member
services
- lost password
- cancel membershipmember faq's
- frequent questions
- real player
- winmedia
- downloads
- billing
about us
- sites we support
- contact us
- terms of service |
| Why won't content play? |
| The server may be down, the
file may not be in a supported format, the content may have been moved, or the URL to the
content may be wrong. If you are using Netscape Navigator 6, you may be experiencing
problems that are caused by a redesign of the plug-in architecture in that browser. This
redesign has resulted in some loss of backward compatibility. In these situations, there
is nothing that you can do. If the content is
embedded in a Web page, try clicking the player's video screen. In some cases, network
congestion may cause the player to time out; keep trying, or try again later when the
network is less congested. |
| Why can I play content from some sites but not others? |
| Your computer may be behind a
firewall that has not had the appropriate ports opened for use with Netshow Services.
However, if a server has HTTP streaming enabled, Windows Media Player can take advantage
of its protocol rollover capabilities and receive the file through HTTP instead of the
typical (and optimal) streaming protocols. This is why you can receive content from some
sites but not others. For the best quality and consistent results, encourage your
administrator to open the appropriate ports on the firewall to permit streaming. Other
issues that might prevent you from being able to play the content include: The media may
not be created in a supported format, Or you may not have access to the appropriate codec
that is required to playback the file. |
| Content plays, but there are a lot of pauses and the player says
"buffering." |
| The player is most likely
experiencing network congestion. This means that there is not enough available bandwidth
to stream the selected file. When you are using a TCP connection, the data in the player's
buffer is used to supplement the stream until the buffer is used up. Once the buffered
data is gone, the player pauses, replenishes the buffer, and then resumes playing, using
the new buffer to supplement the playback stream bandwidth. This cycle continues until
network conditions improve. Try again when the network is less congested, or select
content that is authored for lower bandwidths. Another
option is to use UDP as your protocol by making sure that it is the only protocol option
in use. To set this option, click Options on the Tools menu. This reduces buffering, but
has the adverse effect of dropping data if there is high congestion or insufficient
bandwidth. If you are located behind a firewall, you may not be able to use UDP as your
protocol. |
| What can I do about video problems (such as if green or pink
lines appear on the video, the video is choppy, the Player stops responding when playing
video, and so on)? |
| Check for updates for your
video card driver. If that doesn't solve the
problem, turn down (or turn off) video acceleration.
To do this in Windows Media Player 9 Series, go to the
Options dialog box and look for this option on the Performance tab. |
| Audio will play but video won't, or video will play but audio
won't? |
| Make sure that your computer
has a sound card to play the audio. If you do have a sound card, the content that is being
played probably uses a compression codec that is not installed on your computer. To make
sure that you have all of the codecs that are currently supported, reinstall Windows Media
Player. To do so, visit the following Microsoft Web
site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/download/default.asp.
This issue may also occur if there is not enough bandwidth
to play both audio and video. You may receive sound even though the video is not present
because audio requires less available bandwidth" |
| I cannot hear the audio on some clips, but on other clips I can.
|
| This may involve many issues,
very few of which can be corrected in the player. To verify that the problem is not a
player problem, follow these steps: 1. Verify that
you have the correct and up-to-date drivers for your sound card. Using incorrect drivers
or out-of-date drivers can cause unexpected behavior.
2. Some video adapters cannot play audio content that was
created by using an 8 kilohertz (8-kHz) or 16-kHz sampling rate. To determine if this is
the problem, determine the sampling rate that is used in the ASF file:
- In Windows Media Player, open the streaming media file with
which you are having difficulty.
- On the File menu, click Properties.
- Click the Advanced tab.
- Look at the list of codecs in use to see if you can
determine the sampling rate for the audio. If it is 8-kHz or 16-kHz, this may be the
problem.
I can hear audio, but it hisses, pops, sounds scratchy, or
sometimes drops in and out. "Verify that you are using the proper and most up-to-date
drivers for your sound card. NetShow Services uses standard Windows compression codecs to
compress and decompress the audio. Poorly implemented or incorrect sound card drivers may
cause problems with compressed audio. You may not know that you are using bad or
mismatched drivers because all of the system sounds that are included with Windows are
uncompressed audio files. You can typically play these files correctly even with bad or
mismatched drivers. This problem is not unique to NetShow Services; virtually any
multimedia program that uses Windows sound codecs and compressed audio files is likely to
exhibit similar behavior.
Some sound cards cannot play audio content that was created
with either an 8-kHz or 16-kHz sampling rate. To determine if the sampling rate is the
issue, check the sampling rate that is used in the .asf file. In Windows Media Player,
open the ""problem"" streaming media file. On the File menu, click
Properties. The sampling rate is listed next to "Audio Codec" (for example,
44-kHz). If the sampling rate is 8-kHz or 16-kHz, this rate may be the cause of the
problem. |
|