*RealPlayer* used to be an essential application for streaming media content
from the web, but you can live without it today. It is still a fully featured
media player, with library, sharing, converting and downloading features.
Note that RealPlayer Gold was the original version of RealPlayer which went
"Gold" after beta testing was finished between versions 10 to 11. After that
however, RealPlayer confusingly went back to version 1 again with RealPlayer
SP although even more confusingly, the latest version is labeled version
12.0.0 in the program's "About" section but version 1.0 on the Real download
site. RealPlayer Gold however remains very popular because it offers extra
features that have been removed in SP and you can still download it here on
Softonic even if it's not apparent on the RealPlayer site. We assume that the
reason RealNetworks did this, is to try and encourage people to pay to
upgrade to RealPlayer SP Plus. The installation process is a bit annoying
because to configure RealPlayer SP, you have to shutdown your browser.
However, you can still configure it afterward even if you don't so my guess
is that it's trying to install itself as your default player by asking you to
shutdown and restart your browser first. In addition, the RealPlayer
converter comes as a separate program with this download and has to be
installed separately although it works well convering Flash to H264 for
example and automatically adding tracks to iTunes. You're also prompted to
install the Real agent which will sit quietly in your system and help you
download Real compatible videos when needed. There is wide support for most
major video formats although audio such as ACC+ isn't supported. Also,
although it is supposed to be compatible with Adobe Flash 10, many users have
reported problems when trying to play it over long periods and RealNetworks
suggest going back to Flash 9. While RealPlayer SP may lack some of the
functionality of Gold - mainly the absence of a CD burner - it's certainly a
more modern player designed for the social networking and mobile era.
RealPlayer SP for Mac lets you download online videos from thousands of sites
and transfer them to your iPod, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry or other mobile
device. Tranferring video is easy courtesy of an on-screen menu within the
main screen itself simply labeled "convert". RealNetworks have also
introduced features such as PerfectPlay and LivePause, a new Playlist window
and the ability to play Windows Media content. There have also been
improvements in the way RealPlayer handles streaming and buffering courtesy
of TurboPlay for fast connections and RealVideo 9 and RealAudio Surround for
the needs of HDTV. There's also a RealPlayer downloader integrated which
means that you can download Real media video and audio to your Mac. One of
the most annoying aspects of RealPlayer releases is that they often take a
while to start because of the various plugins they use but RealPlayer SP is
pretty snappy. The removal of the CD burner from RealPlayer SP however is a
shame but overall, it's a vastly improved media player. *RealPlayer SP is
RealNetworks slickest and most advanced media player to date.*Download
*RealPlayer SP 12.0.1* in Softonic
