RealNetworks to incorporate support for Windows Media Formats in RealPlayer and Helix

[linbetwin]

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2004254,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
It appears playing .wmv and .wma files under Linux won't be subject to possible legal issues anymore.

[dpaint4]

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2004254,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
It appears playing .wmv and .wma files under Linux won't be subject to possible legal issues anymore.

At the risk of sounding... snyde: whoop - eee.

Yeah I guess from the perspective of someone who owns files that they can't or don't want to re-encode from source this could be a nice thing, but generally speaking WMA audio at least consistantly tests near the lowest in quality at any given bit rate.

This is a convenience feature. I realize that. I'm happy (or whatever) but I hope it dosen't prevent people from enjoying and discovering the excellence of Vorbis.

One great thing about making the switch is getting to leave behind all the silly broken and closed formats that polute a standard install of a commercial OS.

[DoctorMO]

dpaint4 if this were true and ubuntu could ship with real players heilex then it would have already. I think there are patent issues, and maybe even some copyright issues.

it would be far better if real media got gpl libs made of each of the codecs so they could be used with vlc, mplayer, xine, gstream. otherwise whats the point? another set of codec libs ubuntu can't legaly distrobute with another media client it can.

please someone correct me!

[TravisNewman]

is it weird to anyone else that with the standard Helix player, you can't play Real media? But now they're incorporating windows media into both, tis a bit strange, but hey, the more legal formats on Linux the better I suppose, but I do hope that people are still inclined to discover ogg

[TravisNewman]

dpaint4 if this were true and ubuntu could ship with real players heilex then it would have already. I think there are patent issues, and maybe even some copyright issues.

it would be far better if real media got gpl libs made of each of the codecs so they could be used with vlc, mplayer, xine, gstream. otherwise whats the point? another set of codec libs ubuntu can't legaly distrobute with another media client it can.

please someone correct me!
Well, I read earlier that it was going to be in openSUSE later in the year. Dunno if they're paying licensing or what.

[linbetwin]

The Windows codecs are supposed to be open source. This after an antitrust court ruling against MS in a case filed by RealNetworks

[croak77]

Open source but what license?

[JamesNorris]

Well, I read earlier that it was going to be in openSUSE later in the year. Dunno if they're paying licensing or what.

No, It's gonna be in SLED, not openSuSE

[tim1]

I hope this version won't be limited to SLED.

[.t.]

I doubt WMA is, or ever will be, open source. Just well documented.

[hanzomon4]

I don't care if its open source or not, It would just be nice to play media without extra hassle or legal black holes.