embedded real audio

[SimonW]

I have embedded a real audio file on my site and the embedded player works on most people's browsers - but not all! (even IE5).

What are they lacking? What can I do to make sure they can see the embedded player?

A colleague of mine cannot see the player either, even though he has G2 and Real Producer installed. Puzzling isn't it?

SW

[kevin]

SW,

It's helpful to post the URL of the webpage or the actual code you are using when seeking help. That way someone can check for an error in the HTML code or make other suggestions.

That being said, when using embedded files that need to use a plugin, there is no way to insure that all visitors to a webpage will see/hear the file. Multimedia is browser setting dependent, and since many folks never get beyond using the pre-existing settings and many are paranoid about downloading anything, including plugins or multimedia files, the best you can expect is that a majority of visitors will see/hear the embedded multimedia files in your webpages.

I hope that helps, maybe someone else will have something more specific related to RA files/players.

Regards,
Kevin

[swhittaker]

Thank you Kevin for your reply.

Real Audio is supposed to install a plug-in when it is downloaded and installed, so it should work - but it doesn't always.

I am wondering if the answer might lie in the fact that you can download real audio for Windows or real audio for Netscape. If you have both browsers on your computer but use the browser which you didn't use to install real audio maybe you won't see the player. On the other hand maybe you couldn't hear the sound file anyway. I guess I'll have to try and take this up with real.

Simon

[Ian]

Hi Simon,
I wonder if this is more of a file association problem on some users computers. Depending what plugins are installed depends on what they get. As you probably know, most browser add ons (IE: real player, windows media player, winamp, etc) now all seem to support the same formats to try and make their package the "only one needed" (versus having 3 seperate plugins for 3 different file formats). I wonder if some of these programs can not read your embedded code correctly.
It would be interesting to know if the users are all using the same plug in to hear your sound (and is it installed correctly) or what program they have associated with the file format you are using. Also what script are you using to embed your sounds? Maybe that has some effect on it.

------------------
Ian

Web Development - BIG Resources Inc
Head Guide - 123Webmaster.com (http://www.123webmaster.com/)
ian@123webmaster.com
BIG Resources.com (http://www.bigresources.com)
ICQ: 25828668

[swhittaker]

Thank you for your ideas Ian,

I have been investigating this matter further and have been coming up with some ideas of my own. I have now revamped my code to include the <OBJECT> command and not just <EMBED>. See below:

<!-- -->
<OBJECT ID=RAOCX CLASSID="clsid:CFCDAA03-8BE4-11cf-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA"
VOLUME=100% WIDTH="350" HEIGHT="36">
<PARAM NAME="CONTROLS" VALUE="ControlPanel">
<PARAM NAME="AUTOSTART" Value="false">
<PARAM NAME="LOOP" Value="false">
<PARAM NAME="NOJAVA" Value="true">
<PARAM NAME="CONSOLE" Value="MYCONSOLE">
<PARAM NAME="SRC" VALUE="file://c:/out5/track25.rpm">
<EMBED SRC="file://c:/out5/track25.rpm" type="audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin"
CONTROLS="ControlPanel" AUTOSTART="FALSE" LOOP="FALSE" VOLUME=100%
WIDTH=350 HEIGHT=36 NOJAVA=true CONSOLE="MYCONSOLE">
<NOEMBED><a href="file://c:/out5/track25.rpm">Click here to listen to the text!</a></NOEMBED>
</OBJECT>
<!-- -->

So in theory I should be able to get this file to play on any system with real audio installed. There is an IE tag, a Netscape tag and even a fall through alternative.

I get the player on my system regardless of whether it is IE or Netscape. But I don't have IE5 installed which is the one that seems to be the problem. I am waiting for feedback.

You can see that the files I am using are real audio files, made with real audio producer and the rpm extention calls up the embedded player. If you have real audio installed you should see it.

However, I during my research I have been jogged into another possibility:
If you had IE4 when you installed real audio, then upgraded to IE5 the real audio plug in would be incorrect. That is, it would be set for IE4. The answer here would be re-install real audio naming IE5 as the browser.

I haven't checked it out yet but I think this is the answer. I think the above code is now correct. So if for any reason you can't see the embedded player your browser must be incorrectly set up. The answer then is to re-install naming the correct browser.

I'll post a message if I am found to be right or wrong.

Simon

[Ian]

Hi,
As soon as I saw the code I knew it was the one real player generates. For some reason I always encountered problems with it and could never get it to work correctly. I can create the same thing using just one line of code. (this works in NS and IE browsers)

<!-- -->
<embed SRC="http://YOUR-URL.rpm" type="audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin" CONTROLS="Controlpanel" AUTOSTART="FALSE" LOOP="FALSE" VOLUME=100% WIDTH=350 HEIGHT=36 CONSOLE="MYCONSOLE">
<!-- -->

Also check out the tutorial on 123webmaster.com
http://www.123webmaster.com/Tutorials/RealAudio.html

it gives a few other options using the same type of scripts, you might get some ideas.
I hope this helps.

------------------
Ian

Web Development - BIG Resources Inc
Head Guide - 123Webmaster.com (http://www.123webmaster.com/)
ian@123webmaster.com
BIG Resources.com (http://www.bigresources.com)
ICQ: 25828668

[swhittaker]

Hi Ian,

This is the code where I started off! It was by adding the <OBJECT> tag which seems to have solved the IE5 problem.

As I said in my first posting, one of my problems from the outset has been that MOST testers have ALWAYS seen the player. That is, just with the <EMBED> tag. But a few (2 actually) did not see it. Left me scratching my head. For example, 2 identical computers, set up identically. 1 sees the player the other doesn't. Scratch, scratch. Unfortunately for me 1 of the 2 computers that couldn't see the player was in the CEO's office. Hence the desperation to fix the problem.

I still reckon the problem lies in installing IE5 after installing real audio. That is, incorrect browser setup. Adding the <OBJECT> tag seems to override this.

Simon