About the Windows Media Player Plug-in for Netscape Navigator

Because Netscape Navigator cannot communicate directly with Microsoft ActiveX controls, Windows Media Player includes a plug-in (Npdsplay.dll) to allow users of Netscape Navigator to watch Windows Media 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:

• Windows Media Format (ASF, WMA, WMV)
• Windows Media Metafile (ASX)
• Windows Media Audio (WMA)
• Windows Media Audio Redirector (WAX)
• Sound File (SND)
• Waveform Audio (WAV)
• Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)
• Moving Picture Experts 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.