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About the Windows Media Player Plug-in for Netscape Navigator

Because Netscape Navigator cannot communicate directly with Microsoft® ActiveX® controls, Microsoft® Windows Media™ Player includes a plug-in (Npdsplay.dll) to allow users of Netscape Navigator to watch ASF content. With the help of a proxy applet (Npds.zip), events triggered by the plug-in are visible in Netscape Navigator, and thus can be scripted. The two-way interactions between the browser and the ActiveX control take place through the following steps:

• The browser communicates with the applet
• The applet coordinates with the plug-in
• The plug-in interacts with the ActiveX control

The applet is required to handle events. When no events are handled in the script, Netscape Navigator communicates with Windows Media Player only through the plug-in, bypassing the proxy applet:

• The browser interacts with the plug-in
• The plug-in interacts with the ActiveX control

The Windows Media Player plug-in for Netscape Navigator is fully scriptable. You can use it to develop embedded applications in Netscape Navigator that:

• Invoke the methods of the Windows Media Player control.
• Get and set the properties of the Windows Media Player control.
• Receive events from the Windows Media Player control.

The Windows Media Player plug-in makes available to Netscape Navigator all the features of the ActiveX control, including control protocols, playlists, codecs, and event handling. It can render multimedia content in various formats, including:

• Advanced Streaming Format (ASF)
• Advanced Stream Redirector (ASX)
• Windows Media Audio (WMA)
• Windows Media Audio Redirector (WAX)
• Sound File (SND)
• Waveform Audio (WAV)
• Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)
• Motion Picture Expert Group standard one and two (MPEG-1 and MPEG-2)
• MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3)
• Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)
• UNIX audio (AU)
• QuickTime (MOV)

For more information about supported content formats, see Content Formats.

The Windows Media Player plug-in for Netscape Navigator was developed for Microsoft by Digital Renaissance, Inc. It has been tested for Netscape Navigator version 3.0 and version 4.0, the most popular versions of that browser. To learn more about Digital Renaissance and its T.A.G.® line of products, visit their Web site at http://www.digital-ren.com/.

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