/ Activating a Video

Activating a Video

Help! I cannot activate a video. It appears on my screen but won’t play, no matter what buttons I push and the sound won’t play either. So much info now is in video form. I’m really frustrated. Kat Delong

Video Plug-Ins

It sounds like you need the right plug-in so that you can access video and Web-based games on your computer. You’re right, so much information is now in video form, and unfortunately, different websites use different plug-ins in order to access their information. Most of the time, you will get a pop-up or message that you either don’t have the right player installed, or you need to get an update in order for it to work properly.

This actually happened to me recently. My mother lives in another state and I sent her a Flip video in an email - she could hear the sound, but couldn’t see any images. The program told us what we needed to have installed, but it didn’t completely solve the problem, so on the phone, I walked her through installing several different players until we got to the Adobe Flash player which did the trick. A quick download while I was on the phone with her and she was in business.

Most Popular Plug-Ins

Unless a particular Web site or video is telling you specifically what you need installed, you might have to do a little trial and error yourself. These are the most popular plug-ins:

Windows Media Player - currently running version 10
Quicktime - currently running version 7
Real Player
Adobe Flash Player - currently running version 10
Java - currently running version 6, update 13
ShockWave

If you already have one of these programs installed, you shouldn’t have to uninstall it to do the update to the latest version. One other possibility is that you are having an issue with the Web browser you are using. Occasionally, a video won’t play in Mozilla because it has been coded for Internet Explorer. As a last resort, try switching browsers and see if that helps.

If you’ve downloaded all of the current versions and are still having problems, let us know and we can help you troubleshoot any graphics card issues you may be having. My gut feeling is that one or all of these players will help you access videos anywhere on the Web.