link to MP3 from M3U giving me grief

[Dewittian[_2_]]

If you’re looking for some samples of film and T.V scoring please go
to the ‘Free Stuff’ web page link above.


I use the old standard of having a .m3u file on my website. When
people click on that link the pointer link inside of the .m3u file
(.MP3 URL) which points to the link of the actual mp3 file I want
their default media player has worked fine for some time now on my
machine and other peoples.

I had to install the VLC Media player because I was having codec
problems with all my media players.

Now the players work except when I click on my website song pointer
file (the m3u) it just opens note pad with the text instead of opening
the media player in a separate window.

I've been told by others that don't use VLC media player that they
have the same problem with my website.

I know this sounds complicated but the website provider has no other
way to get the web surfers' default player to open up a media player a
separate window.

Anyone understand what I'm trying to say? Anyone else have to jump
through hoops with a similar problem that could give me some advice?

Thanks.

[Frank]

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:47:14 -0700 (PDT), in 'rec.audio.pro',
in article <link to MP3 from M3U giving me grief>,
Dewittian > wrote:

>If you’re looking for some samples of film and T.V scoring please go
>to the ‘Free Stuff’ web page link above.

There's no URL above.

>I use the old standard of having a .m3u file on my website. When
>people click on that link the pointer link inside of the .m3u file
>(.MP3 URL) which points to the link of the actual mp3 file I want
>their default media player has worked fine for some time now on my
>machine and other peoples.
>
>I had to install the VLC Media player because I was having codec
>problems with all my media players.
>
>Now the players work except when I click on my website song pointer
>file (the m3u) it just opens note pad with the text instead of opening
>the media player in a separate window.
>
>I've been told by others that don't use VLC media player that they
>have the same problem with my website.
>
>I know this sounds complicated but the website provider has no other
>way to get the web surfers' default player to open up a media player a
>separate window.
>
>Anyone understand what I'm trying to say? Anyone else have to jump
>through hoops with a similar problem that could give me some advice?

Without having a URL with which to test, I can't see the problem
firsthand, but it sounds like you've got a MIME Type problem where the
server is serving .m3u files with a default MIME Type/Subtype of
text/plain. The visitor's browser, upon seeing the text/plain MIME
Type/Subtype, naturally launches Notepad (on Windows systems,
obviously - on other operating systems, it would launch the default
text editor application, whatever it might happen to be).

Do you contract directly with the Web hosting service, or does this
Web site belong to someone else? If it's your own Web site and you use
an FTP client program to upload files, then you simply need to define
a proper MIME Type/Subtype for the .m3u file type in the .htaccess
file in your site's root directory. This assumes that the Web server
software in use is Apache. If it's something else, such as IIS, then
someone else would have to advise you on this. The following assumes
that you're running Apache.

There's most likely a .htaccess file already present in the root
directory, in which case you'll just add the following directive to
the existing file. If, OTOH, there's no .htaccess file in the root
directory, then you'll have to add one.

The directive is as follows:

AddType audio/x-mpegurl m3u

Also, if you don't currently have a .htaccess file, when you add one,
you might also want to include the following four lines, as it will
keep prying eyes out of the file.

<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>

By the way, if you should happen to also need to add an AddType
directive for the .mp3 file type, the statement would be as follows:

AddType audio/x-mpeg mp3

>Thanks.

You're welcome and hope this helps.

--
Frank, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
[Please remove 'nojunkmail.' from address to reply via e-mail.]
Read Frank's thoughts on HDV at http://www.humanvalues.net/hdv/
(also covers AVCHD and XDCAM EX).

[Jack Jarmush]

On Oct 18, 3:47*am, Frank > wrote:
> On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:47:14 -0700 (PDT), in 'rec.audio.pro',
> in article <link to MP3 from M3U giving me grief>,
>
> Dewittian > wrote:
> >If you’re looking for some samples of film and T.V scoring please go
> >to the ‘Free Stuff’ web page link above.
>
> There's no URL above.
>
>
>
>
>
> >I use the old standard of having a .m3u file on my website. *When
> >people click on that link the pointer link inside of the .m3u file
> >(.MP3 URL) which points to the link of the actual mp3 file I want
> >their default media player has worked fine for some time now on my
> >machine and other peoples.
>
> >I had to install the VLC Media player because I was having codec
> >problems with all my media players.
>
> >Now the players work except when I click on my website song pointer
> >file (the m3u) it just opens note pad with the text instead of opening
> >the media player in a separate window.
>
> >I've been told by others that don't use VLC media player that they
> >have the same problem with my website.
>
> >I know this sounds complicated but the website provider has no other
> >way to get the web surfers' default player to open up a media player a
> >separate window.
>
> >Anyone understand what I'm trying to say? * Anyone else have to jump
> >through hoops with a similar problem that could give me some advice?
>
> Without having a URL with which to test, I can't see the problem
> firsthand, but it sounds like you've got a MIME Type problem where the
> server is serving .m3u files with a default MIME Type/Subtype of
> text/plain. The visitor's browser, upon seeing the text/plain MIME
> Type/Subtype, naturally launches Notepad (on Windows systems,
> obviously - on other operating systems, it would launch the default
> text editor application, whatever it might happen to be).
>
> Do you contract directly with the Web hosting service, or does this
> Web site belong to someone else? If it's your own Web site and you use
> an FTP client program to upload files, then you simply need to define
> a proper MIME Type/Subtype for the .m3u file type in the .htaccess
> file in your site's root directory. This assumes that the Web server
> software in use is Apache. If it's something else, such as IIS, then
> someone else would have to advise you on this. The following assumes
> that you're running Apache.
>
> There's most likely a .htaccess file already present in the root
> directory, in which case you'll just add the following directive to
> the existing file. If, OTOH, there's no .htaccess file in the root
> directory, then you'll have to add one.
>
> The directive is as follows:
>
> AddType audio/x-mpegurl m3u
>
> Also, if you don't currently have a .htaccess file, when you add one,
> you might also want to include the following four lines, as it will
> keep prying eyes out of the file.
>
> <Files .htaccess>
> order allow,deny
> deny from all
> </Files>
>
> By the way, if you should happen to also need to add an AddType
> directive for the .mp3 file type, the statement would be as follows:
>
> AddType audio/x-mpeg mp3
>
> >Thanks.
>
> You're welcome and hope this helps.
>
> --
> Frank, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
> [Please remove 'nojunkmail.' from address to reply via e-mail.]
> Read Frank's thoughts on HDV athttp://www.humanvalues.net/hdv/
> (also covers AVCHD and XDCAM EX).- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

i had the same problem and Franks explanation is something i heard
before.. time to research all that stuff. its frustrating because new
browsers dont support .m3u like they used to.

[Frank]

On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:03:43 -0700 (PDT), in 'rec.audio.pro',
in article <Re: link to MP3 from M3U giving me grief>,
Jack Jarmush > wrote:

>On Oct 18, 3:47*am, Frank > wrote:
>> On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:47:14 -0700 (PDT), in 'rec.audio.pro',
>> in article <link to MP3 from M3U giving me grief>,
>>
>> Dewittian > wrote:
>> >If you’re looking for some samples of film and T.V scoring please go
>> >to the ‘Free Stuff’ web page link above.
>>
>> There's no URL above.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> >I use the old standard of having a .m3u file on my website. *When
>> >people click on that link the pointer link inside of the .m3u file
>> >(.MP3 URL) which points to the link of the actual mp3 file I want
>> >their default media player has worked fine for some time now on my
>> >machine and other peoples.
>>
>> >I had to install the VLC Media player because I was having codec
>> >problems with all my media players.
>>
>> >Now the players work except when I click on my website song pointer
>> >file (the m3u) it just opens note pad with the text instead of opening
>> >the media player in a separate window.
>>
>> >I've been told by others that don't use VLC media player that they
>> >have the same problem with my website.
>>
>> >I know this sounds complicated but the website provider has no other
>> >way to get the web surfers' default player to open up a media player a
>> >separate window.
>>
>> >Anyone understand what I'm trying to say? * Anyone else have to jump
>> >through hoops with a similar problem that could give me some advice?
>>
>> Without having a URL with which to test, I can't see the problem
>> firsthand, but it sounds like you've got a MIME Type problem where the
>> server is serving .m3u files with a default MIME Type/Subtype of
>> text/plain. The visitor's browser, upon seeing the text/plain MIME
>> Type/Subtype, naturally launches Notepad (on Windows systems,
>> obviously - on other operating systems, it would launch the default
>> text editor application, whatever it might happen to be).
>>
>> Do you contract directly with the Web hosting service, or does this
>> Web site belong to someone else? If it's your own Web site and you use
>> an FTP client program to upload files, then you simply need to define
>> a proper MIME Type/Subtype for the .m3u file type in the .htaccess
>> file in your site's root directory. This assumes that the Web server
>> software in use is Apache. If it's something else, such as IIS, then
>> someone else would have to advise you on this. The following assumes
>> that you're running Apache.
>>
>> There's most likely a .htaccess file already present in the root
>> directory, in which case you'll just add the following directive to
>> the existing file. If, OTOH, there's no .htaccess file in the root
>> directory, then you'll have to add one.
>>
>> The directive is as follows:
>>
>> AddType audio/x-mpegurl m3u
>>
>> Also, if you don't currently have a .htaccess file, when you add one,
>> you might also want to include the following four lines, as it will
>> keep prying eyes out of the file.
>>
>> <Files .htaccess>
>> order allow,deny
>> deny from all
>> </Files>
>>
>> By the way, if you should happen to also need to add an AddType
>> directive for the .mp3 file type, the statement would be as follows:
>>
>> AddType audio/x-mpeg mp3
>>
>> >Thanks.
>>
>> You're welcome and hope this helps.
>>
>> --
>> Frank, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
>> [Please remove 'nojunkmail.' from address to reply via e-mail.]
>> Read Frank's thoughts on HDV athttp://www.humanvalues.net/hdv/
>> (also covers AVCHD and XDCAM EX).- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
>i had the same problem and Franks explanation is something i heard
>before.. time to research all that stuff. its frustrating because new
>browsers dont support .m3u like they used to.

Indeed, there are two sides to this equation, Jack, the server side
and the client side.

On the server side, it helps if the proper MIME Type is defined,
especially for those browsers that don't rely solely upon the file
extension to determine what to do with the file after it has
downloaded it.

For some browsers, it also helps if the system-wide file association
(on the client system) points to the application that the user would
like launched when such a filetype is downloaded - and, of course,
that application should be one that's capable of properly handling the
filetype in question, .m3u in this case.

It should be noted that even when the server is misconfigured (that
is, the .m3u MIME Type/Subtype isn't set to audio/x-mpegurl), the user
can easily circumvent the problem by right-clicking on the link to the
..m3u file and doing a "Save As". Then, after the (usually very small)
..m3u file has completely downloaded, simply open it in whatever player
application the user chooses.

With regard to the OP's problem, this all seems rather unusual to me
because these days most servers come preconfigured with the proper
MIME Type/Subtype for .m3u files already defined.

Regards,

--
Frank, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
[Please remove 'nojunkmail.' from address to reply via e-mail.]
Read Frank's thoughts on HDV at http://www.humanvalues.net/hdv/
(also covers AVCHD and XDCAM EX).