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possible to make firefox stream mp3s?

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:50 pm
by Burrito
<yoda_off>
as a lot of you know, I've been a diehard IE user forever, I've recently switched to FF for test-driving purposes and ran across something that is really starting to annoy me. I have all of my music at home indexed on a php site so I can search for it easily while I'm at work. After I find a song I want to hear, I click the link and IE just starts playing, whereas with FF, I have to d/l the whole damn thing before I can start listening...is there a way around this? can FF not stream mp3's?
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:55 pm
by hydroxide
You'll need to get an extension for a media playing/streaming functionality

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:03 pm
by Burrito
share any good examples could you?

tried a search and only found this I did:

https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?q ... pp=firefox

what I was looking for, that is not.

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:18 pm
by hydroxide
Burrito wrote:share any good examples could you?

tried a search and only found this I did:

https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?q ... pp=firefox

what I was looking for, that is not.

I don't stream music through firefox... if I need to I use IE :oops: I just knew the solution to the problem.

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:34 pm
by Roja
After I find a song I want to hear, I click the link and IE just starts playing, whereas with FF, I have to d/l the whole damn thing before I can start listening
You are being deceived by Microsoft's integration efforts into thinking that "IE just starts playing". It doesn't. Media Player does - without opening a Media Player window.

Remember, your browser is NOT an mp3 player. Firefox can come close to the unbundled version of that effect:

1. Tools > Options > Downloads > File Types: Click on the listing for MP3 then click REMOVE to get rid of it.
2. Click on "Plug Ins" and uncheck the MP3 item (make sure you hit OK)
3. Next time you click on an MP3, it will ask you what to do with it. Tell it to use WinAmp (or another player of your preference).

Now it loads the mp3s in winamp.

If you have winamp running in the background on startup, you get the same "just starts playing" behavior.

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:39 pm
by Luke
Roja wrote:
After I find a song I want to hear, I click the link and IE just starts playing, whereas with FF, I have to d/l the whole damn thing before I can start listening
You are being deceived by Microsoft's integration efforts into thinking that "IE just starts playing". It doesn't. Media Player does - without opening a Media Player window.

Remember, your browser is NOT an mp3 player. Firefox can come close to the unbundled version of that effect:

1. Tools > Options > Downloads > File Types: Click on the listing for MP3 then click REMOVE to get rid of it.
2. Click on "Plug Ins" and uncheck the MP3 item (make sure you hit OK)
3. Next time you click on an MP3, it will ask you what to do with it. Tell it to use WinAmp (or another player of your preference).

Now it loads the mp3s in winamp.

If you have winamp running in the background on startup, you get the same "just starts playing" behavior.
Wow... that is awesome... bookmarking this so I can do that at home... thanks man!

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:42 pm
by Burrito
sounds good in theory, but have mp3 in my list of file types I do not....

see the ability to add file types I do not 8O

edit: doh! :lol:

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:00 pm
by jayshields
Burrito wrote:edit: doh! :lol:
elaborate please...!

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:58 pm
by Burrito
jayshields wrote:elaborate please...!
<yoda_off>
when I go to tools->options->downloads and hit the view & edit actions button I see a list of extensions...mp3 is not one of them...even if it were, when I highlight the others the 'remove option' button does not become available. I then dbl click one of the options (wma) there and I see a 'use this plugin' radio button with wmp selected by default.

I see no other place to 'uncheck mp3' from a plug-ins list.
</yoda_off>

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:39 pm
by Roja
In that case, the download dialog should read "What should Firefox do with this file?"..

One of the choices is "Open With" (application). Choose the correct player there (Winamp, etc).

Hope that helps.

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:37 pm
by Burrito
<yoda_off>
indeed it does, however, when I select my player, rather than just opening and starting to play, it has to download the entire file first, then it starts playing...

tried with both wmp and winamp

any other ideas?
</yoda_off>

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:41 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Regardless of file type, it is always going to download the file. This is the case for PDF's using the PDF Viewer and just about anything else that you might want to load. IE does this too, just without telling (I believe, when it caches downloaded content, movies and other media into your temporary internet files folder). It's that it is so obvious in FF because of the way FF downloads things.

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:46 pm
by Burrito
Everah wrote:Regardless of file type, it is always going to download the file. This is the case for PDF's using the PDF Viewer and just about anything else that you might want to load. IE does this too, just without telling (I believe, when it caches downloaded content, movies and other media into your temporary internet files folder). It's that it is so obvious in FF because of the way FF downloads things.
<yoda_off>
actually no, IE streams the content or (according to Roja) passes it along to wmp immediately so IT can stream it.

the difference is: the second I hit the link in IE I start hearing music and I can see the download progress of the song (in the case of wmp) as it's coming down. with FF, I click the link and the little d/l manager comes up and starts pulling the file down.
</yoda_off>

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:49 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Yeah, you're right. I was thinking something off-base.

I am not sure there is a way to stream in FF, unless you are doing it server-side. The browser itself is just a web browser, unlike IE that can act as a file browser and so much other stuff. I would guess it is a security thing, but really, I am not sure. All I know is that I download everything anyway just to be on the safe side. Executing things right from the site they are on, in my opinion, is dangerous. Not in all circumstance (like yours), but in many.

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:52 pm
by Burrito
<yoda_off>
so is there no way this can be done?
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