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Playing videos on Microsoft's web site doesn't work

I'm trying to watch the videos under Feature
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/compare
None of them work for me - I get the initial image with the 'play' button, I click it and it says 'connecting', then 'ready', but nothing.
In the new window - I have a play button that refuses to play anything.

I'm running Win7 with all updates. I have actually been able to download one of the videos (one of them had a link to do so) and could watch it in Windows Live Movie Maker, so I'm not sure why it doesn't work on the web site?

Any suggestions?

It asked me to install Windows Media Player 11 but worked without it.
Is your internet connection stable and fast?

ASKER

Yes - no problems with the internet.
Obviously I'm on WMP12.

Make sure to use IE8 with the latest version of Silverlight installed. Any other browser will force you to download.

ASKER

I've tried with 2 browsers, one was IE8 - but neither asked me to d/l Silverlight

ASKER

and I did try their 'recommendations' - none helped obviously...

I run it fine via firefox on XP.
Still the problem could be in internet. What are the speed of download from MS page for you?

ASKER

Haven't tried FF yet - but doing it now...

ASKER

Hmm - FF prompted to d/l...and to choose the player - WMP was selected by default.
By doing so, when WMP loads from that, I get:

Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.

I have tried in Ie8 in Win7 64 Bit with Silverlight installed. I have tried in Opera, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Only IE played the video. The rest prompted me for the download.

Lack of codacs. Download and install codac pack.

ASKER

some videos play fine from other sites.
Any suggestion for codecs to install?

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To clarify - the videos are on the windows vs. windows tab...

ASKER

Tried from Vista laptop and it works with ie8.
D/l codecs now (though I've used klite before - maybe it wasn't kept on after the upgrade)...

ASKER

It's prompted me to remove "Vista codec pack", so apparently I wasn't using Klite on this machine...however, even after installing, it still doesn't work. : (

ASKER

I noticed on my vista laptop, it goes from connecting to buffering %s, then to ready.
I don't get that on this device - it goes immediately to ready...does that help?

Hmm, very strange. Can you install this player then: http://www.videolan.org/mirror-geo.php?file=vlc/1.0.2/win32/vlc-1.0.2-win32.exe
I have it installed also =)
could affect somehow.

ASKER

Have used that one before as well - downloading now...

ASKER

Nope - same thing. : (

Opera or Chrome on the same machine? Possibly they will give the clue to the problem.

ASKER

Chrome - yes, same thing there...

ASKER

Although chrome opens the player 'full screen' (browser screen that is), there's no other notable difference...

ASKER

Hmm - now I've lost sound in some working vids...going to reboot and retry...stay tuned

ASKER

Works in IE & chrome now - not entirely sure what did it, maybe I just needed to reboot after klite was installed.
Thanks!

=)) Lol. Glad to hear it worked for you.
Take care.
Nox