Real Player in Firefox

I was wandering the web and came across some content that was presented in Real format, which Firefox didn’t seem to support. One problem was that I didn’t have any version of the Real Player installed. The other problem was that I didn’t particularly want to install the Real Player if I could help it, but I especially didn’t want to install the Real One player. I do have a copy of Real Player Basic version 8, but it isn’t currently installed on my system. You can also find it available for download if you don’t already have a copy.

So that’s one problem solved. The other problem is getting embedded Real media to work in Firefox. I tried installing the Real Player, and it installed okay, but didn’t work with Firefox. Off to Google I went. The first page I read had a link to another page with more detail. It turned out that this one was the winner.

During the installation, the Real setup process puts a file named nppl3260.dll in the temporary install folder (the folder is named ~rnsetup, and exists in your temporary directory). The problem is that this file may or may not be installed during setup, and let’s be honest – I didn’t really want the player installed anyway. But the temporary folder is created during setup and then removed. The solution? Start the setup process, then check the temporary files while setup is still running. Sure enough, the file in question was there, just waiting for me to grab it.

I did, copied it to the plugins folder under my Firefox installation, and what do you know? It came right up. Use about:plugins in your Firefox address bar to check the installation of plugins. The Real plugin popped right up – I didn’t even need to restart. I did need to refresh the about:plugins page, however, as I had run it prior to adding the dll to the appropriate folder.

These instructions are for Windows – specifically Windows XP – so the instructions you’ll need to follow on your own installation may vary somewhat.


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32 responses to “Real Player in Firefox”

  1. max1million Avatar
    max1million

    I found I had trouble with the newer versions of Real Player (Real One and Real Player 10).. Real Player 8 Basic seems to work best for me.. This one being that it was originally for Netscape6 and was made before Firefox, it does not find Firefox. When you execute it it just runs but before you click on yes to reboot, (or clean out the temps) copy nppl3260.dll and nppl3260.xpt to Mozilla Firefoxplugins folder (they were here C:WindowsTEMP~rnsetup on my 98) You can use find files named nppl3260 to locate them.. MaX that link worked fine for me..

    Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050225 Firefox/1.0.1

  2. firefoxer Avatar
    firefoxer

    Same thing, I have copied the files mentioned above to the firefox plugin folder, but when I open Deutsche Welle site and lick on radio listen, it spits out the error – cannot find pncrt.dll in the respective folders. I went back and checked, it is a .dll for real networks/player. Windows knowledge base offers to reinstall real player to fix the issue. Like i need the real player. I installed real alternative, but it wouldn’t work with embedded content somehow although i marked to have a plugin for netscape/firefox/opera, found it in the wrong folder and copied it to firefox plugin folder.

    If I snatch the pncrt.dll file from the temp rnsetup folder during installation of real player and throw it in the firefox folder, when the browser tries to play real audio, it crashes, saying firefox got the error and must be closed.
    It’s a bit of a pain, really. So, I tried using ‘external player’ option on the web-site to play real audio from the web (like when you open real alternative to play from the url), and real alternative returned ‘cannot render the file. Weird. Anybody knows how to get this to work? I really like firefox and me hate real player but would like to get embedded real audio in web pages.

    Thanks.

  3. Chad Everett Avatar

    MaX, I’m sorry, but I have no idea. It does the same for me. Perhaps the ID of the object makes it require a particular version of Real Player, or a different interface or something.

    FWIW, I get the same thing, and I’m on a very similar platform (XP SP2, FF 1.0.1). Sorry.

  4. MaX Avatar

    Hi!
    I tried everything you described here in my Firefox, and right now in my “about:plugin” page I can see that the “RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit)” is properly installed and enabled.

    I still get the message “Click here to download plugin”. Do you have any idea?

    My sistem is WindowsXP SP2, Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 and I properly checked to have the file nppl3260.dll and nppl3260.xpt in the FirefoxPlugin folder. I really cannot find a reason for this malfunctioning…

    Thank you!
    MaX

  5. jae Avatar
    jae

    You’re the best!!

  6. JP Avatar
    JP

    Has anyone experienced probs using Firefox with the BBC’s own radio player? This is used when you access any old BBC radio content via the LISTEN AGAIN feature. Many firelfox users report that the players PLAYS, but the various pause, forward, rewind features (that work fine with IExplorer) won’t work with Firefox.

    Any solutions ?

    thanks

  7. wp Avatar
    wp

    Thanks for the tip!!!

    Try this link for the nppl3260.dll file to put into the firefox plug in directory

  8. Sivakumar Avatar
    Sivakumar

    hey dbd and vijay, thanks to both of u… actually vijay’s trick worked for me as i am using win 2k… any dbd thanks for providing the impetus.. thanks a lot

  9. Chad Everett Avatar

    I’d recommend trying the original article, as it should still work.

  10. SonRize Avatar

    I have a computer that came with Real pre-installed, so how can I get the plug-in to work then? I tried Vijay’s tip, but there was no netscape directory whatsoever.