Why will Safari not play MP3s embedded in my iWeb pages when Firefox can?

Hi QuickTime Kirk. Thanks for your response. However at this point I've not seen any evidence for myself that the affected pages work. At least one user advised me today via Twitter that my MP3 pages weren't loading/playing. I myself absolutely cannot get Safari to load and play these pages properly, even with a local instance of the site. I have never been able to get these pages working. Can you offer any advice as to why you aren't experiencing the same problems?

Thanks again for the response

Note the blue circled question mark - this is how non-loading pages are displayed

Well it looks as though I answered my own question. A Google search revelas that Safari has had over 2 years' history of reported problems with the mp3 format -

http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=safari+wont+play+mp3&ie=UT F-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=nkulT9_wA82g8gOPj8ntBA

- and the solution is... STOP USING MP3 FILES

Yes, mp3 format is out, mp4 format is in. SO I'll need to upload MP4 versions of my audio files and then retry.

Thanks for the info Roddy. I'm still at a loss to understand why Apple would distribute Safari and iWeb as part of the same installation if Safari is unable to display and load the web pages that iWeb builds.

I read elsewhere on these forums that iWeb is destined to be dropped. In which case this problem becomes irrelevant in any case :-(

Thanks Roddy

Hi Roddy

The HTML snippet solution didn't work for Chrome or Safari. I've been able to solve the problem by using the 'Podcast' template instead of the 'Blog' template. The MP3 files now load in Firefox, Chrome and Safari. I don't have IE so can't test.

Ta

whisperycat

Sounds like you could be right. I now find the 'Podcast' solution doesn't work in Safari after all.

Roddy, thank you, I think your last post really did resolve my question. Since I created the files I do have the originals. I dragged them into the Podcast page from Finder instead of using iWeb's (restricted to iPhoto and iTunes) import locations. Re-uploaded the affected pages to my host and now Safari is definitely loading and playing them. Many thanks!

Thanks Wyodor. Putting it all together then, one could infer that the reason some browsers are unable to properly handle iTune originated mp3 files is because iTunes often stores these files with additional meta-data in the form of cover artwork and this additional meta-data somehow porks the correct handling of the file?

If I was testing this software I would have to file a big fat bug report against either iTunes, iWeb or Safari because those 3 components were all distributed by Apple as part of a standard OS X install and the bottom line is the "Import From iTunes" option within iWeb does not work as expected. Roddy's workaround is functionally similar to your own, in both cases a flaw in iWeb / Safari creates a situation where the end user has to paper over the cracks in these applications by sidestepping the iTunes meta-data.

Of course since iWeb is no longer supported officially this issue will never get fixed properly so I'm doubly grateful for all your comments since they'll extend the working life of the iWeb app.

At some point my transistion to 64 bit OS will have to happen and at that point I wonder if iWeb will even run.

Thanks again folks, this has been an interesting little exercise :-)