RealPlayer

Real Player has been around quite some time and is currently at version 10.5 for Windows. The is a Mac version 10.1 This media player runs with an open source media engine known as Helix. Version 11 of Real Player is currently in development and should be available soon. The beta version of Real Player 11 was made available in June 2007.

Main Features:

• Allow for continual play of audio files.
• Digital Asset Media library permits the organization of all media through tagging and properties editing.
• The Premium version allows users to convert between various formats such as: Real Media, AAC, MP3, Windows Media, and WAV formats.
• Allows for audio recording using a sound card.
• LivePause is an excellent feature that allows for pausing active streaming video without stopping the stream buffering.
• Allows for audio ripping from CDs DVDs to AAC (in MP4), Real Audio, MP3, Real Audio Lossless, WAV, Windows Media Audio (WMA).
• The newest version (beta) offers Flash Video support, DVD burning and video recording.
• With the premium version and SuperPass - which is a paid service, users are provided access to recorded and or live video broadcasts. Programming varies depending on which country you are in. Expect good programming options such as BBC World, Al Jazeera, CNN, Euronews, BBC News, MTV to name a few.

Real Player supports the following streaming protocols:

• RealTime Streaming Protocol - rtsp://
• Microsoft Windows Media Streaming Protocol mms://
• Progressive Networks Streaming Protocols pna://, pnm://