Member Avatar for powersstuff

Please see my issue on above page that I need to fix.
I've got a Vimeo video and a wmv video on this page with two buttons: one for flash, one for wmv player. The issue is that when the wmv button is clicked the video tries to load full screen within the pop-up box, and it is taking too long to load. On some browsers' versions it doesn't ever fully load. The flash player works with no problem. How can I get the wmv player working? Here's what I copied:

<div id="flash_box">

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/16395534?byline=0&amp;loop=1" width="800" height="450" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</div>

<div id="wmv_box">

<!--<embed type="application/x-mplayer2" pluginspage="http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/MediaPlayer/" name="mediaplayer1" showcontrols="true" ShowStatusBar="true" EnableContextMenu="false" autostart="true" width="600" height="360" loop="false" src="" />-->

<!--<OBJECT ID="MediaPlayer" WIDTH="600" HEIGHT="360" CLASSID="CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95"
STANDBY="Loading Windows Media Player components..." TYPE="application/x-oleobject">
<PARAM NAME="FileName" VALUE="">
<PARAM name="autostart" VALUE="true">
<PARAM name="ShowControls" VALUE="true">
<param name="ShowStatusBar" value="false">
<PARAM name="ShowDisplay" VALUE="false">
<EMBED TYPE="application/x-mplayer2" SRC="" NAME="MediaPlayer"
WIDTH="600" HEIGHT="360" ShowControls="1" ShowStatusBar="0" ShowDisplay="0" autostart="1"> </EMBED>
</OBJECT>-->



<object ID="Player" classid="CLSID:6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6" type="application/x-oleobject" 
							width="600" height="360" hspace="0" vspace="2" standby="Loading...." VIEWASTEXT>
         <param name="url" value="">  
         <param name="AutoStart" value="false">

         <param name="ShowTracker" value="true">
         <param name="ShowControls" value="true">
         <param name="ShowGotoBar" value="false">
         <param name="ShowStatusBar" value="false">
         <param name="AutoSize" value="false">
         <param name="AnimationAtStart" value="false">
         <param name="AutoRewind" value="false">
         <param name="Balance" value="0">
         <param name="EnableFullScreenControls" value="0">
         <param name="BufferingTime" value="5">
         <param name="Enabled" value="true">
         <param name="enableContextMenu" value="true">
         <param name="uiMode" value="full" >

         <param name="EnableTracker" value="false">
         <param name="InvokeURLs" value="true">
         <param name="VideoBorderWidth" value="0">

         <param name="VideoBorderColor" value="0">
         <param name="Volume" value="100">
         <param name="WindowlessVideo" value="false">
   <embed id="Player1" type="application/x-mplayer2" width="600"  vspace="2" height="360" src="" pluginspage = "http://www.microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/" AutoStart="false" ShowTracker="true"  ShowControls="true" 
							ShowGotoBar="false" ShowDisplay="false" ShowStatusBar="false" AutoSize="false"  AudioStream="-1" AnimationAtStart="false" 
							AllowScan="true" Balance="0" BufferingTime="5" ClickToPlay="true" CursorType="0" CurrentMarker="0" DisplayMode="0" 
							DisplaySize="0" Enabled="true" EnableContextMenu="1" EnableFullScreenControls="1" EnablePositionControls="true" 
							EnableTracker="true" InvokeURLs="false" Mute="false" PlayCount="1" SendPlayStateChangeEvents="true" ShowCaptioning="false" 
							ShowAudioControls="true" ShowPositionControls="true" TransparentAtStart="true" VideoBorderWidth="0" VideoBorderColor="0" 
							Volume="100" WindowlessVideo="false"></embed></object>	

</div>
Edited by Ezzaral because: Added code tags. Please use them to format any code that you post.
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Dani AI

Generated

Short diagnosis: the WMV is being handled by the platform-specific Windows Media Player plugin (or by the browser’s download handler), while the Vimeo embed is using a web-optimized player. That mismatch explains why the Vimeo clip plays reliably and the WMV either tries to hijack the popup (appearing full-screen) or stalls while the plugin attempts a large, blocking download. Browser plugins for WMV are fragile, OS-dependent, and become slow or fail on non‑Windows clients.

Practical fixes, ranked by reliability:

  • Best long-term: transcode the WMV to an H.264/AAC MP4 and serve that instead (or upload the MP4 to Vimeo). MP4/H.264 is broadly supported by HTML5 players, mobile devices, and modern browsers, so one player can handle both videos.
  • Quick improvement without re-encoding: don’t place the WMV/embed markup on the page until the user clicks “WMV”. Lazy-load the player so the plugin isn’t initialized inside the popup until requested.
  • Last resort: open the WMV in a separate window/tab if lazy-loading or conversion isn’t possible — it’s less elegant but avoids breaking the popup.

Example lazy-load pattern (insert only on click so the plugin won’t pre-initialize):

<button id="playWmv">Play WMV</button>
<div id="wmvContainer"></div>

<script>
document.getElementById('playWmv').addEventListener('click', function(){
  var c = document.getElementById('wmvContainer');
  if (!c.dataset.loaded) {
    c.innerHTML = '<video controls width="600" height="360" preload="none"><source src="path/to/video.mp4" type="video/mp4">Your browser does not support video.</video>';
    c.dataset.loaded = '1';
  }
});
</script>

Troubleshooting tips: test the WMV URL directly in each browser, check the network panel for slow transfer or missing range/206 responses, confirm correct MIME types on the server, and disable auto-start so the player won’t force fullscreen behaviour. ’s suggestion to use a dedicated player is on the right track, but conversion to MP4 or lazy-loading will give the most consistent cross-browser result; ’s new‑window fallback is a practical short-term option.

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Member Avatar for logoonlinepros

Good post its helpful for me also.

Member Avatar for powersstuff

Thanks for your suggestion, but as to using the asp.net I think that would be good for the wmv file to detect the browser (IE or FF), but as I read the article I didn't think it would apply for both wmv and flash on the SAME page. As it turned out, the more ways I tried it the more difficult it became. The closest I think would work was to have one play in a new window.

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