# Help with Real Media download

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-real-media-download/133508>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 23, 2002, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-real-media-download/133508 "2002-10-23T12:30:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mr\_Creosote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Mr\_Creosote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Creosote)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-real-media-download/133508/1 "2002-10-23T12:30:02Z")

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Was hoping someone could help me out with a small computer problem.

I’m trying to download a Real Audio file (some trumpet demos). Unfortunately Real Audio Player tells me that my (400MHz) computer is not fast enough to decode the file (it won’t play or download it). I’ve tried right clicking and ‘saving target as’, but all I get is a 1Kb file. Presumably this is a redirect to the original site.

I have a faster computer at home which I could play the files on if I could download them, but this has a (very) slow internet connection.

Any advice on how to get the files downloaded would be great.

Cheers

Mr Creosote

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**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-real-media-download/133508/2 "2002-10-23T21:54:56Z")

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[Streambox VCR](http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/streambox_vcr.cfm) is a good program for saving .RA streams. Despite its name, [ASFrecorder](http://www.divx-digest.com/software/asf_recorder.html) can also do the same thing. Both programs are freeware. Neither work with all .RA streams. In other words, if the webmaster _really_ doesn’t want you to save it, you won’t be able to use these programs to do so.

Having said all that, it seems odd to me that RealPlayer is even giving you that error message in the first place. I just got rid of my PII 350MHz 6 months ago, and it never had a problem playing _any_ audio or video file due to lack of speed. I checked the system requirements on [real.com](http://real.com) and found that it requires a minimum 233MHz, 300MHz recommended. I don’t think speed is your problem.

Do other .RA files work on that computer? If so, you could post the link and one of us could see if that particular file works on our computers. Do MP3s and WAVs play on your computer? Perhaps you could try uninstalling RealPlayer and downloading and installing the newest version.