Video & Audio Player

Moving on, Real Player can also act as your music, video, and movie player. It'll play videos that you download from the internet (not necessarily through Real) or play DVDs that you insert into your PC's drives. Much like other programs of this nature, it'll also allow you to create MP3 playlists, and can be used as your primary means of listening and arranging MP3s. Simply click the Music and My Library tab at the top and you'll see all of your options. Click on My Library from the left list of options and there it is. From here on choose whichever option suits you...if you want to compile your library of music and videos, press on the All Media option. If you want just music, click on Music -- and the same goes for Videos. If you wish to create a playlist, or automate a playlist, the two options are right there for you.

Streaming Music
Now, remember you can listen to the newest single releases with Real. If you were to click on Jo-Jo's splash on the main page, then you'd be able to listen to her entire album. As a first time user, you're given 25 free listens every month. You'll likely have a different splash when you read this guide, but it still goes for other artists. So if you see My Chemical Romance or Jay-Z, click on them -- you may very well be able to listen to their new album and see if you like what you hear before you put down $10 on a purchase.

Options, Options, Options
To have RealPlayer work just right for you, there are a multitude of things you can tinker with. First off, allows us to explore the "Tools" menu. Drop the menu down and you'll notice an Equalizer. Open the Equalizer up and you'll be granted three slides for bass, mid and treble. If you would like your audio to have a bit more crispness and clarity, then you'll want to raise the treble a bit, as well as raising the mid-slide a notch. When you want a little depth from your sound, you can raise the bass-slide.

Now at the bottom of the Tools menu is the Preferences selection. Click on Preferences and here you'll be able to tinker with various settings. For instance, when you're streaming video or audio, how much of the clip would you like buffered (downloaded) before the player begins to stream it? You can adjust that setting here with ease in the Playback Settings option. Simply enter the designated time you'd prefer and press Ok. Additionally, when you insert an audio CD and you'd like to transfer it to your PC, you can change the format which it saves as. So if you wish to save (a.k.a "rip") your music CD into your PC, click on the "CD" option and choose the format you wish to save as.

File Format Tip: AAC is arguably the cleanest as far as condensed audio files go, but many PC players and portable music players do not recognize this format. Wave is the largest file size and is actually a straight rip from the CD (so often times your transferred songs will be about 40-70MB in size). In this case, let's just stick to MP3 since it's the most versatile and most widely accepted format.

So now you'll notice a box below that says "Select Quality Level". Traditionally, when you download MP3s their quality will be either 128 or 192. Now, the higher the bitrate number, the better the quality of the ripped audio song. A rule of thumb is to save/rip your audio at 192 bitrate, because anything higher is overkill and purely for audiophiliac purposes -- the differences are minute at best. If you're pressed for hard-drive space then you may select 128kbps bitrate and you're still in a very good zone.

iPod Users
If you're an iPod user, you can sync your iPod and RealPlayer together. Look at the "Devices" option and look to see if you already have your iPod enabled in there. Chances are the iPod is pre-enabled, so setting up will be quite easy from here on. Basically, if you'd like your iPod and Real to sync, just check off a little box at the bottom of the "Devices" menu that says "Automatic Launch". Now, every time you connect your iPod (or any other enabled device), RealPlayer will fire up as well, allowing you to browse your device with it.