[kde-linux] Re: mp3 playback within Firefox?

[Mark Knecht]

On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 9:01 PM, Duncan <1i5t5.duncan at cox.net> wrote:
> Mark Knecht posted on Sat, 11 Dec 2010 13:21:02 -0800 as excerpted:
>
>> Hi all. First post here.
>>
>> I've been running KDE for a while now but haven't done much personal
>> configuration. One small problem I'm having is that mp3 files don't play
>> back within Firefox like OGG files do. What's the KDE specific way of
>> getting this to work?
>>
>> I understand that Firefox isn't the KDE browser but I use it on other
>> platforms and would like to use it successfully within KDE. My system is
>> Gentoo 64-bit, mostly stable except for a few apps. KDE Ver.-4.4.5. I've
>> attached a list of packages currently installed.
>
> Hi.  Nice to see you on a kde list, too. =:^)
>
> As you no doubt know I'm a gentoo/~amd64 user, running kde, tho you may
> not know I run the latest upstream/kde stable from the gentoo/kde overlay,
> so am running 4.5.4, now.
>
> FWIW, I do /not/ use firefox for mp3s, but rather, have several other
> programs associated with them (and with playlists), with smplayer being
> the highest priority association for mp3s and m3u playlists, while pls
> playlists are associated with mpd (music-player-daemon), tho I use
> qmpdclient's (a qt4 mpd frontend) shoutcast "internet radio tuner" feature
> most of the time these days.
>
> Surely, firefox doesn't play them on its own, but rather, plays them using
> whatever media plugin is configured for firefox?
>
> Anyway, firefox has its own config, separate from kde.
>
> To change kde's associations (what happens when you click on an mp3 in
> dolphin or konqueror), go to kcontrol[1], the file associations kcm.  The
> kcm layout changed with kde 4.5, where the file associations kcm is under
> common appearance and behavior.  IDR what it's under in 4.4.  Anyway, once
> there, you'd put the file pattern you're interested in, in the search box
> at the top, and it'll filter to only the appropriate entry.  For mp3, it's
> audio/mpeg.  Click on that in the left panel and it should let you change
> the associations and their priority in the right panel, general tab.  (The
> embedding tab lets you set whether the default is to open in a separate
> viewer or embedded in dolphin/konqueror/gwenview, as appropriate.  You can
> also set the embedded services preference order much as you can the
> associations order on the general tab.)
>
> Firefox's associations are set in firefox.  Edit menu, preferences entry,
> will open a dialog.  Applications tab.  I'll let you go at it from there
> as I don't claim any particular familiarity with those settings, tho I've
> not had any problem changing them the time or two I've needed to.  You
> might wish to see what it does with ogg, tho, and setup mp3 similarly.
> That's the way I'd approach it.
>
> ---
> [1] kcontrol, wrongly aka system settings.  kcontrol was the more accurate
> kde3 name.  The kde4 name makes little sense at all, because at least as
> shipped by kde, nearly all the settings there are user- and kde-specific
> settings, not system-wide settings applying outside kde and to all users,
> as one might expect from what it says on the kde4 label, system settings.
> Additionally, kcontrol was reasonably googlable; just /try/ googling
> something as generic as "system settings"!  At least the kcontrol modules
> are still called kcm-s!  So I continue to use the accurate name and always
> end up attaching an explanation like this so folks who never used kde3
> have a clue what I'm talking about.
>
> --
> Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
> "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
> and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

Thanks for the welcome Duncan. I hadn't really looked for a list for
KDE until you mentioned it on another list.

Strangely the Preferences Dialog doesn't list OGG files. There are
only about 10 entries there. I tried emerging smplayer and adding it
for mp3's. It works fine, but opens the application every time I click
on an mp3 link. That's really more the way I want a right-click on the
link to behave, when it asks Save File, Open with..., and have
smplayer be the default.

With OGG files Firefox is automatically opening a new tab, and then
running some little XML based player on that page. I like that for
previews as it doesn't open a whole new app and put another app name
on my bottom panel. It's all done just in Firefox. I've very surprised
that mp3s are done the same way.

I guess I need to continue to figure out how Firefox is actually
playing the OGG files.

Thanks,
Mark