Windows Media Player plugin won't work-> tried everything

tongz · Post by **tongz** » August 11th, 2006, 9:51 pm

Please help! I'm addicted to the video on cnn.com but I can no longer view them since I got my new laptop. I have wmp 11 currently installed but firefox won't detect that I have windows media player. I thought it was a problem with wmp 11 but it doesn't work with wmp 10 either. After trying EVERYTHING on the mozillazine help site: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Windows_Media_Player I finally got the browser to detect wmp but still nothing will play, all I get is a black screen, no audio.

Additional info: I'm running XP media center, firefox 1.5.0.6, and i have the activex plugin for firefox 1.5 (I tried both having and not having this and neither worked).

Help! Thanks

vl · Post by vl » August 11th, 2006, 9:59 pm

Turn down video acceleration in Windows Media Player -- http://support.microsoft.com/?id=909554

tongz · Post by **tongz** » August 11th, 2006, 10:01 pm

Thanks for the link but it's not the picture quality that's bad.. NOTHING will play at all, the progress bar doesn't move.. it's just a black (blank) screen

Post by **Vectorspace** » August 11th, 2006, 11:16 pm

From what I have gathered from other users on this forum with XP Media Centre Edition, it not only lacks the WMP plugin - the component that browsers other than IE use to play Windows media - but it also lacks support for the plugin, soeven if you manually install the plugin it still won't help.

Still, try placing the three plugin files mentioned in the guide in the Windows Media Player folder (C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player) - the guide only says to put them in the FIrefox plugins folder, and sometimes putting them in the WMP folder helps. It probably won't help, but it's possible.

There is a version of Windows XP called XP N, that has all native media playback ability removed. There is an update that converts XP N back to regular XP, and some users have found that installing this update into XP Media Centre Edition will fix this problem. TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK, because this cannot be undone - if it screws up Windows, the only way to get back to where you were will be to fully reinstall Windows.

vl · Post by vl » August 11th, 2006, 11:54 pm

I tried loading a video from the CNN.com website, and it also did not detect the version of WMP 10 already installed on my computer. Then I installed the Active X Plugin for Firefox, which fixed the problem with detecting. Both video and audio load fine here. BTW, I am also running Windows XP Media Center Edition and Firefox 1.5.0.6.

vl · Post by vl » August 12th, 2006, 7:24 pm

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=447170

tongz · Post by **tongz** » August 12th, 2006, 9:32 pm

I uninstalled and then re-installed active-x and I still can't view anything. It's not just on cnn.com either, the test page doesn't work: http://members.aol.com/jrzycrim01/mozil ... xtest.html and neither does any other embedded wmp media on other webpages. The only difference that active-x makes is it converts the wmp interface into an older version, but still no media will play.

I think it's also worth noting though that all of my other plugins do work and I can view flash, shockwave, quicktime, java, and realplayer just fine.

vl · Post by vl » August 12th, 2006, 10:20 pm

Do embedded WMP media on webpages load up okay in Internet Explorer, or is it just Firefox that has this problem?

tongz · Post by **tongz** » August 12th, 2006, 10:31 pm

Nope, wmp doesn't work with IE either, altho' I stupidly installed IE ver. 7.0 beta which has a nice propensity for crashing, and loading at a snail's pace, so I don't know if it would work on normal IE 6.0.

vl · Post by vl » August 12th, 2006, 11:09 pm

Instructions for removing the IE 7 beta: http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie/releasenotes/default.aspx

To fix the WMP problem in Firefox, try these steps:

Step 1 -- Create a new profile using Profile Manager: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manag ... ew_profile

Step 2 -- Copy data from the old profile folder to the new profile folder: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Migrating_set ... ew_profile

Step 3 -- Once you are sure that you have completed Step 2 (having double checked that files such as bookmarks.html, signons.txt, key3.db, formhistory.dat. and hostperm.1 files are in the new profile folder), delete the profile from the Profile Manager and select the ""Delete Files" option that pops up.

Step 4 -- Go back to the Profile Manager again and select the new profile you created in Step 1.

After completing the above steps, you should be able to load embedded wmp media on webpages now. Let me know if that doesn't work.

Post by **Vectorspace** » August 13th, 2006, 5:01 am

What extensions do you have?

tekken · Post by **tekken** » August 18th, 2006, 11:08 pm

To fix the Windows Media Plugin not working in Firefox 1.5, see the link below.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Windows_Media ... x_releases

Basically, you have to copy the 3 dlls - npdsplay.dll, npwmsdrm.dll, and npdrmv2.dll from your Windows Media Player install directory (or you can sometimes find this under your c:\windows directory by doing a search) to your firefox install "plugins" directory. You can check if firefox has the Windows Media plugins installed by opening Firefox and typeing "about:plugins" in the url box. If you don't see anything that says "Windows Media Player..." you don't have the plugins installed.

** MAKE SURE TO INSTALL THE MICROSOFT SECURITY PATCH MENTIONED IN THE LINK ABOVE AFTERWARD, AND THEN UPDATE THE npdsplay.dll IN THE FIREFOX PLUGINS DIRECTORY WITH THE NEW ONE. **

tekken · Post by **tekken** » August 18th, 2006, 11:11 pm

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Windows_Media_Player