Real tries to crash WMP 9 party
WinInfo | at | by Mike
WMP competitor RealNetworks attempted to hijack Microsoft's unveiling of Windows Media 9 Series by releasing a new version of its Helix server software, which streams Windows Media audio and video content using a reversed-engineering process that bypasses Microsoft's licensing for the technology. Real CEO Rob Glaser says that his company's Helix Universal Server removes the need to set up different servers to support different media formats, because it plays back the most dominant formats on the Web, those owned by RealNetworks, and Microsoft's.
A Microsoft representative told me, however, that Helix lacks numerous features in Windows Media Services 9, the server component of Windows .NET Server 2003 that supplies Windows Media content. For example, while Helix supports an instant-on streaming experience, users of the RealONE player must pay monthly fees to use that service. Also, Helix lacks Fast Cache, for an always-on streaming experience; Fast Reconnect, so that players can automatically recover from lost network connections to the server; scenario-based management wizards for ease-of-administration; dynamic server-side playlists; and numerous other features.