I am currently using 5.x-5.2 and see there is now a version 5.3 out there, so if that is all it takes to fix the problem, I'll download it tonight and all will be well, though based on the release comments I thought I'd better post anyway.

I have used swftools before on other sites, but wanted something easier for my end users. They have .flv and .mp3 files, so I grabbed swftools, enabled wijering and swfobject functionality, and of course enabled flashnode. The .flv files are around 78-100 Meg in size, so we needed to use the flash import. That appeared to work fine, but when I went to view the node, the video sat in the beginning "loading" stage for about 15 - 30 minutes. I thought maybe the file was so large it was just taking a long time, so I created another flash node and used the upload module to upload a 5 Meg .mp3. Same result. I turned off swfobject - same result. I turned off Wijering and went with the generic player, same result. Then I turned off flash node and tried using JUST swftools formatting in a regular page, and got the same results. This makes me think it might be an swftools problem, but I don't remember ever having this problem before and am hoping someone might have a suggestion as to where to turn next.

http://www.crosslinkchurch.com/drupal2/node/29 is the .flv file.
http://www.crosslinkchurch.com/drupal2/node/30 is the .mp3 file.
Both are flash content types, and I am running Drupal 5.7.
I turned Wijering back on so that both would behave the same, but I left the swfobject off for now in order to debug.

Comments

Stuart Greenfield’s picture

Stuart Greenfield commented

First, check that you have the correct setting for the base parameter. Looking at your site url it should most likely be something like /drupal2/files.

The fact that the player is appearing but there is no movie means that the player might be looking in the wrong place for the file.

There is also a bug in SWF Tools that means it can encode the :// part of the path to media files in a way that some players don't understand - you might be being affected by this. I can't remember off-hand if the bug affects all players, or just some. I'll do some research tonight, but there's a post on the SWF Tools issue queue with some suggested manual fixes that simply require you to amend a couple of lines within the SWF Tools module if you want to research this.

Stuart Greenfield’s picture

Stuart Greenfield commented

Hmm, I ran some tests, and I even downloaded the mp3 and flv files from your site to test them locally.

If I run them via flash node with SWF Tools and Wijering then they play fine locally, but when I try the links to you site they fail.

I grabbed the source code for each page from your site and from my local site, and the code is, as you would expect, identical, with the exception of the file paths.

The fact the media player is showing up on your site means that flash node is able to locate the player file from SWF Tools, so it looks like it must be a server issue - for some reason the files aren't being served to the player.

To test further I uploaded the file to my live site just to be sure, and it's running fine with the 1 Pixel Out player with no trouble so it's not an issue with the file itself.

The only thing I notice is that the media player itself looks "different" to the one I have and the example on the Wijering site. To develop this further I grabbed the player file from your site, installed that locally in place of my player, and suddenly everything stops working.

It looks like you may have somehow installed the wrong player file under swftools/shared/flash_media_player.

Re-download the player from the Wijering site and use that to replace mediaplayer.swf on your site. Clear the cache on your browser to make sure it "forgets" the old player, then refresh the page, and hopefully things will start working again!

Let me know if this fixes things!

BrianKlinger’s picture

BrianKlinger commented

First of all, let me say that I am INCREDIBLY grateful to you for your very quick and thorough responses. I have often said to myself, "man - if I ever make a module, I'm going to make sure people with issues or bugs will at least know someone is out there looking into it!" This is not a complaint toward the rest of the Drupal module maintainers - we all have lives outside of Drupal, and it's sometimes hard to get through piles and piles of support and bugfix requests. I say this to point out that you have gone FAR above the call of duty and have done an incredible job helping me figure out what is wrong, and I want to make sure you know how much this is appreciated.

All that being said, I will be able to test both theories this evening when I get home and have access to ftp to that site, and I am fairly confident that one or both of these solutions is probably going to resolve my issue, most likely the second, since I noticed the player difference last night (I assumed it was just an updated version of Wijering or that I had set the variables differently on my other sites). If this is the case and it is a 'pebkac' error, I am truly sorry, while still very grateful for your time and effort in helping me find my mistake.

BrianKlinger’s picture

BrianKlinger commented

As I followed the link to the Wijering player, all of the links that led to the download were marked as having been visited, so I know I downloaded the right thing. I recognized the swfplayer when I unzipped the file, so I went and grabbed it again. And when I went to ftp it to my site, the sizes were completely different. I have no idea what happened, but you were absolutely right. Replacing the flash player fixed everything! Once again, thank you SO much for helping me track this down, because I don't know that I'd ever have thought to "just go get the player again".

Stuart Greenfield’s picture

Stuart Greenfield commented
Status: Active » Fixed
Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented
Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for two weeks with no activity.

Marat’s picture

Marat commented

I got the same problem, I did replace the player but not work. It used to work with me, I reinstalled Drupal the problem comes!