Does Vegas Video need RealPlayer?

seeker wrote on 5/30/2002, 5:59 AM
Hi All,

I am in the process of deleting a few "pest" background programs, and RealPlayer 8 from RealNetworks is on my system, and it interrogates my Registry several times a second as a background task. RealPlayer does not appear in the index of the Vegas Video 3 PDF, but RealMedia does. Is RealMedia a part of RealPlayer, or are they separate things? I want Sonic Foundry's blessing to remove the RealNetworks RealPlayer from my system, or a reason why I need to leave it on.

-- Burton --

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 5/30/2002, 6:08 AM
RealPlayer is a program. RealMedia is a class of file formats that are played by RealPlayer. The only connection between Real and SonicFoundry is that most SF programs can save in RealMedia formats. If you don't intend to use these formats then you may delete RealPlayer from your system. Keep in mind though that then you won't be able to play any RealMedia files (.rm, .ra, .ram, .smil, etc.)

You mention that it is polling your system regularly. It sounds to me like you have the Start Center enabled. This keeps a portion of RealPlayer running in the background at all times and can be a major drag on your system. You can disable the Start Center in Preferences, and then the player will only run when you choose to use it. It will nag you several times about all the benefits of Start Center, but you can ignore the nags and shut it down anyway. In my opinion, this would be better than uninstalling it.
seeker wrote on 5/30/2002, 6:29 AM
Kelly,

Thanks for your prompt, informative response. I will try taking RealPlayer out of my Start Center first, as you suggested. This is a great forum.

-- Burton --
Cheesehole wrote on 5/30/2002, 1:34 PM
the setting is found in "preferences" in your RealPlayer

View | Preferences | General | StartCenter | Settings...

uncheck "Enable StartCenter"
Chienworks wrote on 5/30/2002, 2:41 PM
Thanks Ben! I've got RealOne installed now, so i couldn't go looking for the start center preferences.
Cheesehole wrote on 5/31/2002, 12:15 AM
RealOne eh? first I've heard of it. is it good?
Chienworks wrote on 5/31/2002, 12:08 PM
I think RealOne is a much better player. They seem to have solved all the sync issues and the picture looks sharper and clearer. However, one HUGE minus that Real deserves to be raked over the coals for ... they have a "messaging agent" thingie now that is sort of like ICQ or AIM, except it's reserved for them to send you marketing crud and monitor your use of the player, and it can't be shut off. I'm sure this will kill Real in short order if they keep it up. I did come up with a workaround for it though. Check out my replies in this thread:
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=3&MessageID=101598
Cheesehole wrote on 5/31/2002, 11:24 PM
thanks Kelly for the evaluation and the excellent workaround for that spyware (call it what you want) nonsense. that's one thing I would not tolerate even for a great player.
LarryP wrote on 6/1/2002, 3:59 PM
I downloaded the free player a couple of months back for a school project my daughter was working. I found out that it was keeping my dial on demand Internet dialup up probably phonning home. Needless to say it was deinstalled as soon as we got the audio clip off the web site she needed. Very bad...

Larry
seeker wrote on 6/2/2002, 8:29 PM
Larry,

Thanks for that info. It tends to confirm my experience with RealPlayer as "pestware" or possibly even "spyware." I did follow Kelly's (Chienworks) suggestion to disable RealPlayer's Start Center status, which seemed to help, and may have solved the problem altogether. Unfortunately, I am going to have to replace the C-drive on that system (an unrelated problem), so I am now using my wife's system, and I don't know whether RealPlayer would still be assaulting the Registry on my system. If, after I replace the C-drive, RealPlayer is still misbehaving, I will uninstall it completely.

-- Burton --
BillyBoy wrote on 6/2/2002, 9:25 PM
Real Player does indeed (or use to, anyways) employ sypware. Seen a lot of discussion about it over at Steve's site... (his discussion groups) oops, for those that don't know Steve, the Assembly Guru that frequently butts heads with Microsoft, the author of Spinrite and also one of the better sites for general Internet security stuff.

If you haven't visited, check it out.

http://grc.com/default.htm (home)

http://grc.com/optout.htm (the spyware sniffer)
The original (read to story, EYE OPENING, then get Ad-Aware, here:

http://download.tucows.com

Haven't done it in awhile, just found three 'spyware' hits. Ouch!





seeker wrote on 6/3/2002, 12:17 AM
William,

Thanks for the confirmation that RealPlayer contains spyware, and the URLs. Spyware is an interesting subject. I have saved the URLs for future reference.

-- Burton --
p_l wrote on 6/3/2002, 2:42 AM
The best description I remember reading of installing Real was that it was like fending off date-rape. For further interesting reading on the subject, check out: http://aluminumstudios.com/spyware/index.html
seeker wrote on 6/3/2002, 8:21 PM
P L,

Thanks for the AluminumStudios URL. I book-marked it. The RealPlayer situation is worse than I thought. The RealNetworks people behaved shamefully, with their stone-walling and cover-ups.

-- Burton --