Streaming Video problem

[kirra]

New to Macs and loving it but for one thing. I can't get live Windows Media streaming video to work. This is actually one of my main uses for a computer at all, so it's important to me.

On the main site I use, I can get sound but no video. Any ideas? I am running Windows Media on an imac with OSX.

 

[stoid]

try re-installing Windows Media Player, I know that I had to try numerous times to get Windows Media Player for X. I even had to download it from a different source because the first installer I downloaded would quit right after I opened it w/o doing anything.

 

[kirra]

Tried that several times, no luck

 

[MacBandit]

Well WMP for the Mac is only at version 7 and WMP for windows is at version 9. That is probably most of your problem. I just avoid anything that requires WMP because it's such a cross platform nightmare. You might have more luck by opening WMP prior to visiting these sites but then again maybe not.

 

[kirra]

I had been trying to work out exactly what version WMP for Mac was and how it correlated to the windows version, but it wasn't clear what was what. Does anyone have any idea when version 9 for mac comes out?

BTW, opening WMP first doesn't help. I think I tried every possible sneaky way to open the file without success.

 

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by kirra
I had been trying to work out exactly what version WMP for Mac was and how it correlated to the windows version, but it wasn't clear what was what. Does anyone have any idea when version 9 for mac comes out?

BTW, opening WMP first doesn't help. I think I tried every possible sneaky way to open the file without success.

Microsoft said before the end of the year.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Are you trying to open the files inline in a browser, or from a reference file downloaded to your computer?

When all else fails, IE seems to handle embedded WMV files better than others - go figure.

 

[kirra]

Tried

- opening in IE
- opening in Safari
- opening link direct in WMP
- opening link in any other media player I could find (Real, QT)

none of which worked.

I think it's a version issue - that seems to make the most sense. Is this lag between issuing the windows version and the mac version typical? Are we doomed to be always a year out of date? That sucks.

Thanks for the advice folks.

 

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by kirra
Tried

- opening in IE
- opening in Safari
- opening link direct in WMP
- opening link in any other media player I could find (Real, QT)

none of which worked.

I think it's a version issue - that seems to make the most sense. Is this lag between issuing the windows version and the mac version typical? Are we doomed to be always a year out of date? That sucks.

Thanks for the advice folks.

Well the lag is kind of normal with maybe about 50-60% of programs out there. A lot of the major ones get updated nearly simultaneously. As for WMP there is good news. Microsoft is going to make it an open medium much the same way that MP4 is. You still have to pay a license for it but you have rights to the code.