Shockwave Slim Install doesn't download SWA Streaming Xtra

Question

Hi all, I'm having a frustrating time trying to fix this
problem, hope someone can help. I have a Director project (MX 2004,
10.1.1) that ends up as a Shockwave movie on a website. It makes
heavy use of Shockwave Streaming Audio and is therefore
dependent on the SWA xtras (namely: "SWA Decompression PPC Xtra"
and "SWA Streaming PPC Xtra" and their efficiently named Windows
alternatives) that have been removed from the default Shockwave
installer (the "Slim Install"; re:
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_19523).
I've been getting lots of reports of "Xtra not found..." errors
lately, mainly from people installing SW for the first time, and
are thusly installing the new "slim install" version.
Now, supposedly this shouldn't be a problem, as the movie has
the "Download if needed" option checked in the
Modify->Movie->Xtras dialog and for a while I thought it may
have been an errant thing or a PEBKAC but after reading the above
referenced tech note I've been able to reproduce the error by
uninstalling SW (I had a full install, so I already had the xtras
on my system) and reinstalling via the "slim installer." The movie
loads, the status bar says "Downloading Xtras..." or some such and
then looks to be working fine until a streaming audio file is
loaded at which point the "Xtra not found" error pops up and then
the movie bails from errors.
So I look in my Shockwave plugin's Xtras folder (on OS x:
~/Library/Application Support/Macromedia/Shockwave
10/Xtras/Download/MacromediaInc/SWA - phew!) and there I find...
The decompression Xtra but the streaming xtra is nowhere to be
found. Nothing I've tried has worked to get it to correctly
download the "SWA Streaming PPC Xtra" automagically.
I realize that
from now on I can direct people to install the full version
if they haven't before installed any version, but if they've
already installed the "slim install" and it won't download these
Xtras it means they have to call and I have to tell them they need
to install the full version... This, of course, means telling them
to
uninstall Shockwave and then
reinstall with the full version to which they all smile and
respond, "Oh, ok, cool! That sounds like fun." :-[ That's a less
than ideal solution, in my opinion, so I'm trying to find a way to
get it to download these Xtras correctly.
So I looked in the "Activity" window in Safari while the page
with the movie loads and, sure enough, one of the resources it
requests is the SWA.carb file located here:
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/shockwave10.1/xtras/SWA.carb
and it downloads it without error or fail, but only one of the
accompanying Xtras is actually downloaded and installed in the
user's Xtras folder.
In the tech note about the slim installer, it mentions this:
quote:
...the 10.1 version of the Shockwave Player now includes its
own copy of all Macromedia Xtra package download URLs. Therefore, a
given Macromedia Xtra only needs to appear in the movie's Xtra list
in order to participate in the auto-download feature of the player.
Which sounds like it
should download the 2 Xtras whether "download if needed" is
checked or not (it
is), but it doesn't download the streaming xtra.
Is it possible the download URLs in the Shockwave Player are
incorrect?
Has anyone else had this problem and/or have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance, and apologies for the length - just trying
to be thorough,
pete

Answer 1

Hi, I don't know very much about computers, so this may be
all junk but I was successful today in downloading a version of
Flash Player 9. I had tried everything but at Flash Player Support,
http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer,
way down the page on the right side I saw "Flash Player Downloads:
Flash Player; Additional Downloads; Archived Major Versions of
Flash Player; Other Players." I decided that since I have older
equipment and software maybe my machine could not handle Flash
Player 9 and I would try downloading an older version. After
selecting Archived Major Versions of Flash Player, I was surprised
to see Version 9. I download the zipped file to my computer and
then used "Run" to unzip and install. So far so good. I have all
the functions I need and everything is working great. The download
page warned "You can download these players from the Adobe website.
They are available specifically for Flash developers who are
examining their sites from the perspective of users with earlier
versions of Flash Player. Adobe has made these archived players
available for download at the request of the Flash developer
community. Adobe Technical Support does not provide support for the
installation or use of these old players" I have no idea what that
means and maybe the whole thing turns into pumpkins at midnight.
But I have Flash Player 9 for now. If this is all nonsense, please
be kind when you tell why this will not work. Hope it helps and
Thanks