Missing Firefox Plugin

I uploaded a short video to my website recently and although it plays fine in IE, Firefrox complains about a missing plugin. I ask it to look, but it fails to find anything to play this video. It's annoying to see the bar at the top of the page every time I view the index page now, and I can't believe Firefox is incapable of playing an avi file.

I've installed Quick Time and QT Alternative and .mov files and .wav files are OK. Any suggestions? Many thanks. I'm using Firefox version 2.0.0.1 by the way, on XP pro.

Hi Moira,

.avi extensions cover a multitude of sins............. any chance of PMing me a link so that I can check it out?

It sounds as if you are missing a codec?

:)

Sure, I've done so - many thanks :)

OK this is what happened:

1. Win XP Pro SP2............... file would not play and I got the error reporting pop-up.

2. Win ME................ I got the missing plugin screen and sent it to look for one, which it could not find.

3. Downloaded the file in Mozilla and had a look at what it was doing ;)...... it initially creates an XYZ.avi.part file, which eventually becomes an XYZ.avi file on completion of the download.

4. Opened IE and both downloaded and tried to play the file online................. it takes a long time to load, but it did work eventually.

5. Played both files by double clicking and by opening the file in FireFox.

Incidentally, both browsers and Windows defaulted to Windows Media Player, which will play it.

My guess that it is some sort of buffering and/or segmented file handling problem in FireFox? It appears to download some of the file, then starts to try playing it whilst it still has a .part extension?

If that is the case, then it is not surprising that it cannot find a suitable plugin/codec.

I have not tried playing it in FireFox and ignoring the pop-up to see if it will work once it has the whole file...............assuming, of course that FF would continue with the download?

Hope that helps :)

Many thanks that's really useful nihil. If I'd known it was going to be this much trouble, I wouldn't have bothered! The video itself plays without a problem - well, my camera wouldn't be much good for video otherwise.

FYI it doesn't play in FF if you ignore the pop up - or it doesn't for me anyway. I just get a bar across the top of the web page. The strange thing is that IE does play it - hell, AOL's browser plays it!! It's clearly a problem with Firefox, but what to do about it is another matter.

It wouldn't be a problem if it quietly just didn't play, it's the fact I get a great ugly notification about missing plugins that bugs me.

Edit Just to say, I had a go watching a video of artificially created ball lightning and that suffered the same problem. I didn't get the missing plugin message, but the video wouldn't play in either QT or WMP. Switching to Internet Explorer, I had no problem at all. This is the video:

http://www.espacociencia.pe.gov.br/m..._player.php%20

Quite interesting actually - though I don't think I'd have stood with open toed sandals quite so near it! :)

Hmmm,

Looks like you need the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and you need to enable scripts for the site if you are using FF's "Script Blocker"

:)

I'm not using FF's script blocker, though I do have it installed. I can try and get the Adobe Fash Player plug-in, I just can't understand why Firefox offers a missing plug-in service and then fails to get a really obvious thing like that!

Hi Moira,

I just got round to trying the ball lightning on another machine. Unlike the other box it did not prompt me to download Adobe Flash Player............I guess I must have it already.

It wouldn't do anything until I temporarily allowed scripts for the site.

My Portuguese isn't brilliant, but it does recommend using IE at the top of the page :D

As for your first problem, that certainly looks like a bug in FF to me

It does to me a bit as well. Perhaps I could uninstall and reinstall firefox v.2, and just hope it isn't present in every copy of the latest version. I won't do it right now as I'm on a train using wireless internet courtesy of GNER and my paid for time is about to run out, but I'll give it a go - saving the application data first as I'd hate to lose all my bookmarks.

I decided not to reinstall Firefox as every single copy I've come across on any computer will not play my video so I don't think it would do any good. I did have this guide pointed out to me. It seems this is a common firefox problem, however neither myself nor the person who showed me the thread could make my site work, despite restoring the mssing plugins.

Hi Moira,

I have just got it to work!!!

XP Pro SP2, Firefox 1.5.0.9

I opened your site and double clicked on the link..........it took ages to load (just a white screen and the hour glass cursor) Then the audio track started to play sporadic bursts with gaps in between. Then the little green download progress meter started running..........when it completed, I got both the audio and video running perfectly:confused: (I hope all you guys' kidneys have recovered from all that booze:D)

I logged off your site and got the Mozilla "report an error" pop-up (which I had before) I have sent them the details (but not the URL of your site, as I do not have your permission, and I am very pedantic about that sort of thing).

I also think that I have a "Dr.Watson" log, but I haven't looked for it yet.

This looks like a buffering "bug" to me? What should happen is that it buffers some of the download and starts playing it whilst downloading the rest? This is not working as far as I can see, but the actual plugin is OK, as it played it on completion, and played it within FireFox when I downloaded the file as a "save as"

FF detects that it has had a problem, which is why I get the error reporting prompt, and even Windows isn't happy, which is why I get the Dr. Watson?

I gave them my e-mail, so perhaps they will contact me and we can get this fixed. :)

I will keep you and the Forum informed............ Dr. Watson?...........haven't deciphered one of those since my NT 4.0 days:D

Hi nihil, thanks for the continued efforts! The link I posted always did work, it was the embedded video that only worked in IE .... I'm not too sure what is it you clicked on?

Actually I'm using FF 2 but it seems the problem is present in whatever version of Firefox is being used. By the way, feel free to give Mozilla the URL of the site (I'll never have to come face to face with them!) if it helps.

I'd be interested in any progress. If I'd known it was going to cause all this trouble I'd never have embedded the video on the site - however the majority of people use IE, so will be able to watch it without problems. I just don't like that ugly "missing plugin" bar at the top.

Like most people, I've gone through that guide and manually installed the plugins needed and still it doesn't work. I guess this is one instance where IE is simply better than Firefox.

Keep me informed of progress and many thanks!

Hi,

I just tried it in Opera 7.0.................... it started after a few seconds but used RealPlayer................ maybe the RealPlayer plugin for FF needs installing/updating?

Just a thought? :)

I tried to browse to the Real Player plugin from here but no luck - the site wasn't working. I can get it to work in AOL's browser and Internet Explorer, it's just Firefox which has the problem even though I've installed manually everything recommended.

Try the Tokyo site Moira, it just worked for me ;)

Tokyo? You lost me there ...

Sorry Moira,........... one of the download sites is in Tokyo...............that one worked for me, whilst the London one would not connect.

Ah right, I understand - will give it a go tomorrow!

No luck .... I click the RealPlayer download link and it doesn't give me a choice of Tokyo or anywhere else. It just straight away goes to an error page.

Hmmm,

When you go to the site, find the Real Player section and scroll down the left hand side until you come to something like "For Windows: Version 10". If you click on that link then it should take you to another site/screen with the download location alternatives.

I have just done it again, and it works. The top link to Real Player doesn't work.

:)

Sorry, it goes to another page for about 2 seconds, then immediately jumps to a page which displays "problem loading page". It doesn't give me time to do anything at all.

What's obvious in all this, is the average person isn't going to go to all this trouble just to view my xmas video :D I can only hope most people use IE which works fine!

So all this for an avi file eh? Can you PM me your site link so I can take a peek under the hood.

Well, it does indeed seem firefox has an issue with plugins for both

<embed> and <object>

in reference to avi. You can try to "hack" it by adding a different mime type and seeing if the player has the ability to deal withit. Its not full proof though.

So, a solution here is to import the avi file into flash and using that as the "player".

I PM'ed you a full working solution :)

-xmaddness

Many thanks xmaddress, I think it's brilliant :) As I PM'd you though, I really don't think I want the video playing every time someone visits the index page of the site, it will drive visitors away :(

I wonder if there's any option to add controls to play/not play the content?

PS Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this, I really appreciate it :)

In the end I've settled for just posting a link to the damned video :) however, I tried to do something slightly clever and link to mms://www.etc/video and although it lanched the box about an external application asking to be opened, I got the error that WMP couldn't connect to the server.

I gather I need to include the code for media player applet and can't just stick a link in - anyone know how to do this?