MSNBC.com Video Still Not Supported In Firefox Or Safari For Mac Users

Why can't MSNBC.com get it's video to work for Mac users with the Firefox or Safari browsers? Everyone says that using Flash solves the cross-platform issue but it doesn't when a site like MSNBC.com who is using Flash, still doesn't support Mac users. I am trying to watch the briefing on the pet food recall and had to leave the MSNBC.com site to go watch it with CNN's pipeline service. I like MSNBC.com for getting my news each day but it's dumb that they make Mac users leave their site and force them to go to a competitors news site to get video.

There is no excuse for MSNBC.com not to be able to support Mac users when the other news sites out there have been supporting them for years. Wake up MSNBC! You are losing eyeballs like mine when I can't get the news I want from your site. Do I really need to tell you how people are getting news on the web today?

Update: I forgot to mention. In addition to the above, MSNBC makes you sit through a video advertisement BEFORE they tell you that you can't see the video you are after. So while they know the browser is not supported, they don't tell you that till after you have watched a video ad, which of course seems to work just fine in the browser.

Comments

[Jim Ray]

Your points are all excellent ones and your frustrations, especially the ad thing, is definitely understandable. I'm a Mac user at home and at my job as a concepts producer for MSNBC.com. I can't offer any specifics right now other than to say we're working on it really, really hard. Video is obviously very important to our business and we're working hard to make sure everything from live streaming to edited clips works on every platform possible. Just wanted you to know that your pleas are not falling on deaf ears!

[Jim Ray]

Argh, where's my AP style grammar? Should be "frustrations ... *are* understandable" - I graduated from journalism school, honest!

[Stefan Richter]

Dan,
don't blame Flash for this :-)
On my PC in Firefox the video appears to be a normal FLV, served progressively, and should play for you just fine. There's no reason imposed by Flash why this shouldn't work for you, except the gazillion lines of Javascript that MSNBC finds necessary to deploy in order to interface the WM Player UI with a Flash video. They've overcomplicated something that could be done in a much simpler way.

[Rick Vanderwal]

I have both a mac and a pc....
the video from MSNBC mostly works on the mac, though certain video segments haven't been made for mac, which was interesting b/c I thought a video segment was a video segment. But it is probably the difference between firefox and IE. I use firefox on my mac.

I've also enjoyed using firefox on my laptop, but i can NEVER get MSNBC video to work with firefox on my laptop - it is so frustrating! Any ideas of what to do? I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling both firefox and macromedia flash, but to no avail. ARe there any registry resets possible?

[Miguel]

For what it's worth always has had and probably always will have problems with browsers other than IE. and on platforms other than Windows. The company is notorious for these kinds of sneaky tactics. Even apart from specific kinds of incompatibilities like what you're describing I've always noticed that the web site runs slower, frequently hangs, and sometimes crashes on Firefox. CNN, however, rarely has any problems at all.

Just the realities of business (and an example of why monopolies are a bad thing).

[CC]

It's not just Mac users. I have a PC as well, and many of MSNBC's videos won't play on it either if I'm using Firefox. If I use IE, then I'm okay.

I run my own website which has a heavy amount of video clips offered for viewing and I have managed to make my flash videos viewable on all platforms and browsers with minimal coding, so there is no reason why MSNBC's webmasters can't do the same with their degrees in computer programming and working for a huge corporation like MSNBC. In my opinion, this appears to be more of a case of bias against any non-Microsoft system or browser than a technical issue.

I have both a Mac and a PC. I usually run Firefox regardless of which computer I'm using. Tonight I tried to watch the MSNBC Dateline interview with Princes William and Harry (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19190534/). I got the following message, "We're sorry, but due to geographic restrictions this video is not available on computers running your operating system." This first happened on my Mac, so I tried to view the videos on my PC. I got the same message on it as well. I then opened up IE and tried, and low and behold, the videos worked! So it wasn't a "geographic restriction" or my "operating system". It was because I was running a non-Microsoft created browser. Funny though - the commercials play just fine and some other videos can be viewed, regardless of browser or system (though it is hit and miss as to which ones).

Come on MSNBC, get your stuff together. If amateur webmasters can make this stuff work, so can you. You just don't want to.

[Howard Hoyt]

Spent maybe a half hour fighting with MSNBC website.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not (after your commercial) say 'video not available'.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Instead of the BS say, browser not supported- or something to indicate that MSNBC only supports MS bloatware.

[Trinity]

I'ts not supported on IE 7 either which is silly since most everything else internet is. Oh but the commercial before the vid is too M$NBC.