Tuesday, July 14, 2009

New RealPlayer Gets YouTube on the Download

Call it a bit of a bit of a 180 from RealNetworks' traditional business plan, but the latest update to that company's old workhorse of a Web video player is still fairly cool. With the latest version of RealPlayer, best known as the bringer of all things streaming, the company is taking a decidedly static approach. The player has a newfound sense of integration with online streaming video sites like YouTube, giving users the ability to download videos to their harddrives and portable players.

Available as a free public download, beginning in June, the player will let users download videos in a number of formats (including Real, Flash, Windows Media, and Quicktime) with a click, transfer them to portable devices, and burn them as DVDs or SVCDs. Downloads occur in the background, and can be added to playlists in the RealPlayer.

There are already existing third party utilities on the market that perform similar functions, but after our demo with the service, it seems safe to say that Real's is one of the smoothest around, boasting the bonus of being integrated with Real's already beefy media player.

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