IE 6 or 7 won't play music in .PDF file

[TonyScarpelli]

I am in the process of creating and testing a web site.

One of my links is to a .PDF file that contains music and sounds embedded in it.

If I use FireFox the music plays fine, but if I use IE 6 or 7 the music doesn't play.

Is there a setting in IE that prevents music from playing?

Any ideas as to why this is happening?

Thanks.

Tony Scarpelli
Clinical Engineering Dept.
Maine Medical Center
Portland, Maine 04102

 

[linney]

What settings do you have ticked in IE/ Tools/ Internet Options/ Advanced/ Multimedia?

 

[JonathanMortimer]

I have found that IE / Outlook do not always play nice with Acrobat Reader. Have you got the latest Reader installed (8 or 9)? Even re-installing it might help.
Try to recreate the problem on another computer if you can, then you'll know whether it's the software in general or just your machine.

 

[goombawaho]

Sorry, but you should be using Firefox anyway for security reasons. Install Firefox and see if Acrobat works there as a test.

 

[TonyScarpelli]

Thanks for the answers. Sorry for taking so long to respond, my ISP, Roadrunner, wanted us to move our web sites, and I had to figure out why my son's web site wasn't working, what a poor support system they have for this.

Anyway, linney, I looked at the multimedia section of IE 8 and everything there was turned on, and still no sounds or music. I reset IE 8 to all it's defaults and still no sounds. There must be something else going on here.

JonathanMortimer, if Firefox calls Acrobat Reader and it plays sounds in a PDF, why would IE not be able to do the same thing?

goombawaho, if a person comes to my web site, where the .PDF file resides, I don't know what browser they are using. I need to be sure that the file works in any browser. I can't force anyone to use FireFox, but I can suggest this if I can't get the answer to IE's problem.

Thanks again.


Tony Scarpelli
Clinical Engineering Dept.
Maine Medical Center
Portland, Maine 04102

 

[linney]

Troubleshooting LensWork PDFs

http://www.lenswork.com/lxttechsupport/troubleshooting.html

The above site talks about a "Video or audio won't play.....
If you purchase your computer and it came with Adobe Reader Version 7 already loaded, it may not have the MultiMedia Components module required to play our audio and video files. If so, you will see a red "question mark" icon in the upper left corner of an audio or video link. If you try to double click the link you will receive the following message in a dialog box.

Adobe Reader has found component multimedia package and its size is 4.53 megabytes. Proceed with the download of this component?

This download will update your Reader so it can play audio and video components. This is a FREE UPDATE. Click OK to proceed with the download and installation".

Are there any clues from the above?

 

[TonyScarpelli]

I found the problem. It was like a duh moment. Does anyone else have these? <g>

I was thinking about the question that JonathanMortimer presented and that I responded to.

I opened my Web Designer program and opened the page in FireFox. I clicked on the button link to my .pdf. file and FireFox opened with Acrobat Reader 9 which is my current version. It played the music in the .pdf file all right.

I opened my page with IE 7, and tried to figure out what reader I was using, it turned out it opened with FoxIt, a free .pdf reader I was using instead of Reader 9. It didn't play the music. Ah, so FoxIt was the problem. I had set FoxIt to look like Reader 7 and didn't realize two different readers were opening.

I uninstalled FoxIt, and when I opened the page with IE 7, it then opened Acrobat Reader 9. I had the file types set to open FoxIt on .pdf files. IE was honoring the file type, but FireFox opened Reader 9 and not using the file type apparently.

I had installed FoxIt because in previous versions of Acrobat Reader, it took so long to open a .pdf that it was driving me nuts. It appears the Reader 9 opens much faster now, so I guess I don't need FoxIt any more. Bye, bye.

Problem solved.

Thanks everyone.


Tony Scarpelli
Clinical Engineering Dept.
Maine Medical Center
Portland, Maine 04102

 

[BadBigBen]

but FireFox opened Reader 9 and not using the file type apparently.

Quite correct, FF handles file types separately, the setting can be found under TOOLS >> Options >> Applications TAB...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.