the BBC is not on the pay part it doe's give Realplayer a good advert. Why else would they use such a rubbish player.

Charlie_Bubble · 17-05-2004, 17:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Defiant

Doe's anyone know if the BBC get paid for having all there media content on Realplayer. Now I never use it myself because it's naff but while I pay for a TV Licence dont think the BBC should be getting money for making people install that either ?

Amazing, I thought I was the only one who hated the way every BBC clip is an .rm file. I used to have real player on my old PC, but find the quality to be crap compared with other formats, so don't have it on my PC now. Kind of limits my enjoyment of their site and makes me wonder why they don't give a choice of format like most other sites!

Defiant · 17-05-2004, 17:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie_Bubble

Amazing, I thought I was the only one who hated the way every BBC clip is an .rm file. I used to have real player on my old PC, but find the quality to be crap compared with other formats, so don't have it on my PC now. Kind of limits my enjoyment of their site and makes me wonder why they don't give a choice of format like most other sites!

Yep I think it should be either using the Mediaplayer 9 codex's (10 is in beta

) or Quicktime

Richard M · 17-05-2004, 17:44

Nothing wrong with good old MPEG...

17-05-2004, 17:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Defiant

I thought it was the otherway around. They have a pay service after all even though the BBC is not on the pay part it doe's give Realplayer a good advert. Why else would they use such a rubbish player.

Not 100% sure, but I could imagine that it is partly a legacy thing, the BBC have been using RealPlayer for a long time, back when it was even vaguely usable with slower connections. Another factor could be that there are versions of RealPlayer available for almost every OS, I guess it could be awkard for the BBC to use a delivery system that is limited in what computers it can be used on, kind of like having television that only worked if you had a Sony TV.

**Chris** · 17-05-2004, 17:52

I exchanged emails with someone at the BBC some while ago when they began a limited trial of using Windoze Media format for some streaming, to ask them why, if they were thinking of changing the way they offer streaming media on their website, they were not experimenting with generic formats rather than proprietory (which WMV is). They indicated that the WMV trial was to test demand, but that they were closely watching the development of the latest MPEG standards. This was maybe 18 months ago, so I don't know where they have got to with it. However the fact that WMV has not become widely available at BBC online does suggest to me that the vast majority of people are happy to use whichever player is necessary on the website they visit.

As for why they go for Real, it could well be that Real Player is the original, and at the time the BBC needed to invest in the necessary server and encoding software it was the only sensible choice. Even today, agencies I work with in my job, when given the straight choice between Real, Quicktime and Windoze Media, tend to favour Real because (they say) Real is more easily configurable from a content provider's point of view, and it is easier to get a good deal from Real for the necessary licencing. Remember, just because a client media player is free to the home user, does not mean it is free to create and manage multimedia web content. It isn't.

Defiant · 17-05-2004, 17:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by towny

Remember, just because a client media player is free to the home user, does not mean it is free to create and manage multimedia web content. It isn't.

I agree with that but I'd also put money on it that Microsoft would do the BBC a very nice deal to get there player on there. Perhaps even give it free. Never known Microsoft to pass up a coup anyway

Lew · 17-05-2004, 22:28

Hell, if they wanted to use a free streaming server then they could easily use QuickTime Streaming Server (runs on OS X) or Darwin Streaming Server (runs on OS X, Red Hat Linux 9, Solaris 9, Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2003 Server) and stream everything in MPEG4. It even does 3GPP streaming for mobile phones, which would be a nice addition to their existing services.

There are more than enough options for client software that way (I know that at the very least QuickTime Player and RealOne Player/Realplayer can handle MPEG4 and I'm sure there must be options for WMP to handle it as well).

philip.j.fry · 17-05-2004, 22:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mimizuku no Lew

...and I'm sure there must be options for WMP to handle it as well).

Recently someone I know was trying to put some mpeg-4 encoded videos on a website (for download rather than streaming), they ran into trouble because WMP refused to download a codec for it automatically, it wanted to use it's own incompatible version.

Lew · 17-05-2004, 22:41

That's a shame. You'd think by now it'd be able to do proper MPEG4, wouldn't you?

TheBlueRaja · 17-05-2004, 22:45

OKay people.

Step 1 Uninstall Real 1 Player - A) Because it sucks and b) Because its way too pushy for my liking

Step 2 go here and download Real Alternative and the codec pack. (Follow the instructions)

Step 3 sit back relax and be glad you got rid of real player.

BTW - if you go further down the page - you can download Real Alternative by itself. Just in case you miss that.

Xaccers · 17-05-2004, 22:56

I hate real on the BBC simply because I can't get it to work on my ipaq, I know I'm not alone.

Defiant · 18-05-2004, 08:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by theblueraja

OKay people.

Step 1 Uninstall Real 1 Player - A) Because it sucks and b) Because its way too pushy for my liking

Step 2 go here and download Real Alternative and the codec pack. (Follow the instructions)

Step 3 sit back relax and be glad you got rid of real player.

BTW - if you go further down the page - you can download Real Alternative by itself. Just in case you miss that.

Nice work. Nothing is going to make the picture better but at least the operating system within it has been taken out and it doesn't try and take over the computer:

EDIT: Can only get it working by downloading the .ram files and playing via the media classic player. Picture is poor but it is realplayer still