Can't play *.RPM file from NPR
Does anyone know why you can't play an *.RPM file from NPR.com? The file is a little dated, but it says you need additional software to play the file, and then of course, the software isn't available anywhere. This is highly frustrating - I plan to contact NPR as well and advise them against using Real Media if it's going to be this unreliable. But if someone can tell me how to play a standard *.RPM file, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!
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Official comment
.RPM files are a compressed file from Red Hat Linux. This is a compressed file. As per Wikipedia, it is a compressed file like how one zips a few files into one. This is not a media file. RealPlayer plays media files and doesn't decompress files. When you try to play a format that is not compatible with RealPlayer, RealPlayer tries to look for any available codecs and when it doesn't find any it throws a message that nothing was found thus indicating that it is an incompatible format.
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rpm_(software)
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It's pretty sad when an "official" comment from Real doesn't recognize that RPM files were an extension that your company used to use for files that would point to audio that would live/play from a server somewhere. In was in the 90s, so maybe you weren't born then.
That being said, I have no idea how to play them back now or if any player exists that will interpret correctly, especially seeing how Real has apparently forgotten about their own legacy software.
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David,
Like we mentioned previously .RPM is a compressed file from Linux (similar to a .ZIP file). It is not a media file and .RPM is a format that RealNetworks was not associated with.
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Yes, .RPM is a Linux compressed format.
BUT REAL ALSO USED .RPM AS AN EXTENSION FOR SMALL FILES THAT POINTED TO REAL AUDIO .RAM FILES THAT WERE DELIVERED BY A WEB SERVER, SIMILAR TO HOW AN M3U FILE POINTS TO STREAMING MP3s.
For lack of a better linkable reference -- read sections 6.1.5 and 6.1.6 in this link.
https://nnc3.com/mags/webD/audio/ch06_01.htm
To answer Scott's original question, I'm guessing that NPR has moved those files and/or no longer has the Real Audio server installed on their end.
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Wow. I can't believe two "official" replies deny and are not aware that realplayer had .rpm file extension :)) This is beyond hilarious. I too, tried to stream an old npr.org real stream and failed miserably so I started searching. My only real regret is that, frustrated by being unable to open the files I made the mistake to install a current RealPlayer on my system. It not only it failed to play the .rpm file, but also installed some shitty bloatware trial antivirus, so after having RealPlayer installed for 5 minutes I had to uninstall both. Just stick to VLC...
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