ABC news video doesn't play on firefox, windows 7
When I download video from ABC news, the play screen stays dark grey and doesn't become available. Occasionally, a picture will show and when you tap the play arrow, the viewing box becomes dark grey and the pause button goes on. I have a Windows 7 os, with firefox 4.
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This reply is very long, but necessary for the many 'pc challenged' users in the audience. I have a Intel dual-core Dell XPS-420, running Win7 64 bit, using both IE9 and Firefox 4 and have been having this blank video with sound problem for about 8 months. I tried many 'fixes', but none worked. I finally found a method that works for me. I strongly recommend doing every step listed below since I believe there are some corrupted interrelationships between these add-on programs that need to be purged and restored to solve the problem.
1. I strongly recommend you download the CCleaner program - FREE - and use it to identify and remove potential problems from your pc. Use Google to search on CCLEANER, then download and install it on your pc. You will actually use the 'Cleaner' and the 'Registry' tools within CCleaner several times during the process shown below.
2. Remove all installed JAVA, Adobe FLASH and Adobe or Macromedia SHOCKWAVE programs from your pc. Use START/Control Panel/Programs and Features to get the complete listing, then dbl-click each program to remove it from your pc. You probably have 2 FLASH pgms, 3 SHOCKWAVE pgms and 1 JAVA pgm like I did.
3. Run CCleaner to clean up 'stuff' that can cause problems. First, select the Cleaner, add 'DNS Cache' to the checked list of functions, and then click Analyze to get the list, then click Fix to purge all this unnecessary stuff. Second, select Registry, scan for issues, then do the Fix - save the deleted registry items using the default method offered during the Fix process. Repeat these two steps again to clean up still more 'stuff' in the Cleaner and the Registry. Repeat once more to verify all 'stuff' has been removed.
4. Delete all FLASH and SHOCKWAVE folders in your USER files. You can find these by using START/Computer, click on C: drive, then enter Flash player in the upper right search box. You will get a list of folders similar to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player... Delete the Macromedia folders and the Flash player and Shockwave folders. Be sure not to delete other Adobe folders - they are used for the PDF Reader and other photo programs.
5. Do a RESTART.
6. Open Internet Explorer, go to CNN web site, select Videos - a video will try to run but cannot because there is no Adobe Flash Player installed. Click on the Adobe Flash install icon shown on the screen display - the appropriate flash player for your version of IE (IE9 is the latest) will be offered - click install (unselect Google Chrome and other programs that may also be offered for downloading - you do not need this extra stuff). Verify that you can play the CNN video - good picture and sound. Exit Internet Explorer.
7. Open Mozilla Firefox, go to CNN web site, select Videos - it will fail because you need the Firefox Flash player - click on the Adobe Flash icon and install the Flash player offered for Firefox on your pc. Verify that you can now see the CNN video on Firefox. Close Firefox.
8. Install Java. Use Google to search on Java, and then select the [url]www.java.com/url Download Java site. Install the latest version for your pc.
9. Run CCleaner 'Cleaner' and Registry' again. Repeat each to get all unnecessary 'stuff' deleted.
10. Restart.
11. Open Internet Explorer, go to ABCNews.com, select Video and you should now be able to watch and hear a good video. Open Firefox and go to ABCNews.com, select Video and verify you can see and hear a good video.
12. I have not installed SHOCKWAVE back on my pc yet, and do not plan on doing so unless I access something that tells me that I need to install it, like happened with Adobe Flash for the CNN videos. If you do install Shockwave, be sure to verify you can still view good videos on ABCNews.com.
13. This process of removing unnecessary 'stuff', then removing Java, Flash and Shockwave add-ons and related user folders, then reinstalling Java and the 2 Flash IE and Firefox pgms may also fix problems with YouTube and other web video problems.
14. I recommend running CCleaner about once a month to clean up accumulated 'stuff' to prevent problems.
UPDATE #1: All browser videos worked fine for 4 days, then I only had sound, no picture, on Roadrunner videos on IE9 only. Tried uninstall all Flash and reinstall - still same condition. Then removed Java and Flash, and reinstalled Flash but not Java. Success - all videos on IE9 and Firefox work perfectly. As it turns out, I had allowed Java to install an update to my pc yesterday evening (Java sent me a notice requesting to perform a check for Java updates, and I let it do the check and update installation). Apparently, that 'scheduled' check-for-update Java process altered some setting that caused IE9 Roadrunner videos to not allow the picture to be displayed. I have not reinstalled Java and will not until something needs to have Java in order to run on my pc. If I have to install Java again, I will disable the Java automatic update function.
UPDATE #2: Blank video with sound on IE9 Roadrunner web site returned today. Since I have not reinstalled Java, I am ruling out Java as a source of the problem. But, two "automatic" program updates were installed prior to my discovering this blank video problem had returned: Adobe reader X update/installation; windows 7 installed 13 updates requiring shutdown and startup to complete the installation. It is possible that the software update function somehow alters IE9 video display settings. Firefox video still works fine. Tried using CCleaner to clean registry, no change - problem still present. Used CCleaner to purge unnecessary "stuff" from caches (including DNS cache) plus cleaned registry again, SUCCESS - the IE9 Roadrunner videos now are visible. Assuming this problem will return again, I plan to do selective cleaning of program caches to narrow down what restores video operation.
UPDATE #3: IE9 Roadrunner video problem returned - all other video webs sites are good. Discovered that using CCleaner to purge Temp files restores Roadrunner video, but only for first video played - need to re-purge temp files to see each video. Added Java and Shockwave program add-ons - made no difference. Out of ideas for now. Will use Firefox as primary browser since IE9 - Roadrunner video is broke.
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