Media Types
In general, a media type (or "format") is a specific kind of file, such as a music file or a Flash (.flv) video file. If an application such as RealPlayer/RealTimes is registered as the default player for a media type, that application will open when you double-click a file of that media type. Being the default player does not mean that files cannot be played by other products, only that when you do not make a specific choice, the default product will be used automatically.
To view a complete list of file formats currently supported by your RealPlayer/RealTimes PC desktop player, open Media Types Preferences.
| File Type |
Included in free version of |
Requires RealPlayer Plus or |
|---|---|---|
| DVD | X | |
| MPEG-4 file (mp4 m4e m4v) | X* | |
| VOB (vob) | X* | |
| MPEG media (mps m2v m1v mpe) | X* | |
| 3GPP Content (3gp) | X | |
| 3GPP2 Content (3g2) | X | |
| AAC Audio (aac, m4a) | X | |
| AIFF audio (aif, aiff) | X | |
| AMR Narrow-Band Content (amr) | X | |
| AU audio (au) | X | |
| Audio playlist (pls, xpl) | X | |
| AVI video (avi) | X | |
| CD Audio (cda) | X | |
| DIVX Video (divx) | X | |
| FLAC (.flac) | X | |
| Flash Video (flv) | X | |
| IVR (ivr) | X | |
| Microsoft Media Server Protocol | X | |
| MIDI audio (mid, midi, rmi) | X | |
| MKA (mka) | X | |
| MKV (mkv) | X* | |
| MOV video (mov) | X | |
| MP1 Audio (mp1) | X | |
| MP3 Audio (mp3) | X | |
| MP3 Audio playlist | X | |
| MPA media (mpa) | X | |
| MPEG video (mpg, mpeg, mpv) | X | |
| MPEG audio (mpga) | X | |
| Ogg (.ogg) | X | |
| Qualcomm PureVoice and Enhanced (qcp) | X | |
| RealAudio (ra) | X | |
| RealAudio Lossless | X | |
| RealVideo (rv) | X | |
| RMHD | X | |
| SMIL | X | |
| Streaming Media Metafile (ssm) | X | |
| WAV (wave, wav) | X | |
| WebM (webm) | X | |
| Windows Media Audio (wma) | X | |
| Windows Media Audio file (asx asf) | X | |
| Windows Media Audio shortcut (wax) | X | |
| Windows Media Audio/Video file (wm) | X | |
| Windows Media Video (wmv) | X | |
| Windows Media Audio/Video shortcut (wmx) | X |
*May contain codecs that require RealPlayer Plus/RealTimes Premium, depending on your operating system.
Universal Media Player
The RealTimes Universal Media capability allows you to manage and play the most popular music and video media types all within one application. We recommend that you enable Universal Media capability within Media Types Preferences.
Plug-Ins and Updating
RealNetworks is constantly working to expand the abilities of RealTimes. As you add plug-ins to RealTimes, the list of supported media types will change. When new formats are available, RealTimes will automatically install them when you attempt to play that type of content. Alternatively, you can manually check for new components using AutoUpdate.