Is there any way, without buying Real One, I can listen to Real Audio on my OS X mac?

December 29, 2003 11:54 AM

Is there any way, without buying Real One, I can listen to Real Audio on my OS X mac? [More inside.]

Are there any free downloads of Real One? You need a credit card for the 15-day free trial and I haven't got access to one. I used to listen to the BBC's Radios Four and Three all day and I really miss them. If there isn't a way, can I switch to OS 9 (the so called "classic" environment) and get it to play Real Audio, while switching back to OS X to use my Safari browser? How? Excuse the humble and ignorant question - I've been googling for a while now and couldn't find a solution I could understand - and thank you beforehand for any help. Any patience in providing a for-dummies explanation would be much appreciated.

posted by MiguelCardoso to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

There's a freely-downloadable "lite" version of RealOne for OS X - they just hide the link..

lets see... real.com, then look at the top right for the "Free RealOne Player" link. Click that, then on the right-hand side of the screen will have a link to download the free version of the player.

(can't check it with my Mac as I'm at work on a Linux box right now)
posted by mrbill at 11:59 AM on December 29, 2003

Yep, finding the free Real Player is like playing Where's Waldo? It's there... somewhere... but they're not going to make it easy for you.

On a side note, I found it amusing that in the recent Slashdot thread discussing Real suing Microsoft, most posters appeared to be rooting for Microsoft.
posted by pmurray63 at 12:05 PM on December 29, 2003

Real Alternative is a set of codecs that lets you play Real Audio and Video files without RealPlayer and its attendant spyware/adware. I don't know if Windows codecs work on a Mac (probably not?) but somebody might have ported it. Search around.
posted by Aaorn at 12:07 PM on December 29, 2003

Despite mrbill's promises, I seem to remember that the free, credit-card-not-included OS X Real player was absolutely nowhere to be found on the Real website when I looked a few months ago. But if you go through the NPR website,

http://www.npr.org/audiohelp/audioplayers.html

leads to

http://www.real.com/freeplayer/?rppr=npr
posted by blueshammer at 12:12 PM on December 29, 2003

Response by poster: YAY! Listening to my beloved Radio 4 as I type, after a six-month long absence. Thank you so much, blueshammer, Aaorn, pmurray63 and mrbill! I plan to pay forward this enormous favour. :)

For anyone else in the same straits, blueshammer's sneaky NPR method is the one that works (is there anything that isn't good about NPR?). The Seattle download is the one that worked for me. The others I tried (Bern, London) had errors. Also, click on "Later" when you're prompted for an e-mail address and (non-existent) password. Hey presto!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:57 PM on December 29, 2003

There's an MPlayer for OSX, apparently, if you're not willing to turn your soul over to Real.
posted by majick at 1:55 PM on December 29, 2003

real player for osx is surprisingly not that evil, it was sure a pack of crap for os9, and windows, who knows what happened.
posted by rhyax at 9:56 PM on December 29, 2003

majick: mplayer for OSX claims it can run Real files, but it never succeeded when I tried. I had to install the free Real player for OSX in order to open their files. And rhyax is right in saying that Real for OSX is not so bad compared to Windows - probably because there is less in OSX to get its dirty, insidious hooks into.
posted by adrianhon at 4:21 AM on December 30, 2003

In order to listen to BBC I broke down and installed Real's MPlayer on my Mac at home. Wish I didn't have to though.
posted by terrapin at 12:39 PM on December 30, 2003