Re: Media URL/file handling question - downloading file vs. passing URL to player app?

Replying to myself here...

If there is no current way to do this, it could be accomplished via an 
additional option in the media handling dialog - "Pass URL to player 
application"...

-C

Chris Woodfield wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I'm running Mozilla 1.6, as well as Firefox 0.8, on a MacOS X 10.3 
> system. The behavior I'm describing below is evident in both browsers.
> 
> I've noticed that different media types are handled differently under my 
> system depending on the player that the media is associated with. I have 
> the three major media players under OS X (Quicktime, RealOne Player, and 
> Windows Media Player 9) installed.
> 
> If I click on a URL that points to a .mov or .mpg file, handled by 
> Quicktime, the player is embedded in the browser window, and begins 
> playing as soon as a sufficient buffer is loaded given the media size 
> and download speed.
> 
> If the URL is to an .rm or .ram file, the browser downloads the entire 
> file, saves it to the desktop, and then launches RealOne to play the 
> media file.
> 
> If it's a .wmv file, the browser passes the URL to Windows Media Player, 
> which handles its own buffering an playback of the file in a standalone 
> player window.
> 
> My question is: is there any way to conrol this? There are times where 
> I'd prefer to load the .mov in its own browser window (in order to zoom, 
> for example), or to be able to play an .rm file as it loads, not have to 
> wait for the entire download to complete (in both cases, selecting "Open 
> Location" in either player's file menu and pasting the URL in 
> accomplishes this goal). If there isn't a way to do this currently, hwo 
> does one put in a feature request for a future version of Mozilla/Firefox?
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> -Chris Woodfield