Making sense of Win Media Player and Quicktime

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

When I go out and look at websites of V.O. people, there is usually a place to click to hear at recording. Some of them open in Quicktime, some of them open in Windows Media Player, and some of them will open in RealPlayer or who knows what.

I do the audio editing for a church website and put sermon recording up for listening. I check out other people sites to see how they do it. Some down loads open up Quicktime, some open WMP, some.... you get the picture.

Some streams that insist on opening Quicktime immediately go into stutter-step and herky-jerky mode. Where can I go for meaningful reading material on this train-wreck? Is there something encoded in peoples mp3 files that order my computer to use a particular playback software. I have beat Google to death tonight and all I have to show for it is a giant headache! ;D

Help.

I have a dinky little personal website that I put recordings on for people from time to time and my mp3 files seem to play quite well. For me they play in Windows Media Player. I have no idea what transaction takes place in someone elses machine. So, I know how to put a file out there and set up an option that allows you to click one place to download, another place to listen on line. Apparently there is something I haven't lelarned yet.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Goat, the application that opens when you click on a certain file is determined by the file associations on that particular machine.

Here's how it works. By default, most media files on a Windows machine will open in Windows Media Player. Media Player, however, doesn't play Quicktime files or Real Media files. Quicktime is the format preferred by Macs, which are common in audio production, so you download Quicktime in order to play those files. The sneaky part is that Quicktime associates itself with a lot of other file types during the installation unless you tell it not to. So, the next time you open an MP3, Quicktime opens instead of WMP. If you install Real Player next, the same thing happens, so now you get Real Player when you click on an MP3.

You can prevent this from happening during the installation, but most people just accept the defaults. Quicktime and Real Player may not work as well as WMP on some machines (typically older ones), so you end up with problems.

You can change the program that automatically opens when you click on a particular file type. How you do that depends on the operating system. The procedure is different for XP than it is for Vista. The easy way to find the answer is to go to "Start", then "Help", and search for "change program that opens file". You can also select a different program by right-clicking on the file that you want to open, selecting "Open with", and picking the program that you want to use. In Vista, you can choose "Always use the selected program to open this type of file", and that file type will always open in the program that you choose.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Thanks for the reply, SirRoxalot. I am aware that everything you said is consistent with what the help files say, what the books down at Barnes and Noble claim. But somewhere there is some over looked information.

Files that are on my hard drive behave exactly as you described. Set the File Associations in Windows and life in orderly and wonderful. Here is where life gets frazzled. I go out to the website of some of the V.O. guys who post in this very forum and sample their wares. The will put mp3 files on their website. I will click, actually double-click, and soon the file is flowing out of my monitors in full glory. The issue is this: On one website the mp3 will ask my machine or signal my machine that it wants to be a Quicktime delivery. The next website will send an mp3 my way and it causes Windows Media Player to open up. I CAN FIND NO SETTING ANYWHERE ON MY MACHINE TO CHANGE THAT!

I participate in a discusstion group on another site that are all gear-headed sound freaks in doing church sound, video and lighting. Churches have for years made cassette recordings of worship service available. The currency of today is to make the audio available via CD. But sermons are readily available for instant listening on church websites.

I record church to a Marantz CD burner. I rip the CD and edit using Adobe Audition. Reduce the output to MP3, and upload to a website. When I go to the site to listen to make sure everything went well, it begins playing in a matter of seconds in Windows Media Player.

Through the discussion group I am in conversation with a guy in Gainesville Fl. Records church on a Marantz CD recorder. Edits in Audition. Uploads to his website. I go to HIS website and click to listen and it opens up on my computer as Quicktime.

I inquired further and found one difference. After creating the MP3 file, I right click in Windows Exlorer and select Properties and I am able to insert info into the ID3 tag: Name of minister, Title of sermon, Date or reference to Bible verses. Upload to website. My friend in Florida, after creating the MP3 file uses iTunes to insert his name of minister, title of sermon, etc. BINGO. When that file streams into my computer, there apparently is no negotiating over what my settings are. That file is going to open Quicktime.

I go to his website, download/save file as, rather than stream, and put his file ON MY HARD DRIVE. Now when I double click that file it follows my SETTINGS and uses Windows Media Player.

My current conclusion is: Streamed files DO NOT OBEY personal preferrence as set on the receiving computer.

Any comments on this convoluted scenario?

Here is the next question I have. If I decide to stream your radio station while I go about the business of writing a few checks and writing the next chapter of my book, and read my e-mail, and your station stream triggers Windows Media Player, is there some way I can force a change: No. Do me a favor and open Real Player!

Why? Because while I am reading my e-mail I am going to click on a link in an e-mail and that link is going to hi-jack the Windows Explorer pretending to be Windows Media Player and bye-bye audio stream. If it were using RealPlayer, the audio stream would continue, link or no link.

Any suggestions?

 

[SirRoxalot]

Goat,

If I understand your problem correctly, it appears that it may be an issue with your add-ons in your browser.

If you're using Internet Explorer 7, click on "Tools", then "Internet Options". Go to the "Programs" tab, and click "Manage Add-ons". You'll find a list of all the add-ons that have been used by Internet Explorer. If you don't want to use Windows Media Player, click the "Windows Media Player" add-on, then click on the "Disable" button. Either Quicktime or Real Player will pop up when you try to access an MP3 file. If you don't do a lot of Quicktime files, you can disable that as well.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Thanks for the help and the how-to-do-it. Puzzles still remain.

I had two add-ons for Windows Media Player. Just for grins I disabled BOTH of them. Windows Media Player continued to work the same as it had in the past. No visible change... until this afternoon. I signed up for an on-line seminar and in loggin own it asked if I would like WMP or RealPlayer. RealPlayer please. Nothing. O.K. maybe I am early or maybe I messed up something last night. Then it came time for the seminar and I said Windows Media Player please. It wouldn't work. O.K. Real Player please. Worked fine.

Going back to last night: I also found two add-ons for Real Player. I disabled one, left one alone. Real Player would not work. Then I reversed and enable the one, disabled the other. Everything worked fine. What a mess.

I keep experimenting. I will eventually figure out the problem.

Thanks for the help.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Well, maybe I at least pointed you in the right direction. Good luck, Goat.