New RealPlayer Moves Web Video to Devices

By  |  Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 12:01 am

RealPlayer LogoWant a reason to check  out RealPlayer SP, the new beta of the next version of RealPlayer, a media player that most of us have used at one time or another but which is no longer omnipresent? It’s got a new feature that’s pretty cool: the ability to easily download video from YouTube and other sites, convert it, and then get it onto a bevy of devices.

There are many, many ways to convert Flash video into formats that are suitable consumption on various gadgets, but most do only part of the job–RealPlayer itself has been able to download videos, but not covert them until now–or are painfully geeky, or both. RealPlayer SP is pretty darn straightforward. Hover over video on the Web, and you get a Download This Video link….

RealPlayer Download

You can watch the video download in a window (and queue up multiple videos at once), and send links to it online via Twitter or Facebook, and watch it within RealPlayer if you so choose…

RealPlayer Downloading

The most interesting thing about RealPlayer SP is what comes next. The downloading utility lets you convert videos for phones, media players, and other devices, and the range of supported gadgets is impressive: iPods, iPhones, BlackBerries, Zunes, xBoxes, PlayStations, Apple TVs, and more. It converts the video into the proper format for the device in question, and either lets you download it directly to the gizmo from within Real’s software (which it can do BlackBerries) or gets it as far as it can (as with iPods and iPhones–it can put videos in your iTunes library, where they can be shuttled to your Apple device the next time you sync).

RealPlayer Devices

I used RealPlayer SP to move clips of 1960s pop music performances off YouTube and onto my iPhone, and it required fewer clicks and complications than the various methods I’ve been using to date. (Although I’ve been doing the job on a Mac and RealPlayer SP is a Windows-only beta right now; Real told me it plans to release an OS X version later this year.) As usual with RealPlayer, there’s a free version and a $40 one; the later can convert H.264 video and play and burn DVDs.

 
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3 Comments For This Post

  1. umair Says:
    June 29th, 2009 at 1:37 am

    i want

  2. Rick Bellefond Says:
    August 14th, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    RealPlayer SP looks interesting. I will need to check it out.

    I have not used RealPlayer in quite some time.

  3. phonecards Says:
    December 22nd, 2010 at 10:22 pm

    No matter what I do, I cannot seem to get Real Player working correctly! I used to have it so the feature: “Download This Video,” was working and downloading video’s I wanted saved. Now for some reason, it stopped working and I can’t get it back no matter what I try!! I’ve uninstalled Real Player and reinstalled it again and updated it immediately and still, nothing. WHATS WRONG WITH THIS DARN THING?

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