How to convert realaudio --> mp3 without removing realplayer

[philosopherdog]

I've been having some issues converting realaudio to mp3. I installed the codec into dbpoweramp and it was doing it real time! :( Anyhow, everyone was saying that you need to install real alternative to get the direct show filters. I don't really want real alt, because it doesn't really buffer properly. It was suggested in another post that you can just install the direct show filters, however, without installing the real alt series of programs itself; in other words, if you run install on real alt and uncheck everything except the directshow filters you'll have yourself 10-12x conversion speeds and still have realplayer. I agree with the view that realplayer is bloatware and it's crap, but I find it necessary for a lot of the stuff I'm doing, such as grabbing real files, etc. So, this is a great workaround. Hope you find it works for you!

[philosopherdog]

Re: How to convert realaudio --> mp3 without removing realplayer

I should add that I'm getting speed higher than 12x now. It must depend on the quality of the encoding you're doing.

[gameplaya15143]

Re: How to convert realaudio --> mp3 without removing realplayer

i thought realplayer used directshow filters for decoding. so real alternative shouldnt be needed at all. not even the dshow parcer, if realplayer is installed.

the whole point of real alt was to get rid of the bloat/spyware in realplayer.
i have only tested conversion with real alt, and have gotten well above 1x decoding speed (exporting to pcm/wav)

i dont really know if its a workaround, but it would be something to try for anyone who has the same issue of 1x realtime converstion from real media, but remember to take the 2 or so other processes off of winblows startup.

[philosopherdog]

Re: How to convert realaudio --> mp3 without removing realplayer

Hi,
I found that I was only getting real time conversion with Realplayer installed. After installing the direct show filters from the real alternative installation, but not the player and everything else, I found I'm now getting conversions from 10x to 16x.

[ChristinaS]

Re: How to convert realaudio --> mp3 without removing realplayer

You'll find not all real media files can be converted that way though, and you'll need to use the real media codec and real player too once in a while.
Also check if when you have directshow filters for real media AND real player still installed, if you are getting a windows Explorer crash when hovering over a real media file's name. I used to. Now I keep only the real media encoder. I switch when I have to, which is rarely. I hate Real alternative, sorry it's a poor substitute for all of them actually - except possibly for Quicktime which is about on par in its regular free version. The only time I found Real Alternative of any use to me was when playing some mp4 video direct from my video camera. Once I installed RA & the filters, WMP started being able to play the same files ( which are normally played just by Quicktime).