Realplayer doesn't play, reeally.

[Ed Jabbour <ejbr@comcast.net>]

In the last few days, Realplayer won't play any files in a browser.  At 
CSPAN, e.g., neither the embedded videos nor the standalone option will 
run.  Realplayer is called, but nothing happens.  Video at the BBC also 
will not play, either plugin or standalone.

I thought maybe it was Firefox, but the problem recurs in Konqueror, 
Epiphany and Iceweasel.   Firefox has the following in about:config:

 network.protocol-handler.app.rtsp  user set string  /usr/bin/realplay

Also:

[Mon Apr 16] edj:~$ locate nphelix
/home/edj/.mozilla/plugins/nphelix.so
/home/edj/.mozilla/plugins/nphelix.xpt
/usr/lib/firefox/plugins/nphelix.so
/usr/lib/firefox/plugins/nphelix.xpt
/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/nphelix.so
/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/nphelix.xpt
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/nphelix.so
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/nphelix.xpt
/usr/lib/mozilla-snapshot/plugins/nphelix.so
/usr/lib/mozilla-snapshot/plugins/nphelix.xpt
/usr/lib/netscape/plugins-libc6/nphelix.so
/usr/lib/netscape/plugins-libc6/nphelix.xpt

I thought, too, that maybe Realplayer somehow corrupted, so I purged and 
re-installed.  Same problem.  It's Realplayer 10 Gold installed from 
debian.multimedia.  If some library or other is missing, I'd have 
thought that the re-install would have brought it down.

Any advice, pointers, guesses greatly appreciated.