Real Audio player replacement?, Part 2

Recall --

Last week, my mother asked me if there was a safe alternative to using Real One Player. She writes:

" My church offers previously-recorded sermons in the .RM format, and I use Real One Player to play these files. Regrettably, the free version of Real One Player comes bundled with adware, and now my computer has advertisements and 'suggestions' popping up on my desktop! Is there a freeware alternative to Real One Player? "

Unfortunately, I didn't know the answer ... so, I asked Infopackets Readers for help. Below are some of the suggestions I received.

Jeff 'the pianist' and many other Readers recommended Jet Audio:

" As a subscriber to your great newsletter, it’s so good to know that you are open to receiving feedback from your readers when someone has a problem. There is a free and paid version, the only difference between the two being the ability to convert files from one to another. Other than that there is no Adware or Spyware. All major files appear to be supported including the .rm files that your readers inquired about. "

AquaMan also had this to say about Jet Audio:

" It plays a ton of different audio and video formats, including the RealMedia formats RA, RAM, RM and RMM. It's a 17MB download but it does contain a huge array of features. "

And, a user named 'Choke' had this to say about Jet Audio:

" I've been following a discussion on Jetaudio's privacy issues ... Indeed, Jetaudio does 'phone home' on two occasions: when you let it update itself online and when you listen to streaming content. The content of the info sent is encrypted and couldn't be deciphered as far as I know. However, the live update can be disabled by simply checking a box in the program's settings and when listening to streaming content, a decent firewall asks you if you want to allow the outgoing connection, denying the connection has no consequences at all for running the program. Jet Audio is 'a must have', as far as I'm concerned! "

http://www.jetaudio.com

Jeff S. recommended using an older version of Real Audio, as " The best alternative I've found to the horrendous RealOne Player is Real Player 8 Basic. [Works with Windows XP]. "

http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=real

Rick G. recommended an audio plugin for a popular graphics-based program, called Irfanview:

" Irfanview ... has 4 multimedia plugins available, one of which (is claimed) will play Real Audio. Since I would never let anything from Real Audio anywhere near my machine, I haven't tested it, but thought you might want to look into it. "

http://www.irfanview.com

Terry and Darlene P. suggested using Spyware cleaning utilities to remove the "nasty stuff" from Real Player:

" I just install realplayer free version and then run both Adaware and Spybot to clean all the adware and spyware out of my system. Both programs are free and work great. Both programs have update functions and are regularly updated. I run them both about once a month. At first they found lots of junk on my system but now usually only a few cookies to eliminate. "

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

http://security.kolla.de/

Paul R. from Cleveland, Ohio recommended Ultra Player:

" UltraPlayer plays .RM files ... [and] there's a Support page with details of the program. You must have Windows Media Player 6.4 or higher (for the [audio and video] codecs*). I've used it for quite a while and haven't caught any adverts or other nasties! "

http://www.ultraplayer.com

Werner E. from Fresno, California recommended a program called Media Player Classic:

" [Media Player Classic] is a free media player that will play RealAudio files. It can play almost any audio and video format, including Apple Quicktime. "

http://www.gabest.org/

Thanks to all for writing in!