Real Alternative 2.0.2

I have been using this a few years now, after I got fed up with Real Player always adding it processes to startup, and always trying to make connections even when specially disabled all those options.

Anyway this is a must have program, and is a great way of getting MPC on top. Works with every Real media file I have used, so no problems there.

@ETPhHm

LOL what a bummer for you with the hassle heh heh heh. interesting that you do mention about your experience with K-Lite Mega Codec Pack installation but you know, K-Lite Mega Codec Pack has already had Real Alternative integrated onto its core components and it was mentioned on wikipedia.org as well. you dont need Real Alternative at all if you had K-Lite Mega Codec Pack installed on your computer. but again this only applies for version Mega Codec Pack of K-Lite. others are not.

the only problem i have is the one with the previous real player. how can i find the registry key, and how can i get rid of the 'rpshell.ddl' file in there, as it's refusing to let me delete it

First, excellent program.

Second, for those who can't select RealMedia core components when installing v2.0.2:

If your system is 64-bit, you installed RealPlayer and then uninstalled it. Just like Steve said in the previous post, RealPlayer left some registry entries so that Real Alternative will be blocked.

I used Process Monitor to see which registry entries are checked when installing Real Alternative 2.0.2, there is only one registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\RealPlayer 12.0

RealPlayer seems forget to delete the WoW64 uninstall registry key. Just delete the "RealPlayer 12.0" key, and Real Alternative 2.0.2 will function correctly.

(Real Alternative actually also checked "RealPlayer 6.0" an "RealPlayer 10.5".)

So there is no need to use a registry cleaner like Free Window Registry Repair (I don't mean Free Window Registry Repair is not good, just because there will be hundreds of errors after scanning, I don't know whether all of them can be deleted.)

Installing Real Alternative 1.90 is another solution, but v2.0.2 has a much better performance, so personally I don't recommend it.

BTW, RealPlayer is the worst software I've used. After installing RealPlayer, you can't use other player to play .rmvb files, there will be no audio. (There is a "cook.dll" trick to solve this problem.)

What "surprising" me most is that when RealPlayer is playing .rmvb file, the video is so pixelated, just like a piece of sh*t.

Not to mention the bad UI design and the commercials on it.


It took me a whole afternoon to figure out the solution of the problem. I've installed and unistalled RealPlayer, K-Lite Mega/x64, Real Alternative several times before I found that Real Alternative DIDN'T select the RealMedia core components when installing...

And I swear I will never ever install and use RealPlayer again, it's like a nightmare.

Excellent codecs, but one of the problems I had when installing this on a second PC was that the Real Alternative 2.02 installer would not install the core components.

The reason for this is because I had previously installed realplayer on that PC. Even though realplayer was already uninstalled, the registry entries were still there and blocked 2.02 from installing correctly.

There are two workarounds for this issue:

1. Use a registry cleaner and clean your registry of realplayer entries. I used free windows registry repair from regsoft, and after the 2nd sweep was able to installed 2.02 correctly.

2. The second workaround involves installing the previous version of real alternative (1.9 I believe)

For anyone who is also having this issue, I hope this helps.

excellent program this thing works great. i use only firefox as my browser and have detected no problems so far.
Forget the REAL real player, it $uck$ because of that extra crap and commercials.

Excellent program. I found only one glitch. It won't self terminate with Replay Radio at the end of a broadcast. Otherwise it streams just fine and works beautifully.

Still running this most excellent project after 3 years.
Not only is it light and easy, but Media Player Classic has turned out to be a most useful alternative to VLC for those weird flv and avi muxes that just won't run nicely in VLC.

Updates may be installed over existing installs; the installer detects all settings very well.

Final note: Media Player Classic running in XP SP3 has been listed as vulnerable to the MS DLL Hijack vulnerability - via the iacenc.dll (an intel system32 library) through .mka or .ra or .ram extensions.
http://www.exploit-db .com/exploits/14788/

Watch out if you have that library in your system32 directory. Don't run such media from, for example, untrusted web sites.

@Doug Mounter

Microsoft made the 32-bit version of WMP the default on Windows x64 for a good reason: compatibility.

Same applies to MPC. The 32-bit version is the recommended one, even on x64 version of Windows.

There is no 64-bit version of Real Alternative.

Alternative decoders for RealMedia (as found in for example K-Lite Codec Pack x64) can only handle the video. There is no 64-bit decoder for COOK audio available yet on Windows.

I love this program as I do QT Alt and MPC, but would really like to see a new version released that will work with IE8.

it is nice software, but i notice that the rmvb or real media files when i play it direct o windows media player 9 - 11 and it on seek bar of the media player is irresponsive and when ya try to move it it return to the start of the media or it pause automatically version 1.41 is better that 1.90 varsion in performance, yap it has thumd nail but that thumb nail sometimes generate error screen in windows

It's small and fast and plays .rm files on my xp system; what more could I ask?

I agree with comment 22 Apr 2006 | Written by: Graham, that after clicking Stop, there's no way to Play other than closing RA and clicking the filename in Explorer. A pain in the ass and so noticeable it should have been spotted immediately by the developer and fixed. Havent tried any previous versions so don't know if this bug occurred in any.

Havent tried the Mozilla/Firefox plugin.

I'm GLAD this app UNINSTALLS Real Player, which was installed on my machine by the vendor.

It won't stream files, which is a big drawback for me.

First, my most sincere thanks to all of those who have built and promoted Real Alternative and QuickTime Alternative. Thank you...your work is deeply appreciated.

However, two small but important problems seem to have popped up with Real Alternative 1.82.

I finally pulled Apple QuickTime and installed QuickTime Alternative 2.6.0. Next, I installed Real Alternative 1.82 as an upgrade to Real Alternative 1.51.

Now, when I listen to ra/ram streams, each file/track takes upwards of 30 seconds to load. Under 1.51, 5-10 seconds is typical. There have been no changes made to my configurations other than those which accompany 1.82.

The second problem is that embedded MIDIs, which used to play on page load do not play at all. I am presently using Firefox 2 and don't want to upgrade to Firefox 3 until this issue sorts out.

Any ideas? Has anyone else noted either of these problems or have I inadvertently clobbered my configurations?

Well, just want to say that I am very pleased of Real Alternative - I used to have lag problems with the streaming of .rm files, but not anymore. :) Works smoothly and I can avoid all the spam that is involved with Real Player.