Can You Hear This?

[Drew Aitch]

Hi Forum.

I've attempted to embed a sound file into a web page which loads and plays just fine from where i'm sitting. However, when opening the same page from a couple of PCs (as opposed to a notebook), i don't hear any sound even though speakers are on and volume is up. maybe the PC's were not able to stream the file, or perhaps the connections were too slow to load it - who knows.

So anyway, if anyone reading this could open the page below and report back whether or not you can hear anything, i would be interested in the following results:

1. Did music start playing at all? If yes....

2. Did music start playing within 10 seconds or longer?

2. If yes, Did it play through continuously without stopping to stream?

Here's the link: http://www.nanaginge.com/test2.php

Thanks in advance

Aitch

[Tywais]

Results using Firefox 3.0.11 and a DTAC EDGE connection. Oddly, FF crashed opening the page. 2nd try and it was ok.

1. Started on 2nd attempt to open

2. Started under 10 seconds

3. Played continuously with no buffering or hesitation, and this is with an EDGE modem connection.

[Drew Aitch]

Results using Firefox 3.0.11 and a DTAC EDGE connection. Oddly, FF crashed opening the page. 2nd try and it was ok.

1. Started on 2nd attempt to open

2. Started under 10 seconds

3. Played continuously with no buffering or hesitation, and this is with an EDGE modem connection.

Thanks Tywais, that was quick

It's also good to know especially points 2 and 3. Maybe the fresh (first) page load takes a while to kick in, but the machines i tried on yesterday didn't produce any sound after about 3 minutes so that's as good as a no. Btw, they were computers in a cafe, so that may have had something to do with it i'm not sure.

Btw, what do you mean by 'EDGE'? Cutting edge, or just about classed as modern?

Thanks

Alitch

[Damman1]

Laptop running IE7 and Vista - No sound

[webfact]

Results FF2 - 2mb connection

1. Did music start playing at all? If yes.... YES

2. Did music start playing within 10 seconds or longer? started playing after 2 or 3 seconds[

2. If yes, Did it play through continuously without stopping to stream? YES without buffering

[Tywais]

Thanks Tywais, that was quick

Most of that time was waiting for the music to stop, thought it was in an endless loop.

Btw, what do you mean by 'EDGE'? Cutting edge, or just about classed as modern?

At home, I use my mobile phone as my Internet connection. EDGE is the modem/cellular technology for the connection which theoretically is 236kbps speed (4 slots). Which means, if it can stream on my connection those with broadband should have no problems.

BTW: This is using Windows XP in case it is an OS issue.

[Drew Aitch]

Thanks one and all

It seems like a bit of a mixed bag then for some reason. Tywais, i think you're right then about the connection, so there's no logical reason why those with a broadband shouldn't get it, but maybe certain dial-ups might have issues. btw, it doesn't loop, it's just a long track. On the live site the visitor will be able to simply click on the 'Enter the Site' button when they've had enough

Laptop running IE7 and Vista - No sound

Damman1, you seem to have quite recent software but you didn't say what type of connection you have? I have VISTA too, and have cross checked with browsers IE8, FF 3.0.11, Opera, and Safari, all with no problems, so i'm guessing now that the problems must be related to connection rather than browser of operating system.

Thanks webfact, i could have done with a few more results like yours

Aitch

[opalhort]

It's working for me on True ADSL 1Mbps and CSLoxinfo dial-up (instant start and no buffering), but I get a warning that Quicktime can note open some kind of plug-in (IE6 on XP-SP3)

If you use Quicktime as player this may be the reason why it does not play on every PC - just a thought, wait for the experts.

opalhort

[Tywais]

If you use Quicktime as player this may be the reason why it does not play on every PC - just a thought, wait for the experts.

Just looked at the source and the audio is a .m4a type. Could be the reason.

Files in .M4A format are actually the audio layer of (non-video) MPEG 4 movies. M4A is slated to become the new standard for audio file compression. This format is also known as Apple Lossless, Apple Lossless Encoder, or ALE. It is a new codec designed to provide lossless encoding in less storage space.

//edit - just tried the site again and got a message if I wanted to update QuickTime player, so believe opalhart is correct.

[Plus]

Opened with Opera, the music started when the page was displayed, but there was Quicktime update warning.

Why not use mp3 instead? Those quikctime/real audio plugins are not installed by default on every computer and can throw a bunch of errors or warnings.

[webfact]

@ Drew Aitch

There's something else I realized and need to report to you.

I trust a lot of people have download manages integrated into their browsers.

In my case my download (IDM) manager started download the music file on my first attempt. After having excluded your site in the download manager

all worked like a charm as mentioned in my earlier posting.

[lopburi3]

Music about 5-7 seconds after video download using Chrome and FF3.5 on Vista Lan connection with about 15k down available. No download indicated.

[Veazer]

No music on first load, then unblocked the site from NoScript and got the Quicktime plugin needed window. I would opt for a flash based player since more users i likely to have flash.

The navigation photos are stretched which is almost always a design no-no. Try maintain the height/width ratio when resizing.

[Drew Aitch]

Thanks everyone for all your replies on this

I'm not sure i understand all the responses, but what i'm going to do in a few minutes is convert the file from .m4a to mp3 and see if that gives more continuity with results.

I'm not sure why a couple of you have reported you were promoted to download the file when attempting to load the page? I wonder why that was as this is just a call to play the music in the static page Any ideas?

Veazer, what you mean about the navigation photos being stretched? Are you referring to the little row of thumbnails along the bottom? In their present form they're not meant for viewing really, but more for clicking in order to open the large images. Let me know if i'm on the wrong track

Ok folks, if you can spare me a bit more time, i would really appreciate it if you would check again after i've converted the file

Thanks in advance

Aitch

[Tywais]

I'm not sure why a couple of you have reported you were promoted to download the file when attempting to load the page? I wonder why that was as this is just a call to play the music in the static page Any ideas?

If they don't have the application or plugin to play the file, the browser will not know what to do with it and kick in the downloader. Under Firefox options there is a tab for Applications. The applications are automatically invoked if the extension is in its list. For example on my list an AAC file is listed to use Quicktime plugin. A .wma or Windows Media Audio should be detected by any Windows user, not sure about Linux though.

[Drew Aitch]

I'm not sure why a couple of you have reported you were promoted to download the file when attempting to load the page? I wonder why that was as this is just a call to play the music in the static page Any ideas?

If they don't have the application or plugin to play the file, the browser will not know what to do with it and kick in the downloader. Under Firefox options there is a tab for Applications. The applications are automatically invoked if the extension is in its list. For example on my list an AAC file is listed to use Quicktime plugin. A .wma or Windows Media Audio should be detected by any Windows user, not sure about Linux though.

Thanks Tywais that makes perfect sense now. You wouldn't know from my questions that i've built and run 34 websites, although to be fair to me, only this one and MrRoomfinder have dynamics and interactive elements and are database driven. All the others are static, kind of online magazine type of projects, which of course are minus too many bells and whistles.

Anyway, i've converted the file to both MP3 and .wav (huge increase in files size with the later), but the problem remains in that whatever format i save the file, it still wants to open in Quicktime so the sage continues

Btw, i've been testing mainly in FF where there are no issues, but when i tried to open the page in IE, i too was prompted to download the file

Any suggestions, anyone??

Thanks

Aitch

[Drew Aitch]

Hi guys.

i might of sorted it now, although a couple of tests would be appreciated

I’ve managed to convert the file to flash .SWF and it has shrunk in size enormously (just 605 KB can you believe) without losing too much of its sound quality. Anyway, can you attempt to open the page as before and let me know if it kicks in and for IE users, i'd like to know if you still get the download prompt of not?

Here's the link again: http://www.nanaginge.com/test2.php

Thanks one and all

Aitch

[webfact]

IE, Chrome, FF2

works flawlessly

The music starts rather fast - personally I would prefer a button where I can at least "mute" the sound.

[Tywais]

FF3 starts up quite fast and runs with no hesitations.

[Drew Aitch]

IE, Chrome, FF2

works flawlessly

The music starts rather fast - personally I would prefer a button where I can at least "mute" the sound.

Ha ha lol! Yes, it is a bit loud too, but this is just to be a family site and once they've seen and heard the home page they'll not have any real reason to stay on it or revisit it unless they want to listen to the music of course, which is very relevant to the topic. If i could get some kind of translucent floating controls i wouldn't hesitate to add the options to stop, quieten or mute, but i'm not sure how i could do that. There's not really any free slot to embed a set of controls on the cover as it is:(

FF3 starts up quite fast and runs with no hesitations.

Thanks Tywais. It does look like .SWF is the way to go then. It's a very light file size, loads within seconds, and seems to run without stopping on the testing of we 3 so far.

Thanks everyone, I wouldn't have worked it out without ya

Aitch

[truthfulfox]

Hi Forum.

I've attempted to embed a sound file into a web page which loads and plays just fine from where i'm sitting. However, when opening the same page from a couple of PCs (as opposed to a notebook), i don't hear any sound even though speakers are on and volume is up. maybe the PC's were not able to stream the file, or perhaps the connections were too slow to load it - who knows.

So anyway, if anyone reading this could open the page below and report back whether or not you can hear anything, i would be interested in the following results:

1. Did music start playing at all? If yes....

2. Did music start playing within 10 seconds or longer?

2. If yes, Did it play through continuously without stopping to stream?

Here's the link: http://www.nanaginge.com/test2.php

Thanks in advance

Aitch

I tried it , the music start playing at all and it play through continuously without stoppig to stream. I am connected in taiwan by the way .the connection is so terrible in thailand even if you pay for high speed line. I can open many webs in here which I couldn't open in there.

Nice music by the way , thanks for it .