The New RealPlayer

RealNetworks unveiled at D a new version of its media player software that it says will allow consumers to download video clips from thousands of Web sites to their computers’ hard drives (see a video demo). The Wall Street Journal’s Kevin J. Delaney reports that the upgraded RealPlayer software will be available for free in June.

When users of the software visit a compatible video-sharing site — such as YouTube — a small download button appears next to the video window on the site. Videos downloaded to users’ hard drives are then available for viewing through the RealPlayer application on their computers. The user can also burn the clips to CD — or DVD with a premium version of the software that costs extra — and share Web links to the original videos with friends.

Such software could allow consumers to more easily organize and access Web videos they like and watch them when not connected to the Internet. Since the videos are downloaded, it could also allow consumers to play them back without the stuttering images and interruptions in the video that sometimes occur because of delays in the streaming data transmission. Copyright holders could potentially object to users’ downloading of video files that were made available through the video sharing sites without their creators’ permission. With RealPlayer’s software, users can’t download videos where their creators use digital rights management technology to prevent it.