Real Player 10 for Mac OSX

No problem.

FWIW, Firefox sees that ".rm" files should be launched via the plugin, but it sees the hurl.exe.ram files as DOS executables ⚠.

Whether that's an artifact of tthe recent Security Update to fix spoofed file types or a shortcoming of Firefox only looking for the first ".xxx" in the filename, I couldn't say, but since Get Info does see it as a "RealPlayer Media File," I trust its probably the latter in Firefox's case.

The problem has been sent to "Level 2 Technical Support" at Real, so hopefully a solution will be forthcoming.

I finally got a definitive answer back from a tech at Real:

I finally received some input about this issue. It is a known issue that we are working to resolve. I do apologize for the time it took to get this answer to you. Unfortunately until a resolution is found you will have to click the file to open it and delete it when you are through with it. I do apologize for the inconvenience.

Big shock there. 🙂

Still no ETA but I did get email today from a "Tier 3" service rep at Real telling me the problem had been further escalated and that they are working on a fix...

Quad 2.5 GHz G5, 5 GB RAM / 1.2 GHz 14" iBook G4, 1.25 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Hi, William.

Thanks for keeping us posted on the feedback from Real. We've all found a real bug. 😉 Let us know if they e-mail you additional updates.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

I'll post something here as soon as Real lets me know they have a fix…

I just downloaded RealPlayer 10.1.0, the new Universal Binary version.

If you install the new version, launch it and let it configure things, it appears to fix this problem. Now when I click on RealAudio links from Amazon, it once again launches RealPlayer and plays the clip rather than create a hurl.exe.ram file I need to manually double click.

I got the confirmation from Real Tech Support; RealPlayer 10.1.0 officially contains the fix for this bug.

Hi, William.

I just downloaded 10.1.0 and tested it in Safari and OmniWeb. It does solve the problem, though I notice some new, annoying behaviors. I'm seeing if I can tweak the RP preferences to eliminate these, but so far, no joy and they are probably site-specific.

• Under Omniweb:

• On Amazon, if I select a clip from a CD, it switches to a LoudEye page (firm that provides the stream hosting) and displays what I can only describe as a "player" page showing the controls, etc. instead of RP. This page opens in the same window as the CD one is viewing by default (they need to set target="_blank"), meaning one has to go Back or specifically open clips in a new browser window.

• On Buy.com, the same thing happens, but their site is setup to open the "player page" in a new window.

• Under Safari, clips on either Buy.com on Amazon open a blank LoudEye window and launch RealPlayer in its own application-specific window to play the clip.

Very strange. I liked it better when these sites would simply launch RP and play the clip without changing the browser window. Can't tell if this is some RP feature with 10.1 or some recent changes to how these sites handle playing clips. Probably something with the sites.

I tested video clips from C-SPAN in OmniWeb and these showed the usual behavior: select a clip, RP launches and plays it.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Nope, it's site-specific behavior, providing more of an opportunity to display ads and other custom content. 😟

Windows users have had to put up with this for years; almost nothing in Windows Media format plays in WMP itself in Windows; most every site has their own special viewer that displays WMP streams in an ever-changing stream of flashing ads and such…

You wrote:

"Nope, it's site-specific behavior, providing more of an opportunity to display ads and other custom content. 😟"

Thought so. However, I'm still wondering if there's something in RP 10.1.0 that lets them work that way. It wasn't that long ago we were testing 10.0.0 re: the bug and, for the sites that played the clips vs. downloading the file, they opened the clips in RP. Then again, maybe LoudEye changed how they handle the stream requests.

What's both sad and amusing is that some e-commerce sites are complicating their pages with up-sell, side-sell, an other detritus that it's getting harder to figure out how to simply purchase the product one went there for in the first place! Some have gotten so cluttered It may be easier to just drive to a store!

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Hi Dr. Smoke;

You said; " What's both sad and amusing is that some e-commerce sites are complicating their pages with up-sell, side-sell, an other detritus that it's getting harder to figure out how to simply purchase the product one went there for in the first place! Some have gotten so cluttered It may be easier to just drive to a store!

I just love it when things that are suppose make things simpler for us get so complex that they are no longer used. I think that this should be a warning to the designer of web shopping pages that if you attempt to be all things to all people you are going to fails. There is something to be said for simplicity.

Allan