Is there a MAC conversion for WM?

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sherrymarie - 17 Oct 2006 08:31 GMT

I have WMP videos on my website & MAC users say they can't view them. File
Format not supported is the WMP error. Is there another format I can offer
for MAC users to be able to see the videos? Or do MAC users have to be using
somehting other than WMP to view WMP videos?

I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks.

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Corentin Cras-Méneur - 17 Oct 2006 18:41 GMT

> I have WMP videos on my website & MAC users say they can't view them. File
> Format not supported is the WMP error. Is there another format I can offer
> for MAC users to be able to see the videos? Or do MAC users have to be using
> somehting other than WMP to view WMP videos?

Well it's a tough question without knowing more.
With the Flip4Mac codecs for QuickTime, Mac (not "MAC" since Mac stands
for Macintosh and since Mac computers also have a MAC address ;-)) )
users can easily play various (but definitively not all) formats of WMV.
This page:
http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv_tech.htm
will list the supported codecs,

If the codec you use is not there, you can try using mpeg
(cross-platform), .mov (requires QuickTime for your Windows users and
not available on Linux), H264/AAV (can be read on all platforms, but
usually erquires additional software more or less trivial to find in
Linux), or DivX (all platforms will have to install the fre DivX
package, but I kind of like this format).

If you need DRM-protected codecs, then that's a problem.
Mac can play DRM-protected WMV with the old WMP9 application, but only
is the files use DRM<1.3. Anything more (eg: DRM7) is just out.

Corentin

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sherrymarie - 17 Oct 2006 21:19 GMT

Thanks for the quickie education on Mac's. As is obvious, I don't know
anything about them. The website video in question is:
http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/vector_prop.htm. I have 3 videos on
this website & would like to make them Mac friendly.

The email I received stated this: (Tried to see this but it won't play.
I've got the latest Mac version of Windows Media Player and it says "The
playlist format is not recognized."
We often find that webmasters tend to forget Mac users and conform the sites
cross platform.)

What format would you suggest I use that might work without me being able to
test it?
Thanks, SherryMarie

> > I have WMP videos on my website & MAC users say they can't view them. File
> > Format not supported is the WMP error. Is there another format I can offer
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Corentin

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Corentin Cras-Méneur - 18 Oct 2006 00:40 GMT

> Thanks for the quickie education on Mac's. As is obvious, I don't know
> anything about them.

That's OK, don't worry.
I hope the tone of my post didn't sound aggressive because that sure
wasn't my intention. I re-read it later and it didn't quite look the way
I meant it.....

> The website video in question is:
> http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/vector_prop.htm. I have 3 videos on
> this website & would like to make them Mac friendly.

I took a look at the page and I noticed a few things that make it not
Mac user-friendly:
- you are using Active X (no active X on Mac. Actually, unless you
install an experimental extension, no active X in any other browser than
IE (think Opera, Firefox...) on Windows either).

- you use a .asx file that might not be properly formed (which explains
the error some of your users are getting with WMP - see below).

- in the .asx file, I see that all slashes are actually backslashes... I
don't know much about .asx structures, but shouldn't they be
forward-slashes??

> The email I received stated this: (Tried to see this but it won't play.
> I've got the latest Mac version of Windows Media Player and it says "The
> playlist format is not recognized."
> We often find that webmasters tend to forget Mac users and conform the sites
> cross platform.)

if I try opening the .asx in QT Player (I have the Flip4Mac WMV codecs:
the .asx is supposed to open in QT Player on my Mac), I get a warning
telling me that the file cannot be opened.
Inside the .asx, I find:
<Entry>
<Ref href = "..\media\vector_prop_new.wmv" />
</Entry>

now of course, since I can't place my copy on the server itself, I can't
use ../ to point to the movie on your server, so I replaced the whole
thing with
<Entry>
<Ref href =
"http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/media/vector_prop_new.wmv" />
</Entry>

I can then double-click the video and it plays like a charm on my Mac.
Very obviously the FrontPage extension for WMP content you used
generates a .asx that cannot be accepted by Mac.
the use of \ is really a Windows thing and that's not standard for http
links. I would suspect that using:
<Entry>
<Ref href = "../media/vector_prop_new.wmv" />
</Entry>
should work for both Mac and PCs alike.

> What format would you suggest I use that might work without me being able to
> test it?
> Thanks, SherryMarie

Well you could try correcting all the .asx for instance :-)
If it turns out that simply reverting all \ to / works for both Mac and
PCs, it'd be great if you could send a bug report to whomever makes your
FrontPage plug-in for WMP to let them know that their software is doing
something wrong....
The files you have use WMV 9 and WMA 9 which are both supported in WMP(
and the Flip4Mac WMV codecs.

Now if you want to make sure everybody can see your videos without any
need for a special plug-in of any kind, the only format I can think of
is mpeg 1 :-\
(poor quality and files that are larger than they should be IMVHO).

Corentin

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Harri Mellin - 18 Oct 2006 01:15 GMT

<snip>

> Now if you want to make sure everybody can see your videos without any
> need for a special plug-in of any kind, the only format I can think of
> is mpeg 1 :-\
> (poor quality and files that are larger than they should be IMVHO).

why not use shockwave flash (80 to 90% of computers got the plugin)

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Corentin Cras-Méneur - 18 Oct 2006 18:10 GMT

> why not use shockwave flash (80 to 90% of computers got the plugin)

Very, very very true. I always forget about Shockwave. It requires to
have a plug-in though (just like QuickTime for Windows or WMV for Mac).

Corentin

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sherrymarie - 18 Oct 2006 04:58 GMT

Corentin,
Your tone was not aggressive, it was direct and to the point, which is fine.
I have taken your advice and replaced the file names that had .asx with the
whole url path to the file (I'm trying to surcumvent the Active X). I created
a test page here: http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/video_test.htm.
Would you be so kind as to check it with your Mac and see if it is running
properly now?

Yes, Front Page automatically adds the .axs and a control id. I didn't
modify the control id and this change doesn't seem to have affected the video
in Windows. However, I am unsure about the Active X component. FP also addes
this automatically.
Thanks, SherryMarie

> > Thanks for the quickie education on Mac's. As is obvious, I don't know
> > anything about them.
[quoted text clipped - 71 lines]
>
> Corentin

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Corentin Cras-Méneur - 18 Oct 2006 18:10 GMT

> Corentin,

Hi SherryMarie,

> Your tone was not aggressive, it was direct and to the point, which is fine.

Good then :-)

> I have taken your advice and replaced the file names that had .asx with the
> whole url path to the file (I'm trying to surcumvent the Active X). I created
> a test page here: http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/video_test.htm.
> Would you be so kind as to check it with your Mac and see if it is running
> properly now?

It works like a charm on my Mac.
As I was saying you had the option of using the entire path (as you just
did) or simply reverting the \ to /

> Yes, Front Page automatically adds the .axs and a control id. I didn't
> modify the control id and this change doesn't seem to have affected the video
> in Windows.

FrontPage creates the .asx for you directly??
There was a comment in the .asx itself that mentioned a plug-in (that's
why I suspected a third party plug-in).
Then it would be a bug in FrontPage itself.....
Does FP have a "send feedback" link in the Help??
Definitively worth reporting IMVHO.
(and I can't check myself... we don't have FP installed on any of the
PCs where I work)

> However, I am unsure about the Active X component. FP also addes
> this automatically.
> Thanks, SherryMarie

OK, well not having ActiveX doesn't seem to affect the Mac too much. I
wonder what extra features ActiveX brought here.

Corentin

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sherrymarie - 18 Oct 2006 20:42 GMT

Corentin,
Yes, FrontPage creates the .asx and the Active X automatically. The plug-in
is the Windows Media Player itself. Just by using WMP you have to take what
comes with it.
The reason I used the entire url path to the file is so the Player isn't
dependant on the Active X control. I didn't remove it because the Player may
not work without it being there - even though the Active X is not being used.

Does that make sense?

I'm working around FP's automation webbot that installs way too much code
automatically. There is a Feedback Option for bugs however I don't think MS
will care at this point. They've already come out with a FP replacement
(beta) version called Expression Web, so FP is soon to be extinct.

I modified the videos on my website and would greatly appreciate if you
would test them with your Mac. The code change doesn't seem to have affected
any of the videos using Windows.
http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/contur_design.htm
http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/vector_prop.htm
http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/cavitation.htm
http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/ring_prop.htm

Really appreciate your help with this.
Thanks, SherryMarie

> > Corentin,
>
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
>
> Corentin

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Corentin Cras-Méneur - 18 Oct 2006 21:40 GMT

> Corentin,

Hi SherryMarie,

> Yes, FrontPage creates the .asx and the Active X automatically. The plug-in
> is the Windows Media Player itself. Just by using WMP you have to take what
> comes with it.

I pinged the FrontPage MVPs. Hopefully, they'll be able to enlighten me
on this issue.

> The reason I used the entire url path to the file is so the Player isn't
> dependant on the Active X control. I didn't remove it because the Player may
> not work without it being there - even though the Active X is not being used.
>
> Does that make sense?

It does. I see your point.

> I'm working around FP's automation webbot that installs way too much code
> automatically. There is a Feedback Option for bugs however I don't think MS
> will care at this point.

You'd be surprised. It might take time to see the feature modified, but
for most app they tend to listen (emphasis on *most* - that clearly
wasn't the case for WMP for Mac. It is the case for Office for Mac on
the other hand).

> They've already come out with a FP replacement
> (beta) version called Expression Web, so FP is soon to be extinct.

Ouchhhhh, that indeed might be an issue to see the feature modified...
(I knew Expression, the illustration app, but I wasn't aware of
Expression Web).

> I modified the videos on my website and would greatly appreciate if you
> would test them with your Mac. The code change doesn't seem to have affected
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/cavitation.htm
> http://www.compositecarbonfiberprop.com/ring_prop.htm

They seem to work fine.
You might want to consider changing the statement "Get Windows Media
Player 10 to view the video above."
- I suspect that WMP9 might be enough on Windows and clearly that's not
possible on a Mac ;-))

The videos sometimes take a while before they begin playing (and the
video appears blank until enough of the video has been loaded) so you
can warn Mac users and ask them to be patient too.

> Really appreciate your help with this.
> Thanks, SherryMarie

Not a problem. My pleasure SherryMarie,

Corentin

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sherrymarie - 19 Oct 2006 00:00 GMT

Corentin,
Thank you so much for your help. It would have taken me "forever" to figure
this out by myself. You're the best!
SherryMarie

> > Corentin,
>
[quoted text clipped - 55 lines]
>
> Corentin

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Corentin Cras-Méneur - 19 Oct 2006 20:16 GMT

> Corentin,

Hi SherryMarie,

> Thank you so much for your help. It would have taken me "forever" to figure
> this out by myself.