Real Player in Firefox »
I was wandering the web and came across some content that was presented in Real format, which Firefox didn't seem to support. One problem was that I didn't have any version of the Real Player installed. The other problem was that I didn't particularly want to install the Real Player if I could help it, but I especially didn't want to install the Real One player. I do have a copy of Real Player Basic version 8, but it isn't currently installed on my system. You can also find it available for download if you don't already have a copy.
So that's one problem solved. The other problem is getting embedded Real media to work in Firefox. I tried installing the Real Player, and it installed okay, but didn't work with Firefox. Off to Google I went. The first page I read had a link to another page with more detail. It turned out that this one was the winner.
During the installation, the Real setup process puts a file named nppl3260.dll in the temporary install folder (the folder is named ~rnsetup, and exists in your temporary directory). The problem is that this file may or may not be installed during setup, and let's be honest - I didn't really want the player installed anyway. But the temporary folder is created during setup and then removed. The solution? Start the setup process, then check the temporary files while setup is still running. Sure enough, the file in question was there, just waiting for me to grab it.
I did, copied it to the plugins folder under my Firefox installation, and what do you know? It came right up. Use about:plugins in your Firefox address bar to check the installation of plugins. The Real plugin popped right up - I didn't even need to restart. I did need to refresh the about:plugins page, however, as I had run it prior to adding the dll to the appropriate folder.
These instructions are for Windows - specifically Windows XP - so the instructions you'll need to follow on your own installation may vary somewhat.
Comments (29)
Sweet! That works - thanks for the tip!
Posted by Motley Fool on August 23, 2004 10:58 AM
I have Firefox and I needed to do the same thing. I used a program called real alternative instead of real player. I just made sure that during the setup I checked the box to install the plugin in Mozilla. I had to browse to the plugin directory for firefox because the setup program had it pointed to the wrong directory.
All is well. Works great. Thanks for the info.
Posted by Jeff on August 31, 2004 10:47 PM
Well I did that and it worked like a charm, thanks for taking the time to excplain this to everyone who might take an interest to read this helpful article. :)
Posted by bikerboy on September 10, 2004 6:46 PM
I tried installing the file and grabbing the dll from the temp directory, but it just installed the entire program without asking me to proceed to the next step. You must have meant to download the player from the official real website. I followed this link:
ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/netscape6/english/6.1/windows/win32/xpi/nsrp8.exe
You should clarify that.
Posted by a on September 13, 2004 11:58 AM
I didn't actually need to download the player from Real or from Netscape, as I had it archived on my PC. As such, I only provided the link in case someone else needed it. I do not provide the hosting for the link, vouch for the particulars of the link, or even know if it works. It seemed to when I check it out earlier. It may not any longer.
In any case, when I did the install, and it worked, I performed the steps as I listed them here. I am sorry if you had problems with it, and I hate dissatisfied customers. Send me your name, address and social security number and I'll refund the money you provided me for this service.
Posted by Chad Everett on September 13, 2004 1:11 PM
heh. thank you for your quick refund.
i was able to uninstall it and haven't noticed any problems. i haven't tried opening Real files though.
on my other computer, i loaded the install from their website RealPlayer 10 GOLD or whatever, and I was able to sneak out the nppl3260.dll file without actually installing it. i copied the file to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins, cancelled the installation, restarted firefox, and
RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit)
showed up in my about:plugins. now how do i test it? i'm not able to open up just any old files, so i guess it's for "embedded" content? sigh. i guess it's not what i was looking for after all...
Posted by a on September 18, 2004 1:07 PM
Another possible alternative is Real Alternative. I just recently switched to FIREFOX from IE. I had the problem of not being able to play real player content in Firefox so I tried uninstalling Real One and then happened upon "Real Alternative". This lighter player doesn't seem to carry all the "junk" along with it that Real One does--and it installed perfectly as a plug-in into Firefox.
Just watched streaming news content from FNN: http://www.fnn-news.com/ no problems (and it actually loaded noticeably faster than when I was using Real One)
Posted by NA on October 9, 2004 1:42 PM
Where did you get Real Alternative?
Posted by JonSmith on October 15, 2004 1:51 PM
Try Google.
Posted by Chad Everett on October 19, 2004 8:29 AM
Thanks! It did not exactly worked that way but reminded me of a similar tip I followed for Netscape browser earlier.
All I did was to copy following 4 files from a existing real player installation directory -
your_local_drive\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer\Netscape6
nppl3260.dll
nprjplug.dll
nprpjplug.dll
nppl3260.xpt
to firefox directory -
your_local_drive\Program Files\Firefox\plugins
and it worked even without browser restart!
I did that on Win2k but should also work on XP.
- Vijay
Posted by Vijay on November 4, 2004 10:44 PM
I have a computer that came with Real pre-installed, so how can I get the plug-in to work then? I tried Vijay's tip, but there was no netscape directory whatsoever.
Posted by SonRize on November 10, 2004 6:33 PM
I'd recommend trying the original article, as it should still work.
Posted by Chad Everett on November 10, 2004 8:57 PM
hey dbd and vijay, thanks to both of u... actually vijay's trick worked for me as i am using win 2k... any dbd thanks for providing the impetus.. thanks a lot
Posted by Sivakumar on November 17, 2004 10:55 AM
Thanks for the tip!!!
Try this link for the nppl3260.dll file to put into the firefox plug in directory
Posted by wp on November 27, 2004 2:37 PM
Has anyone experienced probs using Firefox with the BBC's own radio player? This is used when you access any old BBC radio content via the LISTEN AGAIN feature. Many firelfox users report that the players PLAYS, but the various pause, forward, rewind features (that work fine with IExplorer) won't work with Firefox.
Any solutions ?
thanks
Posted by JP on December 23, 2004 7:45 AM
You're the best!!
Posted by jae on February 15, 2005 11:55 PM
Hi!
I tried everything you described here in my Firefox, and right now in my "about:plugin" page I can see that the "RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit)" is properly installed and enabled.
I still get the message "Click here to download plugin". Do you have any idea?
My sistem is WindowsXP SP2, Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 and I properly checked to have the file nppl3260.dll and nppl3260.xpt in the Firefox\Plugin folder. I really cannot find a reason for this malfunctioning...
Thank you!
MaX
Posted by MaX on March 8, 2005 6:30 PM
MaX, I'm sorry, but I have no idea. It does the same for me. Perhaps the ID of the object makes it require a particular version of Real Player, or a different interface or something.
FWIW, I get the same thing, and I'm on a very similar platform (XP SP2, FF 1.0.1). Sorry.
Posted by Chad Everett on March 9, 2005 9:24 AM
Same thing, I have copied the files mentioned above to the firefox plugin folder, but when I open Deutsche Welle site and lick on radio listen, it spits out the error - cannot find pncrt.dll in the respective folders. I went back and checked, it is a .dll for real networks/player. Windows knowledge base offers to reinstall real player to fix the issue. Like i need the real player. I installed real alternative, but it wouldn't work with embedded content somehow although i marked to have a plugin for netscape/firefox/opera, found it in the wrong folder and copied it to firefox plugin folder.
If I snatch the pncrt.dll file from the temp rnsetup folder during installation of real player and throw it in the firefox folder, when the browser tries to play real audio, it crashes, saying firefox got the error and must be closed.
It's a bit of a pain, really. So, I tried using 'external player' option on the web-site to play real audio from the web (like when you open real alternative to play from the url), and real alternative returned 'cannot render the file. Weird. Anybody knows how to get this to work? I really like firefox and me hate real player but would like to get embedded real audio in web pages.
Thanks.
Posted by firefoxer on March 14, 2005 10:10 AM
I found I had trouble with the newer versions of Real Player (Real One and Real Player 10).. Real Player 8 Basic seems to work best for me.. This one being that it was originally for Netscape6 and was made before Firefox, it does not find Firefox. When you execute it it just runs but before you click on yes to reboot, (or clean out the temps) copy nppl3260.dll and nppl3260.xpt to Mozilla Firefox\plugins\ folder (they were here C:\Windows\TEMP\~rnsetup on my 98) You can use find files named nppl3260 to locate them.. MaX that link worked fine for me..
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050225 Firefox/1.0.1
Posted by max1million on March 28, 2005 2:43 AM
Great .. simply GReAT .. i could not believe this worked. Thanks a lot guys . hats off ...
RAj
Posted by raj_guy on March 30, 2005 1:01 AM
I tried the orignal steps in the article and... it doesn't work. Firefox still asks me to install the plug-in, although the plug-in appears in the plug-in list.
The embedded realmedia content work fine in internet explorer.
However, here's a little background. I switched to Real Alternative after realplayer gave a real pain in the arse for not working for years!! I tried everything on my machine and just could not play realplayer files (whether streaming or downloaded ones). RealPlayer would crash. In the end i switched to real alternative for which I can play all downloaded ones and most streaming ones. Occasionally, I come across some streaming file that just does not play. I did some testings and noticed that it's the files that have the ram file extension. If you look into this ram file, you can get a link to an rm file and if you copy this link into real alternative, it still won't play.. although, if you download it and then play it from your hard disk, it plays fine.
Anyway... the real problem now is playing streaming real media files in firefox... it won't work. :(
Hope Mozilla or real alternative or anyone else comes up with some fix very soon.
Posted by baadshah on April 5, 2005 7:07 AM
I am guessing that everyone found the solution but just in case here are a couple of links which should help you out.
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Embedded & Streaming Quicktime, Real, WMP Guide for Windows Users of Firefox.
There is a section on Missing Plugin Alert and they also provide a REPLACEMENT nppl3260.dll which adds ra, ram and rm support
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Foxytunes Extension
This is one of the best extensions I have come across. It allows you to control your favorite media player without leaving the browser. The controls are positioned on the status bar or one of the toolbars. It works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
Posted by JJ on July 6, 2005 10:05 PM
Why not just use Real Alternative, the free (and spyware-free) Real-media player?
Posted by ander on February 7, 2006 3:06 AM
The problem with that is it defeats the purpose of using Real inside Firefox.
Posted by Chad Everett on February 7, 2006 5:43 AM
That worked fantastic - thanks!
Posted by Dades on May 2, 2006 9:22 AM
Years ago, I made a music CD using "Real One Player" and managed to get every song I loved on just one CD.
Unfortunately, when my computer died, it took the "Real One Player" with it. Now my beloved CD is considered to be "a blank CD" (or something) by my friends' computers ("Real Player" won't recognize it).
Is there anyone who will send me this old software free of charge? I guess I should keep the "Real One Player" software on the CD, itself? Thanking you in advance, Lex
Posted by lex on September 13, 2007 6:41 AM
Hi Lex -
You should check out oldversion.com, specifically the section devoted to Real Player.
I can't guarantee that they'll have what you need, but there are plenty of versions of software (including Real One Player 1.0 and 2.0).
Posted by Chad Everett on September 13, 2007 8:13 AM
I was also having the same problem with being unable to play real media files in firefox inspite of having the real plugin 10.5 installed for firefox ... there is a help page from mozilla regarding the problem which says the best solution is to use internet explorer because some sites use non standard codes to embed files that only i-explorer can read ... i just use i-explorer now when i have to play real media files online ... it works fine for me
Posted by Mahdi on October 1, 2007 12:17 PM