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[Fraggie]

Here's a RealAudio plugin for XMPlay. It uses RealAudio codecs from RealAlternative, but it should also work with RealPlayer and other RealNetworks software. Real Alternative is recommended however since it covers more codecs (!). You can even uninstall RealAlternative if you save DLL's listed below (this way you can cut your RealAudio installation down to 1.2 MB ) and set path to the codecs (the plugin will find them only with true RealAlternative installation).

• 14_4.dll - for RealAudio 1.0 support
• 28_8.dll - for RealAudio 2.0 support
• dnet.dll & ddnt.dll - for RealAudio 3.0 support
• sipr.dll - for RealAudio 4.0 support
• cook.dll - for RealAudio 6.0 support
• atrc.dll - for RealAudio 8.0 support
• raac.dll - for RealAudio 10.0 support
• ralf.dll - for RealAudio 10.0 support
• pncrt.dll - for all codecs (runtime dll)

DLL names may have 14_43260.dll form, it doesn't matter. PNCRT.DLL will go to the Windows/System32 folder during RealAlternative installation - it needs to be somewhere in PATH or in the same directory where XMPLAY.EXE is.

Features:

• ALL RealAudio formats supported
• Doesn't collect your personal information
• Internet streaming over HTTP, RTSP and PNM protocols
• Can extract audio from RealMedia/RealVideo files

The plugin is available here:
http://dhost.info/pieknyman/

If something's wrong, you can try the engineering beta version available here:
http://dhost.info/pieknyman/dload/getfile.php?id=8
or here http://dhost.info/pieknyman/download_plugins/xmp-ra.dll

I'm waiting for the bugreports as always.

PS. You guys have no idea how much a mess RealAudio really is... RealMess.

[Brian]

Thanks very much for this. The real audio streams I most often listen to have URLs with the .ram extension, so are evidently not supported at the moment. If you could manage to overcome this difficulty, that would be great.

[Fraggie]

For now just open the .ram file in Notepad and copy the link to Open/URL field in XMPlay.

[Brian]

Sorry, perhaps I didn't make myself clear - URLs with a .ram extension won't play with your plugin whatever I do. One of the .dlls you list isn't on my system (raac.dll), but this doesn't cause any problem when I play streams using the Tara plugin.

Please try this stream:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/meta/tx/nb/newshour2000_au_nb.ram

Many thanks

[Dotpitch]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/meta/tx/nb/newshour2000_au_nb.ram

...is a Realplaylist containing:
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/worldservice/newshour2000.ra

Limitations:

• Can't stream from rtsp:// and pnm:// protocols (XMPlay limitation)

[Fraggie]

One of the .dlls you list isn't on my system (raac.dll), but this doesn't cause any problem when I play streams using the Tara plugin.

Any DLL (except pncrt.dll) can be missing if you don't need that particular codec support. You can always check the number of succesfully loaded codec DLL's in the plugin About window. The optimal value is 7.

[Brian]

Dotpitch - if this is an XMPlay limitation, as Fraggie says and you quote, then how come I can play the BBC stream in XMPlay using the Tara plugin?  Or perhaps this means `limitation only on native plugins'?

[Dotpitch]

Dotpitch - if this is an XMPlay limitation, as Fraggie says and you quote, then how come I can play the BBC stream in XMPlay using the Tara plugin?  Or perhaps this means `limitation only on native plugins'?

Good question! Don't have a clue, I was just showing why it doesn't work with this plugin... should be possible though, cause in_line.dll (for example) uses line://[options], and XMPlay is capable of passing it on to the plugin. But I guess XMPlay only supports http and ftp streaming natively, for the rest (like rtsp) the plugin will have to take the transport, like Tara does .

[Lumina83]

Bad news: Your RealAudio plugin seems to wreak havoc with Highly Advanced (the GSF plugin for Winamp by CaitSith2). With both Highly Advanced and your RealAudio plugin installed, XMPlay keeps crashing whenever I try to play GSF files. Once I removed the RA plugin, it was back to business as usual.

[uRRada]

I tried to put this list of files:

14_4.dll - for RealAudio 1.0 support
28_8.dll - for RealAudio 2.0 support
dnet.dll - for RealAudio 3.0 support
ddnt.dll
sipr.dll - for RealAudio 4.0 support
cook.dll - for RealAudio 6.0 support
atrc.dll - for RealAudio 8.0 support
raac.dll - for RealAudio 10.0 support
pncrt.dll

into "xmplay\plugins" directory together with xmp-ra.dll plugin.

The plugin decects all codecs well (7 loaded codecs). But starting *.ra stream brings a message that RealAudio is not properly installed.
I tried to put pncrt.dll into windows\system32 directory also.

What is wrong?


Thank you.

[Fraggie]

Dotpitch - if this is an XMPlay limitation, as Fraggie says and you quote, then how come I can play the BBC stream in XMPlay using the Tara plugin?  Or perhaps this means `limitation only on native plugins'?

Native plugins can ask XMPlay to do all the I/O stuff - this is very convenient and natural. And since XMPlay can't use RTSP neither can the RA plugin. (At least for now.)

Bad news: Your RealAudio plugin seems to wreak havoc with Highly Advanced (the GSF plugin for Winamp by CaitSith2). With both Highly Advanced and your RealAudio plugin installed, XMPlay keeps crashing whenever I try to play GSF files. Once I removed the RA plugin, it was back to business as usual.

It doesn't crash here, so I guess it has been fixed in the meantime. Please re-download.

The plugin decects all codecs well (7 loaded codecs). But starting *.ra stream brings a message that RealAudio is not properly installed. I tried to put pncrt.dll into windows\system32 directory also.
What is wrong?

This is what I do:
1. Install RealAlternative 1.48
2. Copy codec dlls to a xmplay subfolder
3. Copy pncrt.dll to windows\system32
4. Uninstall RealAlternatvie
5. Setup path in plugin config
6. Play.
You can bypass steps 2-5. The message you talk about doesn't come from the plugin, please cite it exactly.

[uRRada]

One step ahead!
I deleted some "in_ra.dll", ensured that there is no Tara plugin.
Now there is no any error message, but after buffering (opening) xmplay marks this urls:
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/russian/bulletin.ra
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/worldservice/newshour2000.ra

invalid (by crossing with two red lines).

[raina]

To answer your sad guy with the three question marks over his head I present the happy, eye rolling guy with three exclamation marks over his head, who makes a wild guess: it's because of the protocol, the rtsp.

[uRRada]

Indeed!

Really mess that RealAudio etc. (rtsp://) are ALTOGETHER!!!

[Lumina83]

Bad news: Your RealAudio plugin seems to wreak havoc with Highly Advanced (the GSF plugin for Winamp by CaitSith2). With both Highly Advanced and your RealAudio plugin installed, XMPlay keeps crashing whenever I try to play GSF files. Once I removed the RA plugin, it was back to business as usual.

It doesn't crash here, so I guess it has been fixed in the meantime. Please re-download.

I'm sorry, but it's still crashing. I even tried running XMPlay in a separate directory, with just the RealAudio & GSF plugins installed. No difference.

Could there be something wrong with my computer?

[Fraggie]

The plugin now does support RealAudio metafiles (.RAM). (You also may have to update your XMPlay for this to work.)

I'm sorry, but it's still crashing. I even tried running XMPlay in a separate directory, with just the RealAudio & GSF plugins installed. No difference.
Could there be something wrong with my computer?

I didn't manage to get any .GSF files, so I tested this issue with .MINIGSFs. Do they differ significantly?

[Brian]

The plugin now does support RealAudio metafiles (.RAM). (You also may have to update your XMPlay for this to work.)

Just to be absolutely clear, please - I take it that neither this nor any future updates of this plugin will be usable for playing rtsp streams? This version crashes XMPlay when I try to play such a stream.

[Fraggie]

Just to be absolutely clear, please - I take it that neither this nor any future updates of this plugin will be usable for playing rtsp streams? This version crashes XMPlay when I try to play such a stream.

The crashing is now fixed. And yes, this update still does not support RTSP, however I can't tell for sure whether it will or won't ever support it. I'm doing some research, but since this stuff is propertiary that's not easy.

[Fraggie]

XMP-RA now supports streaming over RTSP/RDT protocol.
Alleluja.

[raina]

You hacker, you.