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Thread: Missing Firefox Plugin

  1. #1
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
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    Question 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.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    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?


  3. #3
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
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    Sure, I've done so - many thanks
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  4. #4
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    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

  5. #5
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
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    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!
    Last edited by Moira; January 15th, 2007 at 07:54 PM.
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  6. #6
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    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"


  7. #7
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
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    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!
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  8. #8
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    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

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

  9. #9
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
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    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.
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  10. #10
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
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    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.
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