RealPlayer 8 on S10 woes

From: Rich Teer (rich.teer_at_rite-group.com)
Date: 09/11/05 

Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:23:51 GMT

Hi all,

I've had RealPlayer 8 installed for some time on my network,
and it used to work great. Some time in the past few months
(I forget exactly when, but I think it was during the S10 beta
program) it (at least partially) broke.

I can't play the video of John Paul Read on the Ultra 20's
home page (http://www.sun.com/desktop/workstation/ultra20/index.jsp)
for example: the window opens, but after downloading I get
the totally useless (but Winsoze user friendly) error message:
"General error. An error occurred." Really, that's all the
dialogue box says!

Now, using the same player, I can play some older movie clips
I've had for a while (e.g., an Audi TT promo video), so I'm
guessing that the SW is generally OK. Incidentally, I get the
same error if I download that John Paul Read video clip and try
to play it locally.

Interestingly, I can play "Sun News Today" clips, so I'm guessing
that the unplayable clips are incomatible with realplayer 8.
If that's the case, I wish Sun would refrain from the "only works
on the latest version" disease that afflicts so many other outlets.
Is it really so much to ask that I don't upgrade my media player
every 5 minutes?

Any cluse greatfully received (the link to the Helix player page
doesn't count as helpful!)...

TIA, 

-- 
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA, OpenSolaris CAB member
President,
Rite Online Inc.
Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-group.com/rich