Drexelmed and Macs
Supporting Mac OS X on Webcampus
Last Updated 11/6/2008
Streaming Videos
| All of the lecture videos are optimized for Windows Media Player using a Windows PC. While Mac users may be able to configure their Mac to view the videos, they may not be able to configure the variable speed playback (aka: 2x speed). If variable speed playback is important to you, we recommend you install a program to run Windows on your Mac (such as BootCamp or Parallels Desktop). |
Running Windows on your Mac
You will 1st need software to create a "Windows-side" to your Mac. Two options to do this are Bootcamp which is included with Leopard or Parallels Desktop.
Next you will need to install Microsoft Windows Operating System.
Using Mac OS to play videos
On the IFM and PIL curriculum websites there are currently two ways to play the videos. See details below for Windows Silverlight Player (the blue SL logo) and Windows Media Player (the red camera icon).
Windows Silverlight Player 
To play a video from this link, you must have the most recent version of the player. If the video does not start, look for the Download Silverlight box at the top of the screen. If this is not available or if you want to download it manually, go to http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight
Windows Media Player 
To play a video from this link, there are two options:
- The older Windows Media Player 9 for Mac
- The newer Windows Media Components for QuickTime (also known as the Flip4Mac component).
These work with different web browsers and configurations with varying degrees of success. If you wish to view streaming videos on Mac OS X you need one of the two components above.
Windows Media Player 9 (WMP9)
No matter what browser you use, videos played back in WMP9 cannot be fastforwarded with sound. This is a limitation in WMP9 itself.
With Safari, WMP9 performs as it should - once it is installed, clicking a video on Webcampus will cause the video stream information to be downloaded to the user's download folder, then opened in WMP9. Because you cannot specify download actions in Safari, you must uninstall Flip4Mac if you wish to use WMP9 and Safari.
In Firefox, WMP9 works, but Firefox must be told to use WMP9 to play streaming video. Click here for Firefox versions 1.5.0.8 and earlier. Click here for Firefox version 2.0 Click here for Firefox version 3.0
Camino works with WMP9, but because you cannot specify specific download actions, you must uninstall Flip4Mac if you wish to use WMP9 and Camino.
Windows Media Components for Quicktime (Flip4Mac)
Flip4Mac can be set to retrieve our videos one of two ways: streaming or progressively. When Flip4Mac is set to stream downloads, QuickTime's Fast-Forward A/V control will not work correctly. When Flip4Mac is set to retrieve the movies as progressive downloads, some users have been able to access the Fast-Forward A/V control, however this is not a dependable solution.
After Flip4Mac is installed, Safari will catch on to this fact and use it to display streaming media.
Flip4Mac works with Firefox, but must be told to use the QuickTime components correctly. Cilck here for Firefox version 1.5.0.8 and earlier. Click here for Firefox version 2.0. Click here for Firefox Version 3.0
Camino will not work with Flip4Mac to our knowledge.
If you are not sure what version of Firefox is on your computer, open Firefox, go into the "Firefox" panel, then to "About Firefox"