The VideoLAN Forums

I am running Netscape 9 under Windows XP64. I have been using VideoLan to watch the news video at:

http://www.iba.org.il/media/

With the previous version of VLC, when I was clicking on the news video I would get a prompt to click on it to view the content directly in my Windows Media player. That would automatically launch VLC which would play the video.

I just installed VLC 1.0.3 and now is no longer launches automatically. Instead, a tab gets opened for an asf file with a a black screen and "waiting for the video" and nothing happens.

How do I set the new version to launch automatically as before?

i should add that:

ASF files are set to be opened by vLC and I checked Mozilla plugin when installing VLC

You don't want mozilla plugin, if you want to open URLs in VLC. Plugin opens them inside browsers.

i would not mind if it opened inside Netscape, but it does not work: it opens a black screen and says "waiting for the video" and nothing happens.

OK, I reinstalled VLC without Mozilla plugin.

now when I click on the link to play the video in Netscape it downloads a file called gm.asp. the previous version would open the file and stream the video. now it does not.

You have to adjust Netscape helper applications in that case. ASP isn't any video or playlist format, so downloading it doesn't sound correct thing.

well, it turns out that the file is downloaded as ASP but in reality is ASX. so when I rename it to ASX VLC opens it and plays the stream.

the thing is that before I updated VLC it was doing it automatically, but now I have to manually rename it and then open it with VLC.

any idea what's different?

Are you sure the site didn't change anything (like mime-types)?

My impression is that it did not.
It was OK before I upgraded and it stopped working after I upgraded.
So it looks like it has something to do with the upgrade.

VLC install doesn't modify browsers file handlers.

what was the previous version of VLC and is it available? I would like to try it and see if it still works.

1.0.2 was before 1.0.3, you can find all older versions from http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/

Thanks.

I don't understand why the name of the file downloaded is .ASP when the file is really an .ASX file which can be open by VLC automatically opens. Did it use to be ASX and it was changed to ASP? Can it be fixed so it is ASX?

I think the ASP sends you ASX file. But when you use save, browser gets file extension from file name, not from mime type.

you're probably right, but the same browser was starting the play before and now it does not. if VLC has not changed, what has?

Mime is only thing that comes to my mind.

Is there anything I can do to save the file as ASX? And again, why was VLC opening it before I upgraded to 1.0.3 and it doesn't after I did?

Since the browser is the same there are only 2 possibilities: the CastUP streaming service and the new VLC version. The former is telling me that "VLC does not support their technology", but that is silly because the problem is not the technology but the damn name of the file.

why was VLC opening it before I upgraded to 1.0.3 and it doesn't after I did?

I think Netscape 9 mime handler used to send the URL directly to VLC. But either mime type changed on server side or the handler settings got changed on client side, and because of that, things aren't what they used to be.

my guess is CastUP made the change. when i contacted them they kept insisting I use windows media player because they "don't support other players". i explained that it's only a matter of ensuring the name is ASX rather than ASP, but they would not listen.

perhaps if somebody behind VLC would talk to them.