Changing the helpers for Firfox

[Larry Grover]

stan wrote:

> Out of curiosity, I'm trying to better understand whats going on
> here. Is it a corect analysis that:
> 
> 1. On machine 1 the NPR streams are recognized as not being handled
> by any plugin, and Realplaer is being invled to handle them?

 From your description in an earlier post:

>>> Now, on the machine _taht works_, when I go to about:plugins, I
>>> see no evidence of a Realplayer plugin. I dod see Helix DNA
>>> "Realplaye compatabile" plugin. Also when I access these links,
>>> I get a seperate popup that plays the Realplayer stream.

...it sounds like you have the HelixPlayer or RealPlayer plugin 
installed on this machine.

On my laptop (running breezy, but it was the same with hoary before I 
upgraded), if I enter "about:plugins" in the URL bar, I see:

Helix DNA Plugin: RealPlayer G2 Plug-In Compatible
File name: nphelix.so

and I have these files in my plugins directory:

~$ ls .mozilla/plugins/
nphelix.so  nphelix.xpt

NOTE:  I did a manual install, and put the plugin files under my home 
directory; other locations where you might find the plugin files 
(depending on how it was installed) include: 
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/, and /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/

When I click on a real media link, for example one of the links on 
npr.org, RealPlayer opens in a separate window and plays the stream.

> 2. On machien 2 Firefox beleives it can handle tehse streams with
> an internam (mpalyer) plugin.

The mplayer-plugin is telling Firefox that it can handle the stream.

> 2b. This plugin cannot corectly handle these streams?

Apparently not.

> BTW can anyone show me a Rrealplayer location that the mplayer
> plugin _can_ handle?

I know I've played some real media streams with mplayer, but off hand, 
I cannot recall any specific sites.

If you want to use the mplayer plugin, and maximize your success with 
it, then you will want to install all of the various codecs that 
mplayer can use.  If you don't know how to do this, check the archives 
for this mailing list -- this topic has come up frequently in the past.

Regards,
Larry