Comments

1. Islander

   
   Posted on: April 16, 2007 at 7:36PM

   Might need some more testing, because it doesn't work on my machine. Using Vista Ultimate x64 and Firefox 2.0.0.3, and trying to watch the videos on the newsportal www.n-tv.de keeps resulting in Firefox asking for the plugin again and again.
2. UniverseJDJ

   
   Posted on: April 16, 2007 at 7:50PM

   Seems to work fine on Vista x86 and Firefox 2.0.0.3 on the site posted by previous commenter.
3. Nick White

   
   Posted on: April 16, 2007 at 8:11PM

   Hey Islander:  Do you happen to be

   running 64-bit Firefox?  If so, then our 32-bit plug-in will not work.  Please let me know if this is not the case.
4. historypro

   
   Posted on: April 16, 2007 at 9:08PM

   I've been waiting for this a long time. Works great on 32-bit. I can listen to Amazon music samples again!

   Thanks
5. Over1ord

   
   Posted on: April 17, 2007 at 1:57AM

   Yey, thank you Microsoft!

   Finally i can enjoy WMP files in FireFox
6. nielslbeck

   
   Posted on: April 17, 2007 at 2:16AM

   What about Opera users? We would also like a plug-in :-)
7. Islander

   
   Posted on: April 17, 2007 at 4:39AM

   No 64bit version of Firefox here (is there any?). I already tried uninstalling and re-installing, installing as administrator (right mouse click and using that option), running Firefox as administrator, repairing option, restarting the computer before and after, but no changes. Also, when typing about:plugins in Firefox, nothing that looks like the WMP plugin shows up. And I tried other pages that require this plugin, and they don't work either.
8. Taomyn

   
   Posted on: April 17, 2007 at 9:14AM

   Typical, Microsoft releases a Firefox extension as an executable rather than the native XPI format all FF extensions are supposed to come in.

   This is Firefox not Internet Explorer!!! Get with the program!

   Oh, btw, thanks for hard work and effort, it is appreciated despite this little oversight.
9. Nusi

   
   Posted on: April 17, 2007 at 9:19AM

   The installer which you point to (and which might be installed when FF wants to install a plugin) doesn't work on Windows XP x64.

   The installer stops with following error message:

   "Package requires Windows XP SP2 or greater."

   XP x64 has SP2 builtin by default.
10. cookiez

    
    Posted on: April 17, 2007 at 10:13AM

    taomyn >> there is difference between an extension and a plugin.

    adblock is an extension and comes with xpi while adobe flash player is a plugin and comes with an exe just like this wmp plugin.
11. Islander

    
    Posted on: April 17, 2007 at 11:28AM

    Hi Nick, I found the reason for the plugin not working, there seems to be an error in the installer. My Firefox is installed at "E:\Program Files (x86)\Firefox", and the installer puts the plugin-dll at "D:\PFiles\Plugins\" (my boot drive is C: btw, so it's strange it ended up at D: ). I found it by accident while looking for some other files. After moving the dll into the Firefox folder, all videos play correctly. So this is an installer issue, maybe you can forward this to the development team, thanks.
12. Nick White

    
    Posted on: April 17, 2007 at 2:54PM

    Hey Nusi:  This is strange.  Can you please verify that you're actually running x64 SP2?
13. jtherrien

    
    Posted on: April 17, 2007 at 6:13PM

    Works great! Thanks!
14. Nick White

    
    Posted on: April 17, 2007 at 8:17PM

    Hey again Islander:  thanks for the info, I've brought it to the attenton of the Dev team.  Can you say whether you installed FF from the installer, or in some other way?  We need to ferret out why the FF registry keys are missing in order to get a better handle on this issue.  Hope you can oblige this information.
15. zephyr.qiu

    
    Posted on: April 18, 2007 at 1:41AM

    Great! This plug-in resolved many problems that made Firefox users in trouble.

    Do you have documents about public interfaces that this plug-in provides?

    I notice that I can't use attributes like "showcontrols"/"showdisplay" to control wmp's UI mode. Does it not provide this feature?

    Thanks.
16. Driveby

    
    Posted on: April 18, 2007 at 5:06AM

    Zephyr - Those attributes are from the media player 6.4 embedding code, WMP7 and later doesn't support them at all. These days you should be using XHTML compatible embedding code

    You can instead uimode to control some aspects of the embedding

    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb249370.aspx

    Implement controls, sliders etc with javascript and images if you want to override the default skin in WMP, when using uimode="none", or you can do like most people and use uimode="mini" to leave most of the WMP UI skin elements in place

    You can read about the object model and embedding code changes since WMP6.4 was superceded ~5 years ago~ <g> on these pages :

    General information

    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms983561.aspx

    Scripting and embedding properties changes

    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb248464.aspx

    HTH

    Cheers - Neil Smith

    MVP Digital Media
17. falcon7

    
    Posted on: April 18, 2007 at 8:00AM

    Nick....I am running Vista Ultimate 64 and it does not work...any ideas ?  Thanks as always

    Rob
18. mrasool

    
    Posted on: April 18, 2007 at 9:03AM

    There is some problem in the signing up form. My time zone is not displayed. It is IST (+05:30 UCT)

    Getting to the real issue at hand. Could you possibly release this as an extension in the .xpi container so that it can be used on all versions of Firefox - irrespective of the OS ?
19. zephyr.qiu

    
    Posted on: April 19, 2007 at 12:36AM

    I have a question about this plug-in:

    Could I believe that this plug-in is supported by Microsoft officially?
20. The MAZZTer

    
    Posted on: April 19, 2007 at 9:36AM

    "Have you been itching to enjoy your media content on Firefox?"

    I already have *cough*www.apple.com/quicktime*cough* ^_^

    I will use this plug-in though, as I occasionally run across a malfunctioning WMP control while surfing.  Quite annoying.
21. qannaboss

    
    Posted on: April 19, 2007 at 4:20PM

    Hi Nick,

    I too have installed this plug-in on my Vista Enterprise X64 box with the latest FireFox version 2.0.0.3.  And I am having the same problem other users have mentioned.  I have looked through the FireFox addons and cannot see it installed.  I have uninstalled, reinstalled, repaired with no avail.  Please let me know if you need further information from me to get this addon working.  Thanks!
22. Nick White

    
    Posted on: April 20, 2007 at 7:14PM

    Hey qannaboss:  Assuming you're running the 32-bit version of FF, could you check to see if the plugin ended up at 'drive':\PFiles\Plugins, where 'drive' is a drive letter?  Thanks.
23. Islander

    
    Posted on: April 21, 2007 at 11:11AM

    Hi Nick, it used the regular downloaded executable from the link you posted to install the plugin. Firefox was a fresh install of its latest version, also installed the regular way with its installer.
24. dmack_ca

    
    Posted on: April 25, 2007 at 10:49PM

    How come this doesn't show how much of a progressive download has finished in the progress bar? (like youtube or quicktime)

    Either WMP 9 or 10 did.
25. Jamessd

    
    Posted on: April 27, 2007 at 5:11PM

    This download doesnt work for me... most likely because i have vista x32. Using 2.0.0.3 firefox, it asks if i want to install missing plugins, butcomes up with ''no suitable plugins found. Unknown plugin (video/x-msvideo) can anyone help me with this??.

    if so, please email me @ jsdcontrol@gmail.com or mopped5@hotmail.com
26. gluzd

    
    Posted on: May 11, 2007 at 3:43PM

    nick, will this work only in vista?  how about XP?
27. Nick White

    
    Posted on: May 15, 2007 at 12:21PM

    Hey gluzd:  the plug-in works on both Windows Vista and Windows XP.
28. CollinM

    
    Posted on: May 18, 2007 at 4:44PM

    I get this error

    The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed.  This occurs if you are running Windows in Safe Mode, or if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed.  Contact your support personnel for assistance.

    any ideas?
29. pjs0607

    
    Posted on: May 23, 2007 at 9:05AM

    Firefox constantly crashes with the new plugin when you set the "Windowless"-Attribute to "true". Is there a solution for this? Setting the attribute to false is no option because I want to put layers in front of the video.
30. Nick White

    
    Posted on: June 02, 2007 at 12:34PM

    Hey gluzd:  the plug-in works on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows XP as well.
31. Nick White

    
    Posted on: June 02, 2007 at 12:46PM

    Hey CollinM:  We'll need more info to be able to diagnose this issue, as the team has not heard of it to date.  What OS are you running (Windows XP or Windows Vista?  x86 or x64?  Home Premium, Home Basic, Ultimate, or Business?)?  What type of system are you running on?  And what browser version are you using?  Please include anything else you can think of that would be relevant.
32. Nick White

    
    Posted on: June 04, 2007 at 5:28PM

    Hey pjs0607:  we've been unable to reproduce  this issue.  Could you please provide your OS version (XP or Windows Vista, 32- or 64-bit), the WMP version you're using, and if possible, an example of the script where you encounter this problem?  Thanks.
33. pjs0607

    
    Posted on: June 05, 2007 at 3:51AM

    Hey Nick, we created a test-page which is available at http://wmvcrash.axtvoll.de. The crash occurs when you use the back- and forward-buttons of your browser a few times. We use WMP11 and tested Vista (32 bit) and XP (32 bit), but the crash occurs in both of them. Thanks.
34. pjs0607

    
    Posted on: June 05, 2007 at 4:10AM

    It seems to be the case that buffering causes the crash. Using the Navigator-Buttons while the connection is established doesn't cause any problems, but when I use the buttons while the WMP is buffering Firefox crashes.
35. rlcronin

    
    Posted on: June 05, 2007 at 4:57PM

    After installing the plugin, is there any way to cause a link that would ordinarily cause the media player to open in FireFox to open outside FireFox (i.e. in a separate media player window)? There are certain long-running audio and video podcasts that I have to launch from the browser (since my authority to launch them has to be checked first), but that I don't want to actually play in the browser (so I don't mistakenly close the browser or navigate away to another page). Sure, most of the time I do want clips and such to open in the browser, and for that the plugin is great, but it gets in the way for the long-running content.
36. jchandler

    
    Posted on: June 23, 2007 at 9:49AM

    Well done Microsoft,

    A really engaging experience has now been unleashed on the Firefox Users, I am sure I speak for most FF users when I say that most content providers encoded their content in the Windows Media 9 Series, I am glad to see that Microsoft is accepting that some users who want to view Windows Media Content may not all be using IE
37. ivanua

    
    Posted on: July 02, 2007 at 11:59PM

    Plz help me, I have Windows Vista Ultimate, and recently my Media Player, stopped working, it won't even start, what should i do? plz email to ivan18@shaw.ca . Greatly appreciated!
38. Nick White

    
    Posted on: July 05, 2007 at 6:43PM

    Hey ivanua:  we're not the best place for you to seek technical support -- I'd suggest directing your inquiry to one of our public newsgroups, which you can search here:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/
39. betamod

    
    Posted on: July 15, 2007 at 3:10PM

    Hey, slightly off topic but can you tell me why it is that the after 11 iterations of Media Player your software still can't play videos in sync that other software like VLC player can? I have tested this on different hardware and versions of windows up to Vista and consistently your Media Player can't cut it. This is the only reason why anyone downloads VLC for Windows.

    I can't imagine you are unaware of this fact, so . . . is this a bug or a feature? If its a bug, how come you have never fixed it in all this time?
40. Nick White

    
    Posted on: July 18, 2007 at 3:38PM

    Hey betamod:  I'm not quite sure what you mean by "playing videos in sync?"  If you mean in sync with the audio, then WMP does that just fine; if yours does not, then a re-install may be in order.  If you're referring to smooth transitions between videos in a playlist, know that this is an uncommon request but one that I've forwarded to the product team for them to consider.
41. jimich

    
    Posted on: July 30, 2007 at 5:02AM

    Hello

    "Hi Nick, I found the reason for the plugin not working, there seems to be an error in the installer. My Firefox is installed at "E:\Program Files (x86)\Firefox", and the installer puts the plugin-dll at "D:\PFiles\Plugins\" (my boot drive is C: btw, so it's strange it ended up at D: ). I found it by accident while looking for some other files. After moving the dll into the Firefox folder, all videos play correctly. So this is an installer issue, maybe you can forward this to the development team, thanks."

    --> same for me

    Windows Vista Business 32 bits

    Firefox 2.0.0.6pre aka Bon Echo (nightly build ... automatically upgraded, but first install done with a regular installer ...

    +

    Firefox 3 alpha 5 aka GranParadiso

    --> it wasn't working, even by relaunching the installer and restarting 2 times ...

    and then i found it in c:\PFiles\Plugins instead in my c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Plugins directory ... just copy paste and then it works ...

    seems that the installer is not detecting nightly versions of firefox ...

    But VLC, flash or Joost did ...
42. Nick White

    
    Posted on: August 01, 2007 at 7:10PM

    Hey jimich:  strange.  I'll notify the team of this issue and if they have any advice, will pass it along here.
43. bmacphoto

    
    Posted on: August 12, 2007 at 3:50PM

    So, I need help understanding....I've been criticizing the folks at Real for not producing a player for Rhapsody that works with Vista 64it.  Now I find out that Microsoft is incapable of producing a player that works on their own operating system.  I'm sorry, but this seems incomprehensible....Is there any light you can shed as to whether Microsoft is choosing not to support their 64 bit operating system or just can't do so.
44. Nick White

    
    Posted on: August 13, 2007 at 3:21PM

    Hey bmacphoto:   not quite sure what you're referring to, as it sounds like you're stating that Windows Media Player 11 is not supported by 64-bit Windows Vista.  However, this is not the case:  64-bit WMP11 does exist and is supported on Windows Vista x64.

    WMP on x64 launches the 32-bit version of the app -- but, the wmplayer.exe is in fact located in the 64-bit directory of the hard drive and you can indeed launch it.  In other words, 64-bit WMP is on the system and nothing prevents a user from changing the default to use 64-bit WMP.

    The issue in this case is that Windows Vista x64 launches the 32-bit version of WMP by default in order to avoid application compatibility issues, as the existing third-party plug-ins and codecs are all based on 32-bit architecture.  This is handled by a function called WOW (or WOW64), which refers to the "Windows on Windows" layer that allows 32-bit applications to run on the 64-bit OS.  (You might also note that even when 32-bit WMP is run, .MP3 and .ASF content are run in a separate 64-bit pipeline process.)

    Our intent here was to provide an ideal solution that gives the user complete choice between compatibility and functionality on a single system.

    Hope this information clarifies your doubts.
45. Nick White

    
    Posted on: August 13, 2007 at 3:53PM

    One more thing, bmacphoto -- you might find this article useful:  http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/01/19/switch-change-or-set-64-bit-windows-media-player-11-wmp11-in-windows-vista-x64-as-default/.
46. bmacphoto

    
    Posted on: August 14, 2007 at 1:44PM

    I go to ESPN radio, and it will not load on my Vista x64 machine....Works fine using an XP machine.  

    I try to sign up and use Urge, the music service which you all have teamed with to support WMP11, and it will not work on Vista x64.

    In taking a quick look at the link you provided, it looks that I may need to hire someone to set up my computer to use WMP11....Don't get me wrong, the program does work for watching a video or listening to music stored on my computer, but it does not play with the web.  In all honesty, I would love to know if Microsoft considers this to be acceptable in terms of your goals with Vista.  

    I'm not trying to be a pain, just very tired of  finding that a work around seems to be the answer to everthing associated with Vista.  
47. bmacphoto

    
    Posted on: August 21, 2007 at 6:19PM

    So, here are a couple of sites that I can't enjoy because I have Vista and WMP11....

    http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/index

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/18/tech/main3181642.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3181642

    Okay, truth be told, I can't enjoy any website with their audio or video running on embedded WMP.  Any other embedded audio/video player works perfect.  

    Thank you Microsoft.....
48. Nick White

    
    Posted on: August 22, 2007 at 5:29PM

    Hey bmacphoto:  I forwarded your note to the team testing this plug-in and they've confirmed that they're able to access both sites without incident; consequently, it sounds like the issue resides somewhere on your specific system.  Hope this information helps you find the root cause.
49. mallam130

    
    Posted on: August 23, 2007 at 6:45PM

    Hi,

    I'm using a standard installation of vista on a new notebook. I am not a tech genius, and do not claim to be. I am simply having a problem watching selected streaming content. In some cases the content will stream perfectly. In other cases i get what i can only describe as a video freeze while audio plays perfectly. At first I thought it was a bandwidth problem, but I tested the problem videos on my XP laptop. No problems there. I have tried allowing windows media player through the microsoft firewall, also nothing. I am at my wits end with this ridiculous problem, it's probably so simple to resolve, yet I have searched everywhere, and all microsoft answers lead nowhere.

    please, shed some light,

    -mallam
50. betamod

    
    Posted on: August 25, 2007 at 2:52AM

    Hi Nick,

    To clarify: my complaint is not about streaming video but rather downloaded video.

    As an aside, I am glad that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has switched from RealPlayer to WMP to deliver their content because RP was a big bloated buggy pig with crappy video quality.

    But back to my specific problem: I download lots of DivX/XviD video over the years and it is my consistent experience that audio and video go out of sync more often than not when played for any length of time in WNP, while the same files play flawlessly in VLC, even Winamp. I am not making this up. I have noticed this problem on my XP and Vista machines, older and even on contemporary hardware. My friends notice the same problem and that is why we all use VLC when we watch downloaded movies. And again, I have noticed this problem since DivX/XviD became common. I have not done a formal survey but I don't personally know anyone who has NOT experienced this bug while using your software. I therefore find it hard to believe that this is some anomaly and not a genuine bug in WMP, but hey, don't shoot the messenger.

    Even though it seems to use way more memory than VLC I would personally prefer to use WMP since it is a complete media player/manager, but this is juts not an option. I have experimented with Democracy Player but its is not mature enough yet and leaks memory. Itunes is by far the most elegant and ergonomic of your competitors and I think the audio quality is superior to WMP but Apple likes to have it all their way and can't seem to play DivX/XviD avi files at all. But if ever they did . . .

    Also, since I have your ear, I should say that I am concerned with the footprint of Media Player as it becomes a Swiss army knife. Perhaps things will be different when I migrate to a duel core architecture machine, but for now, I find that WMP can be a bit too much of a hog too, even on XP. I mean, I use my computers for work and while of course I would like to play music in the background, this is not the center of my computing universe and so such an application should not, in my opinion, take up as much resources as WMP does.

    Anyway, I hope you will consider these issues in future updates to your software. I sure would like to not have to install four different media players and just stick with one that plays everything and has all the features that I need without eating or leaking too much memory. Maybe that is too much to ask?

    - betamod