Internet Explorer for Mac os 10.4.11

T

Thomas T.

Registered
I need to try the latest version of Internet Explorer on my machine as I cannot get an AVI file on my GoDaddy Website Tonight website to run at all with Firefox or Safari. See:
http://www.youngmastersgallery.com/NOOSA_ENVIRONMENTAL_DVD.html
I've been fobbed-off by Godaddy in Arizona, as they take no responsibility for the issue. Apparently the video runs perfectly well in USA on PC with Internet Explorer.
If you look at the web page you can see that the Go and Pause buttons are blue and thus alive, as also the audio button in red when activated.
File size is about 28MB and i'm using 1500 kbps Broadband.
I took the advice of Ora and tried Opera,Shiira,Camino and Sea Monkey. None will play my AVI video. Some display the Red hexagon and hand with "The Playlist format is not recognized".
I will try and convert it to one of the other 2 upload options of mpg or mwv.

Hello again, interested folks!

I've made some progress on the strength of your observations, but I'm not "there" yet.

I've achieved the following:

(a) I've converted in OSX 10.4.11, some new sample video clips which i've stitched together from my documentary DVD; i.e., the Cinepak codec to DivX. (Cinepak was my only option in Quicktime, to export AVI from Final Cut Pro 2.0 in OS 9.1). I have another website which is hosted by GoDaddy, so I uploaded the DivX files to the server "Content" using my other operating system OSX 10.4.11, (using the same G450 machine). The files are all under 30 MB as required by the GoDaddy "Website Tonight" template. (I have had Windows Media Player in my Applications Folder for some considerable time).

(b) Any video clip now opens instantly using Safari, and plays back perfectly. What I get is a black square representing the player screen and a very narrow dashboard. If I dare to scroll however, I get "tiling" or partial black fields scattered up and down the page depicting "stills" from the movie which have just been played-back. This is ugly of course, but at least instant playback tells me the problem rests with the Internet Browsers.

(c) When trying to open in Firefox I get a blank screen as indicated by "Mister Me" some days ago. The beach ball rolls on for exactly 3 minutes before a black square appears, whereupon perfect playback is rendered possible. This situation must be of course infuriating for any viewer, as their computer is frozen for 3 minutes.

(d) I forget on which alternate browser, perhaps Camino or the old Internet Explorer for Mac, but I experienced the identical 3 minute delay mentioned above in (c), again. Other browsers immediately threw up a demand to download Windows Media Player, which I already have. Curious!

(e) It seems like the only safe way to protect Mac-user-viewers is to place a red warning sign above the video-clip which says something like "Mac-users please STOP if using an Internet Browser other than Safari. Switch over immediately, as you may freeze your computer for 3 whole minutes."

I've looked at the Firefox Help section but don't see much about video. For such an important browser it would be nice to get instant playback.

Any assistance here would be greatly appreciated. I don't give up easily.
 
Last edited:
Internet explorer is no longer available for OS X, so no chance to get any of the newer versions (the last one was vers 5.3 in 2003). I think even MS suggest safari or firefox these days.

You could also try other mac browsers like opera, shiira, camino etc.
 
Thomas T. said:
... I've been fobbed-off by Godaddy in Arizona, as they take no responsibility for the issue. ...
Click to expand...
GoDaddy.com is the least of your problems. That page loads on my system with no hint of a video anywhere. It then goes into the rotating beachball from Hell. I'm guessing that your stealth player tried to automatically load and play the video. Very bad move for a 28 MB file. You need to have some consideration for your potential visitors.
 
Hello Ora,

As further detail I have provided above indicates, other browsers do not work either. I was a bit alarmed to find my comments about GoDaddy "fobbing me off" appeared immediately on Sea Monkey. GoDaddy are extremely helpful on everything that concerns them. Their email support will however simply not enter in to discussion about things they consider are not under their control. I had inadvertently thought however that their "Website Tonight" software should be upgraded to be flexible enough to handle any Mac "video-play-back" issues.

Kind regards'

Thomas T.
 
Your video seems to run OK for me. I was able to download it too, to watch. I'm using Safari on a powerbook g4. I have flip4mac, as well as perian plugins (or whatever they're supposed to be called) on my computer.
 
Hello Joe_Burban

It's great to get a reply from the "ice box".
I just sent a detailed email explaining the origin of my AVI file, to Mister Me.
I hope Mister Me comes up with some constructive critic which could lead to a resolution, together with what you have established.
I have had nothing to do with flip4mac or perian plugins, but will look in to it right away.
I also did the usual thing of clearing the entire cell from the webpage (and of course html), and re-doing the upload as a "clean sheet" in default dimensions and re-publishing. It still will not play back however, on my machine.

Thanks for your input,

Kind regards,

Thomas T.
 
Flip4Mac and Perian are pretty much a requirement on any Mac in my opinion. I've got them both installed and I haven't had any problems viewing media (well, maybe except the DRMed Windows Media stuff). You should be able to view the media once you have those two solutions installed.
 
Works fine on my system, if you're talking about the video that's in the main section of the site, a bit below the fold.

Perhaps it's because I have both of the following installed:

1) DivX browser plug-in (available from divx.com)
2) Windows Media Components (available from mactopia.com)

I have not messed with Perian, but it seems to be the definitive swiss-army knife of video codecs for Mac OS X. There have been some incompatibilities in the past with QuickTime updates and what-not, but Perian is very quick at fixing these problems with new releases. I use both of the above codec packs, there hasn't been a video yet that I haven't been able to view, and I have never suffered any incompatibilities due to updates. Of course, your mileage may vary.

None of the codec packs, as far as I can see, should be required for viewing your video. Your video track is Apple Cinepak, and your audio should be good as well.

Do you have the Quicktime browser plug-in present in your /Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder?
 
Hello ElDiabloConCarca,

I've removed the video from the site until I get the mess sorted out. This is because I could not even scroll down the page due to the forever-spinning "beach-ball", this Sunday morning; (school holidays!). It took about 5 minutes for a black square to appear on screen and it was subject to "tiling"; (black squares in several places up and down the page).

The issue is perhaps to do with hosting on a shared server in Arizona and Broadband speed in various locations and at different times of day around the globe.

(The site is incidently, standard CSS xhmtl 10 page software provided by Godaddy).

File size is of course another issue. Godaddy recommends a max file size of 30MB. My snippet is actually about 28MB. The fact that I was always getting the on-screen warning "The playlist format is not recognized", after several minutes, I suspect, was simply the process of "timing-out".

To answer your questions pertaining to the Applications library, Internet Plug-ins, I have "Quicktime Plugin.plugin" and "Quicktime Plugin.webplugin" installed. I've had Flip4mac sitting in Applications for some time but activated it this morning. I don't have Perian.

Anyway, it looks like it may boil down to some basic choices: (a) forget the video altogether; or (b) buy a server boost; or (c) cut the file size to maybe 20MB and give potential viewers a warning of the wait-time should they care to view the video; or (d) install 3 brief 10MB snippets, above the fold, in the middle, and at the bottom.; (flora, fauna and coastline).

Thanks for your interest,

Thomas T.
 
Hello nixgeek,

Thanks for your input. My reply to ElDiabloConCarca puts more light on the subject.

Kind regards,

Thomas T.
 
Make your file an .mov or .wmv file. Those formats are more universal than avi, in my opinion, and easier to stream if needed.
 
Thomas T. said:
Hello Joe_Burban

It's great to get a reply from the "ice box".
I just sent a detailed email explaining the origin of my AVI file, to Mister Me.
I hope Mister Me comes up with some constructive critic which could lead to a resolution, together with what you have established.
I have had nothing to do with flip4mac or perian plugins, but will look in to it right away.
I also did the usual thing of clearing the entire cell from the webpage (and of course html), and re-doing the upload as a "clean sheet" in default dimensions and re-publishing. It still will not play back however, on my machine.

Thanks for your input,

Kind regards,

Thomas T.
Click to expand...

Installing Flip4Mac will almost certainly solve your issue. Flip4Mac is the official, Microsoft approved, replacement for Windows Media Player, also no longer supported or available from Microsoft. Another poster mentioned Perian. Another possibility is VLC which now has a browser plugin available.
 
Hello ikrupp,

Thanks for your input. This should make my own access fine indeed, however could you please explain how employing Flip4Mac will give fast faultless access to every visitor to my website, regardless of what Internet Browser or machine they use. Excuse my inexperience. I've had no formal training in Internet systems.

Kind regards,

Thomas T.
 
Thomas T. said:
...could you please explain how employing Flip4Mac will give fast faultless access to every visitor to my website, regardless of what Internet Browser or machine they use.
Click to expand...
This is virtually impossible. You cannot guarantee that your website and/or video will play exactly the same on every platform, in every browser possible.

Some people are using browsers that don't even support graphics, much less movies.

You just can't please 100% of the internet users.

You can, however, guarantee that your video will be viewable by the vast majority of users, and other users can get in on the action with a small download.

I would recommend converting the video to an simple MP4 video -- QuickTime can view MP4s for the last few years, Windows Media Player can handle them, and anyone else who can't view the video (Linux users, etc.) can install VLC. It's a very compatible format and works on a lot of machines without a lot of fiddling around with codecs and what-not.

You can convert your video to an MP4 using the free Handbrake software, and it's available for download for Mac, Windows and Linux.
 
Thanks ElDiabloConCaca,

You are being very illuminating. Naturally, I am a bit mystified though, as I had already converted from Cinepak to DivX, resulting in good performance in Safari, if not anywhere else. Now i'm not sure which is the optimum procedure to gain further improvements in most browsers. Should I convert from the file I achieved employing DivX or alternatively the original exported Cinepak file to MP4 using Handbrake. I guess i'll find out in due course.

Incidently, reflecting on the fact that I am using 1500/256 kbps ADSL, one thing that dawned on me after my last forum edit, was that the 3 minute "freeze" with spinning beach ball, which was further accompanied by a blank area of screen where the video is supposed to be, on most other browsers, was actually the same 3 minutes it took on the successful Safari browser to buffer a 30 MB file. In other words, the whole "dogs breakfast" has fundamentally to do with buffering. If only the buffering could run slightly ahead of the video clip at a rate slightly in excess of the video frame rate, to eliminate the chance of a freeze! Now that would be fantastic.

Cheers,

Thomas T.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top