Full Step-By-Step Guide: Embedded Windows Media in Firefox
WARNING!! Before you begin, if you use the Adblock Extension, you must make sure that the setting for OBJ-TABS is disabled. Otherwise, your system will run almost any ActiveX control. See Note 4.
Contents
Most of the ActiveX plugin information in this guide has now been mirrored in the Knowledge Base:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Windows_Media_Player
For other embedded/streaming media guides and information, visit the
(Links to Web)
Complete Embedded & Streaming Quicktime/Real/Windows Media Player Guide for Windows Users.
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Background
It is common to find websites that use Windows Media Player to embed
audio and video into a web page. The Windows Media Player plugin, while
not included with Windows Media Player, should be included with Windows
itself - however this is not always the case. In addition, many
websites use ActiveX only to embed media - making such websites
IE-only. This guide discusses how to solve both problems.
If you came here wondering how to make Firefox use the Windows
Media Player plugin play a specific file type instead of Quicktime,
then you should know that the WMP plugin is hard-coded to only play the
proprietary Microsoft formats (.asf, .asx, .wm, .wma, .wax, .wmv, and
.wvx), and Windows Media Player provides no provision for changing
this. For the most common formats found on the web (like mp3, midi,
mpg, wav, etc.) you will need to install and configure Quicktime or
Quicktime Alternative. The Quicktime guide contains instructions for
this: (Links to Web) http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=206210
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Windows Media Player Plugin
Windows Media Player provides a plugin to allow browsers other than IE
to display embedded Windows Media. It is this plugin that Firefox uses.
Sometimes though, the plugin is missing or refuses to work properly.
This section of the guide gives intructions on checking the plugin,
restoring it if missing, and on configuring it if it doesn't work
properly.
Checking Windows Media Player plugin installation
Restoring the Windows Media Player plugin
- If any of these entries are not present, look for the files in the Windows Media Player directory (usually C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player), and copy then to the Firefox plugins directory (usually C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins). Then repeat the previous step and check the files are all there.
- If any of the entries are still not present, close Firefox and then install the
(Links to Web) Windows Media Player Plug-in for Netscape Navigator, which contains some of those files. When installation is complete, repeat the previous step and check the files are all there.
- If some of the files are still missing, you can download the individual files from dlldump.com:Download them to the Firefoxs plugins folder (usually C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins).
- If the plugin files are present but not functioning, consult
the following section: "Configuring/Troubleshooting the Windows Media
Player plugin"
Configuring/Troubleshooting the Windows Media Player plugin
Known issues with the WMP plugin and (where applicable) the solution.
- If, when playing a video, the video image is either
invisible or disappears when you click a control, you need to adjust
the plugin settings:
- When the player is active, right-click on it and select 'Options...'
- At the bottom of the window should be a 'Video Acceleration' option. Change it from full to half by moving the slider.
- Windows 2000 users: If you find that Firefox crashes on exit
if the WMP plugin has been used, try updating your installation of Java
to the latest version:
- Double-click on the 'My Computer' icon on the desktop, then double-click on 'Control Panel'.
- Double-click on the Java icon to bring up the Java control panel.
- Click on the 'Update' tab, and then the 'Update Now' button.
- If the player controls look like they are from an older version of Windows Media Player:
- Right-click this link and save it to your desktop:
wmp9.reg
- When it has downloaded, double-click it. A pop-up will ask if you want to add the information in it to the registry - click Yes.
- The WMP plugin is the same whether you use WMP 6.4 or WMP 9 -
this registry patch basically allows Firefox to apply the modern WMP
look onto the plugin.
- "Can not create DirectShow Player" error: I have never
experienced this error, so I an not clear on why it occurs. It was
recently reported that it could be a symptom of this problem:
(Links to Web) http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=831430 So try the solutions there first.
Failing that, try reinstalling WMP and (Links to Web) installing the latest version of DirectX. Windows XP users with WMP 9 can try upgrading to WMP 10, and WMP 10 users can also try rolling back to WMP 9. It
(Links to Web) has been reported
that booting Windows in Safe Mode, deleting WMP, then reinstalling WMP
will solve it. I have not tested this method (having never had the
error), so I do not know if it will work and I do not know what
possible side-effects manually deleting WMP in this manner could cause.
In any case, try the other possible solutions first.
- The players in the test links here have the status bar - it
tells you what the player is doing. This is not always the case.
Sometimes when you hit play on a player without a status bar, it seems
like nothing happens - in fact, the player is probably just downloading
enough of the file to start playing it (buffering) and if you give it a
moment, it will start.
- Illegal operation in Windows Media Player plugin error. If you
find you are getting the following when you try to watch embedded
Windows media:
| Code: |
Illegal Operation in Plugin
Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library
The plugin performed an illegal operation. You are strongly advised to restart Navigator.
|
- This can be caused by having Javascript disabled.
- Click Tools > Options > Web Features and make sure that Javascript is enabled.
- Make sure that any extensions you might have that can block
Javascript are not blocking the site in question or are disabled. These
include NoScript and Adblock Plus.
- For users of Windows XP Home N or Windows XP Professional N:
Because of a recent decision by the European Commission, Microsoft have
been required to offer these new European versions of Windows XP
Home/Pro in addition to the standard verisons, with Windows Media
Player and all built-in media playback abilities removed - including
the Windows Media Player plugin. The N stands for 'Not with Windows
Media Player'.
Because of the scope of the changes, you cannot simply install
Windows Media Player to get full functionality back. Microsoft have
released an update to convert Windows XP N to regular Windows XP (by
restoring all the missing files). Users of Windows XP Home/Pro N will
need to install this update to run the Windows Media Player plugin:
(Links to Web)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2ab49f45-0f03-4736-9b11-fe4b5b3cb712&DisplayLang=en
Warning: This cannot be undone. After installing this update, the only way to revert back to Windows XP N will be to re-install Windows.
This update is also avaliable on Windows Update.
- Player appears, player status bar says 'Ready', no error messages, but nothing happens when you click Play.
For some reason, IE needs to be able to connect to the internet for
the WMP plugin to work. If IE is set to 'Work Offline' then this
happens. It has been reported that this can also be caused by IE's
proxy settings being misconfigured.
To check if IE is in 'Work Offline' mode, open IE and open the
File menu. There would be a tick by the 'Work Offline' option. Click it
to take IE off Work Offline mode.
IE may also give you the option to connect when you start it - click yes.
- Firefox crashes while typing to play embedded WMV files.
This can be caused by having the VLC Media Player installed, which
includes its own browser plugin. This plugin conflicts with the WMP
plugin, so you need to remove the VLC plugin for embedded WMV files to
play properly.
- Player does not appear, but audio (sometimes)still plays - all plugin files are listed in about:plugins:
- It has
(Links to Web) recently been reported
that under Firefox 1.5, Adblock's OBJ-TABS setting will block the WMP
plugin. If you find this happens to you, disable the obj-tabs setting.
If that doesn't work, try redownloading the plugin files from
dlldump.com as descriped in the previous section, and placing them in Firefox's plugins folder.
- The VLC Media Player plugin has also been known to do this - remove the VLC plugin.
End
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ActiveX Plugin (Firefox 1.0-1.0.7, 1.5)
Some Embedded/Streaming Media (such as those on launch.com) use an ActiveX Control
to embed Windows Media into a web page. ActiveX is what Internet
Explorer uses instead of the plugin system adopted by Netscape. Where
plugins are essentially sub-programs run within the browser (and so
subject to whatever limitations the browser imposes on it), ActiveX
controls are Windows programs, and so do not have limits imposed on
them and what they are allowed to do. This gives them a lot of poential
power over your system, especially coupled with the fact that IE can
download and install them automatically and silently for you. The
intention was to allow for more complex web page content, but the
system can be and has been exploited to install viruses, adware,
spyware, and the like. The power of ActiveX can be a big security risk,
and is one of the more serious security vulnerabilities in IE. Partly
for this reason, Firefox does not come with ActiveX support installed.
There are ActiveX plugins for Firefox avaliable, and this section
of the guide gives instructions for installing and testing it. The
security issue is bypassed because the plugins for Firefox come
pre-configured to only run the Windows Media Player controls. It will
simply refuse to download or run any other control, good or bad. This
will allow you to view many of the websites that only use ActiveX to
embed media.
Alternatively, this Greasemonkey script can (among other things) provide partial
support for Windows media embedded with ActiveX. If the media uses any
of the functions unique to ActiveX (which most do), then it still won't
work properly. Info on this script can be found here:
(Links to Web) http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=323276
Before You begin:
IMPORTANT. If you use the
(Links to Web)
Adblock Extension, you must make sure that the setting for OBJ-TABS is disabled. Otherwise, your system will run almost any ActiveX control. See
Note 4.
Before installing the ActiveX plugin, read the following:
- This guide only applies to the official mozilla.org milestone releases of Firefox 1.0 to 1.0.7 and Firefox 1.5 under Windows.
- There is no ActiveX plugin for Firefox 1.0.5, but the plugin for Firefox 1.0.4 seems to work for it.
- The ActiveX plugin is not compatable with Moox builds. Compatability with other 3rd party builds is unknown.
- For Firefox 1.0PR and 0.9.x (also under Windows), see this earlier version of this guide: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=140828.
- This method has not been tested with Firefox 1.0RC1 and 1.0RC2.
- The ActiveX plugin for Firefox 1.5 is marked as a test version - it is still being tested, and so there may be unknown problems with it.
- Most methods of updating Firefox to a new version do not
remove the ActiveX plugin, and there is no guarantee that the plugin
version you have will work with the new version of Firefox. It is
strongly recommended that you uninstall
the ActiveX plugin before you update Firefox. Having the wrong version
of the ActiveX plugin installed can cause other plugins (especially
Flash) to malfunction.
Installing the ActiveX Plugin
- The Windows Media Player plugin must be installed and working
for this to work. Check that the plugin is installed and functioning
correctly before proceeding: Checking Windows Media Player plugin installation.
- Depending on which version of Firefox you use, right-click the relevant link and save it to your desktop:This
is Adam Lock's ActiveX Plugin for Firefox. There are no versions of the
plugin that are known to work with any non-official Firefox builds. For
Firefox 0.9.x and 1.0PR, see this earlier version of the guide:
(Links to Web) http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=140828
- Open Firefox, then drag the .xpi file you just downloaded into the Firefox window.
The plugin will appear in the Extensions window while installing, but
not once installation is complete. This is normal - even though it
installs the same way, this is not an extension and so will not be
listed in the Extensions window..
- When the installation is complete, restart Firefox.
Checking ActiveX Plugin Installation
- You can test the ActiveX installation on this website:
ActiveX Test - Windows Media Player
If you can play both the audio and video players, then the ActiveX and Windows Media Player plugins are installed correctly.
- If they do not display properly, type about:plugins into the address bar. If the following entry is present, then the ActiveX plugin is installed correctly:
- If this entry is not present, then reinstall the ActiveX plugin.
Embedded Media that still won't work
If the test link in the previous step worked, then the ActiveX plugin
is working. So:
Uninstalling ActiveX
Should you want to uninstall the ActiveX plugin, the process is simple
- only four files need to be manually deleted from the Firefox program
folder.
- Close all instances of Firefox
- Go to the Firefox program folder (the location you installed Firefox to). The default location in Windows is 'C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\'
- Go into the plugins folder and delete the file 'npmozax.dll'
- Go back to the Firefox program folder, and then go into the components folder, and delete the files 'nsIMozAxPlugin.xpt' & 'nsAxSecurityPolicy.js'.
- Go back to the Firefox program folder, and then go into the defaults\pref folder, and delete the file 'activex.js'.
End
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Notes
Note 1. With certain versions of ActiveX installed, sometimes the Flash plugin will not load unless it was previously loaded.
A work-around is to refresh your plugins (type
about:plugins in your address bar) when starting FireFox, under those circumstances everything loads normally.
Note 2. AnonEmoose and I have tested these methods of installing ActiveX with many sites that use ActiveX to stream video (including
(Links to Web) launch.com video,
cjob.com Listen Live,
startrek.com video
and others) with no problems. However, this does not guarantee that
this will allow Firefox to view all embedded/streaming video - for
example, some also use IE-only javascript in the embedded players.
Note 3. AnonEmoose has tested Yahoo/Launch Radio, and believes it does NOT work with Firefox
Note 4. For some reason, the OBJ-TABS setting in the
(Links to Web) Adblock Extension
interferes with the ActiveX plugin. The activex.js file that is
installed with the plugin determines which controls the plugin may and
may not run. If the OBJ-TABS setting is enabled, then the ActiveX
plugin will ignore activex.js and run any control.
Note 5. IE has a function whereby if you are
downloading
a video file (such as through a link), it can have WMP play the file as
it is downloading. There are methods of duplicating this behaviour in
Firefox here:
(Links to Web) http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=206216#stream
Note 6. If you ever have trouble
finding any files on your computer, make sure you have enabled the
viewing of hidden files and folders in Windows folder options.
Note 7. If you ever have trouble
playing media at a site that is reported to work in Firefox when using
this method, try clearing all cookies set by that site, then re-trying.
In addition, make syre that cookies for the site in question are not
blocked (the Adblocker extension could also do this).
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Troubleshooting
If, after following the guide, Embedded Windows Media still won't play properly, then recheck that the
Windows Media Player plugin files and the
ActiveX plugin file are installed, and that the issue is not documented in the
Configuring/Troubleshooting the Windows Media Player plugin section.
If you are still unable to resolve any issues, ask for help here in
the Mozilla Firefox Support forum. Say that you followed this guide and
include the following information:
- Windows Version
- Firefox Version
- Windows Media Player version
- Difficulties with any of the above steps
- Whether or not the players on the WMP Test Page and/or the ActiveX Test Page work
- A link to a page with embedded media that doesn't work properly (if applicable)
- Any received error messages (if applicable)
- If the player loads but doesn't play, right-click on the player. Is 'Properties' greyed out?
- If the player loads but doesn't play, right-click on the
player. Is 'Error Details' greyed out? If not, click on it and supply
the information you see.
- Any other relevant information
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keywords: ActiveX
Active-X plugin Windows Media Player Mediaplayer WMP 6.4 7 9 10 stream
streaming embed embedded embedding video mp3 wmv wma asf asx
Thanks to AnonEmoose for letting me cannibalise his guide, Adam
Lock for his ActiveX plugins, Chris Pederick for his User Agent
Switcher Extension, _Jim_ for his ActiveX test page, and rtmjr50 for
his input and help.
Posted: Jan Sun 23rd 2005 9:03am Step-By-Step Guide: Embedded Windows Media in Firefox 1.0