RealPlayer

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Revision as of 12:49, 4 July 2012 by Alice Wyman (talk | contribs) (→‎Installation: Mozilla Suite -> SeaMonkey)
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Windows users have two choices for playing RealMedia: the official Real Player or the ad-free Real Alternative. Both will work in Firefox and SeaMonkey, but Real Alternative version 1.32 or later has the advantage of including a "modified plugin" that overcomes a problem with incorrect coding on certain webpages containing embedded Real media, as explained here.

Installation

  • Remove any older versions which may be on your system.
  • Download the Real Player or Real Alternative installer.
  • Close all instances of Firefox or SeaMonkey and any other unnecessary programs.
  • Run the setup program.
  • If installing Real Alternative, make sure that the "Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape/Opera Plugin" is checked when selecting which components to install.

After the Player installation is complete, start Firefox/SeaMonkey and enter about:plugins into the Category:Location Bar. "RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit)" and should be listed.

RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin extension

RealPlayer includes a Web Download & Recording feature that adds a Browser Record Plugin add-on, which despite the name is actually an extension, not a plugin, and appears in the Add-ons Manager Extensions list. On Windows, the Web Download & Recording feature causes problems with Flash content if Flash Player 11.3 is installed. Note that the RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin extension versions 15.0.4 and below were added to the Add-ons Blocklist on June 12-14, 2012 and should be disabled in the Add-ons Manager. An updated RealPlayer 15.0.5 (15.0.5.109) will reportedly deactivate the Browser Record Plugin when Adobe Flash 11.3 is running in Protected Mode. Even so, you may also need to open RealPlayer, go to "Preferences -> Download & Recording" and uncheck "Enable Web Download & Recording for these installed browsers", then click OK, close RealPlayer and restart Firefox or SeaMonkey. This should remove the RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin from the Add-ons Manager Extensions list. [1]

If you want to keep using the RealPlayer Web Download & Recording feature and Browser Record Plugin extension, another option is to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player 11.3 Plugin via Windows Control Panel and then download and install an earlier version of the Flash plugin as a temporary solution. See Flash Player 11.3 Protected Mode - Windows and Adobe's How do I revert to an earlier version of Flash Player for more information and download links. (If you uninstall Flash using the uninstaller linked from Adobe's site, you will also need to reinstall the Flash Player ActiveX for Internet Explorer, in addition to reinstalling an older version of the Flash plugin needed for Firefox and SeaMonkey). You can then re-enable the RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin extension from the Add-ons Manager Extensions list, if it was disabled. [2]

Windows plugin issues

Plugin crashes

In recent Mozilla browsers (e.g., Firefox 4 and above) the RealPlayer plugin will crash on sites with embedded Real Media such as the Test your Real media player page at www.slp3d2.com linked from Testing plugins (see bug 667399). You can disable the "RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In" in the Add-ons manager Plugins list to avoid such crashes. Note: Direct links to Real Media files (such as this .ram file can still be opened in the RealPlayer application itself, even though the plugin is disabled.

Plugin not recognized

If you install Firefox or Mozilla Suite after having installed RealPlayer and the Real Player plugin is not recognized, you will need to copy these two files:

  • Copy "nppl3260.xpt" from C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer\Netscape6\nppl3260.xpt to the Mozilla Firefox or SeaMonkey installation directory "components" folder
  • Copy "nppl3260.dll" from C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer\Netscape6\nppl3260.dll to the Mozilla Firefox or SeaMonkey installation directory "plugins" folder.

An alternate method would be to reinstall RealPlayer.

Vanishing Controls

The Windows Plugin for Firefox had a problem whereby after using a control button it would vanish. If you are still experiencing this you should install the latest version of RealPlayer. You may also then need to follow the manual steps described above to apply the fix.

External Links