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Old 7th January 2004, 06:02   #1  |  Link
karl_lillevold
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The Real 10 Platform

What is the Real 10 Platform?

You are already familiar with some components of this release, but now with new names:

RealVideo 10 : This is the new and official name for RV9 EHQ, which has been in Beta since a few months back and released for testing here, with various improvements added along the way, much based on feedback from this forum. RealVideo 10 corresponds to the latest version of RV9 EHQ discussed here, but with a slightly different way to choose codec and encoding complexity. Since it is RV9 EHQ it is fully backwards compatible with older players which has the RV9 decoder. It is an encoder side improvement, where as you know we gain quality by letting the encoder spend more time making wise decisions.

RealProducer 10 : This is what was developed as the Helix Producer 9.2 in the Helix Community. What is new since the latest Milestone is that the most recent RV 10 encoder DLL is included (as discussed above), AAC has replaced ATRAC3 as the high bitrate audio codec, and a GUI version of Producer is now finally available! (as a Preview release, the Producer team has been very busy). The Producer SDK on Windows also includes HE-AAC encoding.

NEW:

RealAudio 10 : This is a family of audio codecs. New codecs are AAC, RealAudio Lossless, and RealAudio Multi-channel. RA8 (cook) is used for 96 kbps and below. HE-AAC in the form of aacPlus from Coding Technologies is included on Windows.

RealPlayer 10 : The next version of RealPlayer, now back to the name everyone recognizes, with many improvements, and friendlier than before. I will probably start another thread on this topic by itself, since I am sure there will be plenty of feedback. It includes full support for AAC ripping, and AAC and HE-AAC playback. RealPlayer 10 includes a new audio and video guide, as well as an integrated music store. Download the RealPlayer10Beta for Windows 98/NT/2000/XP.
See How to make RealPlayer 10 behave nicely in case you have doubts

RealPlayer Music Store : The music store integrated in RealPlayer 10.What is different about this compared to the other stores, is that it uses 192 kbps AAC for the best possible audio quality, while other stores use 128 kbps of various formats. At the launch it includes 300,000 songs and more added every day.

Helix DRM 10 : Our latest DRM technology.

For more information, see The Real 10 Platform on realnetworks.com.

FAQ

Producer 10

Where can I download Producer 10?
RealProducer 10 Basic Preview (GUI)

Helix Producer 10.0 Beta from helixcommunity.org in the Binaries section (Binaries -> (click here for distribution binaries) -> Helix DNA Producer -> Command Line Application)
If you have older RealProducers installed, be aware that your PATH environment variable may be set so that the wrong producer.exe is called when try to use Producer 10 cmd line. You will then get very confusing errors.

I hate the limitations in RealProducer 10 Basic. What can I do?
Personally I agree, and your feedback has been forwarded. Making the Plus version free is now being considered. In the meantime, the command line Helix Producer 10.0 has all the features of RealProducer 10 Plus, except the GUI. Use Helix Producer 10.0 with one of the soon to be updated front-ends, or be part of a small l33t and use the command line directly.

RealPlayer 10

Where can I download RealPlayer 10?
The free RealPlayer 10 Beta, English version, can be found here, with no re-direction or small font links: http://www.real.com/freeplayer/?rppr=d9

Is it available for any other platforms than Windows?
No, not yet. OS X is planned, no ETA. For Linux, we have focused on the open source Helix Player.

Is this any better behaved than previous RealPlayers?
Yes, but please read How to make RealPlayer 10 behave nicely.

RP 10 looks almost the same. What are the improvements?
Please see this post. It also includes information about some of the improvements.

I am having trouble installing RealPlayer 10. The installer does not work.
Maybe .r1pclean.exe will help. Did you ever install a 'codec pack'? This should remove all remnants of old players, codecs and reg keys, as well as RealProducers and RealServers, hopefully also codec packs, which may be causing this problem in the first place, I don't really know.. Use at your own risk.

I have tested that it does clean up after RealAlternative and allows RP10 to be installed. It usually reports "Cannot load setu3260.dll", but still does registry cleaning. Without running .r1pclean.exe first, RealPlayer 10 fails to run after installation, when RealAlternative is installed.

RealVideo 10

Is it true that RV 10 is the same as RV9-EHQ
Yes.

So it's fully backwards compatible with RV9 decoders then?
Yes, it even has the same FourCC code 'rv40'. When playing RV10 in RealPlayer 10, we added some special bits that identify the format, such that it displays RV10. Older players will display RV9.

How do I encode with the best possible quality?
Choose rv10 as the codec. It defaults to the best possible quality. For lower quality but faster encoding, choose rv9, or for backwards compatibility with certain mobile devices, rv8. Separately, each codec has three encoding complexity levels, 'high', 'medium, and 'low'. For the details please see this post. Also see the encoding advice in the main RealVideo Information thread and the thread on RealVideo 10 'Elysian' for a completely new 2-pass rate control.

RealAudio 10 : AAC and HE-AAC

Is aacPlus (AAC+) the same as HE-AAC?
Yes. HE-AAC (High Efficiency AAC is the name used by standardization in MPEG). aacPlus was Coding Technologies' name for their technology while developing it.

Which file format is AAC wrapped in when encoded in Producer or ripped in RealPlayer 10?
The current file format for AAC is RM (.ra). RealPlayer Gold will instead rip to ADTS .aac, but the feedback concerning the preference for MP4/M4A has been forwarded, and for Gold the format will most likely change.

Why is not HE-AAC encoding supported in RealProducer, or why does not RealPlayer 10 rip music to HE-AAC at 96 kbps and below?
RealPlayer 10 does not currently rip to HE-AAC, because we did not license it for general encoding, as well as lack of HE-AAC codecs for many devices we need to support.

What are the new 4CC codes for the AAC codec flavors when wrapped in RM?
raac: AAC or HE-AAC
racp: HE-AAC
The player's AAC decoder, raac.dll, can decode both AAC and HE-AAC.

Which file formats for AAC and HE-AAC are supported in RealPlayer 10?
RM of course *). Raw ADTS (.aac) plays back without problems. MP4 wrapped AAC and HE-AAC files also play, but auto-update does not work for mp4. To get the components needed, try to open .aac file in RealPlayer. RealPlayer will auto-update with plugins for H.263 Video and 3GPP. Don't worry, this also means AAC. Also read the question below re auto-update and .mp4 files.

Playback problems with HE-AAC in RealPlayer 10
RealPlayer 10 can not currently play back HE-AAC in RM due to two bugs: 1) the AAC renderer plugin does not recognize the 4cc racp for HE-AAC, triggering an auto-update request. Hex-edit to raac is possible. However, then 2) raac.dll will crash, due to another bug. Both bugs have been fixed, and will be included in the Gold release of RealPlayer 10. In the meantime, you get obtain a fix here: HE-AAC (racp) fix for RealPlayer 10 Beta. Note that neither of these bugs affect how Media Player Classic plays back HE-AAC in RM, even when it uses the buggy raac.dll. You need the latest release of MPC: 6.4.7.6 or higher.

When I try to open .aac or .mp4 file in RealPlayer 10, it opens the web browser to play the file, instead of running auto-update
This is caused by the .aac or .mp4 filetype being registered on your system. It is unfortunate that in order to get around this, you have to delete the filetype you are trying to open (AAC or MP4). It is easy to re-create though afterwards, with whichever is your player for this format.

Is it possible to encode HE-AAC in Helix Producer 10?
Yes *), at least in the command line version of Helix Producer. However, the HE-AAC encoder does not ship with Helix Producer 10 or RealProducer 10, but instead the Helix Producer SDK as an add-in. The AAC codec name is 'raac', the HE-AAC codec name is 'racp'. The codec flavors (bitrates) can be found in Producer's documentation and in this post.
*) No, currently, due to a bug. Will be fixed in next Milestone, you can also get a fixed DLL here.

Does the RealAudio 10 AAC codec support 5.1?
No 5.1 for AAC encoding. Perhaps later. The Multi-channel Producer 10 codec is RA8 based. AAC 5.1 playback works.

What are the plans for file formats and HE-AAC in RealPlayer 10 and Producer 10 Gold?
This is still being decided.

How can I trans-mux AAC in RM losslessly to another AAC format, for instance iPod compatible M4A?
that's easy. all you need is mkvtoolnix from
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64548

1) Then run
mkvmerge -o mkafile.mka rmfile.ra

2) before
mkvextract tracks mkafile.mka 1:aacfile.aac

3) finally, if you need iPod compatible M4A, just run
mp4creator60 -aac-profile=4 -optimize -create=aacfile.aac ipodfile.m4a

You can also use graphedit with Gabest's RealMediaSplitter and a muxer. I know it works with Gabest's Matroska Muxer.

I have an AAC file of format Y. It does not play in player X.
I did some testing of various file types and containers. Here are the results. You can download the samples in my aac_samples folder.
Code:
                             MPC 6.4.7.5 + 
RM                      RP10 raac Core 3ivx
rm_aac128.rm          |  ok | ok | ok | ok 
rm_aac256_51.rm       |  ok | ok | ok | ok
rm_he-aac32.rm        |ok 1)| ok | ok | ok
rm_he-aac96_51.rm     |ok 1)| ok | ok | ok
ADTS                                   
adts_aac64.aac        |  ok | -  | ok | ok
adts_he-aac64.aac     |  ok | -  | ok*| ok
adts_he-aac160_51.aac |  #  | -  | ok*| ok
MP4                                    
mp4_aac64.mp4         |  ok | -  | ok | ok
mp4_he-aac64.mp4      |  ok | -  | ok*| ok
mp4_he-aac160_51.mp4  |  ok | -  | ok*| ok
MPC chooses decoders and splitters automatically, but can be configured. With RP10 installed, it prefers raac.dll for RM files (raac = Coding Technologies decoder), otherwise uses DirectShow decoder, if available. Configure in MPC in options, filter, over-rides, which DS filter is preferred, if many are installed.

DirectShow parsers:
.aac : AAC Parser Filter
.mp4 : 3ivx Media Splitter
DirectShow decoders:
Core = CoreAAC 1.0b9
3ivx = 3ivx D4 4.5

# = no go, usually crash
1) : requires fix, see question on HE-AAC playback problem
ok*: appears to decode SBR info, but does not display AAC+SBR

More...

I have answered many more questions in several posts further down in this thread, if you still can not find the answer to your question, please post it.
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This information is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, grants no rights, and reflects my personal opinion.

Last edited by karl_lillevold; 24th February 2004 at 19:07.
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