From MozillaZine Knowledge Base
Sometimes the audio or video content embedded in a web page doesn't play in Firefox or Mozilla Suite but it works in another browser like Internet Explorer. This usually happens either because you are missing a plugin or because the web page is coded specifically for Internet Explorer. This article will help you solve these and other problems with audio and video content on web pages.
Plugins
Mozilla browsers can't play audio and video content on their own; they require the help of media players and browser plugins. You may already have the correct media players installed that can play audio and video files, but this does not guarantee that you have the plugins needed when the audio or video is embedded inside the web page itself. These articles will tell you how to get the most common plugins and how they should be set up.
Missing plugin alerts
Each plugin contains a list of file extensions and MIME types which it will play. Unlike Internet Explorer, Mozilla browsers will only use a plugin to play the media content if the plugin lists that MIME type; otherwise, you will get a "missing plugin alert". You can see the MIME types and file extensions that are handled by your installed plugins in the about:plugins list.
- The Windows Media Player plugin lists only the Windows Media formats (.asf, .asx, .wm, .wma, .wax, .wmv, and .wvx), and WMP provides no way of changing that list.
- The official Real Player 10.5 plugin only lists the .rpm (Real Media Playlist) format, so often instances of other Real media files (.rm, .ram, .ra) will not work. The solution is to install the modified Real Player plugin.
- The Quicktime plugin lists the Quicktime formats and a few others by default, but Quicktime can be configured to handle other media formats. The solution is to go to your Quicktime Preferences and change the Quicktime browser settings by selecting the MIME types you want Quicktime to handle, such as those for MIDI, WAVE, MPEG and MP3 audio formats.
Add-on solutions
If you don't have the needed plugin or if the web page is coded specifically for Internet Explorer, you can install an add-on as a workaround:
- The MediaWrap extension will allow certain embedded media to work in Firefox with your installed plugins, on web pages coded for ActiveX that normally require Internet Explorer.
- The MediaPlayerConnectivity extension (available for both Firefox and SeaMonkey) will launch embedded media on a web page using an external media player, without the need for plugins. [1]
- The Greasemonkey extension with the IE Media Mimic script will make embedded audio and video play with the Windows Media Player plugin. The script also modifies how they are embedded, to make them behave in Mozilla browsers more like how they would behave in Internet Explorer.
- Some web pages deny you access entirely unless you use Internet Explorer, often because they haven't bothered to test on other browsers, or because they think it only works in Internet Explorer. You can use the User Agent Switcher extension to trick them into thinking you're using IE, but it doesn't mean that it will then work.
- You can install an add-on to open an instance of Internet Explorer for web pages that will not work any other way. Some extensions that will do this are IE Tab IE View and IE View Lite.
Other solutions
- Some sites may require you to allow popup windows. Allow the site as an exception in your popup blocker settings.
- Try clearing the cache.
- Some sites may require you to allow cookies or that you disable ad-blocking [2] so try the following:
- Make sure that cookies are enabled in your privacy settings and that the site is not being blocked in the exceptions list. Also try removing cookies for the problem sites to allow new cookies to be set.
- Temporarily disable any adblocking software or extensions such as Adblock or Adblock Plus. If the site works with ad-blocking disabled you may want to "whitelist" that specific site in your adblocking filter.
- If you use a Windows hosts file you can temporarily disable it by renaming it Xhosts, or you can edit the hosts file to remove specific entries such as ad.doubleclick.net that can cause videos on certain sites not to work [3]. You may need to flush the DNS cache [4] ("Start -> Run -> ipconfig /flushdns") for the hosts file change to take effect.
- Windows Vista has a per-application Volume Mixer that sometimes mutes or turns down the volume in Firefox or another application. [5] Go to a site that should have sound (see Testing plugins). With your Mozilla application still open, click the speaker icon in the Windows task bar, click "Mixer" and make sure the sound isn't muted and that the volume slider isn't at the bottom. [6] [7]
See also
External links
