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Detecting Media Player Using BrowserObject™ Server Component

If you own an online music store, audio streaming will be the heart of your website. Instead of the connection speed of your hosting, you should worry about whether all visitors able to listen your demonstration clips.

The mostly common media players for video/audio streaming include Windows Media Player, Apple QuickTime, and RealPlayer. However, not every visitor has these media players installed. In some case, you may provide audio for RealPlayer but visitor is Windows Media Player installed. As a result, the visitor cannot listen to the demonstration clip as well.

To avoid the loss of visitors, you can prepare 3 types of media file for each demonstration clip you have. Then, media player detection from BrowserObject.com will play a very important role to help you determine visitor’s media player.

By using media player detection from BrowserObject Server Component, you can detect whether visitor have Windows Media Player installed. If yes, you can display Windows Media Player supported file. If no, you still have an alternative way by determine whether visitor have QuickTime installed. If visitor have QuickTime installed, display QuickTime media file, else you still can determine for RealPlayer and display Real media file if it has been installed. In the worst, if visitor do not have any media player installed, you still can prompt him to download any of the media player available.

BrowserObject™ in Action

You do not have any media player installed!
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Sample Codes (VB)

Dim obj As BrowserObject.BrowserObjectClass obj = BrowsObjCtrl.getObject() If obj.WindowsMediaPlayerInstalled = "True" Then Me.litMessage.Text = "You have Windows Media Player Installed. Music is now playing..." Me.litPlayer.Text = "<OBJECT ID=""MediaPlayer"" WIDTH=""300"" HEIGHT=""40"" CLASSID=""CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95"" STANDBY=""Loading Windows Media Player components..."" TYPE=""application/x-oleobject""><PARAM NAME=""FileName"" VALUE=""town.mid""><PARAM name=""autostart"" VALUE=""true""><PARAM name=""ShowControls"" VALUE=""true""><param name=""ShowStatusBar"" value=""false""><PARAM name=""ShowDisplay"" VALUE=""false""><EMBED TYPE=""application/x-mplayer2"" SRC=""town.mid"" NAME=""MediaPlayer"" WIDTH=""300"" HEIGHT=""40"" ShowControls=""1"" ShowStatusBar=""0"" ShowDisplay=""0"" autostart=""0""></EMBED></OBJECT>" ElseIf obj.QuickTimeInstalled = "True" Then Me.litMessage.Text = "You have QuickTime Player Installed. Music is now playing..." Me.litPlayer.Text = "<OBJECT CLASSID=""clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"" HEIGHT=40 WIDTH=300 CODEBASE=""http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab""><PARAM NAME=""src"" VALUE=""town.mid""><PARAM NAME=""autoplay"" VALUE=""true""><EMBED HEIGHT=40 WIDTH=300 PLUGINSPAGE=""http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"" SRC=""town.mid"" AUTOPLAY=""true""></OBJECT>" ElseIf obj.RealPlayer = "True" Then Me.litMessage.Text = "You have Real Player Installed. Music is now playing..." Me.litPlayer.Text = "<OBJECT ID=RVOCX CLASSID=""clsid:CFCDAA03-8BE4-11cf-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA"" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=40><PARAM NAME=""SRC"" VALUE=""town.mid""><PARAM NAME=""CONTROLS"" VALUE=""All""><PARAM NAME=""AUTOSTART"" VALUE=""true""><EMBED SRC=""town.mid"" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=40 NOJAVA=true CONTROLS=All AUTOSTART=true></OBJECT>" Else Me.litMessage.Text = "You do not have any media player installed!" Me.litPlayer.Text = "" End If