watching quicktime content without quicktime in a browser

[dZeus]

ok, curious if anyone knows the answer to this:

I'd like to watch quicktime trailers and the ilk on the web (in opera and in IE7) WITHOUT installing quicktime, quicktime alternative, QT Lite, quicktime source, etc.

I've already fixed the part of being able to play back all quicktime content in directshow players (like WMP11, media player classic), by installing the following filters:

- MPCVideoDec.ax standalone video decoder filter from MPC-HC, which supports DXVA playback of H264, as well as normal playback of the older Sorensen codecs (SVQ1/3?)
- MP4Splitter.ax standalone mov/mp4 file splitter filter from MPC-HC
- CoreAAC decoder filter for AAC playback (probably can use ffdshow-tryouts for this as well)
- ffdshow-tryouts for playback of some weird audio codecs that old quicktime files use (and if you like you can use it to play back SVQ1/3 video codecs too, instead of the MPCVideoDec.ax filter)

so this allows me to play back all .mov/.mp4 files I've found so far. However, in my web-browsers, on pages like www.apple.com/trailers I get 'install quicktime to view content' crap. I already can play the content and wish to do so with the WMP plug-in instead of quicktime... so, how does one pull this off?

edit: I wonder if it's just a question of registering the mime types used by quicktime to open with WMP plugin in the browsers?

[UtwigMU]

I'd like to know that too. Real Alternative works very well (untill recently national TV was mainly Realmedia). However quicktime wouldn't work and default install even hijacks some other formats.

I also don't use iTunes I use Winamp for my iPod.

[dZeus]

ok I did some further googling into this matter and found the following:

the plugin itself needs to list the mime types it supports. WMP plugin does not list quicktime mime types (of course), and it can't handle all the 'options' parameters that are given to the quicktime player when video or audio files are embedded (or uses different names for them).

So I conclude that a wrapper is needed that will list all the quicktime mime-types, and will invoke the WMP plugin when called (and passing or translating option parameters). Maybe even add some stuff like 'save source to disk'...

Time to find some coders who are interest in this project?

[dZeus]

ok, did some more testing to verify this hypothesis:
embedding .mov files in a html file with a WMP-supported mime-type launches the plugin and playback is fine. I think this should actually work!

First I'll see if this is possible by just using UserJavaScript files in Opera. If not, I'll need to find some skilled C coders...

[Gurm]

Time to find some coders who are interest in this project?

There already are... and there's a release. It's called... wait for it... Quicktime Alternative!

What you're asking for is complex enough that it gets ugly even in its "bare" form.

[dZeus]

quicktime alternative and QT Lite contains the quicktime player files and plugin, exactly what I don't want to install (and don't need to, if I manage to fix this).

The nice thing about this whole project is, that I don't need much code. I already have playback of quicktime contents with WMP (using the directshow filters mentioned in my first post).

What remains is the need to bypass quicktime plugin detection in the browser and load the WMP plugin instead for quicktime mime-types. I currently have the impression that both can be achieved through UserJS (User javascript) files in opera. I'm not sure about other browsers (I think Firefox has a similar UserJS thing)

[Marshmallowman]

Last time I checked quick time alternative used windows media player "classic"

[dZeus]

Last time I checked quick time alternative used windows media player "classic"

yeah it does, as quicktime alternative doesn't install the actual quicktime player .exe, and mpc can use the quicktime codec files (as well as the realplayer codec files).

However, my point is.. you don't need this large collection of quicktime files that these packages install...

[Gurm]

yeah it does, as quicktime alternative doesn't install the actual quicktime player .exe, and mpc can use the quicktime codec files (as well as the realplayer codec files).

However, my point is.. you don't need this large collection of quicktime files that these packages install...

Well clearly you DO in order to make the browser work. (devil's advocate)

[dZeus]

we'll see

[greenferret]

Don't know if this helps at all, but I've noticed that firefox offers an add-on that allows you to open media files in the player of your choice.

MediaPlayerConnectivity 0.9.1
by Sethnakht

Categories

* Photos, Music & Videos

Allow you to launch embed video of website in an external application with a simple click...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/446

Maybe you can figure out how that works and apply it to your idea.

I found this thread because I'm trying to go without installing anything Quicktime. Can't stand bloatware. Quicktime Alternative is OK but it isn't quite the solution I'm looking for.

Good luck, dZeus

[dZeus]

thanks for the link greenferret! I'll dig into that some more.

Current status:
- mp4/mov source filter from MPC (MPC-HC) does not support quicktime files which contain a redirection/http/rtsp link, as most of the current ones on apple's trailer page do. Might have to try Cyberlink's qt-source filter to compare it to MPC's and see if it supports that. I've posted a feature request for this redirection support, but I've got no idea if the coders have time to implement it. (it's already implemented in mplayer from mplayerhq.hu, so there's GPL code available to handle it)
- Apple uses quicktime files with a static jpeg image as button on their trailer page (the '480', '720', etc buttons). No idea how to get those to decode in directshow yet
- I can't seem to playback rtsp streams with quicktime contents. Maybe Apple uses a different implementation of RTSP than WMP or MPC support?

Although at this point I'd agree with Gurm that you need quicktime alternative/qt lite to get proper playback, I'll keep posting feature requests to get to the goal of playing back quicktime without needing any Apple Quicktime codecs/filters. I'll post my UserJS script soon, which should work at least on those sites that do not use 'static images in quicktime', redirection in .mov/.qt/.mp4, or RTSP.

[Jammrock]

Bad news for you dZeus...apple.com has started embedding their QT player inside a Flash wrapper, and I have a feeling others will follow. So not only do you have to deal with QT when watching online content now, but a FLV wrapper. Talk about sucky...

example: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/starwarstheclonewars/

Click on any trailers size and you'll see (well, maybe not since you don't have QT installed...)

[greenferret]

thanks for the link greenferret! I'll dig into that some more.

No problem. Guess I should mention that I gave that add-on a try and it didn't work for me. Tried to run it with QuackPlayer, VLC, and Windows Media Player.

Wouldn't open with any of them. That doesn't mean it doesn't work, just means I don't know how to use it I guess. Others users left comments stating that it worked great for them. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it working on my machine.

[Belwarrior]

Bad news for you dZeus...apple.com has started embedding their QT player inside a Flash wrapper, and I have a feeling others will follow. So not only do you have to deal with QT when watching online content now, but a FLV wrapper. Talk about sucky...

example: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/starwarstheclonewars/

Click on any trailers size and you'll see (well, maybe not since you don't have QT installed...)

hmm... i was able to download the trailer using firefox 3 and play with a media player.. but i guess that was what greenferret wanted