Webpage Requires QuickTime Plugin

10 Mar Webpage Requires QuickTime Plugin

Overview

I have responded to multiple inquires about getting an error that the webpage requires the QuickTime plugin when trying to view content from our media streaming site. The inquires are coming from non-technical end-users and surprisingly more technical/knowledgable IT workers. So, I thought it would be productive to post and share details with others about the issue and how to troubleshooting it.

Update
We have migrated our streaming server to support HTML5 using the videojs player framework with secure HTTP Live Streaming protocol using Wowza Media Engine running on a Mac mini. HTTP Live Streaming (also known as HLS) is an HTTP-based media streaming communications protocol implemented by Apple Inc. as part of its QuickTime, Safari, OS X, and iOS software. It resembles MPEG-DASH in that it works by breaking the overall stream into a sequence of small HTTP-based file downloads, each download loading one short chunk of an overall potentially unbounded transport stream.

So, you shouldn’t see this issue specifically with our streaming site since we migrated to HTML5, but the information in the blog post might be useful to troubleshoot other streaming sites.

Missing Plugins
If you try to play media from our media streaming site, you might see “missing plugins” when try to view the media:

Requires QuickTime
If you are using Apple’s Safari and click on the “Missing Plug-in”, you might see the following error about the webpage requiring QuickTime plugin:

More Info
If click on the “More Info…” button you will be taken to one of the following Apple sites, if you are using Safari:

• Apple Safari

• Web browser says that it‘s missing the QuickTime plug-in

Adobe Flash Player
Most likely you will see one of these web pages because you either don’t have Adobe Flash Player plugin installed or you don’t have it allowed or activated for our media streaming site.

HTML5
Currently, our media streaming site requires Flash Player. We understand that many don’t install it because of security, performance and stability concerns, and most of the major web browsers are deactivating Flash Player.

With this in mind, we are in the process of migrating away from requiring Adobe Flash Player to HTML5 support, but until we have transitioned, you have the following options to view media from our site.

Google Chrome
For example, Google announced that they would be moving to HTML5 by default and users would need to specify that they want Flash content on specific sites.

https://blog.chromium.org/2016/12/roll-out-plan-for-html5-by-default.html

In Google Chrome, enter the following URL to get a list of exceptions for plugins:

chrome://settings/contentExceptions#plugins

Install Flash Player

Go to the Adobe Flash Player web site to download and install it on your system.

Allow Flash Player

If you have Adobe Flash Player installed, you will need to modify your web browser settings to allow it to our media streaming site. Here are the steps required to activate it in Safari, Chrome and Firefox:

• Apple Safari
  For details see the Adobe – Enable for Safari web site.

For example, to enable Adobe Flash Player for our media streaming site:

• Google Chrome
  For details, see the Adobe – Enable for Chrome web site.

• Mozilla Firefox
  For details, see the Adobe – Enable for Firefox web site.

HTTP Live Streaming

Our streaming web site supports HTTP Live Streaming which can be used with Apple Safari and doesn’t require use of the Adobe Flash Player, which is primarily implemented to support iOS systems.

View the media stream page source code and find the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) URL.

For example…

Change the protocol from rtsp  to http , remove the text mp4:/  and add to the end of the URL /playlist.m3u8 .

For example, the original Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) URL is:

rtsp://wowza.scl.utah.edu:80/vod/_definst_/mp4:/hidden/1_everywhere_visible/mac_mgrs/170215_mac_mngrs/MacOSLogs.mp4

And the modified HTTP Live Streaming URL:

http://wowza.scl.utah.edu:80/vod/_definst_/hidden/1_everywhere_visible/mac_mgrs/170215_mac_mngrs/MacOSLogs.mp4/playlist.m3u8

Paste or enter this URL into Apple Safari and you should be able to play the media stream using HTTP Live Streaming.

Note, currently Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox do not support HTTP Live Streaming.

For more details about HTTP Live Streaming, see the Apple Developer site:

Download Media

For some media, primarily MacAdmin presentations, we provide a download link to provide offline viewing . But, for others we do not provide this do to licensing and content distribution concerns.

Alternative Media Player

Another workaround is use an alternative media player like VLC Player.

Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)
View the media stream page source code and find the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) URL.

For example…

Open Network
Launch VLC Player, then from the “File” menu, select the “Open Network…” command:

Then paste or enter the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) URL and click the “Open” button:

Play Network Stream
Next, you should see or hear the network stream: