And people encode in .rm because???

[acid512]

This post is kinda based on conversion, so dont kick me off!
Thing is, whilst trying to encode a .rm file to mpeg1 (gave up after a while), I wondered, why do people bother with realmedia at all?

The only reason i had a realmedia file on my pc was because it had been within a bunch of anime episodes I aquired (24 quality divx eps, 1 desperatly vital episode in rm - i was not happy ). I have never seen a good quality rm video, and it is posibble to get simular file sizes with much better quality with low bitrate divx, or .wmv video.

So, is there anyone out there that can justify realmedia, or atleast explain the logic behind its use?

[sterno]

Why are there a lot of RealMedia files out there? Because RealMedia has been around a lot longer than DivX. It was one of the first formats to produce very high compression with acceptable quality. When RM video was new and hot, the alternatives for downloadable video clips were usually low-bitrate MPEG files that were much lower quality, QuickTime files that were higher quality but absolutely enormous, and AVI files that were usually low quality but still enormous. None of those could be streamed, and they were usually uncomfortably large to download when 56k modems were the fastest connections in common use.

Unless you're doing streaming video, I can't think of a good reason to use it today. There's also no good reason to use wmv or asf instead of divx. The only reason I can think of is that once you get the file in to rm/wmv/asf format, it's extremely hard for anybody to convert it to something else.

[energy80s]

Even if you are doing streaming video (something I intend to get into shortly) there is still no reason to use it!

Real Media's days are long gone - quality is horrible and the software is crap and full of spyware.

[TBoneit]

fwiw , if you go to the tools menu on the left side under conversion you will find EO Video, It will tal your RMs and Movs and WMF, etc. and convert them into vcd or better mpg files, 30 day trial. the only times I had it fail was when their was a problem in the file itself.

Good Luck

BTW I agree about rm format drawbacks with reference to quality. One reason you see it used on web site for example is that it is hard to capture so they feel that they can stream it and you can view it but not save it. Their are workarounds, but they don't always work and can be hard to find.