Playing wmp music samples at Amazon

[NiteLite]

What do you use at Amazon to listen to their 30 second CD song track samples when you click on WMP?
None of my WMP's open the song. Is there a simple alternative player download that will play them if I set it default to play WMP songs.?
Thanks for any leads.
Regards,
NL

[NiteLite]

Find it odd that no one goes to Amazon and listens to the WMP music clips.
Maybe everyone uses the Real Player clicks? You Think?
NL

[jagabo]

WMP 10 works fine for me.

[ks47]

Maybe everyone uses the Real Player clicks? You Think?

I thought I was the one to experience problems WMP with Amazon. I wasted tons of my time trying to adjust setting to accommodate preview audio. Only reason I spent more time than I should, trying to figure out what the problem was because it worked fine with WMP a year ago. The Amazon still have 2 choices for WMP and Real Player for preview. Go figure…

TS

[jman98]

It's been a long time since I've listened to preview clips, but I think I never could get the Windows Media clips to work and had to use either Real Player or the Amazon player every time.

[DarrellS]

I've never been able to get them to play and I'm not installing RealPlayer or WMP 10 so I guess I won't be listening to them.

Some websites have the address where they store their files under view source that makes it possible to download them but most sites don't want you STEALING their FREE content.

[olyteddy]

I've never been able to get them to play and I'm not installing RealPlayer or WMP 10 so I guess I won't be listening to them.

Some websites have the address where they store their files under view source that makes it possible to download them but most sites don't want you STEALING their FREE content.

There is Real Alternative. Works for me.

[Squash]

@NiteLite,

IF you're using Firefox, you can try the Windows Media Player Firefox plugin, released by the nice people of Microsoft back in April. It cleared up some problems I used to have playing embedded .wmv files in Firefox. Don't know how it works with audio, but I don't have any problems playing the Windows Media samples at Amazon through Firefox; I just click the link and the player pops up and plays. If the plugin doesn't help, just uninstall it. If you want to try it, it's here:

http://port25.technet.com/pages/windows-media-player-firefox-plugin-download.aspx#3728

More info here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_anderson/archive/2007/04/16/windows-media-player-on-firefox.aspx

If you're not using FF, sorry for wasting your time.

[NiteLite]

Squash, Thanks a lot. I do use FireFox so I will check out the links. Cool.

ks47...exactly. WMP did work fine about a year ago. Even with vs. 6.4 All of a sudden no more worky. Crazy

DarrellS ...no Real Player or wmp10 here either.

Thanks all for sharing your knowledge. Glad all are not so cliquish.

Squash, going to try the links now. Thanks again.
Regards,
NL

[NiteLite]

Well Squash, I D/L'ed the link and clicked on the file . Got an error message stating" The plugin file expects a newer version of Windows. Upgrade your Windows version."
Not sure what's up with that. If i'm using Firefox not sure of what version of Windows it wants.
Always something
I'll keep trying. Maybe WMPClassic. Seems like I heard it will play about anything.
Thanks again all,
NL

[thecoalman]

Does the player/window open at all? When you click the link it opens a new window and should have the player embedded in the window. The window will be the size of the player if you have javascript enbled or full sixzed if disabled. It doesn't open the player directly.


Works fine for me in both IE and FF and I don't have anything special installed.

[Squash]

Yeah, sorry about that, NiteLite. I checked the download site and it says the plugin is for XP and Vista. According to your computer details you're using 98SE. I should have checked that before I recommended it.

I found a page in Mozilla's knowledge base that might help you out. Looks like the "Restoring the standard plugin" section might be what you need. They say it works on "most Windows versions". If the instructions there don't work, they also have a link to a "MediaPlayerConnectivity" Firefox extension (in the "Using an external player" section) which allows you to launch an external player to play the media. I can't test since I'm running XP but it might be worth a shot. The page is at:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Windows_Media_Player

And it has some other links at the bottom of the page which may help. Good luck with it.

[ks47]

Don't know how it works with audio, but I don't have any problems playing the Windows Media samples at Amazon through Firefox; I just click the link and the player pops up and plays. If the plugin doesn't help, just uninstall it. If you want to try it, it's here:

http://port25.technet.com/pages/windows-media-player-firefox-plugin-download.aspx#3728

I tried that plug in for FF with a computer Win XP and WMP 11; I got one album preview to work but none other. (The same for IE.) It begins to play for 2 sec and quits. Yea! RP works (Hated to install this, ‘cause I don’t use it for anything and asking for junk stuff coming my way.)

At any rate, curiosity got the better of me and I rolled back to WMP 9. Well, I got half of the problem solved but everything sounds like chipmunks, now with Amazon preview audio. I tried the media option to slow the connection speed but no dice. BTW, same problem exist another computer Win ME. I’m also an idiot, I should be dealing with pressing issues …like should I clip my nails, today.

TS

[DarrellS]

There is Real Alternative. Works for me.

I have RealAlternative and it doesn't work for me.

Does the player/window open at all? When you click the link it opens a new window and should have the player embedded in the window. The window will be the size of the player if you have javascript enbled or full sixzed if disabled. It doesn't open the player directly.

That's the whole problem. It's looking for a specific player or plugin. If it would allow Media Player Classic to play the file then there would be no problem. Websites like this that use java scripting want you to jump through hoops to view their content. Install spyware players and drop your shields to allow tracking cookies etc...

[thecoalman]

JS is not required to view the video, it only makes a nice compact window when it opens up instead of deafult sized window. The only way to do that is with JS.

When you click the link exactly what happens? A window opens up and what?

[NiteLite]

Just to clarify...the wmp box opens with vs. 6.4 and is in the top right corrner. It opens but says "DONE" as if it has done all it's going to do. The play and other features are greyed out so I cant access them. But it does show the wmp window...just nothing happens.
I will try the other links SQUASH...
I have written to Amazon. Their reply was ::: They know about the problem and have turned it over to their tech department. Ha...this was almost a year ago. Nothing since.

But thanks everyone, I really appreciate your time in offering suggestions for my problem.
I now will try the other info provided by you all.
Sincere regards,
NL

[dnix71]

I have a Mac running Tiger with Firefox 2.0.0.6 and when I go to listen to a sample it opens a smaller window and plays just fine. The music sample quality sounds poor because of low bitrate, but that's a different matter. There is no WMP for a mac anymore and if the sample was Real Audio it wouldn't have worked either because of the setup I have.

It has to be your version of Java. I had problems in the past because I used a mac in a pc world with Java. Yahoo's music popup window player wouldn't work because of differences between Java on a mac and in Windows.

Amazon's music help page says Win98SE should be acceptable, it came with IE 5.5

"Music Sampler is only available for users of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 and above for Windows and Mozilla Firefox 1.5 and above for Windows and Mac OS X. These browsers offer users the rich media experience of Music Sampler that is not supported in earlier web browsers. You can find free downloads of these browsers at:

Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/

Mozilla Firefox for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux:
http://www.mozilla.com/"

[ks47]

It has to be your version of Java.

I'm not sure how you arrived at that conclusion for the rest us with the problems. What irks me more than the fact I can't sample a preview audio for Amazon with WMP, because RP audio samples fine, the known bug is not stated to the consumers. I wasted my time on 2 computers with different OS, different browsers, different configurations, deleting and installing different versions of WMP... Why? I guess I just don't like imperctly running machine! I wouldn't have been a total retard to waste my life on this anomally if I had know there was problem with the Amazon.

TS

[thecoalman]

Java and Javascript are two completely different things, in this case its javascript. As I said its not required to be enabled for it to work, it only sizes the window that it opens. I use a very similar script myself for the exact same thing, it gives it pseudo standalone application look

Anyone having problems most likely has security setting preventing it from playing or has a system problem.

[dnix71]

The reason I say it's a java/javascript problem is that I have a user-agent switch that lies about my machine/OS when I can't go somewhere because I use a Mac.

The old version of Yahoo music wouldn't even let me in in OS X if I told the truth. If I lied, I got a pop-up music window, but some parts didn't work and the music wouldn't play. It would play in virtual pc Win98SE on the same mac, though. There was a recent update to java that was designed to prevent redirecting the stream. If you could save the music, they wouldn't let you have it because it was for sale.