Firefox and Media Player

  • Thread starter Thread starter aldrenean
  • Start date Start date
A

aldrenean

I love FF, but I have a couple minor probs that I was hoping someone
could help me with:
A) Embedded Windows Media Player files don't play, and I can't find a
plugin for FF on the microsoft site. I either need a plugin or a way
to use RealPlayer, which works for me. Sorry, I know this is probably
really simple, and I don't want to be seen as a n00b.
B) Some HTML effects don't work: Example. On my myspace I have a text
filter that adds a glow effect, but it only shows up in IE. I don't
know if there is a way to fix this or if it just missing functionality.
It's not a real big deal, but if anyone know, could you please let me
know?
Thanks.
Scott
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote in @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:
I love FF, but I have a couple minor probs that I was hoping someone
could help me with:
A) Embedded Windows Media Player files don't play, and I can't find a
plugin for FF on the microsoft site.

I once looked into that and I think the answer was that you needed an
ActiveX plugin for Firefox. I wasn't real keen on that so I didn't pursue
it further. I apologize in advance if my memory is faulty here, but that's
how I remember it.
 
I love FF, but I have a couple minor probs that I was hoping someone
could help me with:
A) Embedded Windows Media Player files don't play, and I can't find a
plugin for FF on the microsoft site. I either need a plugin or a way
to use RealPlayer, which works for me. Sorry, I know this is probably
really simple, and I don't want to be seen as a n00b.
Open FF and type about:plugins in the address location. Look for
Windows media player plugin. If it is not there go to
https://addons.mozilla.org/?application=firefox and click on the
firefox plugins at the top of the page. Look for WMP plugin part way
down the list.
If it listed in about:plugins then the problem is the webpage you are
trying to get media player files from is not compatable with FF since
the page was written for IE..
B) Some HTML effects don't work: Example. On my myspace I have a text
filter that adds a glow effect, but it only shows up in IE. I don't
know if there is a way to fix this or if it just missing functionality.
It's not a real big deal, but if anyone know, could you please let me
know?
Thanks.
What kind of file is this glow effect?
Some filters/files are not compatable with FF..
 
jacaranda said:
(e-mail address removed) wrote in @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:




I once looked into that and I think the answer was that you needed an
ActiveX plugin for Firefox. I wasn't real keen on that so I didn't pursue
it further. I apologize in advance if my memory is faulty here, but that's
how I remember it.

Your memory is indeed faulty ;-) Firefox does *not* need an ActiveX
plugin to play embedded WMP files.

To the OP:
Which version of Windows and WMP (and Firefox) are you using?

(XP SP2 here with WMP 10 and embedded WMP files play fine.)
 
Your memory is indeed faulty ;-) Firefox does *not* need an ActiveX
plugin to play embedded WMP files.

Here's the link from the Firefox forum that explains the issue.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=206213

In a nutshell, embedded WMP files don't always work for Firefox. And I
found this to frequently be the case.


ActiveX Plugin

Some Embedded/Streaming Media (such as those on launch.com) use an
ActiveX Control to embed Windows Media into a web page. ActiveX is what
Internet Explorer uses instead of the plugin system adopted by Netscape.
Where plugins are essentially sub-programs run within the browser (and so
subject to whatever limitations the browser imposes on it), ActiveX
controls are Windows programs, and so do not have limits imposed on them
and what they are allowed to do. This gives them a lot of poential power
over your system, especially coupled with the fact that IE can download
and install them automatically for you. The intention was to allow for
more complex web page content, but the system can be and has been
exploited to install viruses, adware, spyware, and the like. The power of
ActiveX can be a big security risk, and is one of the more serious
security vulnerabilities in IE. Partly for this reason, Firefox does not
come with ActiveX support installed.

There are ActiveX plugins for Firefox avaliable, and this section of the
guide gives instructions for installing and testing it. The security
issue is bypassed because the plugins for Firefox come pre-configured to
only run the Windows Media Player controls. It will simply refuse to run
any other control, good or bad. This will allow you to view many of the
websites that only use ActiveX to embed media.
 
jacaranda said:
[email protected]:




Here's the link from the Firefox forum that explains the issue.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=206213

In a nutshell, embedded WMP files don't always work for Firefox. And I
found this to frequently be the case.

The OP wrote that "Embedded Windows Media Player files don't play" which
I took to mean that no embedded WMP files will play. It is rare for me
to run across a website that won't play embedded WMP files in Firefox.
IIRC, certain WMP media on MSN, MSNBC and launch.yahoo.com (from the
article you posted) don't play in Firefox.
 
[""; Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:01:18 GMT]
B) Some HTML effects don't work: Example. On my myspace I have a text
filter that adds a glow effect, but it only shows up in IE. I don't
know if there is a way to fix this or if it just missing functionality.

Firefox doesn't support this and I doubt it ever will. It's an IE thing.
 
The OP wrote that "Embedded Windows Media Player files don't play" which
I took to mean that no embedded WMP files will play. It is rare for me
to run across a website that won't play embedded WMP files in Firefox.
IIRC, certain WMP media on MSN, MSNBC and launch.yahoo.com (from the
article you posted) don't play in Firefox.
Yeah, it all depends on what sites you visit. Most of the sites I visit
don't play WMP, and I didn't want to deal with ActiveX, hence my response.

BTW, the link I cited explains any and all problems with embedded WMP, not
just the ActiveX problem. So the OP should check it out. Here it is
again:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=206213
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote in @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:




I once looked into that and I think the answer was that you needed an
ActiveX plugin for Firefox. I wasn't real keen on that so I didn't pursue
it further. I apologize in advance if my memory is faulty here, but that's
how I remember it.
This depends, WMP has some netscape plugins which will work with some
sites just copy the npdrmv2.dll, npdsplay.dll and npwmsdrm.dll from
your \Program Files\Windows Media Player directory to your Mozilla
Firefox\plugins directory. If you do an about:plugins you should then
see these listed. This works for some sites. Unfortunately some sites
use ActiveX to invoke WMP and in this case the ActiveX plugin is needed.
Whilst iit is a slightly increased security risk one thing to remember
is that by default it only allows the WMP ActiveX component to work and
nothing else.

HTH,

Richard

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