RealPlayer for BBC streams

The default mplayer firefox plugin doesn't handle the BBCs live realaudio radio streams and video streams (Although iplayer works ok)

You can improve this by installing realplayer. Get it from here

http://www.real.com/linux

Open a terminal (press Alt+F2, type 'terminal', click 'Run' button)

Code:

cd Downloads
chmod 777 RealPlayer11GOLD.bin
sudo ./RealPlayer11GOLD.bin

(accept default answers to all questions)

Now remove the mplayer realmedia plugin

Code:

sudo rm /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/mplayerplug-in-rm*

Restart firefox and try the live radio streams from bbc.co.uk. The controls in the display are partially obscured, I haven't found a fix for this.

Also enjoy great archived programs such as http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spac ... kyatnight/

 

Hi,
I'm getting as far as sudo ./RealPlayer11.Gold.bin and then it says "command not found". Any ideas?

(I downloaded the linux real player file into downloads folder first)
thanks

 

Hmm - can RealPlayer download/record the stream as well (like mplayer can with the -ao option) ? Having two programs for the same thing seems such a waste of precious space...

 

did you 'cd Downloads', you need to be in the same directory as the RealPlayer download.

There was a small typo, it should be ' sudo ./RealPlayer11Gold.bin' (No dot between 11 and Gold)

 

The mplayer plugin doesn't play live BBC radio streams, Listen Again streams or old BBC realvideo content on my AAO.

 

Thanks - its working a treat now! Also, for anyone having problems with filenames- the GOLD part of the filename should be in capitals for the file I DLed.

Thanks again for posting that Sideways - I listen to streaming BBC radio alot
cheers

 

Also you can just change the name of the downloaded file to just real.bin to save on typing it all out on the command line and possibly having some typing errors.

 

or press TAB to auto-complete long filenames after typing the first few characters

 

Do you have to use the actual realplayer?

On my PC I use real alternative / media player classic.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Rea ... native.htm <-- makes me think I CAN'T use this on the AA1, however, perhaps the lite version might work?

(I don't have my AA1 yet, it's arriving some time next week from PC World hopefully)

 

This is the Linux Software forum, not Windows!

The RealMedia Alternatives in linux (mplayer, gecko etc) seem to have problems with BBC live radio streams, I don't know a simple fix that is better than just installing RealPlayer.

 

I have just gone through the above process but seems that the mplayer still wants to play from Firefox 3.

Everything looks ok - Realplayer works standalone but does not seem to be the default app for .ram files in FF3.

I have check the plugins in FF3 and temporarily disabled all the mplayer ones. Also under Preferences/Applications the ram extension seems to be associated with /opt/real/RealPlayer/realplay which is where RealPlayer has been installed to.

Any HELP would be greatly appreciated!

 

I'm afraid I'm being a bit of a thick newbie but I can't get this to work. :evil: I too am a big BBC listener so this is a big drawback for me. Had One for a week and thought I was starting to get an idea what I was doing - optimistic I suppose!

Anyone like to supply idiots guide for me?

 

Only for some people - as said both VLC and mplayer work fine with the BBC streams for me. Tested with BBC1, BBC3 and listen again. So we now need to determine where the difference lies...

 

Firefox always starts up an embedded flashplayer for the BBC iplayer and live feeds for me.
It works fine for a bit, then after 2 or 3 minutes pauses, then starts and works again for a bit, then stops with spinning circle.
This sequence is always the same... I've resorted to pre-downloading (non-live) iplayer content using the following:
- which I actually find very convenient (since I can then watch it offline)
http://linuxcentre.net/get_iplayer/
http://linuxcentre.net/get_iplayer/README.txt
-Duncan
p.s. installing lame is a good idea too, so audio files aren't massive (i.e. are mp3 and not wav).

 

Just got my base spec unit yesterday and was having problems listening to BBC radio stations until I found this post. (although strangely no problems streaming iplayer tv shows ?)

Installed and working now no problems thanks to sideways ! (PS. Never used linux in my life before but so far so good !! - you can imagine the debate I had with myself instore before I took the plunge and bought the unit !)

Any news on the partially obscured controls ? which is a shame - is this a BBC/linux or real player issue ? It would be nice to get them back if you can.

Thanks again.

1050rat

 

open a terminal and enter:

Code:

sudo yum update mplayer

That should sort out streaming issues for radio at least, you'll find that mplayer buffers and.......carries on instead of stopping

 

Hi, yes, that should do. I updated, and since it is streaming away!!!!!

 

Hi,

I've got a question and a related problem. I went as far as:
sudo ./RealPlayer11Gold.bin

This kicked of the installer ( presumably in the RealPlayer file ), installed realplayer, which works fine if
started from the run window.
The question ( I'm a Linux novice ) is how did the command work ? I assume the sudo got root privileges,
but what caused the installer to execute ? Is there something significant about the ./ ?
To install firefox3 could I just download the linux version from Mozilla and do the same thing ?

Now to the problem. Instead of deleting the mplayer plugin as sideways suggested, I disabled it using the Tools/addons
window in firefox. ( I didn't want to do something I didn't understand and couldn't reverse ).

Things work as sideways described, I can listen live ( which I couldn't before ), I can listen to the last weeks programs
and I can watch the sky at night in the archive referred to. What I can't do is listen to old archive programs: try
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/the ... orld.shtml and pick an old program to listen to. On a PC
this will result in a short download ( few bytes )and then the launch of realplayer. I think the download tells realplayer whereto
get the data. Now, I think this type of listen again is the only type that actually uses ( or needs ) realplayer. The
BBC site makes play of no longer needing realplayer except for older archived stuff.
So I suspect that the installed Firefox2 is not kicking off realplayer. I saw a referance to a 'system path entry' maybe
being needed but don't know how to look for it.
Does anybody understand what plugins do and how they work well enough to write a brief explanation ?

 

I had to read this about three times to detect whether downloading of the stream a-la-mplayer is possible.

The idea of renaming the file RealPlayer11Gold.bin to real.bin for a once-off install seems a little over the top really. I got confused, I thought the downloading of the streams themselves was being referred to.

I seriously doubt that the official realplayer will let you download the streams. I expect, another application is required to capture what is going out to the soundcard.

Despite all that I must adnit that I have also had trouble with the mplayer realplayer module, and the official realplayer does play the stream rather well.

 

Help! 'chmod 777 RealPlayer11Gold.bin' says 'command not found'. Any suggestions?