Techsurvivors

Archives => 2006 => Topic started by: Mayo on September 09, 2006, 04:41:57 PM

Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: Mayo on September 09, 2006, 04:41:57 PM: A friend cannot play videos at this Web Site. A player appears in her browser window (both Safari and Firefox) but nothing appears and the controls do not function.

I installed WMV Player and when I tried again Windows Media Player actually started up but still no video. (The original browser player had disappeared and I clicked the video link under the blank space.) Yeah, I know that WMV Player is supposed to replace WMP and I have no idea why it happened.

So I tried it on my iMac with WMV Player installed. No player visible so I clicked the link... and I got a spinning beach ball. Hmmm.... about 30 seconds later I got a little window telling me that QuickTime Player had to be installed in order to play the video. Hmmm again... QT Player is already installed.

So I went to my application folder and double-clicked QT Player. Voila! It appeared... I went back to the Web site, clicked the video link and What Do You Know: the video began playing in QT Player.

My friend tells me that a friend with an iBook identical to hers can play the videos just fine and that they spent some time trying to configure her iBook like his but without success...

Unfortunately I do not have her iBook available to work on it, but I am hoping someone here can help me trouble-shoot the problem. Maybe if I did the same steps on her iBook as I did on my iMac I could get it to work. Any ideas?

And please... no "It plays fine on my (insert Mac model here)" replies. I'm happy that it works for you, but I already know that it works for other people... I need insights on how to tackle the problem.
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: swhitset on September 09, 2006, 05:08:31 PM: I can't help much.... but I too have WMV player installed. When I clicked the video link under the window, Windows Media player started instead of WMV player.... BUT the video played fine. I am using my Macbook Pro with Tiger. I do have Windows media player installed obviously, but since it's not a Universal Binary I use WMV player. I have no idea why Windows Media player started instead, but it did play the video with no problem after a little buffering.

Steve
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: gunug on September 09, 2006, 05:32:47 PM: That link didn't work for me and the error language is in Italian. I don't know Italian but Babel translates that into:

QUOTE
E' BE FOUND An ERROR, RETURNS To the PAGE BEGINS THEM

Which seems to be something (a page?) not being found!
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: D76 on September 09, 2006, 07:01:21 PM: Try the site after downloading the Flip4Mac
internet plugin, so the content will play through QuickTime. Flip4Mac will create a folder called Disabled Plug-Ins in whichever of the two Internet Plug-ins folder the Windows plugin is in, and put the old one in it.

Flip4Mac is universal binary.
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: swhitset on September 09, 2006, 07:08:37 PM: Ummm..... that's exactly where this thread started. Mayo and I both have the Flip for Mac WMV player installed as we mentioned in our posts.

Steve
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: D76 on September 09, 2006, 07:15:09 PM: QUOTE(swhitset @ Sep 9 2006, 08:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Ummm..... that's exactly where this thread started. Mayo and I both have the Flip for Mac WMV player installed as we mentioned in our posts.

Steve
WMV didn't connect as being Flip4Mac. Sorry.
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: swhitset on September 09, 2006, 07:19:31 PM: no problem

Steve
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: gunug on September 10, 2006, 12:29:20 AM: I poked around on that page after I got back from the football game and when I got the initial page with the message I noted earlier I found that when I clicked on the little icon at the top left of that page I got to a place where there was a different message in english. I think I clicked on ok somewhere there and I got something to playback. It was a little sitcom type of thing with 2 guys playing on a video game and one of them ends up with a black eye.

I guess what I'm wondering is: Do you speak/read enough Italian to know that the page is structured correctly? I know I don't but I just wondered if I had wandered into the correct file and played it back!
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: Mayo on September 10, 2006, 01:42:18 AM: My friend speaks Italian... and my impression is that they are Italian TV shows.
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: gunug on September 10, 2006, 07:07:41 AM: This works for me under 10.4 and Firefox:

1) Click on "RAI CLICK"
2) Click on picture in center of screen
3) Pop up screen doesn't run immediately but you can speed it up by clicking on the line below the screen that says: "link al video"

Makes me wish I understood Italian.
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: Xairbusdriver on September 11, 2006, 06:14:18 PM: Before following gunug's instructions ( which I promise to do as soon as this is posted ), I notice that there are two javascripts wanting to run. ( I use "NoScript" extension in FF to allow me to control what scripts run and when ). One is from "raiclicktv.it" and probbaly used for navigation menu creation/activation. I usually allow scripts from the host site just because of that. The other is "imrwolrdwide.com" which is a part of "Nielson Ratings", therefore probably not envolved with how the site runs, it's more likely a click-through counter, these I hardly ever allow, BTW.

Anyway, if you are blocking any/all javascript(s), you may be blocking how the video wants to play.

OK, I see no "picture in the middle of the page" to click on as in step 2. But with the java script from "raiclicktv.it" enabled, I get a screen full of stuff, menus, etc. after clicking the "RAI CLICK". Apparently, this is the old of "Welcome-to-our-site,-but-if-you-really-want-to-come-in-click-again-since-we-don't-want-to-waste-our-bandwidth-on-spiders" method.

Anyway, where exactly does your progress stop once you get to the Italian labeled page? BTW, there is now another javascript from "rai.it" that may need enabling.

There are 8 small "category" videos"(?) on the main screen that each require a specific java script. In other words, if you don't have at least some java script enabled, you won't get very far into this site...

I've gone as far as I want into this resource demanding site. At least until we find out if it's a java script problem.
Title: Cannot Play Video At A Web Site
Post by: Xairbusdriver on September 11, 2006, 06:23:37 PM: OK, I think I understand the 3 steps better now, had to run the "Kansas" instruction through a "Southern" translator...

I clicked on the "Junior" 'category' and got the mentioned 'pop-up' window. Still no video but there was the "al video" link in the very bottom of the little window. Clicking that was followed ( by at least 30 seconds ) by a QT Player window and the video of what appears to be a children's show.

So, do you get far enough to see that "link"? Or is all this been just a thorough recap of what you've been doing!