Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[glynor]

Everyone may already know about this, but I don't use them very often, so I just noticed today....

I use Mozilla Firefox as my default browser (because it rules).  Today I was browsing around at amazon.com and discovered that I am not able to use the web "preview" links that they have for CDs there.  The same thing happens on IE if I choose not to "embed" the player in IE (it then tries to use MC and results in the same error).  If I select the "Windows Media" version of the links, MC tries to play a downloaded file called "hurl.exe" and cannot.  It responds with two error messages:

First an "Information" message box:

"There was an error starting playback.

Make sure that your system has a valid sound playback device and that it is properly configured in playback options.

(double check the output mode, output device, and output bitdepth)"

When I click "OK" to this message, I recieve the standard MC "encountered errors while trying to play the last several files" box.  Also, I found that if I try to play two of them sequentially without "okaying" those boxes, MC crashes with a Visual C++ Runtime error in Media Jukebox.exe.  (This happened because MC didn't pop to the "front" when I clicked on the first link, so I didn't know it had the error, and thought I just "missed" the link and tried again).  In all cases, I see a "hurl.exe" imported into my library.

First of all, is there any way to fix this?  If not, is there a way I can set it up so that WiMP handles the web link play requests for Mozilla and IE, but MC is still the associated program for WMA (and other Windows Media) files?  In other words, I want MC to be in charge of my local WM media, but for web links (assuming I can't get MC to work) I would like to just have WiMP handle them.  Any clue to what I do?  I looked around in the Options and whatnot, and nothing really jumped out at me ...  I am using the current MC beta (10.0.102), and can provide the system details if anyone needs it (this post is already pretty long).

Hmm, I just noticed that the RealMedia versions of the links don't work either.  This is even less of a big deal, but the error there is the regular "Select File to play".

[glynor]

Browsing around through old posts made me think ...

Do I need to do something with the Download Manager to make these links work from within MC?  And if I do set up the Download Manager, but deselect "Enable Browser Integration" would these links go back to using WiMP?

I don't really want to use MC's download manager.  I rarely download media off of the web, and I like the download manager situation I've got going now (unless someone can convince me of why MC's is better).

[glynor]

Anyone?  Anyone?

[xen-uno]

No problem with Amazon/FF here...

In FF, type in about:plugins in the address bar

What do you see for Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library?

I see...

MIME Type    Description    Suffixes    Enabled
application/asx    Media Files    *    Yes
video/x-ms-asf-plugin    Media Files    *    Yes
application/x-mplayer2    Media Files    *    Yes
video/x-ms-asf    Media Files    asf,asx,*    Yes
video/x-ms-wm    Media Files    wm,*    Yes
audio/x-ms-wma    Media Files    wma,*    Yes
audio/x-ms-wax    Media Files    wax,*    Yes
video/x-ms-wmv    Media Files    wmv,*    Yes
video/x-ms-wvx    Media Files    wvx,*    Yes

FF build: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040302 Firefox/0.8.0+ (djeter)

Using WMP7.1 on W2k SP4...but note that Amazon preview files are being sent to MC, but prior to that...never had trouble previewing thru FF. Further...wma's are associated with WMP, so there is some re-direction going on somewhere. Try re-installing wmp.

10^-27

[glynor]

Thanks for answering xen-uno!

The about:plugins page in FF gives me exactly what you reported (unless I read something wrong):

application/asx    Media Files    *    Yes
video/x-ms-asf-plugin    Media Files    *    Yes
application/x-mplayer2    Media Files    *    Yes
video/x-ms-asf    Media Files    asf,asx,*    Yes
video/x-ms-wm    Media Files    wm,*    Yes
audio/x-ms-wma    Media Files    wma,*    Yes
audio/x-ms-wax    Media Files    wax,*    Yes
video/x-ms-wmv    Media Files    wmv,*    Yes
video/x-ms-wvx    Media Files    wvx,*    Yes

I'm using MC on XP SP1 with WiMP 9 (I like to add the "i" to WMP, it seems more appropriate ), so I don't know if our situations are exactly the same.  I also have WMA's associated with MC through the MC "File Associations" Options dialog.  You said:

Further...wma's are associated with WMP

Does this mean just through FF?  Meaning it says:
Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library
    File name: npdsplay.dll
    Npdsplay dll

In the about:plugins page, or do you have "*.wma" actually associated with WMP rather than MC in windows?

[glynor]

Well, I reinstalled WiMP as you suggested.  It didn't fix the issue, but changed it a bit.  Now, instead of getting the two weird errors I recieved before, I get the "Select File To Play" error in MC when I click on the Amazon links.  Also, if I do not have MC open currently when I click on the links nothing happens (MC does not launch and nothing plays).

Also, I didn't mention this before, but I can completely fix the issue and listen to the web media if I de-associate MC with the Windows Media files in the "File Associations" Options panel.  Of course, then the media files just play in WiMP rather than MC and it works fine.  This is a workaround, but not really a solution (because I would rather have windows media files associated with MC in windows).

[xen-uno]

Not sure what's going on...at work, wma's are associated with WMP...yet MC plays them. At home, same deal but WMP plays them. Both are set for WMA>WMP on a system wide basis. I'm clueless at this point. I'll dig deeper over the next few days. I like my cats, glynor...so if curiosity kills one of them then it's on your head ... .

R_x

[glynor]

Well, thanks anyway!  It helps to know that it doesn't happen to everyone, and it is probably my installation (though it does happen on both of my machines).  I'm wondering if uninstalling/clearing the registry/reinstalling MC might fix it.  I have been using MC10 since basically the first beta, so who knows what weirdness has built up with all those upgrades.  For now, I just associated WMA files with WiMP, and the system now plays the files correctly using WiMP, so I am no longer super-annoyed.  When I eventually get motivated (after the final comes out) I will probably try that ...

BTW: Be careful with the cats ... If something did happen, I'm sure my two would somehow know and exact their revenge (most likely while I am sleeping peacefully).