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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Can't play yahoo.news videos

milton_woodhouse - Feb 6, 2007 - 8:32 pm

I would appreciate any help you might offer to the above question.

LovesMacs - Feb 6, 2007 - 9:49 pm

Hello,

When you go to Yahoo and click to play a news video, what exactly happens? I need more information in order to help you. Has it worked for you before, or did this just start happening?

I see on your Question Profiile that you have an eMac with an 800 Mhz processor. That could be the problem. These videos require a faster processor and with only 640MB of RAM, that's probably not enough RAM.

Please respond so that I can help you and thanks for choosing Macosx.com.

Regards,
Carolyn :-)

milton_woodhouse - Feb 6, 2007 - 10:26 pm

OK. I click on the video icon on the upper right of the yahoo news home page. The screen loads that is supposed to play the video. There is no way to play the video. On the left I see a pause button, a fast forward and fast reverse button, but no "play" button. On the "settings" menu, I clicked the fastest setting. I am using DLS that give me 1.5 mb/s.

LovesMacs - Feb 6, 2007 - 10:49 pm

I think I see what you are talking about now. You are correct, there is no Play button. What you have to do is click on one of the thumbnail images below the video area to stream the video. Even on DSL it takes a minute to buffer but it should play the video for you. It's when you click on the thumbnail image, it automatically Plays the video for you. After it starts you can Pause if you wish.

Also, you can view news videos at: www.abc7news.com They use a Play button.


Carolyn :-)

milton_woodhouse - Feb 7, 2007 - 5:29 am

Hi Carolyn,

I waited two minutes after clicking a thumbnail and nothing happened. The lights on my modem suggested that no download or streaming was occurring.
Any other thoughts? I have tried the abc news link you suggested. I couldn't get those videos to stream either. Any other thoughts? Everything else with my Mac is working perfectly as far as I can tell.

LovesMacs - Feb 7, 2007 - 1:05 pm

Ok... let's try this. Microsoft no longer writes Windows Media Player for Mac but instead they offer a Flip4Mac Viewer for Mac. It's free and here's where to download it: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...omponents.mspx At the top of the page it says: FreeDownload click there. Also, make sure you have the most recent version of QuickTime. Launch QuickTime, then in the Menu top left of your Desktop click QuickTime>About QuitckTimePlayer. The version number should be: 7.1.3. If you do not have the most recent version of QT, go to the Apple site and dowload it. You need both of these components in order to view video on most major sites like Yahoo/Google/AOL ... They don't necessarily launch when you view videos from the site like Yahoo, but they have to be installed on your hard drive in order for the video to work properly.

Ok... after you do this... reboot and try Yahoo news video...see if that does the trick.

Question... have been able to run video from Yahoo before... ??????

Carolyn :-)

milton_woodhouse - Feb 7, 2007 - 7:56 pm

I downloaded and installed Fllip4Mac. It appears as FLIP4MACWMV.mpkg. I put it in my Applications folder. My Quicktime version is the latest.

Now when I try to play a yahoo video, I get a blank white screen, obviously a step backwards.

I never tried playing videos before.

LovesMacs - Feb 7, 2007 - 10:15 pm

This tells a story.... I think the answer to this problem is not enough RAM. 640 MB is just not enough to do the job. I was wondering about that from the beginning but didn't it would hurt to try my suggestions so far. Can you open and play QuickTimePlayer when you are online?

Carolyn

milton_woodhouse - Feb 8, 2007 - 5:21 am

Yes, QuickTimePlayer works. I hope to trade up this year to an new iMac, so I won't add more memory to my eMac at this juncture. Thanks for your help!

LovesMacs - Feb 8, 2007 - 2:18 pm

You are welcome.... at least QT works. Unfortunately, sites like Yahoo have so many bells and whistles it takes mega amounts of RAM to support their video.
Something just occured to me. Do you have Flash on your eMac? And which browser are you using? Safari????? Yahoo uses Flash plugins. If you go to their site and somewhere on the page where the video is, click once on an open space, at the same time hold down the Ctrl key. A pop menu will appear... click View Source. When that launches the html of their site, press Command + F, type in Flash. That will automatically highlight where in the site Flash plugins are used. In Yahoo, you'll see it's always located where it says: Start/Play so you know that's the plug in they use. Check your eMac to see if you have Flash. MacintoshHD/Library/Internet Plugins. If you don't see Flash, you need it. Here is the link ... it's FREE:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/downl...ShockwaveFlash

Download and install Flash.. then try Yahoo video... see if that does it.

Carolyn

milton_woodhouse - Feb 9, 2007 - 10:15 am

I downloaded and installed Flash. The video player will now play an advertisement, which lasts for 30 seconds from start to finish, but doesn't sync up to download the video. It seems like nothing happens. The modem lights don't blink. . . it seems as if there is not even an attempt to access the videos.

In the past I was able to view videos from Comcast successfully.

LovesMacs - Feb 9, 2007 - 1:10 pm

Which browser are you using????????

Carolyn :-)