October 28, 2006


Problems with slide/audio talk displays using legacy Windows Media and Real Player methods when using Firefox 2.0 or Internet Explorer 7.0

About 18 months ago, we changed to Flash/MP3 as the primary method to show slide/audio talks in synchronized fashion. This new method continues to work well with the recently released Internet Explorer 7.0 (IE7) and Firefox 2.0 browsers. During the past 18 months, we continued to also make the slide/audio talks available using our legacy methods, which were set up in 1997, and which were designed to be used by people with very low bandwidth modem connections. These legacy methods involve timer script files which are embedded into Windows Media Player and Real Player audiofiles. After the changeover to the Flash/MP3 method, we continued to include the two legacy methods, because (a) the audio quality of WM and Real files is higher, and (2), for people dialing up using a modem, the legacy method works better, since the file size of the slide images is often smaller.

With each new browser or player update, we have had problems with these legacy systems.

Windows Media Player legacy option: tab problem: Versions 1.5 and higher of Firefox, including the newly released version 2.0, do not link to the slides correctly in the course of a talk when using the Windows Media Player legacy method. The embedded timer file opens up each new slide in a new window or tab instead of simply scrolling to the desired slide on the already opened web page. One can listen to a talk, and the correct slide will appear, but one eventually will have 30 tabs or browser windows open (as many as there are slides) for a given talk. There is no cure for this available unless Firefox fixes this bug in its browser.

The Windows Media Player legacy system DOES work with Internet Explorer, and also works with the newly released tabbed browser update of Internet Explorer 7.0 (IE7), but with the default settings, IE7 behaves like Firefox, opening up each slide in a new tab. To fix the problem with IE7, one of the default TAB SETTINGS needs to be changed, which can be done very easily. Please see hdcn.com/audiofaq.htm, the October 26 update (bottom of page, bullet point no. 12) for details on how the default TAB SETTING needs to be changed.

Real Player legacy option: Repeat authentication requests and failure to open Real Browser: With updates to Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7.0, the legacy method of using Real Player no longer works. Now with each slide, the program repeats the request for authentication, and the Real browser window disappears. So this legacy method has now become non-functional. We will wait a month or two to see if Real Media corrects this problem. If not, we will remove the synchronization files from the Real Media audiofiles or else remove the Real Media files from the site. This option was left in place largely for MAC users, and they should be able to use the Flash or Windows Media versions with the recent Mac updates.