Well I'm glad to hear that Real has improved the quality of its video
offerings recently. It would perhaps have been more correct to say that
RealVideo has been historically substandard, as least as far as the
quality of video actually appearing in the RealVideo format, but it is
entirely possible that this will change in the future.
The other end of it, of course, is the pain associated with installing
the RealVideo codec in the first place. On the Windows platform, of
course, Real is at an inherent disadvantage because of Windows Media
Player not shipping with a RealVideo codec. Real should take steps to
make viewing their video less difficult for users. For the vast
majority of users, installing RealOne is the only way they know how to
get access to viewing the video (if there's a DirectShow plugin, you
certainly can't get to it from the web site), and RealOne player by
default is extremely annoying.