Win Media Player & SeaMonkey

Old Peter Creasey · September 17th, 2007, 2:52 pm

I finally today decided to install Windows Media Player. I have received two files from different people in the format of xxxxxx.wmv via email attachment. When I click on either of them in the SeaMonkey email handler, the WMP popup says "The selected file has a scheme that is not recognized by WMP but the player may be able to play it. Try it?"

When I reply "yes", then another WMP popup says, "WMP cannot play the file because the specified protocol is not supported. If you typed a URL in the Open URL Dialog Box, then try using a different transport protocol, for example http or rtsp."

I tried the MS solultions recommended. Also, I installed the Port25 plugin recommended by MicroSoft for Firefox. Nothing improved.

How can I remedy this problem?

therube · Post by **therube** » September 17th, 2007, 4:46 pm

Sounds like you need a codec.
What OS? What version of WMP? Might try this, Codec Installation Packages for IT Professionals.

If that doesn't work, then the question might be, are they actually .wmv files - not some other format simply renamed to be *.wmv?

The first few bytes of a WMV file should be (usually are?) <code>0&²</code>.

Can you save the files outside of SeaMonkey & try opening them there?

Post by **rsx11m** » September 17th, 2007, 5:09 pm

It's not a codec thing, I could reproduce this with a WMF file sent by e-mail. In SeaMonkey 1.1.4 (mozilla.org release on Windows), I'm getting the same behavior when just double-clicking on the attachment. However, when I first save the attachment and then double-click on the file, it plays nicely. Also, no problems with video streams in SeaMonkey when opening Media Player through a link on a web page, or when running the video in the plugin.

I could not reproduce this behavior with the latest Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 release on Windows. It will simply download the WMF file and then open the Media Player to run it. Thus, this appears to be specific to SeaMonkey, where it somehow passes a wrong URI to the Media Player...

Old Peter Creasey · September 17th, 2007, 5:10 pm

therube wrote:Can you save the files outside of SeaMonkey & try opening them there?

R, Yes, they opened fine with WMP10 and WinXP Pro.

What is a recommended remedy so that SeaMonkey can handle the files?

Thanks!

Old Peter Creasey · September 17th, 2007, 6:56 pm

rsx11m wrote:It's not a codec thing, I could reproduce this with a WMF file sent by e-mail. ... this appears to be specific to SeaMonkey, where it somehow passes a wrong URI to the Media Player...

R, Yes, I agree. I was using a WMP 10 which was downloaded today so it had the most recent codec.

I have since used Windows Restore to get everything back to how it was before installing WMP and the Firefox plugin earlier today.

Now we need to know what to do so that SeaMonkey can interface with WMP 10 from the email handler with attached *.wmv files.

Post by **rsx11m** » September 18th, 2007, 8:47 am

I just tried to use Edit > Preferences > Navigator > Helper Applications to create an explicit entry for video/x-ms-wmv, but I'm getting the message that SeaMonkey can handle that type internally (which is strange, given that SeaMonkey doesn't have a build-in movie viewer...). So, trying to change the opening behavior in this way won't work, as the internal definition will override anything in the Helper Applications unless the server requests external handling. :-(

Andy Boze · Post by **Andy Boze** » September 18th, 2007, 9:50 am

Plug-ins are considered internal. If you disable the Windows Media Player Plug-in, you should be able to add the MIME type for a helper application.

Post by **rsx11m** » September 18th, 2007, 10:14 am

Thanks for the hint! Interestingly, when I move "npdsplay.dll" away, a new copy pops up within seconds, must be Windows... anyway, if the choice is between having the plug-in or running movies directly from the attachment without saving it first, I'd rather stick with the plug-in to have embedded content running in web pages.

Old Peter Creasey · September 18th, 2007, 10:54 am

Andy Boze wrote:If you disable the Windows Media Player Plug-in

Andy etal, This is not a palatable option, in my view.

Does the silence on this problem suggest there is no solution? If so, how can we make sure the SeaMonkey developers are aware of the problem so it can be fixed like it was in Firefox?

Post by **rsx11m** » September 18th, 2007, 10:58 am

Ok, this works now:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin_scanning wrote:To stop the Windows Media Player plugin scan, modify the value of the preference plugin.scan.WindowsMediaPlayer from "7.0" to 19.0

The WMF file opens directly from the mail/news window and finds the Media Player without modifying the Helper Applications. As the expected side effect, embedded videos in HTML pages cause an error as the plug-in is no longer found. Well, that's easy enough to change it on the fly as necessary! :-)

Edit:

Peter Creasey wrote:
Andy Boze wrote:If you disable the Windows Media Player Plug-in
Andy etal, This is not a palatable option, in my view.

As I said, I'll likely keep the plug-in rather, but it was worth giving that workaround a try...

Andy Boze · Post by **Andy Boze** » September 18th, 2007, 12:58 pm

rsx11m wrote:Well, that's easy enough to change it on the fly as necessary!

It'll be even easier with SM 2.0. You'll be able to enable and disable plug-ins via the Add-in Manager. That's a feature I've been wanting since the days of Netscape 4.x.

Old Peter Creasey · September 18th, 2007, 1:15 pm

Andy Boze wrote:with SM 2.0. You'll be able to enable and disable plug-ins via the Add-in Manager.

Andy, How might this be a feature that plain old users (read non-geeks) would use or appreciate?

Does SeaMonkey have any interest in fixing the problem with *.wmv files as explained in this thread?

Post by **rsx11m** » September 18th, 2007, 2:32 pm

Peter Creasey wrote:... how can we make sure the SeaMonkey developers are aware of the problem so it can be fixed like it was in Firefox?

The problem appears to be known already. Bugs and enhancement requests are tracked on bugzilla, and there has been a report filed (bug 363155) matching the problem. It is still unconfirmed, thus apparently didn't get much attention so far. You could add a comment regarding the plug-in issue identified, and also provide information on the workaround with disabling it (or, I'll be happy to do that if you want me to).

The underlying issue is probably a bit broader and also related to the inability to define Helper Applications for types handled internally or by plug-ins in general (bug 58554).

therube · Post by **therube** » September 18th, 2007, 6:23 pm

That sure does sound like it.

rsx11m, what particular search criteria did you use to find that on bugzilla?

I'm assuming that this only applies to Windows Media type files & not to other attachments?

Boggles me how something like that could remain unresolved - since the 1.0.x SeaMonkey days.

Old Peter Creasey · September 18th, 2007, 6:58 pm

therube wrote:I'm assuming that this only applies to Windows Media type files & not to other attachments?

R, I'm not so sure.

I have had trouble with attached *.doc files not opening in the default word processor when clicked upon. They need a <save> to the hard disk before they will open. But I have not explored this like I did with the *.wmv files.

I have always just <save> the *.doc files to hard disk when the problem occurs and then opened them with my word processor from where I saved them on the hard drive.

Interestingly, I have never (at least I can't recall it) had this problem with clicking on *.xls files which are attached to email.