Why is it that when I click on a Yahoo video, the screen appears but nothing plays?

Question

I can play videos on Windows Media Player that I download or get in e-mails, but I get nothing off of Yahoo's home page. Do I need some kind of plug-in?

Answer 1

if you are on dial up

it has to load

otherwise

press the arrow to play

Answer 2

That seems to be a very common problem. Fewer and fewer people have dial-up, but those that do, have this problem for sure. Even if you don't have dial-up, it is very possible to have the problem. You must realize that a file that you view off of the web (even though an email may still be on the web) it takes time for it to load it from the site (read below for more info).

Whether it is, or it isn't Windows Media Player that it uses, make sure that you are up-to-date with the software. Plug-ins are available at Yahoo! Gallery ( http://gallery.yahoo.com ). If you use a separate browser next to IE, then the chances that you need a plug-in is more likely.

A summery of web videos:

When you click onto a video to watch from the web, you are actually watching a "streaming" video. A streaming video downloads the video live from the web (called buffering). It takes time for a streaming video to buffer enough material to give you the satisfactory result. It will be a black screen on the player until it buffers the data. Depending upon the amount that is buffered (usually found within the options of the media player) it will buffer enough information to play the set length of time. Note: The more that is buffered at one setting will take longer, but there will be fewer pauses in the video. To understand how this works, we will make an example. Suppose the video was two minutes long. We could buffer the entire video in forty-five seconds; or, we could buffer the video into one minute segments at twenty-two and a half seconds, once before it starts, and once at the one minute mark.

It is always best to leave it alone to its own thing. If one tries to change something, or go back-whoa to that person! It must reload the streaming video, because it does not load to the computer per say. Instead, it only loads to the video part of the computer. The reasoning is as simple as this: If they can keep you from downloading the file off of the web as a video file that you can access, then they loose business.