WMP 9.0 on OS X 10.4.2 - The specified stream type is not recognized

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EvilGlowingApple@gmail.com - 13 Oct 2005 06:34 GMT

Hi, I just installed Windows Media Player 9.0 for Mac on my Mac running
OS X 10.4.2. When I try to play any wmv file (including the sample
file that the Windows Media Installer installs), I get the error "The
specified stream type is not recognized."

I have tried with several user accounts (admin and non-admin), and even
uninstalled and reinstalled the software as the root user to make sure
it wasn't a permissions issue. I tried turning off my firewall, just
in case WMP was trying to download some codec that the firewall was
blocking, but that didn't work either.

Any ideas what I can do to fix this?

Thanks much!
Jayson

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Corentin Cras-Méneur - 20 Oct 2005 20:30 GMT

> I have tried with several user accounts (admin and non-admin), and even
> uninstalled and reinstalled the software as the root user to make sure
> it wasn't a permissions issue. I tried turning off my firewall, just
> in case WMP was trying to download some codec that the firewall was
> blocking, but that didn't work either.

You should NEVER use root to install. You fix all permissions to root
and it usually prevents other users from properly using the app. I'd
trash the app, plug-in etc, then trash the pref and .plist file from you
pref folder, repair permissions using Disk Utility (especially since you
used root) and then you can empty the trash holding the alt key down
(since some files are locked) and reboot before attempting to install
again.

root is a very powerful mode, but we easily make awful mistakes with it.
Beside that, there isn't much you could also achieve using sudo in the
Terminal instead. root is evil, believe me...

Corentin

WMP FAQ: http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/?page_id=30
blog on MS apps for Mac: http://www.cortig.net/wordpress

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EvilGlowingApple@gmail.com - 21 Oct 2005 03:53 GMT

I installed it as root only as a last ditch option. I had installed it
before that with two other users first and was having the same problem.
In between installs I had trashed all files in ~/Library/Preferences
with had the words Media or Player in them. I also looked through all
files with the word Microsoft in them. After trashing these, and
logging out and rebooting, I installed again and received teh same
errors. I'll follow your advice to get rid of the app installed as
root, but I'm not sure how to install it again and make sure I don't
get the same error I was getting before.

Thanks, Jayson

> > I have tried with several user accounts (admin and non-admin), and even
> > uninstalled and reinstalled the software as the root user to make sure
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
> MVPs are not MS employees - Les MVP ne travaillent pas pour MS
> Remove "NoSpam" to e-mail me - Retirez "NoSpam" pour m'écrire

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Corentin Cras-Méneur - 21 Oct 2005 16:21 GMT

> I installed it as root only as a last ditch option. I had installed it
> before that with two other users first and was having the same problem.
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> root, but I'm not sure how to install it again and make sure I don't
> get the same error I was getting before.

Repair permissions before reinstalling. As for the error you were
getting: is there any special character (accent, tilde...) in the name
of the drive or the path to the file ?? That's a known bug in WMP that
completely prevents it from working properly.

Corentin

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EvilGlowingApple@gmail.com - 21 Oct 2005 17:37 GMT

Aha! it works now. My hard drive was named '/', so to WMP it probalby
saw all files beginning with ':' as the character. I changed the hard
drive name to "Hard Drive" and it's working just fine. Odd, it played
non-WMV3 files just fine, even with the drive named like that, but all
WMV3 files it gave me that error. Oh, well, seems to work now with the
different hard drive name, so I'm happy. Thanks Corentin for the help!

~Jayson

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Corentin Cras-Méneur - 21 Oct 2005 17:40 GMT

> Aha! it works now. My hard drive was named '/', so to WMP it probalby
> saw all files beginning with ':' as the character.

Yeah, / is tricky on most app (so is : actually). I try to avoid using
these two characters.

> I changed the hard
> drive name to "Hard Drive" and it's working just fine. Odd, it played
> non-WMV3 files just fine, even with the drive named like that, but all
> WMV3 files it gave me that error. Oh, well, seems to work now with the
> different hard drive name, so I'm happy. Thanks Corentin for the help!

I'm glad it worked :-) Now that you can actually launch the app and play
some files, you'll have the opportunity to discover the *other* WMP bugs
;-))

Corentin

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Mac Forum / Applications / Media Player / October 2005

WMP 9.0 on OS X 10.4.2 - The specified stream type is not recognized