m3u's will not open for some users, why?

[golovan]

hi
I've included some m3us on a site, and have no problem accesing them myself, but I get a lot of feedback from people that can't open them. infact I came across a computer where it didn't work, but when I did some magic (can't remember what) in the winmedia settings it worked... this is strange..
does anyone have a solution?

[hakre]

hi golovan, welcome to webmasterworld [webmasterworld.com].

i don't know if this helps, but i would put a link to the winamp 2 donwload on the page where the m3us are linked. i think winamp is capable to open them.

but i can't confirm that winmedia will open them then afterwards ;).

-hakre

[edited by: hakre at 1:30 am (utc) on Nov. 6, 2003]

[moltar]

Try .pls extension instead, also make sure that you have correct content-type. It should be:

Content-Type: audio/x-scpls

[HughMungus]

I'm using .m3u's and have had zero reported problems so far. I have yet to find a player they don't work on (I tested a lot of them and tested other formats like .pls). What error are your users getting, exactly?

[golovan]

they get the webadress for the songs, and a cannot open message. I've also made a site for another band, where I linked directly to the mp3s, and the same users have troubles with those songs too.

[HughMungus]

Oops. Let me amend that. Your users are having trouble playing mp3's, not m3u's. Ask them what player they're using and make sure the mp3's are using a type of compression that's generally playable (e.g., LAME).

[choster]

What's the exact error message?
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Check the MIME type on m3u.

Some proxies or firewalls may disallow streaming MP3s (just as they block streaming via RAM and ASX). Or the users might have to configure their software to use the right proxy settings.

Are you using VBR on the MP3s? Users of older players may not be able to read them.

Are you using a media server or are you streaming via http? A slow connection may mean several minutes of buffering before playback even attempts to begin.