[X4U] **RANT** video stuff on the web

[Eddie Hargreaves]

On 11/21/05 1:32 PM, Jesse Leo <jleo at projectsupport.com> wrote:

> I thought Quicktime was supposed to be the worldwide standard on the web?

Your 'thoughts' do not reality make. Apple has been losing the Internet
media war for a few years now, ever since they stopped providing as many
free incentives as Real and Microsoft.

> And if not, why doesn't Windoze Media Player for Mac ever work as it should?

The Macintosh Business Unit, which creates the superior Office suite, does
not create the Media Player. That is left to the Windows Media team, who
have obviously chosen to ignore the Mac platform now that Microsoft is no
longer held to any legal agreement to provide Mac software.

> All of my plugins are up to date. But it just seems like more often than
> not, online audio and video content seems to fail when viewed from a Mac

Make sure you have the latest Flash/Shockwave plugin. I've noticed that a
lot of web sites are embedding video in Flash nowadays.

> (and no, I will not install RealPlayer... It doesn't exist as far as I'm
> concerned). 

This is an understandable statement if you ever used RealPlayer for Classic
MacOS. However, the OS X-native version of RealPlayer is quite good. I
recommend downloading it (go to http://www.real.com and click on the blue
"RealPlayer-Free" button). In the situations where the only available video
is in Real or Windows Media, choose the Real format and you should have no
problems.

Eddie Hargreaves