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On 30 Aug 2009, at 17:40, Alan McKinnon wrote: |
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> ... |
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> mplayer support for realplayer was a right royal cockup. The only |
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> thing it |
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> could ever have meant was that mplayer could play Real videos. But |
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> the way it |
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> was documented, users couldn't figure out if this would install the |
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> binary |
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> realplayer, provide support for real from some other party, or do an |
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> entirely |
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> different third action. |
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I _believe_ that at one time the "real" USE flag installed |
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RealPlayer's binary codecs, but that with USE="-real" mplayer would |
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still play most Real streams, anyway. |
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This is - as you say - confusing and non-intuitive. |
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When the the "real" USE flag was masked there was, therefore, uproar |
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because it was assumed by the unwashed masses (including myself) that |
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"OMG! mplayer won't play the BBC Radio 1 Real stream anymore", and |
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this assumption was incorrect. |
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IIRC the RealPlayer's binary codecs were pretty much used only for |
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streams of an obsolete format depreciated by Real themselves. Newer |
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Real streams used codecs like MP3 that mplayer would quite happily |
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decode on its own (providing USE="mp3"). |
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I gather, however, that the "real" USE flag may now have been |
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reinstated with a different meaning - the intuitive one. :/ |
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Stroller. |
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