Ubuntu PPC and RealPlayer/Flash Plugins

[Jonathan Hudson]

Euan Bayliss wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Has anyone been able to successfully install either Real Player or Flash 
> plugins on an Ubuntu PPC set up? I have downloaded what I think is the 
> right package for each and neither will work, presumably because the 
> executables that I've downloaded are PC ones.
> 
> If it is any help, I'm running Warty Warthog on a G4 867MHz Powerbook, 
> and have it set to dualboot between Ubuntu and Mac OS X 10.3.7.
> 
> Help! I don't want to have to reboot into OS X just to get my weekly fix 
> of "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue"!!!!

For Real, you can find an linux-ppc installation on the helix/real 
site. I recall having to hunt around the nightly build area for a 
recent vintage. It works fine for audio (e.g. R3, R4), but it doesn't 
like the BBC's streaming video. I'm using the PPC RealPlayer 
10.0.2.628 (the 2004/12/24 build).

The Real (audio) codecs also work nicely in a self-built MPlayer, 
which is handy for saving the BBC's .ra file to disk for later 
playback. (Older) aficionados of ISIHAC may also enjoy the rerun of 
"The Burkis Way";

$ mplayer -nocache rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/bbc7/sun2000.ra # play it
$ mplayer rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/bbc7/sun2000.ra -dumpstream -dumpfile 
/tmp/bw.ra # record for later

and

$ mplayer 
'rtsp://rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk/farm/*/ev7/live24/radio3/live/r3_dsat_g2.ra' 
# R3 live
$ mplayer 
'rtsp://rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk/farm/*/ev7/live24/radio4/live/r4_dsat_g2.ra' 
# R4 live

For the play (vice record), you can use realplay of course, but 
mplayer works better. Some time I intend to rebuild xine and see if 
that handles video any better on PPC that RealPlayer.

There is no official Flash plugin for PPC; an OSS alternative (swfdec) 
will play some older flash formats. In some cases, this may be 
considered a feature.

-jonathan