No Audio on Web Videos from Bloomberg with Quick Time. How come?

Hmmm. Same here with Bloomberg. From their FAQ page:

Q: What are the technical requirements to operate the Video Player?
A: Bloomberg.com's special Video Player requires a current Windows Media Player be installed in your system.

Which I have, and obviously also Flip4Mac, Perian and all the rest.

If it's any consolation their video doesn't have audio in Firefox either.

Nor in Camino.

Blame Bloomberg.

Can this be rectified?

Not sure. I select the "Save as Source" option and collected both sub 5-minute and sub 10-minute samples. In each case only a single WMV 9 stream was indicated as being contained. Assuming this might be some sort of audio/video "muxed" data stream and, not having any real knowledge regarding WMV 9, I dropped further investigation. However, I noted this morning that another poster indicated the file he was attempting to view in Front Row contained a "Base" track, as well as, audio "and" video stream. If this is true, then perhaps the Bloomberg files are, through some production error, simply lacking their audio data (or if multiplexed, be in an incompatible QT compression format).

So, is there a Windows Media Player for Leopard?

No.

Microsoft has not supported Windows Media Player for the Mac for a decade. You need Flip4Mac.

These are the downloads and the settings you need in order to view/hear pretty much everything that the net can throw at you: The setup described below has proved repeatedly successful on both PPC and Intel macs, but nothing in life carries a guarantee!

It is known to work in the great majority of cases with Safari 3.0.4, 3.1, QT 7.3 or 7.4 and OS 10.4.11. (If you are running Leopard, ensure that all plug-ins have been updated for OS 10.5.2, but please see my footnote).

Assuming you already run Tiger versions OS 10.4.9 or above (this has not yet been verified with Leopard) and have Quicktime 7.2 or above, and are using Safari 2 or 3, download and install ( or re-install even if you already had them) the latest versions, suitable for your flavor of Mac, of:

RealPlayer 10 for Mac from http://forms.real.com/real/player/blackjack.html?platform2=Mac%20OS%20X&product= RealPlayer%2010&proc=g3&lang=&show_list=0&src=macjack

The new RealPlayer Plus (v.11) is still in beta and therefore free, but works well on Tiger. It includes a download function, and you can get that here:

http://uk.real.com/player/mac/

Flip4Mac WMV Player from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx (Windows Media Player for the Mac is no longer supported, even by Microsoft)

Perian from http://perian.org/

You should read this support page http://perian.org/#support in case you need to delete older codecs.

Adobe FlashPlayer should first be uninstalled using the appropriate uninstaller available here: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=2 and then the latest version obtained from here: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1ProdVersion=ShockwaveFlash and installed.

(You can check here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/ to see which version you should install for your Mac and OS, but please see my footnote if you are running Leopard.)

In earlier versions than QT 7.1.3 in Quicktime Preferences, under advanced, UNcheck Enable Flash, and under Mime settings/Miscellananeous only check Quicktime HTML (QHTM).

You should also ensure, if you are running Tiger 10.4.11 or Leopard, that you have downloaded and installed all the correct version for your Mac of Security Updates up to and including 2008-002. (N.B. Security Updates require both a restart and a permission repair.)

In Macintosh HD/Library/Quicktime/ delete any files relating to DivX (Perian already has them). However it should be noted that Perian is not an internet plugin and will not play DivX files imbedded on a website. For that you will need the DivX Player browser plugin available from http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/

Now go to Safari Preferences/Security, and tick the boxes under Web Content (all 4 of them) to enable Java.

Lastly open Audio Midi Setup (which you will find in the Utilities Folder of your Applications Folder) and click on Audio Devices. Make sure that both Audio Input and Audio Output, under Format, are set to 44100 Hz, and that you have selected 'Built in Audio'.

Important: Now repair permissions and restart.

You should also consider having the free VLC Player from http://www.videolan.org/ in your armory, as this plays almost anything that DVD Player might not.

There is an additional 'fix' you could try if you are having problems with Flash and Quicktime, depending on which type of Mac you have:

On Intel Macs, make sure that you are not running Safari in Rosetta. You can check this, and change it, in the Get Info window.

On PPC Macs, go to the Hard Disk/Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder, and drag the file 'QuickTime Plugin.webplugin' to the desktop. Quit and restart Safari. If things have improved you can trash that file. If they haven't put it back.

FOOTNOTE

If you are running Leopard:

Some users have mentioned that the latest Flash Player (v.9.0.115.0) conflicts with Leopard, and that they have needed to revert to v. 9.0.47. This can be downloaded from here:

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14266&sliceId=1

Here is the solution from Flip4Mac > http://forum.flip4mac.com/forum/messageview.aspx?catid=9&threadid=610&enterthrea d=y
CraigS:
"Bloomberg site is using WMA9 Voice codec which Flip4Mac doesn't currently support.

You'd have to install Microsoft WMP9Mac. Go to Flip4Mac PrefPane and disable it. Change browser to run in Rosetta and WMP9Mac should be able to handle it. "

Locate Safari in Finder. On my mac it is in Finder/Applications/Safari. Right click on the Safari icon and select "Get Info". Alternatively highlight Safari and click on File/Get Info. A new window called "Safari.app info" will pop up. Tick the "Open using Rosetta" box then close.

Note Safari will run using Rosetta until you deselect this option. Rather than having Safari always running this way, I have Firefox set up in Rosetta and use that for Bloomberg and Safari for everything else.

Changing the setting in Safari to open in Rosetta and using WMP9 works great. Thanks! However, is there a downside to keeping Safari opening in Rosetta?

Changing Safari to Rosetta and turning off Flip4mac worked great for Leopard.

THIS INCOMPATIBILITY IS GETTING VERY OLD!

It seems every update is getting worse and worse...

Just like with Microsoft products ... if you don't have the latest processor and the latest OS you're rolling the dice every update.

Bloomberg uses Windows Media Audio Voice codec. Flip4Mac doesn't support Voice codec. You'd need to install Microsoft Windows Media 9 Mac version. If you're on Intel Mac you need to set your browser to Rosetta too.

I'm not sure why anyone uses Voice codec anymore since it was really geared to dial up. It makes even less sense on Bloomberg site because it's clear their videos are NOT geared for dial up.

I followed through on your list of what to install - very helpful, by the way. But on the last item, checking the Audio MIDI setup: in the lower right-hand corner labeled Audio Output, there's just the message " Output is not supported."

Given that the original problem was an inability to hear the audio on Bloomberg videos, this makes me suspicious that this could be a significant problem. Any suggestions?

Message was edited by: Par Contre

What have you set as the output in System Preferences/Sound?

It should be internal speakers.

But that would not affect the lack of Bloomberg audio, which as we have read in recent posts is due to Bloomberg using some kind of neolithic audio codec! 😉

Yes, it's set to internal speakers. I regularly watch/listen to video clips without any problems - except for Bloomberg. But it's strange about the "Output not supported" setting.

Just to be bluntly clear - on many of the video from Bloomberg they use Windows Media Audio 9 VOICE codec. Flip4Mac does NOT support this codec. You MUST use Windows Media 9 Mac to play this audio codec.

The Voice codec serves little modern purpose but Bloomberg insists on using it sadly.