Readme for RealAudio Player 3.0/4.0

• Setup and Installation of RA player
• Configuration of Web Browser
• Streaming vs Downloading over the Internet

• Go to Progressive Networks' RealAudio Player home page at http://www.real.com

• You will be given the option of downloading Real Player Plus 4.0 or free RealPlayer 4.0 (RealPlayer 3.0 for Unix platforms). Choose the latter for which this documentation is written by clicking on the link.

• You will be asked to choose the OS Platform, processor and connection. For more information about system requirements, please see http://www.real.com/products/player/sysreq.html

  Real Player is available for the following OS Platforms:

  OS Platforms	Processors	Connections
  Windows 95 Windows NT Windows 3.1x Mac OS 7.x OS/2 Linux Solaris SunOS 4.1x Irix 5.3 FreeBSD	Pentium 486 Mac PowerPC 68040 Mac with FPU DEC Alpha Unix Box	14.4 Modem 28.8 Modem ISDN Cable Modem T1 T3

  Choose the connection based on the type of internet connections that you have. It is strongly recommended that you use a 28.8 Kbps modem (or faster connection). A 14.4 Kbps modem will limit your ability to access much of the higher-quality RealAudio content. If you don't know about your internet connection, ask your system administrator. Selecting of the right configuration is crucial to the playback quality, see the topic Streaming vs Downloading over the Internet for more details.

  Make the appropraite selections and click Download Now.

• A. You will be asked to click on a location near you to begin downloading.

  B. Begin Real Player 3.0/4.0 setup:

  • Windows 95
    Locate and launch the file you downloaded by exploring your hard drive or choosing the Run option in the Start menu. (The file is where your Web browser saved it).

  • OS/2, Windows 3.1x, Windows NT 3.51 and newer
    Using File Manager or Program Manager, find the file you downloaded (it is where your Web browser saved it) and launch the file.

  • Macintosh
    Your Web browser should launch a helper application to convert the downloaded file into an executable application. Simply double-click on the application to install RealPlayer 4.0.

  • Unix
    To install the RealPlayer 3.0. Decompress and untar the downloaded file by typing the following commnd:

    % zcat <filename> | tar xvf -

    The above command decompresses the file and creates a directory called raplayer3.0 that contains the following files:

    raplayer	RealAudio Player executable
    README.FIRST	installation and usage document
    LICENSE	license agreement
    Mime.types	setup file for the web browser
    Mailcap	setup file for the helper apps
    raplayer.ad	RealAudio Player application resource file
    welcome.ra	RealAudio IDSN Stereo .ra file

  The following documentation is for Unix system, with adaptation and modification from README.FIRST

• Add the RealAudio Player to your path:

  A. If you are using the csh or tsch shell, add the following command to your .cshrc file after all other "set path" commands:

  set path=($path $HOME/raplayer3.0)

  B. If you are using the ksh, bash, or bsh shell, add the following command to your .profile file after all other "PATH" commands:

  PATH=$PATH:$HOME/raplayer3.0

• Log out of your desktop and log in again. This ensures that all applications on the desktop will be aware of the raplayer directory that you just added to your path, or issue the following command:

  % source .cshrc

  Verify that the path is setup correctly, type the following command from your home directory:

  % which raplayer

  The directory where you installed the RealAudio Player should be displayed. If this does not work, consult your system administrator for help in setting up your path.

• Verify your setup by playing the RealAudio welcome message; type the following command from the raplayer3.0 directory:

  % raplayer welcome.ra

• Configure your web browser to use RealAudio Player when you click a RealAudio link:

  There are two ways to do this:

  • Using Netscape (for 3.0 and above)

    A. In Netscape, choose General Preferences from the Options menu. Then choose Helpers.

    The browser will show you the .mime.types and .mailcap files in your home directory. If you have an entry starting with:
    audio/*

    Select it and click <Delete>, followed by <New>. Enter the following fields in the dialogue box that appears:

    Description	RealAudio
    Type	audio/x-pn-realaudio
    Suffix	ra, ram
    Application	raplayer

  • Editing mime.types and .mailcap directly (for all unix browsers)

    A. .mime.type

    Add the following line:
    audio/x-pn-realaudio ra ram

    B. .mailcap

    If there is an entry starting with
    audio/*

    Delete the entry and add the following line:
    audio/x-pn-realaudio; raplayer %s

• Now, it is important to verify if your web browser can co-exist with the raplayer. Type the following commands:

  % netscape &
  % raplayer

  For SunOS, problem has been encountered when these commands are issued. Due to the colormap allocation problem, the raplayer may not start at all (or rather, it starts and then exits). This problem should be resolved in a future release. However, for the time being, a solution to this problem is to always start your raplayer before netscape, i.e.,

  % raplayer
  % netscape &

  If you do not encounter this problem, you do not have to start the raplayer in the command line. If your web browser is configured correctly, it should invoke raplayer whenever you click on a link to a real audio file (ending with a .ra extension) or a real audio metafile (ending with a .ram extension).

• Verify your Player's ability to access a file over the internet. Again, go to http://www.real.com and click on the link listen here. If your installation is correct, it should start the raplayer (if it is not already started) and play the audio. If not, see if the speaker icon is turning. If it is, you most likely have firewall problems. See your firewall administratior and point him/her to http://www.real.com/help/firewall/index.html RealPlayer 4.0 appears to have solved the firewall problem, but the it is not yet available for all platforms. For more questions about firewall, please go to http://service.real.com/kb and enter "firewall" in the query dialogue box.

Since a HTTP server has no streaming capability, it will do the same thing if you click on a link to a real audio file (.ra), i.e., the entire real audio file will be downloaded before the helper (the raplayer, in this case) can start to play the file. If the file size is huge, you may observe a significant delay between clicking on the link and hearing of the content of the audio file.

On the other hand, RealAudio technology utilizes an interactive system between the RealAudio Server and the RealAudio Player to enable real-time audio delivery over the Internet. When the user clicks on a link on a Web page, the audio buffers and then begins to play, all within a few seconds. In this case, you click on a link to a real audio metafile (.ram) which is supported on the HTTP server. In most cases, you should see the icon indicating the link is a real audio metafile. The metafile contains the locations of ra files, which are actually supported by RealAudio server(s). The metafile is transmitted to the client site and passed on to the raplayer (as a helper to play .ram file) by the web browser. The raplyer then sends a signal to the RealAudio Server requesting for files. Each file is sent to the raplayer and played as it is received, i.e. the Server streams audio to the raplayer. Since metafiles are generally short text files, such a negotiation between the web browser, web server and raplayer normally takes only seconds to complete before you hear audio streaming in from the Server.

For more information on the streaming vs. downloading, a good source of reference is available in http://www.real.com/help/library/ under the topic Attaching RA to the web

For streaming to be effective, it is important that you obtained a version of the raplayer which is compatible with your internet connection. However, if you still have the problem of poor playback quality, you should edit the player preferences under the view menu. For more information, please read the following web pages:

• http://www.real.com/help/FAQ/playfaq.html
• http://www.real.com/help/library/ and select the version and platform of the raplayer that you are using.