mplayer (plug-in) file not found with akamai mms servers
 

I just converted my last Windoze machine to Linux and have _almost_ all the functionality I used to have except for playing embedded videos. I have mplayer and mplayerplug-in installed but every time I try to play videos from www.nba.com the mplayer tries to connect and play but fails.

I tried to diagnose the problem by turning on the debug mode (debug=1 in /etc/mplayer/mplayerplug-in.conf) and running mplayer from the command line and the upshot is the server (from akamai.net) returns 404 File not found:

The web page that contains a link to an .asx file which links to the mms server is here:

http://www.nba.com/sixers/community/world_b_free.html

Right click on 'Play' for the 'Free Honored in Cleveland' image on the right shows the properties to be:

http://mfile.akamai.com/12176/wmv/ca...free051130.asx

This file contains the following code:

<ASX VERSION="3.0">
<ENTRY>
<REF HREF="mms://a1732.v12176c.c12176.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1732/12176/v0001/cavaliers.download.akamai.com/12176/worldbfree051130.wmv" />
</ENTRY>
</ASX>

which of course points to the mms server/file I used as a command line argument to mplayer.

This is driving me crazy because Windows 98SE and WinXP don't have a problem playing this file and mplayer is able to play .wmv files I have stored on my hard drive, so I've done the due diligence vis-a-vis codecs, etc.

Thanks in advance for any input related to mplayer and mplayerplug-in .

Make sure you have installed the libmms package. However, your link seems to be dead. When I tried it, I ended up with a 404 error.

There will always be some sites the only want to support windows and choose the most exclusive technologies. I just don't bother with them, or dig into the source and download the actual streamed file if possible using curl or wget.

Also check if there are updates to mplayer, and see if another player will work.

mplayer is up to date and the link is not dead.
 

Thanks for the reply! Mplayer and mplayerplug-in that I use are from the Debian testing distribution (Etch), so they are up to date. As I stated in my original post the links work fine in Windoze, so they are certainly "live". I tried to rip the stream with mplayer and here's what I got:

I'd hate to have to file a bug report against mplayer titled "Doesn't work with mms servers" but, well, in my experience it doesn't.

Same mms failures occur with any and all of the videos on the following recently updated page (again, Windows plays these without any problem whatsoever):

http://aol.nba.com/allstar2007/dunka...t_in_game.html

I tried using vlc (says "no video"), and totem (no mms support, blah blah blah).

OK, got a video clip to play using the following link extracted from an .asx file (still won't play in the iceweasel window using mplayerplug-in):

mms://a1234.v203537.c20353.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1234/20353/v0001/nbastreams.download.akamai.com/20353/72/94/7294faa40f01ea16d2489119db904498-45cb5c3b.asf?ts=1173057826&ttl=43200&cs=263D97CC34F5EDF3B78D0F207EDAFEC82ACFFA22

The clip is fantastic but so many hoops to jump through to experience it. Many bugs need to be fixed.

OK, having more success after adding package 'libmms0', it took about 10 minutes for a 2 minute video clip to
download/buffer (I'm on a cable modem connection) and now it's playing choppily (mplayer says my system is TOO SLOW to play this clip - point taken lol).
Thanks again for the tip.