Real’s innovative RealPlayer SP software, at this time in beta, adds functionality to rip from YouTube and other streaming video filess from the Internet and get them onto whatever handheld you choose. It works well enough, but it’s also overcrowded full of needless features.
RealPlayer SP is the progress of the long-running RealPlayer software. It’s a media manager and player, along with a packaged web browser, a contribution music store (Rhapsody), a gaming store (Real Arcade), an audio recorder, and now a streaming video ripper/converter with ties-in to social networking sites. It is at the moment Windows only, though we’re assured a Mac version is forthcoming. The beta comes in two versions: One is free of charge, and the other costs $40 and includes H.264 alteration, DVD playback and DVD burning.
