Real Player version 11. Downloads videos off YouTube!

The long forgotten Real Networks has emerged from the woods with the release of Real Player version 11. It's currently in Beta, downloadable free at www.realplayer.com.au

Apart from the usual media library management, Internet radio and playback features, the most compelling improvement is that it can download videos off any video sharing site. Free videos to keep! I wonder how they manage to go around the legal issues, as Youtube restricts the downloads of its videos.

Anyway, here's how it works:

Say, you visit Youtube on an Internet browser, and if the video has no DRM, real player can download it. Do notice the "Download This Video" button.


Once you click that, the download starts. The status can be seen from its download manager


After it has complete downloading, it'll be imported to your video library


You can then watch it offline in Realplayer or a flash video player of your choice.

The format of the Black Sabbath clip from youtube is in FLV. In order to convert it to friendlier formats, an upgrade to RealPlayer Plus is needed. It's a one-time payment of US$29.99.

Additional notes:
- This feature works in both IE and Firefox
- It should work on all video sharing sites. I've tried it on youtube, dailymotion and metacafe. It worked on all of them
- The Download This Video button appears up even if Realplayer is not launched.
- Real Networks has its own video site embedded within the player. Non DRM-ed videos can also be downloaded from there.

Antbuster - A really addictive game

I know free games on the internet are aplenty, but this one in particular really got me hooked.

You're supposed to defend your cake against an army of ants. The weapon of choice? Cannons of course. You can fry em', freeze em', poison em', and blast em' back to mother nature. Military strategy aficionados can even test out the 10 principles of defense in this game. Most importantly, it's FREE!

Link

Oppo V5H MP4 Player

The Oppo V5H MP4 player, also known as the Luna, is a breath of fresh air compared to other portable players from China. I’ve always had the impression that Chinese-branded players are made with the lowest cost possible, which equates lousy packaging, minimal bundling of accessories and using low-quality material, but the Luna is different.


First impressions – impressive!

The Luna fits nicely into my pudgy palms

The thing that strikes you immediately about the Luna is that it has a slim design (only 1.1cm thick), small enough to fit into your palm, and has a widescreen LCD.

The Luna’s thickness the similar to the Creative ZEN Stone

The finishing is refined, such that nothing juts out obtrusively. I suspect that the player’s back is made of anodized aluminum, which is great as it can prevent scratches and wear.

Brushed metal back of Luna

The finishing is refined, such that nothing juts out obtrusively. I suspect that the player’s back is made of anodized aluminum, which is great as it can prevent scratches and wear.

Touch-sensitive buttons are used instead of the usual tactile ones. While it makes the player sleeker, these buttons can be a bit difficult to use. I’ll elaborate more about the controls later on.

Linear User Interface

The UI is presented linearly. Meaning, you must navigate sideways to get to the desired task (as opposed to a grid-based layout). The icons are in 3-D and are quite detailed. As a typical consumer (not a full-fledged interface designer), I find them aesthetically pleasing and well designed. The “reflecting surface” seems very much Apple-inspired.

Main User Interface

Going into the menus, the Luna is similar to the Windows Explorer. Using the touch-buttons, you can move the cursor and select the file to play. Selecting a folder will go into it.

Windows Explorer-like navigation

On the whole, navigating around the player is OK. Anybody who is familiar with Windows navigation will have no problems with the way the menus are structured. However, there aren’t any sorting or ZEN hierarchy features, so you may get lost browsing through thousands of media files in this 2GB device. Interestingly, the files are not alphabetically listed. The last transferred file will be displayed at the bottom of the list.

Controls – Touch-sensitive buttons adds form not function

As mentioned earlier, the touch-sensitive buttons gives the entire unit a very sleek look. However, it takes time to get warmed up to them.

Firstly, they’re not very obvious. When I first got the unit, I couldn’t determine where the buttons are because they weren’t lit up. To light them up, I had to tap the top of the player. Then, it simply goes off after a few seconds. In my opinion, this on-off LED system is simply annoying.

Now you see it

Now you don't

Then, there’s not much space between each button, so tapping one button may cause the other to be tapped as well. As a result, the cursor either stays still or goes the unintended way. It also won’t work if you tap a little off the “sensitive” areas.

Typical scenario: While looking at the screen, you tap the buttons and nothing happens. Naturally you’ll adjust your fingers to tap the correct buttons (while still looking at the screen). Consequently, other buttons are accidentally tapped, and the cursor goes all over the place.

“M” is like the “Enter” key on the keyboard. You tap it to enter menus, play songs, etc. Now, who would have thought of that? To me, “M” stands for “Menu”.

Performance and features

For music, it does what it is expected to do. It plays MP3s and WMAs, and also supports lyric display. Simply give both the music and LRC files the same name, and they’ll work together when played on the Luna.

The vibrant LCD is excellent when displaying photographs. Most details of the pictures are nicely reproduced. Colors are vibrant as well. My main complaint is that it stretches every picture automatically to fit the widescreen. Human faces look disturbingly stretched. Even if you format the pictures to a widescreen format, it’ll somehow stretch the photos as well.

Original photo

As seen on the Oppo Luna

Getting videos into the player is something that I failed to do. Oppo included the video converter with the player (stored within the flash memory). But, I could not unzip the rar package. Then, I searched through the forums, and found out that the converter can be downloaded via the company’s website. After downloading the 12MB package and launching the exe file, I get this:

So, I went to download relevant tools to extract the information of the sample video, with the intention of using 3rd party converters to convert videos for the Luna.

The sample video (OppoMP4.AVI) has the following:
Video: XviD codec, 320 x 240, 20 fps
Audio codec: MP2, 44.1 KHz, 128 kbps

I followed the exact specifications and converted some video files. But, NONE of them worked on the player. I’ve tried different converters recommended by the forummers and used different source video files. Sadly, the hours spent troubleshooting yielded nothing.

Apart from media playback, the Luna has an eBook reader, FM radio, a sound recorder, calendar, and even a stopwatch feature.

Final Thoughts

Almost everybody (including me) who has seen the player for the first time thinks that the ID is very attractive. It’s slim, has a solid build, and an impressive widescreen LCD. My visual designer colleague also praised the player’s interaction menu, complimenting the detailed icons in particular. Extra features such as the eBook reader and FM radio give the multi-media player an added dimension. However, the touch-sensitive controls that are located at the top of the player are quite difficult to handle. Some don’t even realize that the buttons are there when the LEDs are off.

What personally I didn’t like was the fact that pictures are automatically stretched to fill the screen regardless of the resolution. This results in stretched faces and unnatural looking human beings. Also, video conversion was really painful. It’s disappointing that the video conversion software (both in the player and from the company’s official website) failed to install. It’s even more disappointing that none of my converted videos (using 3rd party applications) using the exact specifications of the sample video failed to work. To give Oppo a bit of credit, at least they’ve provided a converter, unlike most China branded portable media players.

In a nutshell, the player looks great and the screen is nice, but the controls can be more obvious. I also wish that more video formats can be supported.

The Oppo v5H MP4 player is a real steal at slightly over US$100!! Check out Oppo's official website here (it's in Chinese though)

Radio Station Made by You, for You

It's been a while since I've posted. Well, that's because there's nothing free that is worthwhile for my review (there's always an excuse isn't it?). Anyway, through my work, I stumbled upon this site called Pandora Internet Radio. Now, before you think "well, that's not new, Internet radio has been around for so long", Pandora is different, really different.



Instead of picking a station, say, "ABC FM" and listen to the songs from that station whether you like it or not, Pandora Internet Radio streams music that YOU like. Take for example, I like the band Garbage. I like the fact that it has some electronic influences, it plays rhythmic rock music, and the vocals of Shirley Manson. So, Pandora actually picks out all the songs from its database that are similar to the ones that Garbage plays. Most of the songs have electronic influences, is rocks rhythmically, and sung by a female! Remarkable!



In addition, you can refine your radio station by telling Pandora if you like or hate the song that you're listening to. There are also options to buy the CD via Amazon or iTunes.

I think that this really is a great service as you're getting free, personalized music. However, HOWEVER, you can only an enjoy unlimited supply of songs if you register. AND, you can only register IF you are a US resident. That sucks isn't it? Well, if you are a US resident, do check out Pandora Internet Radio here.