Sure, Real One Player is pretty good at playing videos; every bit as good as Windows Media Player, Quicktime, or any of the other streaming video players out there these days. The problem with Real One Player is you have to pretty much sign a deal with the devil to use it. From the moment you agree to their terms and install the free demo version of Real One Player onto your computer you realize you made a mistake. The instant the install finishes it becomes clear that your computer is no longer yours, but rather the property of the Real One Player people, whoever they may be.
Everytime you boot up your computer you are greeted by two or three little announcements from the Real One Player people, and a whole side bar window opens up covering half your screen. You don’t ask it to, it just does. And when you ask it to go away, it resists. For the privilege of using their stupid video player you must put up with what basically amounts to a bunch of spam and pop ups all the time.
While I have no proof, I suspect it is even more sinister than this. After I installed the Real One Player I noticed my computer began slowing down considerably and acting strange immediately afterwards. It crashed a lot more often, and I got loads more pop up ads when using the internet. I’ve become convinced that the Real One Player people also take the opportunity to slip in a bunch of spyware on your computer when you run their installer.
Getting the Real One Player off your computer is a pain as well. After a few days I’d had enough, and tried to uninstall it. While it uninstalled normally, I was still getting annoying messages from the Real One Player people on booting up. It wasn’t until I scoured through my list of programs on the ‘Add/Remove’ list that I found a couple of other sneaky Real One programs hiding out.