Difference in Playing .WAV on Website in Firefox and IE 1

[xyzuser]

I realize this is a novice question but I have looked through the Firefox Help and I can't find a reference for this.

When I select a .wav file from a website in IE, it starts to play almost immediately in WMP. When I select the same .wav file with Firefox, it first does a lengthy download that takes a noticeable amount of time and then starts to play it in WMP.

Is IE just doing it that much faster than Firefox and so it isn't noticeable? Or is IE doing it differently than Firefox does and I need to change a setting on Firefox?

Sorry - I know this is a very basic, novice question but I have looked and can't find where this is documented.

Thanks

 

[vacunita]

Media Player and IE are deeply interconnected. so much os that IE can call Windows Media Player and stream the file.
This means it can start playing before the file is completely downloaded.

Firefox on the other hand needs to download the file completely, and then calls Media Player to play it.

But of course this all depends on what application is associated with WAV files.

I for example have Quicktime set to open WAV files, and so both FF and IE will execute the Quicktime plugin and start playing the file in the browser.

For some Reason, FF executes the plugin faster than IE.


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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[xyzuser]

Thank you vacunita (and a star) for that clear and complete explanation of how they work. I appreciate it!