My ISP is verizon, running a 3 MBs DSL line.

BTW
This does not prove that people running the same distros will have the same effect from certain websites that you have. There are many factors to consider such applications, codecs, system configuration and a person's level of using linux..etc.

here's the results of my latest fiddling:

I installed Real Player 10. I then uninstalled mplayer and kaffeine - since both these seemed to have preference over RP.

Now, when I try the high speed clip - real opens as the plugin - the real interface appears, then disappears (!) - no clip displays.

If I then choose launch in standalone, then the clip plays!!!!

Comments?

(I have another problem but I'll leave it for an hour or so ...)

Here is a tutorial on configuring mozilla,firefox, seamonkey plugins

http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/Lin...n.html#PLUGINS

This link will point to the plugin installation and there will be a link to test it out. Scroll down until you see

Plug-ins:

Real Player 10:

There will be other plugins on the page so read those if you need them too.

Oh dear - got the video of sorts BUT now NO sound!!

Can you advise in simple newbie terms how I can enable sound?

System sounds work.

I reinstalled mplayer to get MS streams (eg. Streamick.com) - I could change mplayer sound to ALSA which works.

Real Player has no sound and I can't see where to specify a format.

Is there a speaker icon or volume slider in the realplayer 10 window? Realplayer 10 should play audio using either alsa, OSS or PCM. Open the audio mixer and check if PCM muted or if the volume is low. Do the same for alsamixer.

In the past, when I used Realplayer 10, the installation handle the audio and video correctly, it installed the plugin and setup the mime types
for my browser. Your realplayer 10 should have done this also. The last time I used realplayer 10 was two years ago, replaced by mplayer and the mplayer plugin. I have no idea what or why a plugin to play video and/or audio from your browser is turning into a chore. It is becoming an installation mess.

If something comes to mind,I'll let you know

- later

You might want to read this
http://www.connected-home-news.com/content/view/585/47/

Did you read the link for configuring the Realplayer 10 plugin?

Anyway, if you miss it, the page says that realplayer 10 defaults to the older OSS driver. To change to alsa ( kernel 2.6 or higher)


Edit file ~/.realplayerrc

[helix]
SoundDriver=2

dv502!

This very basic, but do I type the line:

Edit file ~/.realplayerrc

What I mean is does ~/ stand as a shortcut (the tilde sign) or do I type the tilde / ?

Aceofspades

Interesting, but the BBC limits access to video material to users in the UK - they always claim 'rights reasons' when I complain about them restricting access.

the ~ means home directory, if your username on the system is john

it would be /home/john

~/.realplayerrc is the same thing as /home/john/.realplayerrc

the .realplayerrc is a hiiden file. Use any text editor such as
vi,nano or a gui editor like kedit.

You do this from a terminal

nano .realplayerrc

Or using any text editor program, click file and open

in the dialog box, enter ~/.realplayerrc

edit and save


- later

Excellent! You're a great mentor! I'm actually learning here!

File edited, but not tested as yet. Will get back in a moment or two.

I added the line at the top of the [helix] section.

When I tried to play the bbc file I got an error warning that the format was not playable ...

I removed the SoundDriver=2 line, and replayed. Clip loaded without error but still no sound.

I noticed that there's another hidden file called .hxplayerrc .

Do I need to edit that too?

Not sure, but you could try. This could be the helix realplayer config file. I think the .realplayerrrc is an older file.

Edit the new file. Add or modify SoundDriver=2 or look for line(s) that has something to do with sound.

Side Notes:

In the past, I've used this Helix Realplayer 10 program. It worked most of the time, but there were times when It didn't know how to handle some realplayer streams. So I had to search for an alternative player. Then someone told me about the mplayer. Mplayer was easy to install. The mplayer-plugin was not. After reading endless how to's, I was still stuck. When I wanted to play a video or audio from a website and if the url link was available, I would open a termonal wondow and type mplayer and paste the url. Sometimes it worked.

Over time, the mplayer and mplayer plugin got better and better. Right now, as least for my system the mplayer plugin handles all multimedia streams from the internet. It plays divx, google vlc, windows media, quicktime and realplayer/realone and it configured my firefox browser with the current mime type extensions for the various codecs mentioned.

thanks for the info. I have mplayer installed to get windows streams (eg streamick.com) - it works fine for that page but it can't handle the BBC stream for windows media player!

Editing the helix file just provokes the error message:

The player does not have the capabilities to play back this content.

The following components are required:

file

That's all - no file component listed.

Looks like we are now alone here - suppose most viewers have given up on this thread!

If you read my side notes above, that's the reason why I had to look for an alternative for realplayer. The helix Realplayer 10 had trouble with some realplayer streams.

The mplayer and mplayer-plugin I am able to play the codecs mention above. I also can play the standarrd and high resolution videos form the One-Minute News link. Right now, your mplayer and mplayer-plugin is working partially. I don't know why it is having problems playing realplayer/realone streams. I know it must be disappointing and frustrating how something as basic as a plugin to get
audio/video playback is turning into a chore.

I don't know why the mplayer/plugin is playing the codecs including realplayer/realone on my end, and why it isn't on your side.

Well, like a broken record, if something comes to mind, I'll let you know.