RealPlayer 8: Bells, Whistles, and Canned Content

Pioneering media-streaming developer RealNetworks has again upgradedits suite of streaming playing/serving/producing software. RealSystem 8 adds features and functions for everyone who works or plays withstreaming media (including support for native streaming MP3 files). The application that people will see most often - the RealPlayer 8 media player - also includes all the baubles of earlier versions, and adds a number of new features.

RealPlayer 8 comes as part of a software bundle called Real EntertainmentCenter--a package designed to offer an Internet-based fun factory. Itincludes RealPlayer 8, RealJukebox 2, and a media management system calledRealDownload 4. Together with Real's integrated desktop media services, whichhelp recommend entertaining programming for those overwhelmed by the choiceson the Web, the Entertainment Center is clearly aimed at rolling couchpotatoes from the TV to the PC.

Integrated Real.com Media Guide

The Real.com Media Guide, originally a separate application called theTimecast RealAudio guide, and first offered in 1996, is now integrated intothe player. The guide provides entry to Real's list of selected Web audioand video sources, listed at Real.com. This integrated versionincludes thousands of links to radio and video stations, weekly live eventlistings, and on-demand clips in such categories as music, news, sports,"show biz", and other areas. In conjunction with the RealJukebox, Real.comoffers downloadable music, links to MP3 sites and new personalizationfeatures to guide users to streaming media content.

Enhanced Audio and Video Quality

Real claims System 8 offers the "highest-quality broadband content withfull-screen VHS-quality video at 500Kbps" - a rather lofty claim. In fact, while some chunks of video do look very good, and stream more smoothly than ever, video playback still suffers from gapping and hesitation -- even on a cable modem.

Fortunately, the System 8 encoders have been upgraded to produce improvements in the quality of the media they generate, and the player itself has some features that let the user optimize what's coming in. The RealPlayer uses Frame Rate Upsampling technology to insert additional frames into a video stream to smooth its movement. It also has a data-thinning and deblocking filter that detects the portions of a video image that exhibit the blockiness inherent in compressed video, and smoothes this blockiness noticeably. In addition, a function called PerfectPlay buffers streaming data to decrease the gapping that occurs when the bandwidth of your connection changes, and operates in conjunction with the SureStream technology developed for G2 to further optimize the signal.

Once the media gets off the net and into your computer, RealPlayer 8 letsyou massage it further. For audio, RealPlayer Basic comes with a three-band equalizer, and RealPlayer Plus has a 10-band graphic EQ, with settings you can save and recall, along with some presets that give the sound different qualities. This is a nice feature that mitigates the weaknesses of the typical desktop playback system (cheap speakers, for instance) and badly produced audio. For those unsure of what they like, the RealPlayer Plus SmartEQ senses whether it's playing music or just voice, and automatically adjusts the EQ settings to optimize the stream. There are even Room Size and Reverb controls.

Typically, these effects are applied in the studio to audio recorded in an acoustically "dry" room -- a room with little or no reflection from walls and other surfaces. Adding artificial early reflections and reverb allows a producer to make the sound appear to have been generated in nearly any kind of space. Frankly, it's hard to imagine that many listeners will find the ability to control these settings useful. Well-produced audio won't need it, and adding a casual dose of reflective information to poorly produced audio will only get you bad audio with reverb.

More direct and potentially effective ways to improve sound quality are theAuto-Gain and Pre-Gain found on the RealPlayer Plus. Occasionally, an audio filewill be encoded at a lower-than-usual volume level. Auto-Gain dynamicallyadjusts audio volume from one clip to another to make each clip play back ata consistent overall level. The feature does a good job, but can get fooledby material (rare though it may be) designed intentionally to be a lotquieter or louder than ordinary. Pre-Gain lets you manually adjust youraudio level, to make it consistent with other applications.

To further tweak your audio, download IQfx 2.0 Basic, a free application developed by Q Sound, from Real.com. IQfx is designed to optimize audio output and turns stereo streams into 3D audio, lets you control the depth of the stereo environment, and boost bass response. A plus version is also available $14.95, or $9.95 if you upgrade from the Basic version.

For video enhancements, RealPlayer Basic lets you adjust color and sharpness; the Plus version adds brightness, contrast and saturation controls.

Integrated Radio Tuner

The Radio Tuner is a sortable list of links to more than 2,500 online radio stations worldwide that you can save as presets. You can sort by format, name,connection speed, and language, and the list is dynamically updated. TheReal.com Media Search helps you search for Internet media and providescontext-sensitive search results. RealPlayer Channels provide content from morethan 100 top streaming media broadcast partners. Channels are updated atleast five times per week, and are displayed with automatically updatedheadlines, which helps you to ferret out new sources.

Also designed to help users find new net media is Real.com Take5, a windowthat hooks you up to interviews with rock stars and actresses, animatedcartoons, docu-shorts about TV shows, and other productions ostensibly of interest to the average adult (though not all parents will appreciate thesoft-sex-and-violence content I found to be somewhat pervasive). This content is produced by the usual suspects -- ABC, Arista, the BBC, Comedy Central, MTV and other mega corporations -- and is not exactly tuned to deepening the awareness and refining the critical faculties of the audience.

Visualizations

RealPlayer 8 lets you play any of a number of pre-packaged animateddisplays on your screen that actually move in response to volume shifts inthe frequencies of whatever audio you're playing. The factory animationsrange from dancing cosmic lights to a pulsing flame to an agreeably noddingcartoon sheep. You can download more if you tire of the basics.

The Bottom Line

RealNetworks' site is a labyrinthine maze, laden with falsetrails designed to lure the unwary (and even some of the wary) away from thefree player and into buying any number of more costly packages, and it takesperseverance to order a package with anything less than all thebells, whistles, and add-ons. Also, many of the packaged links lead to decidedly inconsequential streaming content.

But that said, RealPlayer 8 is unquestionably a step forward in the technology of streaming media, and fans of the player should download this new version.