What Is the Difference Between Windows Media Player & Real Player?
Windows Media Player and RealPlayer are two major digital media players. But although both programs are specialized for reading multimedia files, there are only a few commonalities between them. Both applications have significant differences in ownership, compatibility and technology.
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Ownership
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Windows Media Player is owned and maintained by Microsoft, while RealPlayer is a proprietary program of RealNetworks. Microsoft distributes Windows Media Player free, and Windows computers arrive with the application preinstalled. While users can also download and install RealPlayer free, RealNetworks retails a premium version of the program. Both Windows Media Player and RealPlayer are examples of closed-source software. Since the program’s source codes is not available to the public, neither Windows Media Player nor RealPlayer can be modified by an end user. This is not the case with open source media players like VideoLAN VLC or MPlayer.
Native Formats
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Microsoft has developed two proprietary formats especially for Windows Media Player, WMV (Windows Media Video) and WMA (Windows Media Audio). Both these formats are published with Windows Media compression technology. RealNetworks has also authored two types of formats for RealPlayer, RealVideo (file extension RM) and RealAudio (file extension RA). Yet while WMV and WMA are available as open formats, RM and RA files are not. Even though WMA and WMV are proprietary standards that are regulated by Microsoft, public developers can still author software that is compatible with either format. As a result, various third-party media players support playback for WMV and WMA files. Bitberry Final Media Player and Apple’s QuickTime (with Flip4Mac component) are some media players that can open these Microsoft formats. Interestingly, RealPlayer was also engineered to read WMV and WMA files. Conversely, RM and RA files can be read only by RealPlayer or a Web browser equipped with the RealPlayer plug-in.
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Compatibility
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Windows Media Player and RealPlayer can open other file types besides their native formats. Both media players can open major graphic formats like JPG, BMP, GIF and PNG images. And both programs can read MP3 audio, along with MPEG-1, MPEG-2, ASF and AVI video. But while Windows Media Player can support MP2, CDA, WAV, AIFF and MIDI audio, RealPlayer can only read Vorbis and AAC audio. Yet when it comes to opening videos, RealPlayer has the edge over Windows Media Player. RealPlayer can read the widely distributed MP4 file, in addition to MOV, OGG and OGM files. In terms of operating systems, both Windows Media Player and RealPlayer can be installed on Windows, Mac and Linux machines.
Functionality
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In addition to opening a downloaded video on computer desktop, both Windows Media Player and RealPlayer can be used to view streaming Web video. They can also rip music from CDs, burn media onto recordable discs, and purchase or rent content from online stores. But RealPlayer is also capable of downloading flash files from online video sharing services like YouTube, GoogleVideo, Dailymotion and MySpace. And RealPlayer SP, the premium licensed upgrade to the free RealPlayer, has advanced file conversion and social media distribution features.
Mobile
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Microsoft also distributes a mobile version of Windows Media Player. In addition to opening audio, video and images, Windows Media Player Mobile can be used to organize any media stored on a device. All Windows Mobile phones are equipped with the application. RealNetworks also developed a mobile version of their media player. RealPlayer for Symbian enables audio and video playback on any device that operates on the platform.
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References
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