FC4: Why is Helix Player the default for formats that it doesn't support?

[blackbelt_jones]

I mean.. hello?

I was really stymied by this today. I couldn't seem to get realplayer to work to play streaming audio. First, helix would open, and then tell me it couldn't play anything. Not the usual "open with/ browse" dialogue that I was used to. It was helixplayer, or it was nothin'. I even tried uninstalling helixplayer. I would click on the link, and get a blank page.

I solved the problem by opening realplayer at the command line, like so

realplay http://play.rbn.com/?url=airam/airam/live/live.rm&proto=rtsp

So it all turned out in the end. I installed Fedora on my secondary hard drive, because I want to collect some information for a tutorial I fantasize about writing one day soon. If anybody has a more elegant soultion, I'd be interested in an academic way, but don't put yourself out on my account. I'm just visiting this distro. Mostly, I just wanted to grouse. I mean, is this dumb or what?

[je_fro]

probably need to edit your firefox-->plugins.

[XiaoKJ]

exactly. why are you fuming about? its most probably the plugin is making it the default player, or your settings. if you don't like it you can always change the settings or remove the plugin

[blackbelt_jones]

Don't you think that making something the default application for a format that it doesn't support is absurd? I was merely commenting on the absurdity. I also said that I had found a way to play the stream, and it all turned out all right.

My intent might have been clearer if my original title: "Why the ^&%$ is Helix the default player for formats it doen't support?" had been allowed to stand-- but someone cut the ^&%$... which I don't really find objectionable, but I do think it's also pretty absurd. :rolleyes:

[beerman]

Obviously you can change the setting but why in the blue hell would it be the default.

[Hayl]

because the default way of installing helix probably grabs all the filetypes and the fedora developers may not have noticed.

if you want it fixed in their next builds, then log it as a bug rather than squawking about it on here. last time I checked, jl.com wasn't part of the fedora development team (nor the helixplayer/realplayer dev. team).

[rocketpcguy]

looks like someones having a bad day.

[blackbelt_jones]

Why would I want them to change it? I LIKE absurdity. Absurdity is groovy. :cool: I once had a jar of peanuts that said on the label: ALLERGY WARNING: Contents processed at a facility that processes peanuts.

Seriously, I brought it up because I thought it was funny. When I use ^@#$, that's not cursing.. it's a burlesque of cursing, for comic effect. I'm sure that the fabulous folks at fedora have already heard an earful about this, and it'll be fixed by the next releasee.

[Hayl]

looks like someones having a bad day.

not particularly... but useless whining/complaining is really lame, especially when people can be productive with bugs/issues and report them to developers so that they can be fixed for the betterment of others.