Streaming WM files in Netscape.

Jessariah67 wrote on 11/21/2003, 7:17 AM

Regardless of whether I set up a .wmv or a .wvx file, I get the code in the browser, rather than the media player opening and playing the video clip (this is the same with audio-only files as well). Is there something that Netscape users need to do/download, or is it a coding thing? (I know that I'm able to stream other WM files on other sites without a problem). Anyone know what the fix is for this?

Thanks.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/21/2003, 9:48 AM

Unfortunately it's a web server configuration thing. If this isn't your own webserver or you're not good friends with the webmaster for this server, you might be out of luck. Netscape ignores the file name extension when accessing a file and relies on the server to tell it what type of file this is (yes, this really is supposed to be a good thing). However, this means that the server needs to know that .wmv and .wvx are media file types. If the server hasn't been taught this then it will tell the browser that it is a default/text file and the browser displays it as such. Apparently MSIE will make it's own determination independantly of what the web server tells it.

As a quick test, open up mediaplayer and enter the full URL for the .wvx or .wmv file there. It should play the video.

If you have access to the server's configuration or you can get the person who does have access to do it, you need to add these MIME type definitions:

under *nix these entries can be found in the httpd.conf file:
AddType video/x-ms-wmv wmv
AddType video/x-ms-wvx wvx

or in the /etc/mime.types file:
video/x-ms-wmv wmv
video/x-ms-wvx wvx

either place you put them will require restarting the httpd daemon

Under Windows Server it needs to be set up in the file type associations, and you'll list the extension first and associate it with the type.

Jessariah67 wrote on 11/21/2003, 12:02 PM

Thanks for the info, Kelly. I'll try to see if my host provider can make the changes.

K