I was just wondering if anybody else has been having the same
aggravating problems that I have with RealPlayer?

Ever since I downloaded a "free" sample of RealPlayer, I have been
trying to get it out of my computer in vain.  When I try to download
an mp3 file, Windows says that it cannot find RealPlayer.exe, and
therefore cannot play the mp3 file.  Not only that, it won't even
download the file!  I get the header only!

I have three or four other media players that will play an mp3 file,
and they cannot even find the file I have supposedly downloaded.

Now I don't know about everybody else, but I do not put programs on
my computer that I feel are written or given away by people with an
agenda.  I don't care how good they are, or what they are offering --
when RealPlayer takes over my PC and decides what I will and will
not find on the web, as far as they are concerned, then that gets my
hackles up!

Perhaps somebody else has this same problem.  I have removed everything
I can find that says RealPlayer.  I have long ago gone to my control
panel, to add-remove programs, and done the dog and pony show.

I have also noticed that some players aren't as good as other players.
For instance, the Media Player -- in my estimation -- is a lousy player,
fidelity-wise.  Nero is pretty good but too crude.  Needs a lot of
work.  Media Magic is mediocre.  Goldwave is excellent.  RealPlayer is
also excellent, fidelity-wise, but when it takes over my PC and won't
allow me to choose between players, even when downloading a file, then
I have to get rid of it.  It has also caused a lot of crashes and stuff
that takes hours or days of work to get to the bottom of, and RealPlayer
help is practically non-existent, as far as I know about.

So realize that these are opinions from a not-too-smart computer user,
but perhaps some of you folks have a solution (?).

A. I would like to know how to totally divest myself of RealPlayer,
who in my opinion, does business like The Mob.  Once they get a
foothold, then you don't have any options, and they call the shots.
And I would ask anybody how they were able to get some help from them
if they have a problem like this.

B. The second thing I would like to know is, what player do you like,
and is it something that other web sites can offer as a freebie (in
place of the mob), and will it totally take over a PC, or is it
respectful of ownership and personal options?

These computers belong to us, not to them!  If I am being told how I
will and will not download files, and what program I will use, then I
still have enough American blood in me to get my back up about this and
start sounding off to other Americans, and anybody else that is
interested.

Craig Brougher

 [ Editor's opinions:
 [
 [ I had a similar experience.  I finally built a totally fresh Windows
 [ operating system on a blank hard disk drive.  Building the new op sys
 [ didn't take long, but the rest of the day was consumed with restoring
 [ all the programs and data files.  (I was carefully checking each phase
 [ using Norton Utilities.)  RealPlayer totally offends me, much more
 [ than Microsoft products; I hate it!
 [
 [ I advocate MPEG media format because it's a public standard so
 [ any firm can offer player programs.  Download the compact (and
 [ free) MP3 player program, "Audioactive Player" by Telos Systems,
 [ at http://www.audioactive.com/products/default.htm  Then at
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Sounds/index.html you can listen to a
 [ Wurlitzer APP tune from Hal Davis which was encoded at 11 kHz
 [ using the companion encoder program, "Audioactive Production
 [ Studio Lite".  I chose this encoder because Hal's recordings are
 [ monaural and rather limited bandwidth.  Other inexpensive MP3
 [ encoders won't create a compact MP3 file of 11 kHz mono.  Oh yes,
 [ it plays "streaming" while the data is downloading.  :-)
 [
 [ To modify the association which launches a program when you
 [ double-click on a file name, launch "Exploring" (Start>Programs>
 [ Windows Explorer>) then menu View/Folder_Options/File_Types.  It's
 [ an agonizing process; if anyone knows a better way please tell us!
 [
 [ -- Robbie Rhodes