Hi all. This is my first post and I'm relatively new to Linux. I've installed Gutsy onto my laptop (Ubuntu 7.10, AMD64, 1GB ram, 80GB HD) in a dual-boot setup, and so far everything is going great. However, I am having a deal of trouble getting certain sites' video features to work. I've done a TON of reading and trying on my own to get it to work, including searching three or four msg boards exhaustively. For instance, if I go to FoxNews and try to watch their vids, I get just a black screen in the popup window. But YouTube works just fine. I've installed commercial codecs, Mplayer, realplayer, etc, to no effect. Here's my aboutlugins from FireFox:
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Installed plug-ins
Find more information about browser plug-ins at mozilla.org.
Help for installing plug-ins is available from plugindoc.mozdev.org.
Shockwave Flash

File name: libgnashplugin.so
Shockwave Flash 8.0 r99. Gnash 0.8.1, the GNU Flash Player. Copyright © 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Gnash comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. You may redistribute copies of Gnash under the terms of the GNU General Public License. For more information about Gnash, see http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash. Compatible Shockwave Flash 8.0 r99.

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
application/x-shockwave-flash Shockwave Flash swf Yes
GCJ Web Browser Plugin (using IcedTea) 1.4

File name: gcjwebplugin.so
The GCJ Web Browser Plugin (using IcedTea) executes Java applets.

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
application/x-java-vm IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.1 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.1.1 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.1.2 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.1.3 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.2 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.2.1 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.2.2 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.3 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.3.1 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.4 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.4.1 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.4.2 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.5 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.6 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;version=1.7 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-applet;jpi-version=1.7.0_00 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.1 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.1.1 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.1.2 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.1.3 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.2 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.2.1 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.2.2 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.3 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.3.1 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.4 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.4.1 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.4.2 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.5 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.6 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;version=1.7 IcedTea class,jar Yes
application/x-java-bean;jpi-version=1.7.0_00 IcedTea class,jar Yes
VLC Multimedia Plugin

File name: libvlcplugin.so
Version 0.8.6c Janus, copyright 1996-2007 The VideoLAN Team
http://www.videolan.org/

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
audio/mpeg MPEG audio mp2,mp3,mpga,mpega Yes
audio/x-mpeg MPEG audio mp2,mp3,mpga,mpega Yes
video/mpeg MPEG video mpg,mpeg,mpe Yes
video/x-mpeg MPEG video mpg,mpeg,mpe Yes
video/mpeg-system MPEG video mpg,mpeg,mpe,vob Yes
video/x-mpeg-system MPEG video mpg,mpeg,mpe,vob Yes
video/mpeg4 MPEG-4 video mp4,mpg4 Yes
audio/mpeg4 MPEG-4 audio mp4,mpg4 Yes
application/mpeg4-iod MPEG-4 video mp4,mpg4 Yes
application/mpeg4-muxcodetable MPEG-4 video mp4,mpg4 Yes
video/x-msvideo AVI video avi Yes
video/quicktime QuickTime video mov,qt Yes
application/x-ogg Ogg stream ogg Yes
application/ogg Ogg stream ogg Yes
application/x-vlc-plugin VLC plugin vlc Yes
video/x-ms-asf-plugin Windows Media Video asf,asx Yes
video/x-ms-asf Windows Media Video asf,asx Yes
application/x-mplayer2 Windows Media Yes
video/x-ms-wmv Windows Media wmv Yes
application/x-google-vlc-plugin Google VLC plugin Yes
audio/wav WAV audio wav Yes
audio/x-wav WAV audio wav Yes
audio/3gpp 3GPP audio 3gp,3gpp Yes
video/3gpp 3GPP video 3gp,3gpp Yes
audio/3gpp2 3GPP2 audio 3g2,3gpp2 Yes
video/3gpp2 3GPP2 video 3g2,3gpp2 Yes
DivX Browser Plug-In

File name: mplayerplug-in-dvx.so
mplayerplug-in 3.40

Video Player Plug-in for QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player streams using MPlayer
JavaScript Enabled and Using GTK2 Widgets

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
video/divx DivX Media Format divx Yes
video/vnd.divx DivX Media Format divx Yes
QuickTime Plug-in 6.0 / 7

File name: mplayerplug-in-qt.so
mplayerplug-in 3.40

Video Player Plug-in for QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player streams using MPlayer
JavaScript Enabled and Using GTK2 Widgets

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
video/quicktime Quicktime mov Yes
video/x-quicktime Quicktime mov Yes
image/x-quicktime Quicktime mov Yes
video/quicktime Quicktime mp4 Yes
video/quicktime Quicktime - Session Description Protocol sdp Yes
application/x-quicktimeplayer Quicktime mov Yes
application/smil SMIL smil Yes
RealPlayer 9

File name: mplayerplug-in-rm.so
mplayerplug-in 3.40

Video Player Plug-in for QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player streams using MPlayer
JavaScript Enabled and Using GTK2 Widgets

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
audio/x-pn-realaudio RealAudio ram,rm Yes
application/vnd.rn-realmedia RealMedia rm Yes
application/vnd.rn-realaudio RealAudio ra,ram Yes
video/vnd.rn-realvideo RealVideo rv Yes
audio/x-realaudio RealAudio ra Yes
audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin RealAudio rpm Yes
application/smil SMIL smil Yes
Windows Media Player Plugin

File name: mplayerplug-in-wmp.so
mplayerplug-in 3.40

Video Player Plug-in for QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player streams using MPlayer
JavaScript Enabled and Using GTK2 Widgets

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
application/asx Media Files * Yes
video/x-ms-asf-plugin Media Files * Yes
video/x-msvideo AVI avi,* Yes
video/msvideo AVI avi,* Yes
application/x-mplayer2 Media Files * Yes
application/x-ms-wmv Microsoft WMV video wmv,* Yes
video/x-ms-asf Media Files asf,asx,* Yes
video/x-ms-wm Media Files wm,* Yes
video/x-ms-wmv Microsoft WMV video wmv,* Yes
audio/x-ms-wmv Windows Media wmv,* Yes
video/x-ms-wmp Windows Media wmp,* Yes
video/x-ms-wvx Windows Media wvx,* Yes
audio/x-ms-wax Windows Media wax,* Yes
audio/x-ms-wma Windows Media wma,* Yes
application/x-drm-v2 Windows Media asx,* Yes
audio/wav Microsoft wave file wav,* Yes
audio/x-wav Microsoft wave file wav,* Yes
mplayerplug-in 3.40

File name: mplayerplug-in.so
mplayerplug-in 3.40

Video Player Plug-in for QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player streams using MPlayer
JavaScript Enabled and Using GTK2 Widgets

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
video/mpeg MPEG mpg,mpeg Yes
audio/mpeg MPEG mpg,mpeg Yes
video/x-mpeg MPEG mpg,mpeg Yes
video/x-mpeg2 MPEG2 mpv2,mp2ve Yes
audio/mpeg MPEG mpg,mpeg Yes
audio/x-mpeg MPEG mpg,mpeg Yes
audio/mpeg2 MPEG audio mp2 Yes
audio/x-mpeg2 MPEG audio mp2 Yes
video/mp4 MPEG 4 Video mp4 Yes
video/3gpp MPEG 4 Video mp4,3gp Yes
application/x-ogg Ogg Vorbis Media ogg Yes
audio/ogg Ogg Vorbis Audio ogg Yes
audio/x-ogg Ogg Vorbis Audio ogg Yes
application/ogg Ogg Vorbis / Ogg Theora ogg Yes
audio/flac FLAC Audio flac Yes
audio/x-flac FLAC Audio flac Yes
video/fli FLI animation fli,flc Yes
video/x-fli FLI animation fli,flc Yes
video/x-flv Flash Video flv Yes
video/vnd.vivo VivoActive viv,vivo Yes
application/x-nsv-vp3-mp3 Nullsoft Streaming Video nsv Yes
audio/x-mod Soundtracker mod Yes
audio/basic Basic Audio File au,snd Yes
audio/x-basic Basic Audio File au,snd Yes

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Does anyone see anything obvious that I'm missing? I've even run Automatix as a last resort to try to correct the problem, but to no avail. Any fixes would be immensely appreciated. And if you have a fix, the more detailed the instructions the better. As I said, I'm new to this game. Thanks so much for any and all help.

-toby

Anybody...? Please...? Help me.........

I have had this problem for years with Mandriva. I tried different news sites and got various results playing vids, but foxnews does use flash. I got it to work once on an earlier version. I recall it was a permissions problem with the plugin or something. Mysteriously, if I logged into the red screen (root) it would work. At that time I had a firefox installation in my home directory with the plugins directory there too.

I installed a new mandriva version and started using the firefox with that installation and lost the vids again. I haven't been able to recreate what I had before.

Ah. Well, it's still giving me issues, but thanks for the feedback. I'm still tinkering with it...

Hopefully it's something that'll be worked out eventually.

For all the hiccups I've had getting going with Linux, so far I still prefer it to Windows.

Thanks again.

You might want to check out the link below. There is a thread on installing the 32bit version of Firefox with full multimedia support under the 64bit version of Ubuntu.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1174435

I've used the script supplied in that thread to install in Kubuntu 64bit 7.10 and it works great...

Thanks for the link. I'm going to give that a try. (And sorry my reply is so late. My family was decimated by the flu these past two weeks. Ugh...)

Thanks again for the help.

This doesn't seem to be a problem with Ubuntu but has something to do with the way the FOX news video page is rendered in the Firefox browser. I was only getting the sound so obviously the video was playing. Also, videos on FoxSports played just fine.

I ran across this in the Ubuntu forums, which basically says to install greasemonkey Firefox plug in and the FOX news script. See message #3

I tried it and it worked for me, for a while. Then Firefox failed to start and would coredump. I removed the grease monkey plug in and Firefox was good as gold again.

There are other side effects too. Play lists don't work.

I sent an email to Fox News, describing the problem. Hopefully, they will address it.

Yeah, I've heard about the Grease Monkey plugin, and from some feedback I've seen, I was a little reluctant to try it. I do think it's likely to do with how Firefox handles the site, as other sites like youtube work fine. Eh well.