RealPlayer 5.0 Release Notes

For the latest information, see our Home Page.

This document describes RealNetworks RealPlayer 5.0. The software and documentation are provided to you in accordance with your license agreement.

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System Requirements

• Windows 95 and Windows NT (32-bit)
• Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 (16-bit)
• Macintosh
• UNIX

Windows 95 and Windows NT (32-bit)

System and hardware requirements:

• Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51 or later
• 2 MB free on your hard disk
• A Windows-compatible sound card (recommended, but not required)
• CPU: 486/66 DX minimum / Pentium or faster recommended
• 16 MB RAM
• Modem or other Internet connection: 14.4 minimum / 28.8 or faster recommended

RealPlayer 5.0 program is installed in the C:\REAL\PLAYER directory, unless you specify otherwise. The installation also installs several system files into the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory on your hard drive.

Note: For a complete list of the files that are installed, refer to the Windows 95 and Windows NT Installation Details for the 32-bit RealPlayer.

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Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 (16-bit)

System and hardware requirements:

• Windows 3.1 or later or Windows 95
• 2 MB free on your hard disk
• A Windows-compatible sound card (recommended, but not required)
• CPU: 486/66 DX minimum / Pentium or faster recommended
• 16 MB RAM
• Modem or other Internet connection: 14.4 minimum / 28.8 or faster recommended
• Windows display set to at least 256 colors

RealPlayer 5.0 program is installed in the C:\REAL\PLAYER directory, unless you specify otherwise. The installation also installs several system files into the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory on your hard drive.

Note: For a complete list of the files that are installed, refer to the Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 Installation Details for the 16-bit RealPlayer.

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Macintosh

• PowerPC
• 2 MB free on your hard disk
• 16 MB RAM; however 24 MB RAM is recommended for video and flash content
• Modem or other Internet connection: 14.4 minimum / 28.8 or faster recommended

Note: Be sure your browser has enough memory allocated to run the RealPlayer Plug-In. See Known Problems for details.

RealPlayer 5.0 is installed in the RealPlayer folder on the Desktop, unless you specify otherwise. The installation also installs several files into the system folder of your computer.

Note: For a complete list of the files that are installed, refer to Macintosh Installation Details.

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UNIX

• Solaris 2.5, Irix 6.2-6.3 or Linux 2.0
• 2 MB free on your hard disk
• CPU:
  • Video: SPARC 20, Ultra SPARC, Indy,O2, Linux/Pentium 90
  • Audio: SPARC 5, Ultra SPARC, Indy,O2, Linux/Pentium
• 16 MB RAM
• Sound Card:
  • Solaris requires native sound card
  • Irix requires native sound card
  • Linux requires 16-bit sound card with Open Sound System Sound Driver 3.5.4 or greater. See OSS Linux web site to download new drivers.
• Video Card: 256 color video card or greater required to playback video algorithms; 8-, 16- and 24-bit color supported; 24-bit color mode recommended
• Modem or other Internet Connection: 14.4 minimum / 28.8 or faster recommended

RealPlayer 5.0 is installed in your current directory.

Note: For a complete list of the files that are installed, refer to UNIX Installation Details.

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Windows 95 and Windows NT Installation Details for the 32-bit RealPlayer

Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 Installation Details for the 16-bit RealPlayer

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Macintosh Installation Details

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UNIX Installation Details

gunzip -c  | tar xvf -

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Known Problems

• If your monitor is set to 256 colors, the playback quality may not be optimal. Use 16-bit (thousands) or 24-bit (millions).
• Full Screen may fail if DirectX changes your refresh rate to a speed not supported by your monitor. If this happens, your monitor will show static, and may send you a message telling you that the sample rate is not supported. Updating your video drivers may help. However, you may lose functionality of your old drivers. Installing a monitor with a higher refresh rate than your current monitor will help.
• Fujitsu FMV DeskPower S III 20B is shipped with a Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16/AWE32 plug-and-play sound card. Some users report that selecting the STOP button while a clip is playing causes their machine to reboot. Creative Labs has recently released updated drivers that fix this problem. You may download these drivers from http://www.creativelabs.com/wwwnew/tech/ftp/ftpnew.html. After installing, reboot your machine to update your current drivers.

Windows

• Starting or quitting large applications while playing clips can cause some brief disruption of the playback.
• Playback on some 486/25 SX computers does not work properly.
• The user interface during playback of some high bitrate .8 content on slower systems may have slow response time. Performance of other applications may suffer during playback.
• Windows NT with Service Pack 3 video drivers may cause static or snow to be visible while playing video content on RealPlayer. Downloading new drivers will usually fix this problem. You can get these from the company that manufactured your video card.
• Windows 3.1 users need to have Video For Windows 1.1e installed for video playback. The RealPlayer searches for Video For Windows during installation. If it is not found, you may download the Video For Windows package from RealPlayer's download site.
• Windows 3.1 users with older video cards may experience video playback problems in 256 color mode. Incompatibilities have been observed with the PGP.DRV for the STB Powergraph series. Downloading a new Powergraph driver will usually fix the problem.
• Windows 3.1 users using only a 256 color display may not be able to playback video using the Netscape plug-in. Downloading a new video driver may fix the problem.
• Full Screen mode does not work on DEC Alpha NT. The Player will do the Full Screen test but it will not render any images in Full Screen mode.

Macintosh

• Does not work well with Macintosh TCP. Open Transport 1.1 or higher recommended.
• To ensure that the Macintosh RealPlayer Plugin has enough memory to run properly, users need to set their browser memory requirements as follows. To change memory allocation, highlight your browser icon, select Get Info from the File menu, and change the Memory Requirements settings.
  • For Microsoft Internet Explorer, allocate at least 8000K for memory; however, 13000K is recommended.
  • For Netscape Navigator, allocate at least 9000K for memory; however, 12000K is recommended.

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Manually Configuring Your Browser

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Troubleshooting

If you experience problems with RealPlayer 5.0, please look at the documentation available on our Technical Support web page.

Using RealPlayer through a Firewall

RealPlayer uses port 7070 for TCP and ports 6970 through 7170 inclusive for UDP transmission. If you are accessing the Internet through a firewall, your firewall administrator will need to authorize these ports. Firewall information is available on our Firewall web page.

Full Screen

• Microsoft DirectX Tools with DirectDraw: download from Microsoft. When you install DirectX, you must choose to upgrade your video drivers. However, you may lose functionality of your old drivers.
• Updated video drivers: get these from the company that manufactured your video card or from RealNetworks' Full Screen support page. If you update your drivers, you may lose functionality of your old drivers.

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Reporting Feedback

If you have questions, comments or problems, please use the Technical Support contact page at: http://service.real.com/contact/email.htm

Copyright 1996, 1997 RealNetworks, Inc.