Re: WMP 11 has crashed and i cant re-install it!! PLEASE HELP!!
- From: cwdjrxyz <spamtrap2@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:37:19 -0700 (PDT)
On Sep 10, 10:04 pm, "zachd [MSFT]"
<za...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You can not reinstall WMP11 on Vista.
...
because Microsoft considers the WMP11 as on Vista
as part of that OS.
This is inaccurate: no inbox component whatsoever in Vista has an individual
"repair" method in that the new component install system used (much superior
to that used in previous Windows) does not have that capability at this
time.
This isn't something that the player team could fix themselves. You do me a
favor by correctly identifying the source of this limitation because if you
suggest that the player team can fix this, eyes rotate towards me or some
player dev - and their hands are tied. By pointing out (if needed) that's a
limitation of the componentization toolset, that correctly rotates eyes to
the right people and encourages their forward progress.
I passionately believe in your system working. That's why I spent personal
hours coming with up the previous limited player reinstall, assembled the
template for a 'full' reinstall, and we'll see what else I come up with or
can help encourage over time.
http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html#reinstallvista
covers this better than words. I'll improve that when I get a chance this
weekend (I temporarily broke a bunch of the links on that page - I'll fix
those up too shortly). =D
I know that the problem is at a much higher level in Microsoft than
the WMP development team. I also know that the hands of nearly all
Microsoft employees are tied in what they can say about many things,
but mine are not. I think Microsoft has shot itself in the foot
concerning high level decisions concerning the WMP. For example from
WMP 10 on newer versions of WMP can only be installed on a Microsoft
OS and not even on older Microsoft ones. Contrast this with flash
which can be installed on a wide variety of OSs. People who use wmv
and wma Microsoft formats now usually use no higher than WMP 9 code
formats, because many non-Microsoft OSs can have these earlier
versions installed. In the meantime, if Adobe is to be believed, flash
likely is supported by up to 99% of computers in some of the more
developed nations, especially in North America and Europe. Since Adobe
introduced flv/swf a few versions ago, flash is now capable of support
of everything from very high resolution movies to low resolution flash
ads. Although it is possible to provide multiple video formats on a
web page, most big companies do not. In very recent years many of the
most important and largest companies such as news organizations,
social network sites such as YouTube, etc have dropped both Microsoft
and Real video formats and replaced them with flv/swf because they
think they get the best penetration of the market if they do so.
Something very interesting is happening at Netflix. Since some of the
code they use is server side and can not be viewed, I do not know all
of the details. For members, Netflix shows a lot of trailers
concerning movies they rent. The best I can tell, all or nearly all of
these are now in the flv/swf format. However they have introduced a
new player for the complete movies, mostly older, that they stream.
The player is enbedded in a html page. The page is called the Netscape
Movie Viewer, and I have examined the source code. It still is using
Microsoft streaming wmv. However the player itself is quite different
from the WMP 11. Just how much of the WMP code they use, if any,
likely could be determined if you could view server side scripts, but
alas that is not possible. Anyway the player they now use comes up
much faster than the WMP did in the past, and without a lot of
verbiage about getting rights, etc. However, if you look at the page
source code, you will see that there are many error text messages that
the player can give you if something goes wrong. Since Netflix now
sells a stand alone set top box for those who want to view movies on a
TV without fuss rather than on a computer, I would not be surprised if
that box uses the same player as Netflix is now using for computers.
Now the plot gets even more interesting. Real 11, as delivered, plays
most of the Microsoft and many other formats as well as Real ones. If
you turn on the Real player, even if you are not connected to the web,
you can input a url such as the home page of Netflix at www.netflix.com
.. When you do Real acts as a browser on the screen and lets you enter
user name and password to log in. You can then go to the instant movie
section and play one on the Real player. However, if you log into
Netflix with say the Firefox or Opera browser, you get a notice that a
recent IE browser must be used to play the movies. Of course other
browsers can view the flv/swf trailers for rental movies. So the
question is what is going on when you bring up Real directly and are
able to play streaming movies even if you have Firefox or Opera turned
on. Either the Real player is connecting using an IE browser, or they
are using a compatible browser of their own to connect. Again the
details are likely in server side code, so just how much of the
browser is IE7 and how much is Netflix code, I do not know. However I
could get the userAgent for Real, which was:
userAgent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; (R1 1.5);
(R1 1.6); .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR
3.0.04506.648) .
The userAgent I get for ATT/Yahoo DSL and the IE7 browsers is:
userAgent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; (R1
1.5); .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR
3.0.04506.648) .
Notice the userAgent for Real includes one additional thing which is
(R1 1.6) . I have no idea what this means other than the userAgents
are somewhat different.
The practical bottom line for me is that if I want to check out
streaming movies on Netflix and I am on say the Firefox browser, I do
not have to bother to turn the ATT/Yahoo browser on, enter pass
information for it, and wait for the home page to come up. I just
leave Firefox on and bring the Real player up directly where I can
sign in, if needed, and play the movie without a lot of fuss. When
finished, I just click off the Real player and go back to browsing on
Firefox or Opera which is still on.
Of course Real and all other players I know have their share of
problems and bugs from time to time. I am now offering a choice of 4
video formats on some pages using a image map for selection of the
desired player and writing the page just for the format selected on
the server using php, once the php form submitted by by a click on the
image map is submitted. This saves downloading tons of code for
players not selected. I often provide for flv/swf, WMP, Real, and QT
movie.
Since you likely are not allowed to discuss many of the things I
discussed here, you likely should not stick your neck out. I am aware
of your web site that solves many problems people sometimes have with
the WMP, and it must take many hours to keep it up to date. I have no
argument with you or the WMP development team. I might have an
argument with some officials much higher up in Microsoft.
.
- References:
- WMP 11 has crashed and i cant re-install it!! PLEASE HELP!!
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- Re: WMP 11 has crashed and i cant re-install it!! PLEASE HELP!!
- From: cwdjrxyz
- Re: WMP 11 has crashed and i cant re-install it!! PLEASE HELP!!
- From: zachd [MSFT]
- WMP 11 has crashed and i cant re-install it!! PLEASE HELP!!
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