No wmp plug in in FF on Vista machine

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Old richard mitnick
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No wmp plug in in FF on Vista machine

Post by Old richard mitnick »

I discovered that my FF installations on my new Vista computers lack a WMP11 plugin. My computer does have WMP11, so the FF installation shlould have included the WMP plugin.

My WinXP computers, with FF 2.0.0.3 do have the WMP11 plugin.

Did I miss something in my installation?

::RSM
Old madperson
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Post by Old madperson »

Old richard mitnick
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Post by Old richard mitnick »

Thanks, I did not realize that Microsoft was again playing strongman to limit our abilities. This does fit with the fact that they made it basically impossible to de-select file types for which WMP is installed as the default player.

So, the next question is, if I declare another player (I have Winamp and RealPlayer, and FF does have the RealPlayer plugins) as my default, will a file requiring WMP start in that player?

Thanks.

::RSM
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Alice
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Post by Alice »

Direct file downloads will open in whatever plugin or media player is associated with that type of file, whether it is Windows Media Player, WinAmp, RealPlayer Quicktime or whatever. If no plugin exists for the content then Firefox can open it in the default application.

What is going to be the problem is media embedded in webpages that require the WMP plugin.

Here is a test page that will illustrate the difference:
http://wymette.home.att.net/sound.html

Under the Windows Media Player Plugin or ActiveX Test Pages section, the
"WMP plugin or..." links require the WMP plugin, since the audio file is "embedded" in the page, and the page code is calling the WMP plugin (type="application/x-mplayer2").
For example:
WMP Plugin or ActiveX - Windows Media Audio (Wma)

Direct file downloads (.mid, .wma, .wav, .mp3, etc) are a different story. You don't need any browser plugins (e.g. np*.dll files) for the filetypes in the Direct links to media files section at the bottom of the page. If you don't have a plugin for the content (MIME) type then Firefox should offer to open them in your default media player for that filetype... for example:
sample.wma should open in Windows Media Player as an external application, assuming .WMA files are associated with Windows Media Player (they will be, in most cases).

P.S. Here is a link that may be helpful:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Opening_files_using_plugins
Alice Wyman
Old richard mitnick
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Post by Old richard mitnick »

"What is going to be the problem is media embedded in webpages that require the WMP plugin. "

Yup.

I went to the WMP forum, and a guy came back with (paraphrase), Hey, well, y'know, that's Netscape 3.0 code, pretty old, not so good. So, I said (paraphrase), well, wake up and get it fixed. Get it replaced. You are keeping me from using my computer in a fashion that I desire to use it. You are forcing me to use IE7, which I choose not to use.

One of the wierd thins is that some stuff, when I click on the file to open, and Windows asks me what i want to use to open, and shows me that RealPlayer.exe is my default, THAT stuff opens in WMP. Go figure.

Anyway, thanks for the test page, and the explanations.

::RSM
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Alice
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Post by Alice »

You're welcome. One more thing, in case it helps.

If you are uncomfortable downloading the npdsplay.dll, npdrmv2.dll and npwmsdrm.dll files and placing them in your Windows Media Player (or Firefox plugins) folder or if you just want to try a different solution, you could try a Firefox extension as a workaround:
1. MediaPlayerConnectivity This extension allows you to launch the embedded media on a webpage in an external player.
2. Extensions such as IE Tab, IE View or IE View Lite will open an instance of Internet Explorer within Firefox, on pages that don't work for you in Firefox.

There may be other extensions to work around the missing WMP plugin issue in Vista but these were specifically mentioned in this thread:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=520352
Vista & Media player - Firefox 2.0.2 RC1
rtmjr50 wrote:If nothing else ... Add this to the release notes. Firefox 2 can not work with Vista due to the M$ decision to not support the non-IE plugin in WMP11 that Firefox needs in order to play video in WMP.
Possible workarounds are:
(1) manually download and install these files.
(2) download and install this file to do this for you
(3) install a extension like IEview or IETab to open the site in IE7.
tqft wrote:Has anyone tried the Media Player Connectivity addon as a workaround?

No Vista (or Windows) here to try it

I don't use those extensions myself but you may want to give one of them a try, or do a forum search on those extensions to see what others say.
Alice Wyman
Old richard mitnick
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Post by Old richard mitnick »

Thanks, I am going to try the extension, and I will let you know what happens. The more that FF people adopt Vista, the more that this will be a problem.

::RSM
Old richard mitnick
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Post by Old richard mitnick »

Thanks ever so much. It worked like a charm.

::RSM
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Alice
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Post by Alice »

Which one? MediaPlayerConnectivity?

Let me know and I'll add it to the KB somewhere.

Thanks for posting back :)
Alice Wyman
Old richard mitnick
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Post by Old richard mitnick »

Sorry, yes, MediaPlayer Connectivity.

::RSM
Skwurl
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Post by Skwurl »

You can get a mikeysoft installer for the plugin <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/plugin.aspx">here</a>.
Old richard mitnick
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Post by Old richard mitnick »

Thanks, but from what I am told this will not run in WMP11 in Vista. If you know otherwise, please let me know.

::RSM
Old richard mitnick
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Post by Old richard mitnick »

Skwurl-

Sorry, I should have said, with the MediaPlayer Connectivity extension, the necessity for the plugin is moot.

I have gone into the WMP community user group and complained that if the old plugin is not useable that they should do a new one. But Mother Microsoft is just purposely trying to make things more difficult.
Skwurl
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Post by Skwurl »

Oops, it seems that the installer i just posted about throws an error on vista, and only contains 2 of the 3 needed files for the plugin. better fixes to follow.
Old richard mitnick
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Post by Old richard mitnick »

No problem.

Thanks anyway.

::RSM
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