NEWS: Real Networks Takes YouTube (and other Flash) videos offline

May 31, 2007 By

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Real Networks new Real Player now will take YouTube videos offline. Here’s an interview I did with Real’s Vice President, Jeff Chasen where he gave me a demo of the new player (coming soon, I’ll let you know where it’s up). I also gave him heck for Real’s past sins, including difficul-to-find player downloads, tons of additional software ties, and more.

The new player adds a little icon above videos on YouTube and other services like Blip.TV. It makes it easy to download Flash and other kinds of videos to the Real Player so you can keep them, watch them on planes or other places you’re offline, and more.

Here’s the official press release.

If you want just the facts, Rocky did an Editor’s Choice where he put up just the highlights of the interview and demo (takes less than five minutes to watch, where the full interview/demo takes about 24).

Why would Real do this?

It’s a lot better experience to watch a video in the Real Player than on a Web page (you can make it bigger, if it’s offline it won’t “stutter” anymore if you’re on low-bandwidth connections).

What about DRM? Yeah, they won’t allow you to download DRM’d stuff (he shows off in the video the experience that happens when you hit a video from, say, a movie company that doesn’t want you to download the Flash video).

You can also use this to burn videos to CDs or DVDs. Jeff thinks this is a “poor man’s” Apple TV since most people have DVDs hooked up to their TVs now.

UPDATE: CNET also wrote it up, and Andy Plesser has a different video about the new player.

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  • http://www.real.com/ Ben Rotholtz

    The installation sequence of the new RealPlayer is posted at http://www.realplayer.com/blog – “Installations Gone Awry” -

    Ben Rotholtz, Generla Manager, Web Services and Syndication

  • http://www.real.com Ben Rotholtz

    The installation sequence of the new RealPlayer is posted at http://www.realplayer.com/blog – “Installations Gone Awry” -

    Ben Rotholtz, Generla Manager, Web Services and Syndication

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  • Shaun

    Will RealPlayer Lite (installed on some cellphones such as the Nokia N95), have the ability to view and save Youtube videos offline, assuming there will be such a version?

  • Shaun

    Will RealPlayer Lite (installed on some cellphones such as the Nokia N95), have the ability to view and save Youtube videos offline, assuming there will be such a version?

  • http://www.real.com/ Ben Rotholtz

    We have not announced any updated plans related to the new RealPlayer for mobile platforms.

    Ben Rotholtz, General Manager, Web Services & Syndication

  • http://www.real.com Ben Rotholtz

    We have not announced any updated plans related to the new RealPlayer for mobile platforms.

    Ben Rotholtz, General Manager, Web Services & Syndication

  • Pingback: Deep Jive Interests » CONTEST: Want to Try Out The “New” RealPlayer? (I Have An Extra Invite)

  • x2wolverine

    I dont see how Google will be hurt by this as they distrubute RealPlayer themselves via Google Pack.

  • x2wolverine

    I dont see how Google will be hurt by this as they distrubute RealPlayer themselves via Google Pack.

  • http://samiqbits.blogspot.com/2007/06/real-player-revamped.html Samiq

    [...Scoble has a good post here where he interviews Jeff Chasen, VP of Real Networks as part of his ScobleShow @ PODTech...] Pingback from http://samiqbits.blogspot.com

    Since earlier today Real Networks made available its new player for a public beta, and you can go on and download it here

  • http://samiqbits.blogspot.com/2007/06/real-player-revamped.html Samiq

    [...Scoble has a good post here where he interviews Jeff Chasen, VP of Real Networks as part of his ScobleShow @ PODTech...] Pingback from http://samiqbits.blogspot.com

    Since earlier today Real Networks made available its new player for a public beta, and you can go on and download it here

  • paul

    I once hated real player but after trying the new version i say big up To real they have done it no need to copy urf files its just a clik of one buton. i have downloaded a thousand vedeos that i missed so much. big up

  • paul

    I once hated real player but after trying the new version i say big up To real they have done it no need to copy urf files its just a clik of one buton. i have downloaded a thousand vedeos that i missed so much. big up

  • Haytham Ghareeb

    I am amazed by the responses here. Where I live, real player is king. WMP is really lame. I have been using RP since it came out. Yes, it was sluggish at first but I was able to get around the errors. Anyway..RP has released its best version yet..11. Congrats to them.
    I just wish there was a place to download the whole thing not just the installation files.

  • Haytham Ghareeb

    I am amazed by the responses here. Where I live, real player is king. WMP is really lame. I have been using RP since it came out. Yes, it was sluggish at first but I was able to get around the errors. Anyway..RP has released its best version yet..11. Congrats to them.
    I just wish there was a place to download the whole thing not just the installation files.

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  • Barry L Pace

    The new players garbage, try playing back some of those files you have downloaded and when they STOP at the 10 or 12 min mark, and you KNOW theres 60+ mins left. You can ask yourself WHY did I trust Real Player again?

  • Barry L Pace

    The new players garbage, try playing back some of those files you have downloaded and when they STOP at the 10 or 12 min mark, and you KNOW theres 60+ mins left. You can ask yourself WHY did I trust Real Player again?

  • Tedd Eastmant

    What’s cool here is that with the videos offline you’ll be able to speed up playback rate with 2xAV ( http://www.enounce.com ) and/or MySpeed ( http://www.myspeed.us/?rc=bp02 ) plug-ins. I go through all sorts of trouble just to get a local stored copy so i can speed through the videos i watch in half the time.

    -Tedd

  • Tedd Eastmant

    What’s cool here is that with the videos offline you’ll be able to speed up playback rate with 2xAV ( http://www.enounce.com ) and/or MySpeed ( http://www.myspeed.us/?rc=bp02 ) plug-ins. I go through all sorts of trouble just to get a local stored copy so i can speed through the videos i watch in half the time.

    -Tedd

  • joeobrien

    If there is a CD in the CD rom, the real player 11 freezes up the computer and I have to shut it down completely to recover from the freezeup. I can use the cd rom normally as long as I don't turn on real player 11 program. Also I can use real player 11 program as long as I don't put a CD in the CD rom.

  • joeobrien

    If there is a CD in the CD rom, the real player 11 freezes up the computer and I have to shut it down completely to recover from the freezeup. I can use the cd rom normally as long as I don't turn on real player 11 program. Also I can use real player 11 program as long as I don't put a CD in the CD rom.

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