Unable to play videos on the BBC web site.

[Ant_Moss]

Running an iMac (Mac OS X 10.9.1) with Safari (7.0.1) and Flash Player 11.9.900.170 I get the message "This content doesn't seem to be working. Please try again later" when trying to run any videos (including those in iPlayer) on the www.bbc.co.uk web site.

On a Macbook Pro (Mac OS X 10.9.1) with Safari (7.0.1) and Flash Player 11.9.900.117, the videos and iPlayer content all run normally.

On both machines, video files from other sites run normally.

I have removed and re-installed Flash Player 11.9.900.170 on the iMac, checked all the advice from your Forum pages, but can find no way to improve this situation.

Any advice gratefully received.

Tony Moss

[C_F_McBlob]

Do you have Plug-ins allowed on both systems?

[Ant_Moss]

Yes, Mike. I can confirm that Plug-ins are allowed in Safari on both machines.

Tony

[C_F_McBlob]

First thing I'd try is resetting Safari on the machine that gives you the trouble. Click Safari>Reset Safari.

If that fails, do a COMPLETE clean install per the instructions here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1343084

[Ant_Moss]

Thanks Mike.

I've now tried both suggestions, and things have much improved. Most video clips now play (including those from the iPlayer site), although many from the bbc.co.uk/news and its associated sites do not - the video clip remains stubbornly black, with no error message appearing.

However, all video clips (from ANY web site) show a grey screen with "Shockwave Flash" displayed. Clicking this screen removes it and the video plays (unless it happens to be on the bbc.co.uk/news and its associated sites). Could this be significant?

Also, I've tried using the Chrome browser, and again some clips on the bbc.co.uk/news site fail to run (but no "Shockwave Flash" screen at all in Chrome) and allow me to collect the following error details:-

Error code : 3024

Severity : critical

Description : All net connections failed

Responsibility : Application

In Firefox, the following error details are obtained:-

Error code : 3011

Severity : error

Description : The netstream connection was closed unexpectedly

Responsibility : Application

I hope some of this is helpful in determining, and possibly resolving, the cause of the problem.

Regards,

Tony

[C_F_McBlob]

Those error messages indicate a connectivity problem, NOT a Flash Player problem.

Try "cycling" your modem. (turn it off for a few minutes and then back on)

If the issue persists, contact your ISP to have them check your connection for faults.

[Ant_Moss]

Thanks. Mike, but could I raise a few points re: your diagnosis?

• I can play any video clip from the bbc.co.uk/news website on the Macbook Pro while simultaneously getting just a black screen showing for the same (or indeed, any other) clip on the iMac. This would seem to rule out any connectivity problems.
• This behaviour is the same, no matter which machine is used when starting the playbacks first.
• Both machines are running Mac OS X 10.9.1.
• The Macbook Pro has Flash Player 11.9.900.117 installed.
• The iMac has Flash Player 11.9.900.170 iinstalled.
• The playback problems only appeared on the iMac following the upgrade of Flash Player to 11.9.900.170. This upgrade was done on the previous OS (OS X 10.8 - latest version) and the problem appeared then. I have since upgraded the OS to OS X 10.9.1.
• The Shockwave Player screen appears on every video clip on the iMac only.

Given the above, it seems that the only differences between success and failure are the installed versions of Flash Player and the presence of Shockwave Player on the iMac.

To confirm my suspicions that either or both of these differences are the culprits, it would seem that the next step should be to remove Shockwave Player from the iMac and to downgrade Flash Player to version 11.9.900.117.

I'd be grateful for your advice as to whether this would be possible, and if so, how. I would also be interested in further details of this Shockwave Player thingy, what it is, whether it's necessary, and if not, how to remove it.

Many thanks in anticipation,

Tony

[C_F_McBlob]

Here's the older version: Flash Player 11.9.900.117

What you'll  most likely run into, though... is that Safari is "hard coded" to disallow downgrading plugins. That's an Apple restriction.

Q: The difference between the Adobe Shockwave and Flash Players?

A: Shockwave Player displays content created with Adobe Director 11.5 software such as high-performance multiuser games, interactive 3D product simulations, online entertainment, and training applications. By using extensions, developers can extend the capabilities of Shockwave Player to play back custom-built applications. 

Flash Player displays content created with Flash Professional CS5. This content includes web applications, website user interfaces, interactive online advertising, and rich Internet applications (RIAs) created using Flex.

You can download the Shockwave 12 FULL installer here: http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/otherversions/

Also.... check the storage settings for BOTH installations. (System Preferences>Flash Player) I have Flash Player installed on OS 10.6 (11.9.900.117), 10.7 (11.9.900.152), 10.8 (11.9.900.170) and 10.9 (11.9.900.170) and I don't have problems with bbc.co.uk on any of them, which is why I don't suspect it's in the Player.