Media upload files don't play

[ec1955]

I created a webpage and had three choices to choose from to embed my MP3 file - the choices were:
Realplayer -Quicktime & Windows Media-

I chose Windows- When I previewed in IE8 & Firefox nothing happened- in Firefox it wanted me to install a Quicktime plug-in -I am using VideoLan, and I went to tools/options and I thought that I made it where Videolan was to be default.

Someone told me that my computer's default player need to be changed, how do I do that/ I don't remember.
Thanks

Ernest

[jscher2000]

Actually, in order to assist you, we will need to see the actual code you inserted into the page. Typically this will be an <object> or <embed> tag. In particular, the tag should contain a type attribute that specifies the content-type of the media, and then the browser will select the player that is assigned to handle that content-type. To see what content types are handled by which plugins in Firefox, try opening about:plugins in a new tab. You also can look at Tools>Options>Applications, but I'm not sure whether everything is listed there.

[ec1955]

I uploaded an MP3 file that I created.
As for the plug-ins- my VLC is listed as enabled for mp3, but so is realplaye!

So, is there some other information from my file that I could get to answer your question?

I have uploaded many audio and video files before, but have never had this problem, I am perplexed!
Thanks
Ernest

[Franadora]

This is on a web page? How about the code on that page that points to the mp3 file?

[dickvl]

You can check with which MIME type the server sends the file if you haven't specified a type in the embed/object for Firefox. The MIME type prevails over the file extension, so if a MIME type is send that is supported by QT then QT will get the control to handle the file.

See "File handling in Firefox 3 and SeaMonkey 2": http://kb.mozillazine.org/File_types_an ... ad_actions

[ec1955]

I guess this is the code that wanted to see.

I am not a 'wiz' at this stuff, all I know is that I never had a problem uploading or, playing my media files.

I do have the newer Firefox, I don't know if that makes a difference.

Thanks for your time.

Ernest


<div id="wb_Text1" style="position:absolute;left:152px;top:256px;width:210px;height:44px;z-index:14;" align="left">
<font style="font-size:37px" color="#000000" face="Book Antiqua"><b><u>Interviews -</u></b></font></div>
<div id="wb_WinMedia1" style="position:absolute;left:132px;top:371px;width:270px;height:100px;z-index:15;" align="left">
<embed src="The_Sons_1.mp3" id="WinMedia1" border="0" autostart="false" loop="false" width="270" height="100">

</div>
<div id="wb_WinMedia2" style="position:absolute;left:139px;top:560px;width:369px;height:118px;z-index:16;" align="left">
<embed src="The_Sonspt2.mp3" id="WinMedia2" border="0" autostart="false" loop="false" width="369" height="118">

[ec1955]

Maybe this is what you are talking about. This is the HTML in the object, I guess you would say, of what I am trying to upload. This one is a Quicktime, I thought that I would try something esle.

Thanks
Ernest

<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab" width="220" height="108" id="QuickTime1">
<param name="src" value="The_Sons_1.mp3">
<param name="cache" value="true">
<param name="autoplay" value="false">
<param name="controller" value="true">
<param name="loop" value="false">
<embed src="The_Sons_1.mp3" width="220" height="108" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" type="video/quicktime" cache="true" controller="true" autoplay="false" loop="false">
</object>

[peter.reisio]

If you're going to rely on that much proprietary technology, you may as well just use Flash, which has ridiculous market penetration.

http://flowplayer.org/

[jscher2000]

Ernest, in your first <embed> there is no type attribute, and in the second it points specifically to QuickTime. If you look at your plugins list, you will see some more general types to use with audio. If QuickTime keeps taking them over, start the QuickTime player from the desktop or start menu and check the preferences dialog. Somewhere there is a MIME types button that lets you choose the types handled by the plugin.

[sintch]

I don't want to appear polemical here but there appears to be considerable ambiguity about the use of the embed tag. This ground has been covered in other closed topics but I thought this was worthy of a mention.

1. W3C do not accept the existence of the embed tag and its validator will invalidate it. (common knowledge)

2. Adobe Flash recommend it as per
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/127/tn_12701.html

They recommend the use of javascript AC_OETags.js as a framework for handling swf files. It uses the embed tag for selected user-agents.

3. Geoff Stearns uses embed in his javascript swfobject.js adopted by website developers.
http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/#examples

4. Drew McLellan tackles this issue in an interesting article titled "Flash Satay: Embedding Flash While Supporting Standards" dated 2002 here

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/flashsatay

Will Mozilla ditch the embed tag or will IE adopt it? And what will W3C have to say about it all?

[dickvl]

Just use the nested object method with a classid for IE and an object without a classid for Firefox and other gecko based browsers or alternatively use conditional code that IE understands.

Code: Select all

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"
height="xxx" width="xxx">
/* param for IE go here */
<!--[if !IE]>-->
  <object data="file.swf" height="xxx" width="xxx" type="application/x-shockwave-flash">
   /* param for Firefox go here */
  </object>
<!--<![endif]-->
   FAIL (the browser should render some flash content, not this).
</object>


[peter.reisio]

Just use the nested object method…

Better:

Code: Select all

<object
   data="Flash.swf"
   type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
   width="400"
   height="300">
   <param
      name="movie"
      value="Flash.swf">
</object>

[sintch]

Following is complements of Drew McLellan from the article "Flash Satay: Embedding Flash While Supporting Standards".

"If you were to look at the source code of the home page at Macromedia.com, you’d see that they serve up an alternative image if the user can’t view Flash movies. They are detecting the Flash Player with JavaScript, and then using JavaScript to dynamically write out HTML based on the detection. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Here’s how I’d do it:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash data="c.swf?path=movie.swf" width="400" height="300">
<param name="movie" value="c.swf?path=movie.swf" />
<img src="noflash.gif" width="200" height="100" alt="" />
</object>

This is basically what you suggest Peter except that it includes the image for those user-agents that don't yet support flash. (And Flash require a link to a site to download a player as part of the user agreement)

[Franadora]

I don't want to appear polemical here but there appears to be considerable ambiguity about the use of the embed tag. This ground has been covered in other closed topics but I thought this was worthy of a mention.

1. W3C do not accept the existence of the embed tag and its validator will invalidate it. (common knowledge)
...
Will Mozilla ditch the embed tag or will IE adopt it? And what will W3C have to say about it all?

Actually, it's fairly straight forward: the object tag is standard. http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/objects.html#h-13.3