western michigan university @ cornell game 1

[DisplacedCornellian]

Didn't say they weren't.  I laughed, didn't I?

[DeltaOne81]

[Q]That is generally a sign of a missing video codec. Wierd thing is, I have the newest version of WMP for OSX and I had exactly the same problem. Anyway, I IMd the direct URL to the archive ( http://i2sports.com/events/390/1031.asx ) to my Win2k box and it opened just fine in WMP 7.1.

So yes, in this case, it is a mac thing. Why MS would ship a crippled version of their own product is beyond me...[/Q]
Get ready for some three-letter acronyms (TLAs ;-) )!

Yeah, I 'spoke' (on IRC) with the creators of a popular third-party video player, which can play a whole bunch of formats. So here's the story.

When they upgraded to Windows Media Player 9, MS upgraded the video codec to version three, aka: WMV3 . The thing is, that the current version of WMP for the Mac is version 7.1 and when it was written WMV3 didn't even exist. So they didn't cripple it, so much as just not update it in nearly two years.

WMP 7.1 for Mac plays WMV1 and WMV2 codecs, as does this other program - VideoLAN Client (VLC). However, MS has refused to release any specs on WMV3, and there's no open-source implementation, so it is nearly impossible to reverse engineer. Essentially, WMP 9 for Windows is the only program that plays WMV3 video, and MS is doing everything they can to keep it that way.

VLC is available for Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, Debian GNU/Linux, Mandrake Linux, RedHat Linux, Familiar Linux, YOPY Linux, and Zaurus - and is compileable for NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris, QNX, and Gentoo Linux.

According to the I2sports people "we were good with Mac users until Microsoft introduced Windows Media Player 9." This seems to say to me that they used to broadcast in WMV1 or WMV2. There is probably no good reason why they can't continue to do so, or at least offer an alternative stream in an earlier format. I encourage any person here who can't run WMP 9 (or doesn't want to :-) ), to email them asking them to broadcast a stream that everybody can view. To use the same format that they used to will probably cost them nothing, or at least very little, and I'm sure the extra subscriptions will make up for it. I can think of at least 2 people on this board who would pay them $60, and I'm sure i'm missing some.

One note, I tried playing the stream in WMP 9 in Virtual PC (VPC), but the emulation overhead required of VPC meant I got a second of okay video, followed by 1 - 2 seconds of still frame... rinse and repeat.

Edit: VLC is available for Win 95. WMP 9 is not. While not a lot of people use Win 95 anymore (and probably shouldn't :-) ), I know I have seen it, and it's another 'market' they'd open up.



Post Edited (11-03-03 16:11)

[crodger1]

BigRedIslander wrote:

ITs worth $5, but I mean 60 for the year seems like a lot...it def doesnt cost nearly that to run.....they must be making a crapload on it

I have got to disagree with you on that.  Though the marginal cost is probably fairly low, you still need to have at least 2 or 3 people at the game as well as the equipment.  Include in that travel time from Syracuse etc., and I think at 60 bucks I am getting a very good deal.  It isn't like there are thousands of us out there watching.

Of course, the first time something goes wrong I'll probably be furious, but for now I'm a relatively happy camper.  I just wish we could get away game feeds and some way for all users interested in paying to watch the game able to do so, and not blocking them out because of a different tech choice.

Chris