I cannot click on any streaming audio link without the player freezing and
cpu usage shooting up to 100%, forcing me to close it with task manager.
Neither will it play radio over the internet, sometimes saying that I must
first be connected, which I am - and the "Play off-line" selection in the
player is unchecked.

On some links it does give me the option to play or download, but in either
case the file must be fully downloaded to my computer before it will play.



Anyone else having the problem? Any solutions that a non-geek could
understand?

OK, so it happens for networked autio only, and no local problems?

What file types are affected?

This *should* be indicative of either an audio card or a network driver
related issue, given those descriptions - looking for updates for the audio
card and network driver might be a great first step.

Does specifying a bitrate under WMP's Tools:Options:Performance help at all?

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--

"tony" <tony@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:EA0E837F-56A7-41F0-B360-FE91298FE235@microsoft.com...
>I cannot click on any streaming audio link without the player freezing and
> cpu usage shooting up to 100%, forcing me to close it with task manager.
> Neither will it play radio over the internet, sometimes saying that I must
> first be connected, which I am - and the "Play off-line" selection in the
> player is unchecked.
>
> On some links it does give me the option to play or download, but in
> either
> case the file must be fully downloaded to my computer before it will play.
>
> Anyone else having the problem? Any solutions that a non-geek could
> understand?

Thanks for responding, Zach.

After my initial post I kept on plugging, thinking it was something really
simple that I was missing. Turns out it was. I stumbled across the fact that
Media Player was not designated as my default player for mp3s. It was the
only player on my system but it still needed to be designated as "default" by
following the standard procedure.

I needed to find an mp3 file on my system, right click - select "open with"
and select the option "choose default player". Clicking on Windows Media
Player in the resulting pane. This presumably notifies the computer to use
WMP for all associated media file types, including m3u links.

What was throwing me was that the player worked on local mp3s without being
designated as "default" so I asumed it ought to work in all instances. Once I
followed the procedure outlined above all was well, and internet links
responded and played nominally.

I appreciate your interest and hope my bumbling onto a solution will help
some other application-challenged non-techie in the future.

Thanks again - Tony

"zachd [MSFT]" wrote:

>
> OK, so it happens for networked autio only, and no local problems?
>
> What file types are affected?
>
> This *should* be indicative of either an audio card or a network driver
> related issue, given those descriptions - looking for updates for the audio
> card and network driver might be a great first step.
>
> Does specifying a bitrate under WMP's Tools:Options:Performance help at all?
>
> --
> Speaking for myself only.
> See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> --
>
> "tony" <tony@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:EA0E837F-56A7-41F0-B360-FE91298FE235@microsoft.com...
> >I cannot click on any streaming audio link without the player freezing and
> > cpu usage shooting up to 100%, forcing me to close it with task manager.
> > Neither will it play radio over the internet, sometimes saying that I must
> > first be connected, which I am - and the "Play off-line" selection in the
> > player is unchecked.
> >
> > On some links it does give me the option to play or download, but in
> > either
> > case the file must be fully downloaded to my computer before it will play.
> >
> > Anyone else having the problem? Any solutions that a non-geek could
> > understand?
>
>
>

I had to do this as well; but I find that clicking a direct weblink to an mp3
file immediately starts downloading it, instead of streaming the file as it
does locally. Under XP, mp3 links immediately start streaming. I can't find
any way of getting an mp3 link to stream on vista - any ideas?

"tony" wrote:

> Thanks for responding, Zach.
>
> After my initial post I kept on plugging, thinking it was something really
> simple that I was missing. Turns out it was. I stumbled across the fact that
> Media Player was not designated as my default player for mp3s. It was the
> only player on my system but it still needed to be designated as "default" by
> following the standard procedure.
>
> I needed to find an mp3 file on my system, right click - select "open with"
> and select the option "choose default player". Clicking on Windows Media
> Player in the resulting pane. This presumably notifies the computer to use
> WMP for all associated media file types, including m3u links.
>
> What was throwing me was that the player worked on local mp3s without being
> designated as "default" so I asumed it ought to work in all instances. Once I
> followed the procedure outlined above all was well, and internet links
> responded and played nominally.
>
> I appreciate your interest and hope my bumbling onto a solution will help
> some other application-challenged non-techie in the future.
>
> Thanks again - Tony
>
> "zachd [MSFT]" wrote:
>
> >
> > OK, so it happens for networked autio only, and no local problems?
> >
> > What file types are affected?
> >
> > This *should* be indicative of either an audio card or a network driver
> > related issue, given those descriptions - looking for updates for the audio
> > card and network driver might be a great first step.
> >
> > Does specifying a bitrate under WMP's Tools:Options:Performance help at all?
> >
> > --
> > Speaking for myself only.
> > See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
> > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> > --
> >
> > "tony" <tony@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:EA0E837F-56A7-41F0-B360-FE91298FE235@microsoft.com...
> > >I cannot click on any streaming audio link without the player freezing and
> > > cpu usage shooting up to 100%, forcing me to close it with task manager.
> > > Neither will it play radio over the internet, sometimes saying that I must
> > > first be connected, which I am - and the "Play off-line" selection in the
> > > player is unchecked.
> > >
> > > On some links it does give me the option to play or download, but in
> > > either
> > > case the file must be fully downloaded to my computer before it will play.
> > >
> > > Anyone else having the problem? Any solutions that a non-geek could
> > > understand?
> >
> >
> >