Audio Video Content created in 10.6 Downloads instead of Plays Back

Question

Audio Video Content created in 10.6 Downloads instead of Plays Back

I have a situation where all content created in 10.6 will download instead of playing back with a browsers plug-in. That includes, mp3s (mp3s created with Logic) and all types of common video formats - DivX avi's, mp4's, mov's.

I have tested on Safari, Opera and Firefox in 10.6, Safari in 10.4, and on Windows Vista with Google Chrome.

It appears there is something common with 10.6 that cuases these problems - I would very much like to know what it is and how to resolve it.

So that you can test it for yourself, the website is:

www.rohanstevenson.com

/TV and Film Demos

In the mp3 demos, most of the contect was created in 10.5 and plays back ok. But "Nightmares and the Sidh" was created in the latest logic version on 10.6 and in safari, it won't play unless you move the slider forward very slightly, or copy and paste the URL into quicktime or VLC. In Firefox, it will download even if you ask it to playback using the plug-in. In Opera it will ask you for the plug-in and it will playback in the browser there. In Safari OS 10.4 and in Vista Gogle Chrome it will download no matter what.

In the Movie Demos, most of them were updated and will automatically download instead of playing back in the browser. However:

Dragon's Demand, and Fanny Hill - The Sonnet, were created in previous OS's and do playback properly (ie they don't download) in all the browsers.

The movies that download may have been created in 10.6 or not, but even the ones that were not were edited (cut out) using Quicktime Pro 7.6 recently in 10.6 and they download and do not playback. That is to say, anything that has had any editing done and therefore saved with an application in 10.6, or were created directly in 10.6 force downloads instead of playing back in browsers in the manner described above.

Help!

N.B. the website was made with iWeb, but I don't think that is the problem, I think there is some header information in the files that stop them from being properly recognized.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 18Gb RAM, Konnekt 48

Posted on May 6, 2011 2:10 AM

Reply

Answer 1

May 6, 2011 8:18 AM in response to Rohan Stevenson1

i'm surprised that know one knows about this. it seems there are lots of similar issues around but nothing resembling a solution....

so how many boffins out there know anything about it....

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Answer 2

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

May 6, 2011 1:52 PM in response to Rohan Stevenson1

Hi Rohan

for some reason, the idisk.mac.com server is giving Content-Type: application/octet-stream to the 'problem' mp3's

compared to Content-Type:audio/x-mpeg (or nothing) for ones that work.

Which maybe explains why they behave differently, but not why iDisk serves them that way; or why apple can't get even safari to treat mp3's consistently & not need the slider wiggle.

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Answer 3

May 6, 2011 3:05 PM in response to andyBall_uk

thanks for the reply andy. great to get an intelligent reply.

so it might be an idisk issue? that's interesting. i might be able to get the two different file types hosted on another server and try them there.

the issue too, is definitely related to the OS. anything created in 10.6 is not behaving. i am thinking that my work around will be to edit and resave the offending video in either 10.5 or 10.4 and recreate the mp3s as well.

i really wish there was more info on this out there. is this really only affecting me? there does seem to be problems with playing back mp3s in safari but surely other people create content and publish it to their idisk via iWeb?

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Answer 4

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

May 6, 2011 3:25 PM in response to Rohan Stevenson1

there's been a number of long & short threads with similar problems, I think some even had the same content-type yet still misbehaved on some servers (an OS update or two ago, so some things might be fixed)

One poster at least thought that 10.6 created files were ok, but not if changed by iTunes (I think it was that, anyway); I never found a way to present the files on all servers that always worked, although using embed or something other than a direct link seemed to solve it in some cases w/o needing any end-user wiggling.

I'm sure that people must create/publish ok, but a number fetch up here saying that 10.6 won't play the results.

In case you've not seen it - Safari-Develop-Show Web Inspector-Resources-Headers shows what Safari gets as content-type, you can alter user agent & see if it changes. Sites like web-sniffer.net do it too.

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Answer 5

May 6, 2011 4:58 PM in response to Rohan Stevenson1

I had no troubles using Safari and 10.6.7 when I right clicked on a link and chose "Open in a new window".

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Answer 6

May 9, 2011 12:21 AM in response to QuickTimeKirk

Thanks for the reply, but the issue is downloading that starts in other browsers. Try doing the same in firefox and opera or in Vista. In any case, I don't want people to have to right-click. It should just work as it has done for years.

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Answer 7

May 9, 2011 1:39 AM in response to Rohan Stevenson1

Your files are "direct links". All media files require browser plug-in "instructions" to play inside the current or new window. Your files have no instructions (html page code) and will download on some machines and play (on a Mac) when the link is clicked.

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Answer 8

May 9, 2011 3:26 AM in response to QuickTimeKirk

could you explain a little more?

it remains the case that content created in 10.6 downloads, and content created in previous versions playback in the browser as i expect.

additionally, mp3s created in 10.6 seem to play back in safari using a different plug-in. the interface looks different, and they require a wiggle to make them work. those files will download using other browsers and/or OS's.

i am just about to re-upload the video content after re-saving them in 10.4. we'll see if that works.

what it seems to be is that there is some formatting information embedded into the file that is confusing the browsers that relate to the OS - or possibly the version of QT. but aware of that i have been converting and/or saving using lower versions of QT. it has not worked.

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