Safari's "intervention"

Question

I know a lot of people are having all kinds of problems with the new 3.0 Safari, but I haven't seen a thread about my particular problem, and I'm wondering if anyone can help or if I just have to wait and pray like so many others.
My browser quits unexpectedly when trying to watch embedded video. I think they're embedded. I can watch things like youtube and yahoo video fine, but stuff like .wmv and .mpg files on say...**** sites, crash it. It's not just the **** though, or I would say Safari was objecting to my questionable taste in entertainment, it's some stuff on the Apple website too! And while ads and the like aren't a problem, I still never know when I'm going to be linked a page with something that will set it off.
I can download these videos just fine, and they play in Quicktime just like they always have, I just can't watch them in Safari, and lord forbid I accidentally click on it without holding down the ctrl key.
I even downloaded the update for Safari today, thinking "Finally!", but no, I lose, they were just taunting me with hollow promises of corrected bugs.
Is there anything I can do? Maybe even some suggestion for whatever else could be causing this problem (it didn't start until I downloaded Safari 3.0)? Or at the very least, some instruction on how to reinstall Safari and rid myself of this version?

Answer 1

Hi Cat_juggler (wonderful mental image that conjures up!) and welcome to the forums!
You should be able to watch even 'those' videos on Safari 3.1 and 10.4.11.
These are the downloads and the settings you need in order to view/hear pretty much everything that the net can throw at you: The setup described below has proved repeatedly successful on both PPC and Intel macs, but nothing in life carries a guarantee!
It is known to work in the great majority of cases with Safari 3.0.4, 3.1, QT 7.3 or 7.4 and OS 10.4.11. (If you are running Leopard, ensure that all plug-ins have been updated for OS 10.5.2, but please see my footnote).
Assuming you already run Tiger versions OS 10.4.9 or above (this has not yet been verified with Leopard) and have Quicktime 7.2 or above, and are using Safari 2 or 3, download and install (or re-install even if you already had them) the latest versions, suitable for your flavor of Mac, of:
RealPlayer 10 for Mac from http://forms.real.com/real/player/blackjack.html?platform2=Mac%20OS%20X&product= RealPlayer%2010&proc=g3&lang=&show_list=0&src=macjack
The new RealPlayer Plus (v.11) is still in beta and therefore free, but works well on Tiger. It includes a download function, and you can get that here:
http://uk.real.com/player/mac/
Flip4Mac WMV Player from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx (Windows Media Player for the Mac is no longer supported, even by Microsoft)
Perian from http://perian.org/
You should read this support page http://perian.org/#support in case you need to delete older codecs.
Adobe FlashPlayer should first be uninstalled using the appropriate uninstaller available here: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=2 and then the latest version obtained from here: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1ProdVersion=ShockwaveFlash and installed.
(You can check here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/ to see which version you should install for your Mac and OS, but please see my footnote if you are running Leopard.)
In earlier versions than QT 7.1.3 in Quicktime Preferences, under advanced, UNcheck Enable Flash, and under Mime settings/Miscellananeous only check Quicktime HTML (QHTM).
You should also ensure, if you are running Tiger 10.4.11 or Leopard, that you have downloaded and installed all the correct version for your Mac of Security Updates up to and including 2008-002. (N.B. Security Updates require both a restart and a permission repair.)
In Macintosh HD/Library/Quicktime/ delete any files relating to DivX (Perian already has them). However it should be noted that Perian is not an internet plugin and will not play DivX files imbedded on a website. For that you will need the DivX Player browser plugin available from http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/
Now go to Safari Preferences/Security, and tick the boxes under Web Content (all 4 of them) to enable Java.
Lastly open Audio Midi Setup (which you will find in the Utilities Folder of your Applications Folder) and click on Audio Devices. Make sure that both Audio Input and Audio Output, under Format, are set to 44100 Hz, and that you have selected 'Built in Audio'.
Important: Now repair permissions and restart.
You should also consider having the free VLC Player from http://www.videolan.org/ in your armory, as this plays almost anything that DVD Player might not.
There is an additional 'fix' you could try if you are having problems with Flash and Quicktime, depending on which type of Mac you have:
On Intel Macs, make sure that you are not running Safari in Rosetta. You can check this, and change it, in the Get Info window.
On PPC Macs, go to the Hard Disk/Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder, and drag the file 'QuickTime Plugin.webplugin' to the desktop. Quit and restart Safari. If things have improved you can trash that file. If they haven't put it back.
FOOTNOTE
If you are running Leopard:
Some users have mentioned that the latest Flash Player (v.9.0.115.0) conflicts with Leopard, and that they have needed to revert to v. 9.0.47. This can be downloaded from here:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14266&sliceId=1