How to...

How to Configure Windows Media Components for QuickTime to Receive Streaming Media

The Windows Components for QuickTime Flip4Mac plug-in does not come pre-configured to handle streaming versions of Windows media content.  Almost all Windows media content from Palomar is streamed.  To configure it to handle streaming media, start a video, and then click the drop-down in the lower right of the video pane.  Select "Plug-in Settings..."

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Click the "Movie" button in the resulting dialog box, then place a check in "Create streaming movies."

Close the Flip4Mac dialog box.  Now start another video.  This time, before the video starts playing, you will see the word "Buffering" in the lower left of the video window, along with a count-down indicator stating the number of seconds left to buffer:

When you see this, you can be sure you are playing a streamed video.  The problem was that QuickTime was attempting to both download and play a very high bandwidth video simultaneously, and could not keep up.  When it operates in streaming mode, it can keep up just fine.

It is worth noting that once you have done this, it will work perfectly in Firefox for Mac.  If you are a Safari user, however, when you start a video it will load in an entire web page (or an entire content frame in Blackboard), instead of in a small, embedded window.  To get it to shrink down to its proper size, click the "Play" icon at the bottom of the Safari screen, or control-click the screen somewhere and choose "Play."  This is a Safari bug.

The latest version of Flip4Mac Windows Components for QuickTime is 2.1.0.33.  Click here to download it.  It requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher, and QuickTime 6.5 or higher.

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