Media player suggestions.

In my old computer, I had Real Player (10. I think) and now in my new computer, I have Windows Media Player, just upgraded to 10. (WMP was also in my old computer but rarely worked). The kid who built my computer doesn't like Real Player (and I admit their messaging and emails are a pain), so we didn't re-install.
WMP does very well with Thom Hartmann; it hangs in there and rarely drops off, but it doesn't play C-Span videos as dependably as Real Player did. Changing the start point of the video is suddenly hard to do.
I have Win XP, Netscape 7.2 and 1GB of RAM (oh, bliss!). Any suggestions?

realplayer's spam. And make sure it doesn't automatically when you boot up.

There are some sites, like CSPAN, where RP just plain works better.

I happen to like Windows for some things but Real Player seems to work better for a lot of videos. I also use QuickTime and iTunes. I generally find if something doesn't work well in one player, I just try another. With all of the different file formats out there it's hard to use just one player.

having trouble posting using firefox ... this is from IE ...

here's the description provided on "Real Alternative" which is a Real Player freeware substitute:
Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer/RealOne Player.

I use Real Alternative on .rm (i.e. Real Player) files and it works great and you don't get all the registration and spam garbage ...

download Real Alternative here ==>
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

my favorite media player, hoever, is winamp ...
you can download winamp here ==>
http://www.winamp.com/

What does it do best?

the main benefit i get from using Winamp is that it integrates very nicely with Streamripper (http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/) ... Streamripper allows you to record live streams from internet radio ...

Winamp, like most of the big name media players, has all kinds of "skins" that allow you to modify the look and feel ... i also find it much less fussy than Windows Media Player (WMP) ... WMP sometimes refuses to play music i've recorded (i think some of the headers it's looking for may be missing) ...

i don't think Winamp is able to play .rm (Real Media) files though ... so if you go with Winamp, you'll also need something else like Real Alternative or the Real Player itself ...

all these things are available for free ... it might be worth just downloading several players to see which ones you like ...

Only does music, but by golly it kicks the ever loving crap out of anything else ever written, hands down. And its free.

I'll experiment.