Just got finished visiting CDNOW to get track info on an old tape I’m digitizing. As many such sites do, this one provides sound fragments of each track, ideal for verifying that I’m chopping the audio stream at the right places and labeling them correctly. As way too many such sound fragments are, these were in lousy stinkin’ R$^&#^@#%!! Realaudio (.ra) format.
a. I have to be online to listen; can’t actually save the sound fragment to disk. I know that’s the site manager’s option (there are completely downloadable versions too) but I hate that…
b. Links saved to hard disk can’t be renamed. So instead of something called TrackOne.ra or Holiday.ra or whatever, I’m stuck with qwerty1234545656543andmorecrap.ra or (even more irritating) “ra.ram” (same name for each track, requiring each link to be saved in its own friggin’ FOLDER
c. Can’t convert format to friendlier formats such as MPEG, .mov, .mp3, AIFF, .au, .snd or .wav
All of the above apply to stinkin’ lousy RealMedia movie clips, too, plus a tendency to crash my browser if I stupidly try to close the active window in mid-play.
OH YEAH…also, lest I forget:
“Important advertisement about upgrading to the RealMedia Player that would cost you money! Learn more right now, or Remind me later?”
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