Javax.media.NoPlayerException: Cannot find a Player

Question

Hi all,
I've installed JMF,
and tried the sample 'SimplePlayerApplet.java' from Sun:
http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jmf/2.1.1/samples/
(see the code below)
However, everytime I run the applet,
I get the message:
"javax.media.NoPlayerException: Cannot find a Player"
Can anybody help?
-------code from sun website-----------------
* @(#)SimplePlayerApplet.java     1.2 01/03/13
* Copyright (c) 1996-2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
* Sun grants you ("Licensee") a non-exclusive, royalty free, license to use,
* modify and redistribute this software in source and binary code form,
* provided that i) this copyright notice and license appear on all copies of
* the software; and ii) Licensee does not utilize the software in a manner
* which is disparaging to Sun.
* This software is provided "AS IS," without a warranty of any kind. ALL
* EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY
* IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR
* NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE HEREBY EXCLUDED. SUN AND ITS LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE
* LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY LICENSEE AS A RESULT OF USING, MODIFYING
* OR DISTRIBUTING THE SOFTWARE OR ITS DERIVATIVES. IN NO EVENT WILL SUN OR ITS
* LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST REVENUE, PROFIT OR DATA, OR FOR DIRECT,
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* CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF
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import java.applet.Applet;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.lang.String;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Properties;
import javax.media.*;
//import com.sun.media.util.JMFSecurity;
* This is a Java Applet that demonstrates how to create a simple
* media player with a media event listener. It will play the
* media clip right away and continuously loop.
* <!-- Sample HTML
* <applet code=SimplePlayerApplet width=320 height=300>
* <param name=file value="sun.avi">
* </applet>
* -->
public class SimplePlayerApplet extends Applet implements ControllerListener {
// media Player
Player player = null;
// component in which video is playing
Component visualComponent = null;
// controls gain, position, start, stop
Component controlComponent = null;
// displays progress during download
Component progressBar = null;
boolean firstTime = true;
long CachingSize = 0L;
Panel panel = null;
int controlPanelHeight = 0;
int videoWidth = 0;
int videoHeight = 0;
* Read the applet file parameter and create the media
* player.
public void init() {
//$ System.out.println("Applet.init() is called");
setLayout(null);
setBackground(Color.white);
panel = new Panel();
panel.setLayout( null );
add(panel);
panel.setBounds(0, 0, 320, 240);
// input file name from html param
String mediaFile = null;
// URL for our media file
MediaLocator mrl = null;
URL url = null;
// Get the media filename info.
// The applet tag should contain the path to the
// source media file, relative to the html page.
if ((mediaFile = getParameter("FILE")) == null)
Fatal("Invalid media file parameter");
try {
url = new URL(getDocumentBase(), mediaFile);
mediaFile = url.toExternalForm();
} catch (MalformedURLException mue) {
try {
// Create a media locator from the file name
if ((mrl = new MediaLocator(mediaFile)) == null)
Fatal("Can't build URL for " + mediaFile);
try {
JMFSecurity.enablePrivilege.invoke(JMFSecurity.privilegeManager,
JMFSecurity.writePropArgs);
JMFSecurity.enablePrivilege.invoke(JMFSecurity.privilegeManager,
JMFSecurity.readPropArgs);
JMFSecurity.enablePrivilege.invoke(JMFSecurity.privilegeManager,
JMFSecurity.connectArgs);
} catch (Exception e) {}
// Create an instance of a player for this media
try {
player = Manager.createPlayer(mrl);
} catch (NoPlayerException e) {
System.out.println(e);
Fatal("Could not create player for " + mrl);
// Add ourselves as a listener for a player's events
player.addControllerListener(this);
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
Fatal("Invalid media file URL!");
} catch (IOException e) {
Fatal("IO exception creating player for " + mrl);
// This applet assumes that its start() calls
// player.start(). This causes the player to become
// realized. Once realized, the applet will get
// the visual and control panel components and add
// them to the Applet. These components are not added
// during init() because they are long operations that
// would make us appear unresposive to the user.
* Start media file playback. This function is called the
* first time that the Applet runs and every
* time the user re-enters the page.
public void start() {
//$ System.out.println("Applet.start() is called");
// Call start() to prefetch and start the player.
if (player != null)
player.start();
* Stop media file playback and release resource before
* leaving the page.
public void stop() {
//$ System.out.println("Applet.stop() is called");
if (player != null) {
player.stop();
player.deallocate();
public void destroy() {
//$ System.out.println("Applet.destroy() is called");
player.close();
* This controllerUpdate function must be defined in order to
* implement a ControllerListener interface. This
* function will be called whenever there is a media event
public synchronized void controllerUpdate(ControllerEvent event) {
// If we're getting messages from a dead player,
// just leave
if (player == null)
return;
// When the player is Realized, get the visual
// and control components and add them to the Applet
if (event instanceof RealizeCompleteEvent) {
if (progressBar != null) {
panel.remove(progressBar);
progressBar = null;
int width = 320;
int height = 0;
if (controlComponent == null)
if (( controlComponent =
player.getControlPanelComponent()) != null) {
controlPanelHeight = controlComponent.getPreferredSize().height;
panel.add(controlComponent);
height += controlPanelHeight;
if (visualComponent == null)
if (( visualComponent =
player.getVisualComponent())!= null) {
panel.add(visualComponent);
Dimension videoSize = visualComponent.getPreferredSize();
videoWidth = videoSize.width;
videoHeight = videoSize.height;
width = videoWidth;
height += videoHeight;
visualComponent.setBounds(0, 0, videoWidth, videoHeight);
panel.setBounds(0, 0, width, height);
if (controlComponent != null) {
controlComponent.setBounds(0, videoHeight,
width, controlPanelHeight);
controlComponent.invalidate();
} else if (event instanceof CachingControlEvent) {
if (player.getState() > Controller.Realizing)
return;
// Put a progress bar up when downloading starts,
// take it down when downloading ends.
CachingControlEvent e = (CachingControlEvent) event;
CachingControl cc = e.getCachingControl();
// Add the bar if not already there ...
if (progressBar == null) {
if ((progressBar = cc.getControlComponent()) != null) {
panel.add(progressBar);
panel.setSize(progressBar.getPreferredSize());
validate();
} else if (event instanceof EndOfMediaEvent) {
// We've reached the end of the media; rewind and
// start over
player.setMediaTime(new Time(0));
player.start();
} else if (event instanceof ControllerErrorEvent) {
// Tell TypicalPlayerApplet.start() to call it a day
player = null;
Fatal(((ControllerErrorEvent)event).getMessage());
} else if (event instanceof ControllerClosedEvent) {
panel.removeAll();
void Fatal (String s) {
// Applications will make various choices about what
// to do here. We print a message
System.err.println("FATAL ERROR: " + s);
throw new Error(s); // Invoke the uncaught exception
// handler System.exit() is another
// choice.
}

Answer 1

First and most obvious question is, what are you trying to have the applet view? The NoPlayerException generally means that JMF couldn't figure out how to display what you're telling it to display, be that an unknown codec, or unknown media type.