Windows Media 9 and AOL, Mac, etc.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Lang
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Chris Lang

Have the issues of Windows Media 9 technologies been addressed with the AOL
Media Player and the Macintosh Windows Media Players? Is there ANY player
that will play a Series 9 Video on a MAC? All my Mac users (the 2% of my
visitors, seems like) say the can't play my video files (Windows Media 9
saved with MM2). Any ideas?

Chris Lang
website: http://disneylandsource.com
 
Thank You. I had been to that page. Unfortunately, for a lot of my footage,
I don't have acess to the source footage anymore (somebody else is encoding
this stuff). I'd be more curious to see if Microsoft is planning a release
of a Windows Media Plaeyr 9 for Mac in the near future, but with their
current trend of excluding Mac users, it doesn't look promising.

I really like the quality of Media 9, and it would be a shame to convert
everything over to Media 7 (or 8, I'm told works with the OSX version),
just to appease such a small number of users (I have about 40 video files on
my site).

Anyone working for MS care to post annonymously what they've heard? Is Mac
(and most other platforms) being excluded from further Windows Media Player
technologies? Even though Mac has such a small percentage of the total
number of computers and operating systems out there, it seems like a bad
move.

It's also frustrating that AOL's proprietary (junk) media player doesn't
support it either, yet the latest build of AOL 9.0 supports a new AOL codec.
<sigh>

"Can't we all just get along?!?!"

- Chris
 
Chris,

From what I hear, there is something in the way of an update to the Mac
viewer that will support version 9 movies. But I have no specifics or
forecast, just hope. Until then, I try to help people get it ported over -
one direction or the other.

PapaJohn
 
PapaJohn (MVP) said:
Chris,

From what I hear, there is something in the way of an update to the Mac
viewer that will support version 9 movies. But I have no specifics or
forecast, just hope. Until then, I try to help people get it ported over -
one direction or the other.

PapaJohn
Click to expand...

I took a trip over to the Mac Windows Media newsgroups and saw an informal
announcement that MS is working on a new player for Mac OSX that will
support WM9 and they hope to release it this Fall.

Of course, this means that folks running older versions of their OS may be
completely shut out of WM9 technology, unless MS develops a codec for folks
running player 7.1

Thanks again, love your site, btw. Very helpful!

- Chris Lang
 
Thanks Chris,

Coming from you, I consider that a real positive note about my website. Tell
me - if you can - can I use video clips that I took at Disney in my personal
movies without copyright permissions? Can I use the audio part as background
of my other video, or does it have to stay together - audio and video?

PapaJohn
 
In regards to copyright, there are some attractions (mostly the attractions
where films are shown) that there are strictly "no videotaping" attractions.
Others prohibit videotaping because of safety factors. If it's your own
video, you essentially own the copyright to it, but you cannot legally sell
it or make a profit from it, and it can't be used commercially.

If you're going to use it for personal use (i.e. this is my Disneyworld
vacation...here's the video), I think this is acceptable. However, if your
website sells items, displays advertising or there is some other way in
which you benefit from showing this material, you might get into trouble.
From a legal standpoint, I think if you asked Disney, they would say it's
illegal, but they don't have the resources or the desire (it seems) to
prosecute this kind of behavior (unless you are making money from it).

Disney, for the most part, has been fairly "dont ask dont tell" about using
their material on fansites, and my website has had video material on it
since 2000, and I have yet to hear from Disney legal. (it's a fairly popular
website too, and gets about 2k visitors a day).

As far as the audio material pulled from the video, I think it's fairly safe
to use this as a stand-alone background clip.

Of course, this is all speculation, and if you end up in jail or a hefty
lawsuit, you didn't hear this from me!

- Chris Lang
 
Thanks Chris,

Enough discussion on that topic. I'll continue to be prudent.

Your site is really great!!

PapaJohn
 
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