Comments on: Why won't the video play?

Question: Why won't the video play?

wsg — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 11:41:52 -0800

Why is it that some videos won't play for me and I get this instead?

This is what I see

http://thebeachcomber.org/temp/why.jpg

By: jon_kill

jon_kill — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 11:48:16 -0800

You'll have to provide a lot more details than that.

By: jdroth

jdroth — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 12:00:41 -0800

Platfrom (XP?)? Browser (IE?)? Video format? Installed video players? Not enough information!

By: wsg

wsg — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 12:18:25 -0800

Sorry 'bout that. Windows XP, IE, WMP, Real, QT.

By: fondle

fondle — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 12:53:01 -0800

WMP 10 not installed?

By: wsg

wsg — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:09:39 -0800

Thanks, fondle. That appears to have taken care of it. Odd, though, that I have had that problem for years through several versions and updates of media player and updating it didn't solve the problem. This time it seems to have.

By: Optimus Chyme

Optimus Chyme — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:15:15 -0800

Note to web designers: embedded video is a hallmark of the Devil's touch. Just give us the goddamn link so we can play it in VLC instead of having to install WinReal_NotSpywareWeSwear.exe.

By: meta87

meta87 — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 16:15:52 -0800

Or use flash to embed the video. :)

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 19:30:32 -0800

Just in case there's anybody out there who doesn't already know these things:

1. Firefox, under Tools>Page Info>Media, will show you the URLs for everything embedded on the current web page, and allow you to save a copy of any embedded media locally; you can then play it with whatever you fancy.

2. Quicktime Alternative and Real Alternative are spyware-free open-source packages that allow playback of QuickTime and Real media, both standalone and embedded in web pages.