REAL PLAYER DECEPTION

[Purple Roses]

Real Player company plays the deception game and thinks it can get away
with it.

When I tried to download the player, which was suppose to be free
(http://www.real.com/realmobile/palmone.html), I was forced to REGISTER
before I can downlod the so called FREE player. In the process of
registration, I was required to give out my credit card and personal
information. This is really a trick to get my personal information to
allow RealPlayer.com to charge me for whatever they wish AND to make
money off of my personal and finanical information.

So, what RealPlayer.com claims to be "FREE", isn't free after all.

Also, RealPlayer.com has its customer service farmed out to INDIA!
Those guys speak anything but English and are clueless most of the
time. They simply read off the script and acted like a bunch of
mal-functioning machines that splits out answers that are irrelevant to
your questions.

Greed of capitalism and the hi-tech deceptive game playing embraced by
RealPlayer.com can only lead them to one place: the toilet, where the
consumers will eventually flush them down in disgrace.

 

[KeithS]

Real Player company plays the deception game and thinks it can get away
with it.

True

If you *really* want the free Real player, visit
http://uk.real.com/player/?&src=ppc_google_realmusic_uk_player,ZG.uk.rm.rm.hd.def
to d/l the (free) basic version.
BUT BUT BUT
You'd be far better d/l the real alternative at
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm
which doesn't screw up your system with all the junk Real palyer does

 

[Craig]

Purple Roses wrote:

So, what RealPlayer.com claims to be "FREE", isn't free after all.

Purp;

RealNetworks has been involved in shady business practices for years.
Back in '99 & 2000 they were hit w/6 class-action lawsuits for
surreptitiously gathering data from customers' computers as well as
distributing this illegally-retrieved data to 3rd parties.

Also, RealPlayer.com has its customer service farmed out to INDIA!
Those guys speak anything but English and are clueless most of the
time. They simply read off the script and acted like a bunch of
mal-functioning machines that splits out answers that are irrelevant to
your questions.

Again, Purp;

This is old news. U.S. companies have been outsourcing at least as far
back as 1999. Your bank may outsource your services (Bank of America
does). Your medical-records keeper may have outsourced (Blue Cross/Blue
Shield and Kaiser Permanente have). A few more of the thousands who've
outsourced:

General Motors
General Electric
Ford
Fruit of the Loom
Quaker Oats.

A comment about your characterizations of Indians. These "guys" /do/
speak English. And they speak it well. English has associate status in
India and is the dominant language for their national, political and
commercial endeavors. The usefulness/helpfulness of India-based support
meets or exceeds that of American-based phone support.

If they appear "clueless," they may very well be...and at a fraction of
the cost of a clueless American.

Wipro, Infosys and Tata all started out doing work that U.S. companies
couldn't or wouldn't do: Y2K certification. Now these companies are
doing /research and development/ for the likes of Intel, IBM, Sun,
Microsoft, et al. Oh yea, and they answer the phones, too.

In sum Purp;

- Realnetworks has been doing unethical things for at least 7 years
- Outsourcing has been going on just as long
- Indians have been speaking English for the past 200 years
- Your "insights" are either dated, inaccurate or both.

regards,
-Craig

 

[Don Taylor]

If you *really* want the free Real player, visit
http://uk.real.com/player/?&src=ppc_google_realmusic_uk_player,ZG.uk.rm.rm.hd.def
to d/l the (free) basic version.
BUT BUT BUT
You'd be far better d/l the real alternative at
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm
which doesn't screw up your system with all the junk Real palyer does

Someone in the past said that www.cartalk.com had made some sort of
arrangement with RealPlayer, you could get a version off the CarTalk
website that didn't include all the net monitoring, popups, etc, etc.

But when I just went and checked I find that they say they have had
so many complaints about Real that they have finally just dumped Real
and redone all the cartalk feeds to use Windows Media Player.

I guess that says it.

 

[Purple Roses]

So Graig, are you trying to show off or simply wish to expose your
stupidity?

First, I never said any about out sourcing being "new". Second, Indians
speaking English with a thick and irritating accent bother my ears. If
you want to kiss up to the stinking and sleazy Indians, that's your
business. I maintain that those Indians providing teleservices are
poorly trained, clueless, incompetent, and simply useless.

Your insight, if any, seems to be polluted and contaiminated with the
stinky garbages backed up from Bombay's sewage. If you are an Indian
youself, then that goes double to you.

The greedy evil scumbags in American corporations always want to take
advantage of the poor at the at expense of the consumers' comfort and
fairness. And you, an apparent idiot, have made a lousy attempt to
promote and condone the sewage-grade service provided by Indians. If
those Indians have been speaking English for 200 years, then my dog can
do better in 100!

 

[Craig]

So Graig, are you trying to show off...

No Purp;

I am goading you into showing yourself to be y.a. National Socialist
sympathizer. And it's working.

regards,
-Craig

 

[Paul]

In my day it was better to keep your mouth shut and be thought of as a fool,
than to open it and remove all doubt. So America is completely free of
"stinky garbages" is it? And what about the accents in the deep south that
bother some peoples ears? Don't throw stones.
Percy

 

[I.dont.read.email]

Someone in the past said that www.cartalk.com had made some sort of
arrangement with RealPlayer, you could get a version off the CarTalk
website that didn't include all the net monitoring, popups, etc, etc.

But when I just went and checked I find that they say they have had
so many complaints about Real that they have finally just dumped Real
and redone all the cartalk feeds to use Windows Media Player.

I guess that says it.

I have noticed that many companies are switching to Windows Media
Player. A few years ago every website that had audio/video media
seemed to require Real Player. That has dropped greatly in favor of
WMP. This is one of the few times where I agree that Microsoft is
better. WMP is far superior to RP.

And just for the record, Real Player was one of the first companies to
include spyware in all their RP downloads. If you look back about 8
to 12 years ago, they were constantly being trashed because of their
spyware. This actually started in their Windows 3.x versions, and at
that time spyware was very rare. In fact, being a computer user back
then, I always think of RP when I think of spyware, since they were
the first time I ever heard of spyware.

On top of that, RP is notorious for screwing up windows with their
buggy and bloated software. I still remember when I had to reinstall
Windows 3.11 after Real Player totally screwed up Windows.

Do you REALLY want this on your computer? I know I dont, and I have
never reinstalled it since.

 

[meow2222]

Greed of capitalism and the hi-tech deceptive game playing embraced by
RealPlayer.com can only lead them to one place: the toilet, where the
consumers will eventually flush them down in disgrace.

These games and others not listed here by Real Player company have not
and will not lead them to die. Real is well known for its 'business
issues', but this knowledge will never stop computer newbie from
blundering into them and foolishly paying for what they can get for
free. Real behave the way they do precisely because it is making them a
pot of money. Hate them, avoid them, but they aint going away.

There is no justice.


NT

 

[Jesse Spencer]

Real Player company plays the deception game and thinks it can get away
with it.

I hate real it's so overbearing.
"real alternative" has worked for me just fine.

 

[I.dont.read.email]

I hate real it's so overbearing.
"real alternative" has worked for me just fine.

I really would not have a problem with Real Player making a buck, if
they did it honestly. But from reading this thread, and hundreds of
other articles on the web, its obvious they are not being honest.
Start with false advertising and go from there. But the troubles dont
end there, and that is the real issue. RP has always been a spyware
trap, and unless they changed that, it most likely still is. But the
biggest issue of all is what it does to a persons computer. I dont
know the specifics, nor do I want to find out in person. But the
articles are all over the web. Even though this was years ago, I
recall how it totally crashed my Windows 3.11 installation, and I had
to reinstall windows. Even many viruses do not do this much damage.

I for one, have contacted many websites that posted online videos that
required RP and asked them to pleease offer other formats, such as Win
Media Player and Quicktime. Apparently they heard our pleas, because
most of them do offer other formats now, and actually I am finding
many dont even support RP any longer.

I dont know what games or other things MUST still have RP, but I would
not be so confident that RP will continue their business. They may be
required for older software, but they could be replaced on anything
newer. If they go out of business, they did it to themselves.

I might have to check out this altermative prgm.

PS. To the OP of this thread. Why was this crossposted to
alt.consumers? There is no such newsgroup.....

 

[George]

The only good think I can say about Real Player is that when I was
using it, it did not appear to have spyware. If you actually find the
freeware version, it has many objectionable traits like forcing you to
use it as the default player etc. I much prefer using the K-Lite Mega
Codec Pack which includes the Real Player Alternative (which is
avalable as a separate install if you don't want the mega codec pack.
See my review at:

http://georgeh123.blogspot.com/2005/08/video-player-with-codecs-and-tools-k.html

George

 

[Purple Roses]

Thanks, Keith, for posting the info on the Real Alternative option.

For those who insist on using Real Player and wish to *not* being spied
on, here are some measures you can take:

- From the top menu, select "Tool" then "Preferences" (you may have to
click on the ">>" icon to expand the menu choice.
- Under "Connection" option (click on the "+" sign if the menu tree is
not expanded), select "Internet/Privacy".
- Make sure all Private Settings are UNCHECKED.

Real Player people love to track what you do on the internet and would
go to great length to get the info, for what purpose I do not know
exactly. But what ever it is, it can't be noble. So, protect yourself,
if you still can.

 

[Margrave of Brandenburg]

Yep. They are rat bastards.

Real is forbidden here. Will not install. Not now. Not ever.

Anyway, Real media is so crappy compared to other formats ... I won't even
use Real Alternative. There's just no point in playing Real media.

 

[Billzz]

Yep. They are rat bastards.

Real is forbidden here. Will not install. Not now. Not ever.

Anyway, Real media is so crappy compared to other formats ... I won't even
use Real Alternative. There's just no point in playing Real media.

I stopped maybe six computers, and maybe 20? (can it be that long?) years
ago. The Realwhatever installed itself then proceded to have a knock-down
brawl with the Microsoft operating system over who was going to operate
what. Then it decided I needed realnetworks whatever (I was doing a beta
test of the TCI cablemodem in Garland, Texas, one of the first) and it kept
interrupting. I just got so tired of the intrusive, and conflicting,
programs that I uninstalled. The disadvantages outweighed the benefits.

 

[Howard]

I stopped maybe six computers, and maybe 20? (can it be that long?)
years ago. The Realwhatever installed itself then proceded to have a

No, it can't. Not for about another decade. RealAudio Player came out in
early 1995.

20 years ago would have placed it firmly on the XT/AT, with the 286 still
to come. With a backbone spead of 56K and a modem speed of 300 BPS (for
those that even had one of those magic devices), streaming audio wasn't
forefront on most peoples' minds.

 

[Billzz]

No, it can't. Not for about another decade. RealAudio Player came out in
early 1995.

20 years ago would have placed it firmly on the XT/AT, with the 286 still
to come. With a backbone spead of 56K and a modem speed of 300 BPS (for
those that even had one of those magic devices), streaming audio wasn't
forefront on most peoples' minds.

Yup, you are probably right, as I moved from D.C. to Garland in 1988 and had
a 286/386. But Shirley by 1995 (when I retired from Rockwell and had a
P-something) I had already beta-tested cable modems, and dropped
Real-whatever. Maybe I dropped it in it's first month. Maybe it came out
in Dallas first. Maybe I am just old and don't remember. I do remember
when we hacked code into marble tablets with chisels, And we liked it that
way!

Now I am retired in the Sierra Nevada with a satellite connection. Oh, the
latency. No streaming anything. No voice-over-internet telephone. My
connection is 62,000 miles long. At least I don't have to trouble-shoot the
line.

 

[I.dont.read.email]

The only good think I can say about Real Player is that when I was
using it, it did not appear to have spyware. If you actually find the
freeware version, it has many objectionable traits like forcing you to
use it as the default player etc. I much prefer using the K-Lite Mega
Codec Pack which includes the Real Player Alternative (which is
avalable as a separate install if you don't want the mega codec pack.
See my review at:

http://georgeh123.blogspot.com/2005/08/video-player-with-codecs-and-tools-k.html

George

I heard they removed the spyware after numerous complaints, but have
heard they now have it again, or something similar. Geezzzzz, it's
all coming back now. I forgot how it took over my system and made
everything unusable.
Just glad I dont have it anymore...

 

[Stephen Chadfield]

Yep. They are rat bastards.

Real is forbidden here. Will not install. Not now. Not ever.

I only keep it around to make use of the BBC Radio "Listen Again"
service. I do wish they would switch to a different platform for their
streaming media.

 

[iggy]

I only keep it around to make use of the BBC Radio "Listen Again"
service. I do wish they would switch to a different platform for their
streaming media.

Media Player Classic does the job.

shaw