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Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer.

All RealMedia formats (.ra .rm .rmvb .ram .rpm .rv .rp .rt .rnx .smi .smil etc.) are supported, including streaming content and RealMedia content that is embedded in webpages.

Some advantages compared to RealPlayer:
* Quick and easy install
* It’s easy to make an unattended installation
* Proper uninstallation
* No background processes
* Use a player of your own choice
* Low on resources
* No advertising, no registration forms, nothing annoying

Limitations:
* .smi and .smil files only play the first part of a clip. This is only a problem when the clip consists of multiple parts. These files are not very common. These files do play correctly when embedded in a browser.
* The RealMedia DirectShow splitter does not work with streaming content. You must use the included Media Player Classic to play streaming content.

Download Real Alternative 1.82

Changelog 4.0.0 -> 4.1.0 | (2008-07-28)

* Updated Media Player Classic to version 6.4.9.1 rev. 72
* Updated ffdshow to revision 2055
* Downgraded Cyberlink MPEG-2 decoder to version 8.1.0.1608 because a few people were having trouble with the newer version
* Updated AC3Filter to version 1.51a
* Updated x264VFW to revision 913
* Updated DirectVobSub to version 2.39
* Removed Indeo audio codec
* Removed Indeo IVF source filter
* Updated MediaInfo Lite to version 0.7.7.4
* Added an index to the FAQ
* Minor changes

Download K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 4.1.0

Also Available:
K-Lite Codec Pack 4.1.0 Full
K-Lite Codec Pack 4.1.0 Basic

Changelog 3.9.5 -> 4.0.0 | (2008-07-07)

• Updated Media Player Classic to version 6.4.9.1 rev. 55
• Updated Cyberlink MPEG-2 decoder to version 8.1.0.1513
• Updated Updated ffdshow to revision 2035
• Updated Updated DivX to version 6.8.3
• Updated Cyberlink MPEG-2 decoder to version 8.2.0.530
• Updated x264VFW to revision 889
• Updated LAME MP3 ACM codec to version 3.98
• Updated MediaInfo Lite to version 0.7.7.3

Download K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 4.0.0

Also Available:
K-Lite Codec Pack 4.0.0 Full
K-Lite Codec Pack 4.0.0 Basic

Changelog 3.8.5 -> 3.9.0 | (2008-04-15)

• Updated Media Player Classic to version 6.4.9.1 rev. 49
• Updated ffdshow to revision 1937
• Updated Cyberlink MPEG-2 decoder to version 8.1.0.1513
• Updated madFLAC to version 1.8
• Updated Haali Media Splitter to version 1.8.122.18
• Updated DivX encoder to version 6.8.2.6
• Updated x264VFW to revision 808
• Updated MediaInfo Lite to version 0.7.6.3
• Changed default DivX decoder to ffdshow (on Win2000/XP)

Download K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 3.9.0

Also Available:
K-Lite Codec Pack 3.9.0 Full
K-Lite Codec Pack 3.9.0 Basic

Songbird is a desktop media player mashed-up with the Web. Songbird is committed to playing the music you want, from the sites you want, on the devices you want, challenging the conventions of discovery, purchase, consumption and organization of music on the Internet.

Songbird is a player and a platform. Like Firefox, Songbird is an open source, Open Web project built on the Mozilla platform. Songbird provides a public playground for Web media mash-ups by providing developers with both desktop and Web APIs, developer resources and fostering Open Web media standards, to wit, an Open Media Web.

Songbird 0.5 Final has entered the station with hundreds of bug-fixes and several new features:

Windows users have a shiny new MTP Add-on that introduces MTP Device Support! Most portable media players and cell phones integrate the MTP spec so try plugging in your device and share your findings on the MTP Device Compatibility Wiki Page. The extension requires Windows XP-SP2 or Vista, as well as WMP v11.

Media Views
Tired of music players that look like spreadsheets? Media Views provide new ways of displaying, manipulating, exploring, and contextualizing your media library. Songbird ships with two default views: a traditional playlist view, and a second playlist view with three filter panes. Developers can create new Media Views and upload them to the Add-ons site. This example media page replaces the standard playlist filters with tag clouds. To experience your music web 2.0 style, load your library, then select Tag Cloud from the View menu. Click the tags to toggle the filtering on and off.

Improved Filter Picker
Genre, Artist, and Album aren’t the only useful ways to filter your music collection.

The full cast has been announced for the upcoming Live-Action Street Fighter movie. We’ve known for awhile that Kristen Kreuk will be playing Chun-Li.

The movie will actually revolve around the story line of Chun-Li but expect Balrog, M. Bison, Vega and Charlie Nash to all make an appearance. 20th Century Fox is planning on a worldwide 2009 release.

Here is the cast so far:

• Chun-Li: Kristin Kreuk. Plays the role of Lana Lang in the WB television series Smallville .
• Balrog: Michael Clarke Duncan. The Island (2005), Sin City (2005), Daredevil (2003), The Scorpion King (2002), Planet of the Apes (2001), See Spot Run (2001), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), The Green Mile (1999), Breakfast of Champions (1999), Armageddon (1998)
• M. Bison: Neal McDonough. The Hitcher (2007), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), The Guardian (2006), Timeline (2003), MinorityReport (2002), Band of Brothers (2001)
• Vega: Taboo. Member of popular R&B music group Black Eyed Peas and recipient of three Grammy Awards.
• Charlie Nash: Chris Klein. We Were Soldiers (2002), American Pie (1999)

I think Kristen and Michael Clarke Duncan are both great choices. I am unfamiliar with the others and think perhaps Chris Klein might be the weakest link, but the movie does have potential since they are going and getting pretty good actors instead of B list celebs.

Source

Following a recent court loss, hugely popular file storage service Rapidshare might soon be faced with a tough choice: stop users from uploading/downloading copyrighted music from its servers, or get shut down.

German’s equivalent of the RIAA, GEMA, has won a copyright infringement case against Rapidshare, as the judge ruled that Rapdishare can be held accountable for the actions of its users. It’s the story as old as the internet: if you’re merely providing a hosting service, should you also monitor every file hosted on your servers and prevent any copyrighted files to be uploaded/downloaded? Lately, the answer has been yes: at the very least, if the music/movie industry points to a file and ask you to remove it, you have to comply.

However, although GEMA was quick to declare victory on this one (press release in German), claiming that RapidShare now must take preventive action and check all the files on its servers for copyright infringement, it’s not quite clear what the court has decided yet. We’ve seen pressure to put similar requirements on ISPs, and the general consensus among experts is that this would be either impossible or highly impractical; RapidShare, with the huge amount of material it hosts (they claim 4.5 petabytes of storage), would be no different.

The folks at TorrentFreak spoke to Christian Solmecke, a lawyer at the Cologne Chambers of Lawyers Wilde & Beuger, who thinks that RapidShare’s demise is far from inevitable. “RapidShare will appeal against the decision of the Landgericht (District Court) of Düsseldorf. If they do so, we will have to wait and see what the Oberlandesgericht (Higher District Court) of Düsseldorf (as the Court of Appeal) says,” he says.

RapidShare is fully operational at the time of this writing.

Source

A study in Canada has been released that proves what many (myself included) have known for years, that on average people that pirate music are more likely to buy CD’s rather than less. The study was sponsored by the Canadian government and is a bit of a slog to read, but there is already some very good analysis of it on the Web.While I have seen (and helped conduct) a number of studies on this topic in recent years, this one is by far the most conclusive and the most reliable one I have seen. Spanning nearly a year and with over 2000 participants this study has a very low margin for error. From what I have seen so far, there also doesn’t seem to be any inherent bias in the conducters of this study, although this is something I will be researching further.

The study is exclusively conducted among Canadian citizens, and the cultural and environmental similarities make this almost directly applicable to the majority of the English speaking first world. The first key finding was that the net effect of illegal downloads on CD purchases in Canada was zero. That’s right, zero, zilch, nada, nil, the big donut. Amongst those that did download though, there was a direct, positive correlation between the number of songs downloaded and the number of CD’s purchased. The more people got for free, the more they paid for.

I have long known that the RIAA’s tactic of suing big downloaders meant they were also targeting their biggest customers. Ironically the money they win from their lawsuits is money that would probably have been spent on music.

CodecInstaller is a Windows program that detects the Audio and Video codecs installed on your system, analyzes files to understand which codecs they require and suggests you to install them.

This program can be used to analyze files: it supports avi, mpeg, wmv, wma, ogg, flac, mpc, mp3, mp4, wav, wx and will show technical data such as width/height and ratio, length, video codec, framerate, size, bitrate, total frames, quality factor and metadata such as title, album, year (if available).

CodecInstaller can also be used to distribute video files on a CD, to be sure that who receives the CD will have all the necessary codecs installed: with a single tool he will be able to check if the codecs are already installed and up-to-date. CodecInstaller contains a MovieLauncher that displays informations about the distributed video file (author, plot, director…) along with a screenshot and a ‘Play’ button.

Download CodecInstaller 2.6.3

Changelog 3.4.0 -> 3.4.5 | (2007-09-14)

* Added support for Windows 98/ME/NT4 (only in this version)
* Updated Media Player Classic to version 6.4.9.1
* Fixed three recently discoved security vulnerabilities in Media Player Classic
* Updated ffdshow to revision 1475
* Updated Gabest AVI splitter
* Re-added DirectVobSub 2.33
* Updated Codec Tweak Tool
* Better handling of files that are ‘in use’ during installation. Such files will be replaced during next reboot.
* Minor changes

Download K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 3.4.5