To access my music clips and MIDI files from the Jukebox, you'll need the necessary plugins.
Download Warning
If you're using a browser
accelerator, turn it off BEFORE you download any plugin. Due to
the way in which accelerators cache file information, the data in your downloads could be
corrupted. This also applies to any other executable file you download, such as files with
the .exe or .zip suffix.
By the way, if you're ever ordering any goods via the Internet, and pay for them using an
online order form, turn off your accelerator. Otherwise, you may
end up getting a double order and paying accordingly!
Necessary plugins
For the Real Audio clips, you MUST
have the G2 player. All the audio clips are encoded in G2 format, so previous versions of
RealPlayer will not recognise the file and MIME types specified. The G2 player is free,
suitable for both Microsoft and Netscape, and you can download it by clicking on the logo
below:
For the MIDI clips, to avoid server MIME problems, I've opted for the Crescendo plugin. In my opinion, it's the best MIDI plugin I've encountered, and is probably the most widely used.
There are 2 free versions available, for Microsoft and Netscape respectively, and they
work superbly. If you'd like to get one, click on the logo below:
Installing RealPlayer G2
Simply click on the downloaded
file, which should be in .exe format, and it will install itself.
However, due to the amount of configuration required, it takes a little while to install.
A RealPlayer G2 shortcut will appear on your desktop, but don't click on it
just yet - there's still more configuration to go. Wait until an alert box pops up asking
you for e-mail details, etc., then follow the ensuing instructions and you'll be ready to
play.
If you have Netscape Navigator (3.0 or greater):
open your browser
Go to Netscape's HELP
menu and select About Plugins
Look for RealPlayer(tm)
G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit)
If it's there, you're in
business.
If you have Internet
Explorer (3.0 or greater):
open Windows Explorer
from the View
menu and select Options
click on the File
Types tab and look for Real Play File (or similar)
Under Extensions,
you should find .RA .RM .RAM
under MIME type,
you should find audio/x-pn-realaudio
under Opens With,
you should find REALPLAY
if all is well, you're ready
to go
Since Internet Explorer doesn't
use the same plugin set-up as Netscape, at least the above method shows you that the G2
player is installed correctly. So theoretically, the G2 Active-X plugin should also be
operable.
Checking for older versions of RealPlayer
I had a lot of problems trying
to get the plugin to work properly until I discovered that RealPlayer 4.0 was still on my
computer. After I uninstalled it, everything worked fine.
So if you have an older version of RealPlayer on your computer - get rid of it!
RealPlayer G2 is version 6.0 or greater. To check that you have the
correct version:
select Find
from the Start Menu and type realplay.exe
right-click
on the RealPlayer icon, and select Properties
click the Version
tab to find the version number
Installing the Crescendo MIDI plugin
This is very simple. After downloading the Netscape or IE version for your particular browser, simply click on the .exe file and it will install itself. The plugin comes with its own extensive troubleshooting
documentation, so you can refer to that if you have problems.
Summing up
Providing you have the RealPlayer G2 and MIDI plugins suitable for your particular browser, you should have no
problems playing my music clips, either via the Jukebox or from my MUSIC page.
If you follow all of the
above set-up procedures, and still experience difficulties getting everything to work, send me an e-mail.
Describe what's happening - or not happening - and I'll try to sort it out for you.
