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Why doesn't firefox allow users to configure it to play other media types within the browser via it's plugins?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by sixshots

sixshots
sixshots
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Firefox has a plugin that allows it to play .AVI file streams within the browser. There are obviously more types of file streams than .AVI which vlc media player ( a wildly popular program) can play. Why doesn't firefox allow these stream types , I.E. - .FLV, to be set to play using the firefox browser via the plugin? Firefox doesn't even allow users to set that behavior manually. I think it's ridiculous to have the potential to be an otherwise great browser but not even get a chance at competing due to this inconceivable shortcoming.

Firefox has a plugin that allows it to play .AVI file streams within the browser. There are obviously more types of file streams than .AVI which vlc media player ( a wildly popular program) can play. Why doesn't firefox allow these stream types , I.E. - .FLV, to be set to play using the firefox browser via the plugin? Firefox doesn't even allow users to set that behavior manually. I think it's ridiculous to have the potential to be an otherwise great browser but not even get a chance at competing due to this inconceivable shortcoming.

Chosen solution

I got a lead on the answer here: http://www.ehow.com/how_5772216_select-browser-media-player.html

Thanks.

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All Replies (3)

finitarry
finitarry
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To play .flv videos with Firefox, you need to get the Flash plugin from Adobe. You can get it here:

sixshots
sixshots Question owner
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Thank you for the reply, unfortunately the example I gave was a bit unclear. I have adobe flash player installed and it plays videos on Youtube well enough, but when visiting websites like my own server, .AVI files play just fine but the .FLV files (or any other media file extensions I.E.- WMA, WAV, M4A, AMR, OGG, FLAC, MP2, DVD, MPEG, MP4, DIVX, MOV, WMV, VOB, 3GP, RM, QT etc. except .mp3s) won't stream. This seems to be more of a browser problem from what I can see. I checked the Mozilla settings to see if I could get the browser to use the media player to open other media file types but there is no setting to allow adding other file types that I could find. Thanks again for replying.

sixshots
sixshots Question owner
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Chosen Solution

I got a lead on the answer here: http://www.ehow.com/how_5772216_select-browser-media-player.html

Thanks.