Re: Re: Starscapes/Real audio rant

["S.P. Goodman" <spgoodman@earthlight.net>]

> I agree- Real One is Satan's spawn- you have to be really determined and
> patient to root out all the pop ups, auto notify, computer scanning, 
>ultra
> infiltrating crap they include with it. And I too think it sounds crummy
in
> the end anyways but i was 'forced' to install it yesterday as so many
folks
> use it.
>   I prefer .wma format over all others 9yes I know it is MS product)-
sounds
> the best and I can use WinAmp to play them. Too bad it doesent play on 
>the
> Mac platform as it is supposed to. It is also interesting to note that
> WinAmp was bought out by AOL. Isn't AOL linked to Real? They prob own
them.
>
> Cliff

I figured out some time ago that the same folks in the Gubmint who allowed
the AOL purchase of their main competitor, CompuServe, allowed Real to buy
their main player competitor besides Microsoft, WinAmp - even without
discussing the Time-Warner merger, Real's a pretty slimy buncha folks.  
Have
you noticed what a bloated item WinAmp 3 (the version released after
Real/AOL bought them) is now?  I went back to using their 2.x version, as 
it
doesn't want to manage every sound file on my machine, and it doesn't lock
up every third use.  I like the visuals - and, here's a nice tip - the avs
files made for WinAmp3 run just FINE on WinAmp 2.83.

>
> > Why should
> > they care?
> >
> > Unfortunately, lots of sites use the format, thanks to Real's ascent -
on
> > most of OUR backs - to dominance in the codec arena.  I don't know why
> > really, given the awful quality of the results their encoders now
produce.
>
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