Is this software safe? HELIX Producer Basic software...and another question

My school, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh online division, is telling me I need this however I do NOT trust anything they say. They have sent me to virus land one too many times and I will not deal with this again for another 6wks.

Anything I am asked to download I will ask of you computer savy types here on ATS/BTS since I trust you more

I was told to download this Helix Producer Basic Software... I have no idea what it is really for but I'm not sure I really need it. They have a tendency to require you to download useless programs which just mess up your computer...believe me I know!

This is a speech class and I am assuming this program has to do with webcams or something. I will be using my droid phone's video recorder or my little Flip camera/camcorder. I have never needed any software when getting the video to load from either phone so I want to make sure this program isn't really needed. Also they mentioned compression of the video...no idea how to do that. Any site "how to's" would be great if anyone has any

I don't want to download anything I don't need even though they love to tell me I need it. I have gone without many things they require. It's either to expensive or not needed or it messes up my computer.

The other question I have is this...If I am downloading files like video or word/ppt/excel and they are from another person in my class could they infect my computer? I have been told yes which definitely explains computer issues I have had since I started that school.

I will not be there after this session, I am transferring but I want to make sure I don't have anymore added issues with my computer. I had to do a system restore and it was a pain but it's like new....for now.

Thank you to the member who helped me restore my computer, it worked!! Thanks!

The helix software according to their website:

"professional-grade software encoding product for H.264, MP4 and RealVideo encoding for live or on-demand delivery of media over broadband networks. With multiple outputs encoding, content is simultaneously encoded for PCs and mobile devices."

This was the prof. version, not the basic but if it follows suit to the server, then the basic edition will have limited functionality.

My opinion (and 23 years of computer tech experience) says it is most likely NOT infected with viruses. It MAY slow down your PC a tad depending on what all it installs with it, but without trying it I'll remain only 95% sure instead of 100%

Anytime you receive any file from any source you are risking the chance of a virus. Having said that, although word, xls, and windows media files can be infected with 'viruses', the flash drives that you stick in other computers can become infected as well and can spread through the flash drive being inserted, not through files you would be transferring.

You can definitely be infected by excel or word file being sent to you by someone else, though usually either party has no idea the if the files are infected.

Not familiar with Helix, but the net tells me its used with RealProducer to broadcast live or "simulated live" audio and video webcasts. Convert audio and video files for on-demand streaming media. Create synchronized multimedia presentations combining multiple datatypes...I'm guessing thats relevant to what you do?

Though I have no idea its reputation.

A system restore is good for rectifying problems, but it sounds to me your machine has bugs...not necessarily from the software you're using though.

Try malwarebytes.org for their free version, its very good.

Originally posted by sykickvision
The helix software according to their website:

"professional-grade software encoding product for H.264, MP4 and RealVideo encoding for live or on-demand delivery of media over broadband networks. With multiple outputs encoding, content is simultaneously encoded for PCs and mobile devices."

Yeah this is like reading a foreign language to me What does it mean? Sorry I do not know computer lingo...

This was the prof. version, not the basic but if it follows suit to the server, then the basic edition will have limited functionality.

My opinion (and 23 years of computer tech experience) says it is most likely NOT infected with viruses. It MAY slow down your PC a tad depending on what all it installs with it, but without trying it I'll remain only 95% sure instead of 100%

Anytime you receive any file from any source you are risking the chance of a virus. Having said that, although word, xls, and windows media files can be infected with 'viruses', the flash drives that you stick in other computers can become infected as well and can spread through the flash drive being inserted, not through files you would be transferring.

I dont need it to slow it down lol If I don't need this I am not getting it. If it costs I am definitely not getting it.

Thanks.

The software does a couple of things but the most important one seems to be "Live streaming" So it lets you broadcast a Live web cam feed to someone else, like hosting your own TV / Radio show.

Personaly I wouldn't ever install anything made by "RealNetworks" as it tends to be full of ads very memory hungry and badly written, but if you need it to be able to stream video in .rm format for your course I guess you might not have a choice.

It won't be a virus, but it might well contain a lot of annoying features that would make you wish it was

The format RealNetworks use is their own, so only their programs will play / encode it (as far as I knw) which is another reason to dislike it.

Originally posted by davespanners
The software does a couple of things but the most important one seems to be "Live streaming" So it lets you broadcast a Live web cam feed to someone else, like hosting your own TV / Radio show.

Personaly I wouldn't ever install anything made by "RealNetworks" as it tends to be full of ads very memory hungry and badly written, but if you need it to be able to stream video in .rm format for your course I guess you might not have a choice.

It won't be a virus, but it might well contain a lot of annoying features that would make you wish it was

The format RealNetworks use is their own, so only their programs will play / encode it (as far as I knw) which is another reason to dislike it.

edit on 4-10-2010 by davespanners because: (no reason given)

Well yea it sounds like something I don't want esp if it has annoying features..lol I already want to toss my laptop lol

We have to make videos of our speeches and load them to the DOC section of the classroom. If I can send videos in email and such shouldn't i be able to load it as a media file no problem without their software suggestion? They seem to make us download all kinds of useless programs.

I have had nothing but problems with various things they have told me to download or open. It's been a headache and I only have to deal with this school for 6 more weeks, then I transfer.

Thanks

I would ask what format they want the videos posted in..
If it's in RM format then your probably stuck with what they suggest, if it's something else then you can probably find other better software to do the same thing for free on the net

Use Avira. It's free and actually better than most of the stuff you have to pay for. And someone up there mentioned malwarebytes antimalware; you should probably get that too, but it doesn't do real-time protection, that's where Avira comes in. Keep them both updated and do a complete scan of your HD(s) once or twice a week with both of them.


-TheAssoc.