398496 - uploaded avi file needs plugin download, which fails anyway to make file viewable

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[martin]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.7) Gecko/20070914 Firefox/2.0.0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.7) Gecko/20070914 Firefox/2.0.0.7

use this url, scroll down quite a bit, the top portion of the page is now (temporarily) empty, find a movie that "needs a plugin" to view, this is a walkthough of an apartment i am trying to sell

this is a yahoo-generated site

when i view in mozilla i see this need for a plugin, when i view in Internet Explorer, the file is viewed, (rather boring and jerky photography) (IE did ask me to permit activeX controls, with due warnings)

yahoo telephone tech support replicated the problem on their 'lab machine', no view in mozilla, yes view in IE

in mozilla, when i do follow the prompts, for plugin download, nothing is found, but then some media player, which requires a manual install, i get to windows media viewer, which sends me all over the net but never lets me view the file, anyway, i end up in windows media viewer online store being urged to buy URGE, which urgent urgement i successfully resist

i am an old geezer who was a mainframe programmer, back when writing was done with sticks on wet clay, and a PC-DOS programmer, which means that I am too old to understand this stuff, and need a ten year old kid with ten years java applet experience, but the nearest ten year old kid is asleep or in school or lost in play station 

thanks
martin

ps, i even tried to covert from avi to mpg, since yahoo tech support said that mozilla should be able to play mpg files....and managed to destroy all my movies, go figure, including a backup copy preserved in case the conversion failed

i had to replay in real player to restore settings, i think real player restores settings

i prefer sharp sticks on wet clay, but then, did i  ever tell you about punch cards...., well, kids, it was a loooong time ago, before global warming.....

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. delete the file from the web page
2. reload (re-upload)
3. see the 'needs plug-in' message
4. follow the 'download plugin into the desert
5. view successfully in IE
Actual Results:  
see Repro, above

Expected Results:  
expect (hope) to view movie in mozilla

i now do not expect to view movies of avi form in mozilla, but it is sooooooo much better than IE, up until yesterday

software should have 
(i) not asked for a plug in
(ii) produced a plugin if it had to ask for one
(iii) plated the movie first time out

Comment 1

[martin]

this is too bizarre to be a real problem, btw, this is yahoo hosting, small business, but then, i also got some space on freeweb (which is really NOT freeweb) and got the same 'needs plugin' message

...could be my machine....

thanks

martin

Comment 2

[Michal 'hramrach' Suchanek]

You probably want some mplayer or VLC plugin if you want to play video files in Mozilla.

Or the Active-X plugin which allows Mozilla to use Active-X plugins and play the video in whatever worked for IE.

In general, Mozilla (or Firefox, or any mozilla.org product) is unable to locate any missing plugins. It sends you to a generic "install plugin" page which has plugins for next to nothing and does *not* suggest the plugins specifically for the mime type you tried to play in the first place.

Comment 3

[Swarnava Sengupta (:Swarnava)]

Firefox 3.6 is now EOL, please try latest version of Firefox and feel free to open if it reproducible on latest build
* http://getfirefox.com
for support
* https://support.mozilla.org/questions/new