LARRYS02  For the larger world out there, is it possible to keep both Real Player 10 and 11 and somehow tie in the BBC Radio Widget to Real Player 10? Or will it automatically link to the latest version? I like Real Player 11, but the fact that it affects the BBC Radio Widget the way it does is quite disappointing.

Anybody out there who knows, post a comment please.  
(Version 11.0.1 build 949)

BONKME  Well quite frankly this is rubbish. recently moved to Mac from Windows.

Went to the BBC website. You need to install Real Player. OK here we go. I always hated the old versions of Real Player on Windows. It put a load of rubbish on my machine that I didn't want.

But anyway I wanted to listen to BBC on my Mac so I thought well maybe they've moved on. Downloaded and installed the app easy enough, but when I click on the BBC website I get an invalid socket error.

In short it doesn't work out of the shrink wrap unlike ALL of the other MAC applications I've tried. You'd think they'd test at least with what must be one of their biggest customers wouldn't you? Inexcusable.

These guys deserve to become even more irrelevant than they already are.  
(Version 11.0.1 build 949)

MARIVAUX  Despite Realplayer's bad reputation, it has mostly been an ok application for the Mac--and a necessary one, if you would like to listen to the BBC or a lot of other realaudio-only radio streams.

The final builds of Realplayer 10 were basically perfect, with the exception that they wouldn't play Windows Media streams. It's nice that Realplayer 11 does that, but unfortunately, it suffers from a bunch of amateurish problems.

The primary one is the inability to connect to a number of standard radio streams, mostly in playlist format. Realplayer 10 connected to all of these streams just fine, but Realplayer 11 has (so far) been a big step backward. Moreover, Real has failed to correct these basic problems over many updates, and pretty much every basic media player can resolve those addresses.

So, I've started using FStream, and only drag out Real when I want to listen to BBC Radio 4.   
(Version 11.0.1 build 949)

CHRIS REED  From BBC website

'To listen to BBC Radio in the Player you will need to have a program called RealPlayer installed on your computer. RealPlayer is not made by the BBC, so you will need to download it from another site.'

However, this does not seem to apply now they have their own iPlayer, yet this appears as a popup window, like RealPlayer did in the past when connecting to BBC streams.

Not sure if BBC iPlayer uses RealPlayer as it's basis but BBC 'Listen Again' ans 'Listen Now' always used RealPlayer in the past. Go figure why. Shoutcast gives a url, BBC radio give popup.

I would be interested in why they chose RealPlayer and if there is a workaround. I use Audio Hijack or get BBC Podcasts.  
(Version 11.0.1 build 949)

MARK_CAIRNS  I would agree. Does anybody really even use it any more? VLC Player and/or Quicktime Player are really all that most would need.

The RealPlayer Downloader is quite good though as it automatically downloads the YouTube (or whatever) video stream you're currently watching in the background, so that's the only thing keeping it on my Macs.  
(Version 11.0.1 build 949)

BLUESTAR  Isn't Realplayer kinda becoming irrelevant? With Flash and iTunes I don't think I ever open it...  
(Version 11.0.1 build 949)

SIMTY  Still doesn't work with Dashboard. The sound cuts of as soon as dashboard goes into the background. I'll be sticking with Version 10 which works just fine.  
(Version 11.0.1 build 949)

JMROSSOL  So, I've got a realplayer updater background app that periodically cranks away at 100k down / PER second...(thanks menu-meters)

What the **** is this for! Stop running high-bandwidth background apps without my knowledge or permission.

look in library/app support/realnetworks/... you will find what I'm talking about.

I just un-installed this app and encourage others to do so as well until REAL takes privacy seriously and is more transparent about WHAT it needs 100k a second for.  
(Version 11.0 build 884)

STREPHON KAPLAN-WILLIAMS  Real Player 11 for Mac keeps or enhances my Flip Ultra videos so my video is sharp.

Editing flip Ultra videos in my iMovie 2006 results in a blurry video run. Thus I lose quality of the original Flip video.

iMovie is Quick Time, as I understand it, so Real Player 11 is now better than Quick Time for showing your videos, at least for Flip Ultra videos!

This may be major. Still exploring.

Now I need to improve my editor, which is currently iMovie 2006 for my mac, since iMovie reduces quality of my flip ultra videos, or Real Player enhances them, or at least shows the Flip videos in the fully quality they were originally taken in.

There seems to be no way to edit or export videos from Real Player 11 with the quality they show in in Real Player.  
(Version 11.0 build 884)

CHRISB1  Possible solution for "Network Socket Errors"

Change the RealPlayer preferences settings for "Transport":

- Activate "Use manually configured RTSP and PNA transport settings"

- Click on the "Configure..." button

- Click the "Use HTTP Only"

Hope that helps!

Christian Bürli [macparc.ch]  
(Version 11.0 build 884)