USING WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER!!!!

[Nick Harwood]

have just installed Director MX 2004 on my mac (OSX.3) and although it looks
lovely etc...i have so far been unable to import windows media player files
(.wmv). it recognises the quicktime movies with no problem but all the .wmv's
appear greyed out in the import window...and the option for windows media
player doesn't appear in the insert window or in the file type drop down.

windows media player (version 9 for OSX) can open all the files no problem so
i don't think there is anything wrong with the source files...but director just
cannot see them to import...am i missing something basic here? - is this a
cross platform issue?....please any help greatly appreciated - the ability to
support windows was a major factor in my purchasing the upgrade in the first
place!! - thanks.

[JB]

I haven't messed with video preparation solely on mac only MX 2004 but
it think the following applies.

You may have to use a different video format for your hybred projects.
Windows media player for mac doesn't completely integrate it into the OS.

Another case would be AVI files that if imported on a Mac (I believe)
would be imported as quicktime members, but would be imported as avi
members in a window syetem. PLaying the mac authored file would require
quicktime to be installed in windows system.


The schemes I have seen is either to use quicktime videos and require
windows users to hve quicktime added to their system. AdvancedMPEG xtra,
I think allows windows systems to play mpegs without requiring quicktime
to be installed, doulble check their mac compatibility.

[Nick Harwood]

I have just found the following in the help....

"windows media playback is not supported on macintosh in director"

so much for cross platform authoring... in order to author projects that will
use windows media player it would appear that I need both versions (mac and PC)
which makes all the advantages of authoring in both modes a bit misleading I
think...not strictly accurate....very annoying.

thanks for the post though...i feel a call to macromedia customer sevices
coming on...

[Vinitius]

I'd think it's not so strange Director does not support WMV video, this after
all depends on system software which is Windows only. The fault lies not with
Macromedia but with Apple ( for going there own little way in not just this but
many many other things). So you'd better call the customer service from Apple.

[slayshot]

QuickTime works on both platform and Director has long supported it. The fault
lies with Microsoft for not supporting standards (i.e., QuickTime) and trying
to shove their own format down people's throats.

[Nick Harwood]

slayshot...

couldn't have put it better myself...calling apple would have served no
purpose what-so-ever...

having now had Director MX for pc for just a couple of days, I am now
discovering the limitations of what dfirector actually lets you do with windows
media files...the support just isn't there within the package that there has
long been for QuickTime...and I have a big project underway, which I somewhat
hastily told a client would be OK to do in Media player...that would seem to
have been a rash statement - where are the control buttons? the quickTime ones
are there for you to use, but no such luck it would seem for windows control
buttons - looks as if I have to use lingo to create the properties...which is
not great as I've only really skimmed the surface as far as lingo goes (never
needed it to be more complicated than the functions provided in the library
palette before) know anyone who has created some custom windows buttons yet
for general use???

[Mauricio Piacentini]

"slayshot" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message news:<c4s9m2$9n2$1@forums.macromedia.com>...

> QuickTime works on both platform and Director has long supported it. The fault
> lies with Microsoft for not supporting standards (i.e., QuickTime) and trying
> to shove their own format down people's throats.

This is not exactly coherent. Why do you consider Quicktime a
"standard"? It is not an open format or anything like that: Quicktime
is closed technology made by Apple. In order to run it on a Windows
machine you have to install the Quicktime player.
Windows Media is also closed technology, made by Microsoft. In order
to play wmv files on the Mac you have to install Microsoft's Windows
Media Player for the Mac.
So there is really no difference between QT and WMV when it comes to
"standards": both are closed technologies. So you should also tell
that Apple also tries to "shove their format down people's throats".
There is no difference here.
The real focus of difference is simple: Director comes with an Xtra
that supports Quicktime on both platforms (provided you install the QT
player on the target machine.) WMV support (in Director) is only
provided by Macromedia in Windows, included with MX 2004. But both
formats are proprietary.

Regards,
Mauricio Piacentini
Tabuleiro