RealOne Player

Version 2.0
Helix Powered
 

Welcome to RealOne Player from RealNetworks.

This document describes RealNetworks' RealOne Player. The software and documentation are provided to you in accordance with your license agreement.

For the latest information, see our Home Page

Contents

System Requirements
Installation
Network Issues
Known Issues
Manually Configuring Your Browser
Troubleshooting
Using RealOne Player through a Firewall
Full Screen and/or Video Not Displaying Properly
Reporting Feedback

System Requirements

Minimum

• 233MHz Intel* Pentium II processor or equivalent
• 64MB of RAM
• 40 MB disk space
• 28.8Kbps modem (audio only)
• 16-bit sound card and speakers
• 65,000-color video display card set to display at 800x600 (video)
• Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows NT* 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or later, Windows XP
• Internet Explorer 5.0 or later

Recommended

• 300 MHz Intel Pentium III processor or greater (supports simultaneous record/playback features)
• 128MB or more of RAM
• 40 MB disk space
• 56Kbps modem or better
• Full duplex sound card and speakers
• 65,000-color video display card set to display at 1024x768 or higher (video)
• Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4+, Windows XP
• Internet Explorer 5.0 or later
• CD burner hardware (for CD burning features)
• PC DVD player (for DVD playback)
• Windows Media Player 6.0 or later
• QuickTime 4 or later
• If using Screen-Reader software: JAWS (v4.02 or greater recommended) or Window-Eyes
  (v4.21 or greater)
   

*All other brands and names are property of their respective owners.

Note: Operating system requirements only apply to RealNetworks products. Third party plug-ins or add-ons may have different system requirements.

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Installation

• Install directory: RealOne Player is installed in the C:\Program Files\Real\RealOne Player directory, unless you specify otherwise or unless you had a previous version of RealPlayer install. When over-installing an older version, RealOne Player will be installed in the old RealPlayer directory. RealOne Player also installs several system files into the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real directory on your hard drive. On NT, files are installed in the C:\Windows\Profiles\your_account\Application Data\Real directory and on Windows 2000 and XP files are installed in C:\Document and Settings\your_account\Application Data\Real directory. Two DLLs are installed in the Windows\System directory.
• Installing RealOne Player: Installing RealOne Player will uninstall any previous version of RealPlayer and RealJukebox.
• Overinstall from Windows 98 to Windows XP: When upgrading from Windows 98 to Windows XP, RealOne Player must be uninstalled and reinstalled for RealOne Music to work properly. Contact Customer Service for help with renewing licenses after you have upgraded and reinstalled the Player.

Network

Before changing any Network or Proxy settings, please contact your System Administrator. Incorrect settings can cause RealOne Player to appear not to function.

• UDP Ports: 2 or more UDP Ports must be configured and the UDP Port ranges must begin with an even number and be delineated by a '-' with the exception of the range 7070,7071.

  For example:
  7070-7071 or 7072-7076 or 7070-xxxx will work.
  7070,7071 will work, but no other range can be listed this way.

  The following ranges are incorrect:
  7071-7072 or 7071-7073 or 7071-xxxx (beginning with odd number) will not work.
  7070,7072 will not work.

• Proxy Services on a small LAN: If you have proxy services set up for a small LAN to provide Internet access to a number of computers, (e.g., using Intel(R) In Business Internet Station(TM)), you should disable the autodial feature of your hardware to avoid causing your proxy to automatically connect to you ISP. RealOne Player cannot sense the difference between a persistent connection and one provided by an intermediate source and will continue to update headlines and check for upgrades on a regular basis causing your proxy box to dial-up frequently.
• Firewalls: If you are attempting to connect from behind a firewall (most companies employ firewalls to protect their networks) you may find it takes considerably longer to obtain a connection.
• Unable to connect: If you enter incorrect proxy information during a RealOne Player session and attempt to connect, RealOne Player will remember that information for the duration of the session even if you delete it and attempt to connect again. To clear the information, delete it from the Proxy Preference tab (by Clicking Tools > Preferences and expanding Connection to choose Proxy), click OK, close RealOne Player and restart your Player.
• Proxy and RealOne Music: RealOne Music will not function properly with downloads or streams outside the firewall in a proxy environment.
• Unable to Sign-in / Service unavailable: Incorrect Proxy information will block the Sign-in process in RealOne Player causing an error to be displayed, "Service unavailable. We're sorry - the RealOne Player sign in service could not be reached. Please ensure that you are online or try again later." Correctly entering your proxy information in your Preferences (by Clicking Tools > Preferences and expanding Connection to choose Proxy) will solve this problem. Proxy information is unique to your network and can only be obtained from your Network Administrator. If you are unsure of your specific settings and proxy environment contact your Network Administrator. You may also obtain helpful information from our Firewall web page.

Known Issues

General

• Analog Recording: Playback while recording is unavailable with analog recording.
• Seeking in a WMA Clip: Seeking in a WMA clip will pause playback. You must click on the Play button to begin playback.
• Importing Secure WMA Content: The "License Acquisition" dialog is hidden under the Authentication web site page. Bring this dialog forward to continue importing.
• Surreal Fx Plug-in on Windows XP: Clicking on full screen mode in Surreal.FX crashes RealOne Player in XP guest mode.
• Visualizations and WMA Content: Visualizations are not available when playing back WMA content.
• Switching Users in Windows XP: When switching to another user account while playing back an audio/video clip, RealOne Player will halt playback.

• Transferring to a Portable Device or burning a CD: You cannot playback while transferring files to a portable device, or burning a CD.

• Nomad Jukebox unavailable: If you switch away from Devices to another page (such as My Library or Web) while the Nomad Jukebox device is running for more than a few minutes, the device will stop responding. Restart Player to fix this.
• RealOne Player and Internet Browser Cookies: If you choose to disable your RealOne Player or Internet Browser cookies, your personalized choices associated with Channels, Radio, Search and Messaging may be disabled or not available. For more information for how these items work with Cookies, please go to the Preferences->Internet Settings in your Player and click the Tell Me More for any of these topics.
• Statistics not displayed: Some statistics may not be displayed in the Statistics Panel during local playback of files.
• AutoUpdate Fails: If AutoUpdate fails because the plug-in could not be validated as an authentic RealNetworks component, check to make sure your computer's system date is correct. An incorrect date can cause the authentication to fail. Once you reset the date, retry AutoUpdate.
• Title/Author/Copyright (TAC): TAC may not always display when playing an older .RA (pre v5.0) file.
• CD Will Not Play: 80 minute CDs created with RealOne Player may not play when first inserted. An error is received: RealPlayer can not play the files on this disc. To play your custom CD, please restart your computer and reinsert the CD. RealOne Player should function normally.

• Track-At-Once (TAO) and 2 Second Gap Removal: Using the 2 Second Gap Removal and Cross-Fade features when burning an Audio CD using the Track-At-Once (TAO) writing mode will result in a slight audio gap between tracks on the CD. However, please note these 2 features are not fully compatible with a small number of CD burning drives using the TAO writing mode. In some cases, the drive may still place 2 seconds of silence between the audio tracks. Other drives may fail to successfully burn an Audio CD when these features are enabled.

• Restricted Accounts not able to burn CDs: On Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems, users with restricted rights accounts will be unable to use the CD burning feature of RealOne Player. Please use an account with power users or administrator rights to create

• Can't burn WMA files: Windows Media (.WMA) files currently are not supported when creating an Audio or MP3 CD using the CD burning feature.

• Cannot Play While Recording WMA Tracks: When recording a custom CD and selecting the play quality of WMA (Windows Media), the "Play While Recording" feature of RealOne Player is not available. If a track was playing when you began recording, the track will finish playing and then stop until the recording is finished.

• DVD Media Support: DVD media is not supported for CD burning in Real One Player. This includes DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, and DVD+RW discs. Only CD media is currently supported for CD burning.

• Auto-Insert Notification: RealOne Player CD Burning relies on the Windows auto-insert notification to inform it that a disc has been inserted. If this notification option is not turned on, RealOne Player CD Burning has no way of knowing a disc has been inserted, and will continue to display that you need to insert a blank disc to begin. By default, this notification is turned on by Windows but the installation of some software may prompt you to turn this off. In order to allow RealOne Player CD burning to function properly, the Windows auto-insert notification option should be turned on.

• No Statistics for WMA Streams: RealOne Player does not currently support statistics reporting for WMA (Windows Media) streams.
• Need a Newer Version of HHCTRL.OCX: Viewing the Help files on NT 4.0 may generate the following error message: You need a newer version of HHCTRL.OCX to be able to read this file. This is a known problem with IE (see MS Knowledge Base Q245515). Alternatively you can update to IE 5.5 or later.
• Only on NT4.0: Unable to playback DVDs

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Manually Configuring Your Browser

If and when you upgrade your default OS browser, you may lose the configuration information for the RealOne Player program. The easiest way to reconfigure your browser is to reinstall RealOne Player.

Alternatively, you can manually configure your browser. Please go to RealOne Player Technical Support to find the most recent information and instructions.

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Troubleshooting

Using RealOne Player through a Firewall

RealOne Player uses port 7070 for TCP and ports 6970 through 7170 inclusive for UDP transmission. If you are accessing the Internet through a firewall, your firewall administrator will need to authorize these ports. Firewall information is available on our Firewall web page.

FullScreen and/or Video Not Displaying Properly

  To deliver the best video quality, RealOne Player uses the latest optimized video protocols and Microsoft DirectX capabilities. While most current video cards (and their drivers) function properly in this mode, some older video cards and/or older video card drivers will not function properly with this optimized approach. If your video card or  installed video card drivers are incompatible you may see unexpected results (see 'Symptoms' below).

  The vast majority of these problems can easily be solved by ensuring that you have the following:

·        Microsoft DirectX (version  5.0 or later)

·        Updated Video Card Drivers (preferably Microsoft-Certified)

The Symptoms:

Incompatibility with optimized video usually displays itself in one of the following six ways:

You do not see any video in FullScreen mode.

You do not see any video in your RealOne Player Display panel.

You see only a "snowy" or "staticy" picture that moves in your RealOne Player where video should display.

You see video in your RealOne Player but it has a green tint to it and may be distorted so that you only see stripes of the video or only part of an enlarged picture as if you were looking through a hole at a larger screen.

You see video in your RealOne Player, but it is stretched vertically or horizontally in only one direction, distorting video  into a long, flat or a tall, thin picture.

Attempt to playback video causes an Invalid Page Fault or otherwise causes RealOne Player to crash.

If you are experiencing one or more of these symptoms, read and perform the Confirmation Test below to be sure that the problem is the use of optimized video and not some other conflict.

Confirming the Problem:

If you are seeing any or all of the above symptoms, do the following to ensure it is an optimized video issue:

In the RealOne Player, select the Tools:Preferences menu item.

Within Preferences, select to the Hardware tab.

Within the "Video Card Compatibility" section, move the slider from the far right ("Best Performance") to the middle position.

Attempt to play a piece of video content.

Repeat the first 3 steps, but now change the "Video Card Compatibility" slider to the far left/"Most Reliable" position.

Attempt to play a piece of video content.

Repeat the first 3 steps, returning the "Video Card Compatibility" slider to the far right/"Best Performance" position.

If Video played correctly anywhere in this sequence of tests, then this is an optimized video issue.

Resolving the Problem:

As mentioned above, the vast majority of these problems can easily be solved by ensuring that you have installed the following:

·        Microsoft DirectX (version  5.0 or later): Downloaded from directly from Microsoft.
Note: When you install DirectX, you must choose to upgrade your video drivers. However, in some cases the functionality/features of the new drivers may be different than the old drivers; please contact your video card manufacturer for more information if this is the case.

·        Updated Video Card Drivers, preferably Microsoft-Certified: Download these from your video card or PC manufacturer. These certified driver versions are commonly called "Microsoft Certified", "Windows Hardware Quality Labs Certified", "WHQL Certified" or "DirectX Certified". More information is available from the Technical Support Knowledge Base
Note: If you update your drivers, the functionality/features of the new drivers may be different than the old drivers; please contact your video card manufacturer for more information if this is the case.
Note: In some cases the "Microsoft Certified" drivers available from your video card manufacturer will not be the newest driver version the manufacturer lists as available for your card.

Attempt to play the video that was giving you trouble again. If it still does not display correctly, please proceed to the instructions below.

If Installing DirectX and Updating Video Card Drivers does not resolve the problem:

In the RealOne Player, select the Tools:Preferences menu item.

Within Preferences, select to the Hardware tab.

Within the "Video Card Compatibility" section, move the slider from the far right ("Best Performance") to the middle position.

Attempt to play a piece of video content. If video still does not play, then continue to the next steps.

In the RealOne Player, select the Tools:Preferences menu item.

Within Preferences, select to the Hardware tab.

Within the "Video Card Compatibility" section, move the slider from the far right ("Best Performance") to the far left/"Most Reliable" position.

If you update or change your video driver or video card in the future, you should return the Video Card Compatibility slider setting to Best Performance to see if it now works properly. If it does not, follow the procedures above again to solve the conflict.