Real Player FAQ


	Q: What can I do to improve the video image during playback?
	A: To receive the best possible video image in RealPlayer 8 Basic, follow these guidelines: Set your monitor to 16-bit (thousands) or 24-bit (millions) color. Update the video drivers on your computer. Contact your computer or video card manufacturer for driver updates. If you are running other programs while using RealPlayer 8, exit any programs that you are not using. Do not use the Zoom button on lower bandwidth clips. Try turning off optimized video in the Preferences dialog box.

	Q: Is it possible to decrease the amount of system resources used by RealPlayer 8 Basic?
	A: RealPlayer 8 can be system intensive depending on your connection to the Internet and the type of file you are playing. Video files and high bandwidth files use more resources than low bandwidth audio files. If you are experiencing high resource usage, lower the system usage setting: 1.Start RealPlayer 8. 2.Click the View menu and choose Preferences. 3.Click the Performance tab. 4.Move the Playback performance slider to the left. 5.Click OK to save your changes. Try playing files with the slider at various CPU usage settings.

	Q: What can I do if the audio sounds like it is being played too fast or too slow?
	A: If audio sounds too fast, too slow, scratchy, or distorted, change the RealPlayer 8 performance settings: 1.Start RealPlayer 8. 2.Click the View menu and choose Preferences. 3.Click the Performance tab. 4.Click the Settings button in the Sound Card Compatibility section. 5.Select the Disable 16-bit sound or Disable custom sampling rates check boxes to modify the way that RealPlayer and the sound card interact. You may need to experiment to find a combination of settings that work best for your computer. 6.Click OK in the Sound Card Compatibility dialog box. 7.Click OK in the Preferences dialog box to save your changes.

	Q: Why do I have problems with video or system freezes when playing video content with RealPlayer Basic 8 for Windows?
	A: With the video enhancements in RealPlayer Basic 8, there are a few requirements to ensure the best video experience. If video appears erratically or you experience system freezes while attempting to play video files, you may be able to solve it with the following suggestions. RealPlayer requires a minimum of 16-bit color in Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, and 2000. If your computer is incapable of displaying at least 16-bit color, you may only get a black square in RealPlayer when you play video content. To check your color settings: 1.Click the Start menu, choose Settings, and then Control Panel. 2.Double-click the Display icon. 3.Click the Settings tab. 4.Make sure that "High Color" or "True Color" is selected in the colors list. 5.Click OK. 6.Restart your computer if prompted. RealPlayer requires Microsoft DirectDraw (DirectX) certified drivers. RealPlayer uses DirectDraw for the following Optimized Video features: Hardware Stretching, Blitting, and Overlay support. The video hardware must support these features in order to function correctly with the Optimized Video setting. Many popular video cards use WinDraw drivers instead of DirectDraw drivers. The WinDraw driver incorrectly reports the capability of the video hardware to RealPlayer, causing RealPlayer to think that the video hardware can do things that it cannot. When the video is optimized and the video hardware cannot support the optimization, problems will occur. Problems range from poor quality or garbled video to RealPlayer becoming unresponsive and system freezes. If you experience similar problems, try disabling the Optimized Video setting in RealPlayer. To disable Optimized Video in RealPlayer: 1.Start RealPlayer. 2.Click the View menu and choose Preferences. 3.Click the Performance tab. 4.Click to clear the "Use optimized video display" check box in the Video card compatibility section. 5.Click OK. 6.Restart your computer. The following cards are known to have DirectDraw problems. Regardless of the setting in RealPlayer, optimized video is automatically disabled if any of the following card and driver combinations are detected: ATI Rage II+ PCI, ati_m64 RAGE PRO TURBO AGP 2X (English) Matrox Millennium G200, AGPMGAXDD32.DLL Matrox Millennium G200 AGP, mga64.dll Matrox Millennium G200 AGP, tsirchnl.dll Matrox Millennium II PowerDesk, MGAXDD32.DLL Matrox Millennium II PCI, mgapdx64.drv Diamond Viper V33", vprddle.DLL NVIDIA GeForce 256 AGP Plus (Dell), NVDD32.DLL Diamond Viper V330, vprdrvle.drv Diamond Viper V550, NVDD32.DLL NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Ultra, NVDD32.DLL Hercules Thriller 3D Series (v 0.81.3539), v200032.dll Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. Stealth II G460 Ver. 1.12\x0d\x0aV, stlthg46.dll STB Lightspeed 128, with STB Vision 95, stbvisn.drv Diamond SpeedStar A50 for Windows 98, DMSSA50x.dll ALL STB cards that use nVidia Riva 182zx: STB Velocity 128 3D, stbv128.drv STB Velocity 128 (TV Support), STBV128.DRV STB Lightspeed 128, without STB Vision 95, stbls128.drv S3 Inc. Trio64V+, s3_2.drv Chips And Technologies, Accelerator (new), chipsnd.drv Cirrus Logic 7548 PCI, cirrusmm.drv NeoMagic controllers (widely used in Dell laptops): NeoMagic MagicGraph 128XD, NmgcDD.dll NeoMagic MagicGraph 128XD, Nmgc.drv NeoMagic MagicGraph 128 PCI, nmx.drv NeoMagic MagicMedia 256AV, NmgcDD5.dll Diamond Stealth II G460, s2g432le.dll Diamond Stealth II G460, s2g432le.dll

	Q: Why is RealPlayer 8 Basic still rebuffering or giving poor playback from many sites?
	A: Packet loss occurs when information is unable to successfully travel from one server to another. Previous RealPlayers have interpreted lost information as rebuffering, hissing, crackles, and skips. RealSystem G2 (and RealSystem 8) is designed to minimize the effects of packet loss. In RealSystem G2 (and RealSystem 8), RealProducer is used to encode RealMedia into streams of varying bandwidths. When RealPlayer 8 connects to a RealServer serving the variable bandwidth content, the server detects your Internet connection speed and sends the best stream possible for that connection. As the quality of your Internet connection changes due to packet loss, RealServer switches to a lower bandwidth stream. This causes a difference in the audio quality, but eliminates the rebuffering, hissing, crackles, and skips. When the quality of your Internet connection improves, RealServer switches back to the higher bandwidth stream. The switching is instantaneous so that there are no breaks in playback. However, at sites where the content is not encoded using RealSystem G2 (or RealSystem 8), RealPlayer 8 will still rebuffer, hiss, or skip when the connection becomes too thin to consistently support the stream. This is expected behavior. To minimize poor playback from those sites not using RealSystem G2 (or RealSystem 8), try playing the content during times when Internet traffic is not at its peak. U.S. business hours and weekend evenings are peak times. Connections and playback will be better at other hours.


	Due to poor reproductive quality on 28.8k modems, you probably need to have at least 56k capabilities to watch tutorial movies. But you can hear the audio rendering just fine. To Your Plain Text Basic Immunics Tutorial, anyone?