Realplayer 11: Still killing the Flashplayer
Posted by Jay Charles | Filed under Flash Platform
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about problems with Real Networks’ RealPlayer causing problems with the Flashplayer .
Since then, I’ve been testing everything I build (and everything I’ve built in the past) against Reaplayer 11. Guess what boys… your crap is still broken. For example:
Without Realplayer 11:
With Reaplayer 11, installed today:
… and this one doesn’t even use Flash Media server! Just XML and images.
I’ll say it again. Take your garbage out of public hands until you fix it.
Damn. Reality does bite indeed.
August 11th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
That sucks big time… A new genre of software: ‘Breakware’
August 17th, 2007 at 8:55 am
We came across this same issue with a small flash app that just loaded some XMl and external images. It happens because the transparency gets turned on and the background color of the flash is knocked out.
You might solve it by setting the transparency in the embed code in your page (wmode?) but we just put a graphic in the bottom layer the same size as the Flash and the same color as the background and this solved it for us.
Its a bit of a dirty fix but what can you do. Cheers RealPlayer!
August 17th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Thanks for the idea for the fix, Jet.
Umm… but you know what… this raises another, much larger issue. If Realplayer is turning on transparency (wmode=transparent), it going to cause problems for people using SWFObject to write their .swf’s, especially with older versions of SWFObject (used to be FlashObject).
Setting WMODE to transparent causes problems with connections to FMS from .swf’s written in with SWFObject (and lots of other javascripts), or more accurately, causes problems disconnecting (the connection doesn’t actually break until the browser is closed).
Also, in Firefox, transparent WMODE breaks some keyboard functions (trapping keystrokes is a problem). Something about the NPRuntime and how it instantiates the object (I’m not a browser expert, maybe someone can chime in with the skinny there).
It’s funny (and by funny I mean sad, and by sad I mean infuriating)… now I have to go back and test everything against WMODE settings… and I never use wmode settings on .swfs that have any real functionality BECAUSE ANYONE WHO KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT FLASH KNOWS IT BREAKS THINGS AND ISN’T 100% CROSS BROWSER COMPATIBLE.
Man. I’d Really like to stop writing about Realplayer someday.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Can’t Adobe sue them? They really should.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Truth be told, Arby, I don’t know if Adobe would be successful in an action against Real or not. Since the software is installed on the user’s machine, and the user is granting permission for the software to be installed, I’m not so sure there is a legal question there.
That said, I suppose one might make the argument that the Realplayer’s “bugs” are not actually bugs, but an intentional effort to undermine the functionality of the Flashplayer and damage the user experience of Flash video and other Flash content, without informing the user of that fact (think Antitrust). Of course, I’m not making such an accusation, I’m just posing a hypothetical for my good readers to ponder for themselves.
Perhaps a true-to-life attorney will happen by and give us his or her educated opinion on the matter.
November 19th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Is there a solution or not. I contacted Real.com and they seem don’t give a damn. Just amazing!
November 25th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
This is incredible, I contacted Real tech support and its been 3 weeks and no solution yet. They keep sending me emails saying that they are working on this issue. I don’t know why Adobe is not doing anything about this horrible problem.
November 25th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
As far as I know problems do still exist, and I don’t know if anyone is leaning on anyone else to do something about it.
If I had to guess (and I’d just be guessing as I’m neither an attorney nor a legal expert), I’d say it’s because while what Real has done is certainly unethical, it may not have been illegal.
I suspect that, as all other practicioners of unethical but still legal business, Real will continue to do what they’re doing until the public makes a statement about it by not using their products.
RealServer seems to be all but a dead technology at this point, so perhaps it’s just matter of waiting out the transition period while people who started using Real when it was a contender migrate to other formats (like H.264), and Real will just go away. There are better video ripping tools out there if that’s what you want, and that’s about all Real has at this point.
Either way, I do sort of hope that the people responsible for dumping Real 11 on the market [yeah... you... the programmers] eventually speak up and try to explain how they could possibly invlove themselves in this. It’s not often that I point the finger at the builders, but honestly, in this case, I have to question their personal ethics. As a developer, I sure as hell wouldn’t unleash something on the world I knew to be destructive… I wouldn’t even build it. These guys did, and they did it for the worst reason possible… because the big men that sign the checks told them to.
How does it feel to sell your soul?