fs_media - [General]

This section covers issues related to audio, video and some aspects of search.

• For situations where you cannot hear audio, be it streaming music, or the audio from a movie/video, the first thing to do is check that:
  • May 2018: If you had a recent Windows update, see this page.
  • streaming music and/or media are enabled in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds;
  • volumes for music and media are not at minimum;
  • audio is configured correctly in your operating system (ie, Windows, linux, OSX), that sound is going to the correct device (i.e., speakers or headset), and so on (this may require you to adjust settings in your sound mixer or other similar software);
  • You have not blocked the stream/video; check Preferences → Sound & Media → Media → Manage Media Sites.
  • for streaming music, test the music URL in your external web browser, to make sure that the URL actually works.

• If you have plugged in a USB sound device, you may need to relog so that the viewer can use it.
• HTTP fetching may be overloading your router; please try the suggestions given here; if they do not help, revert the changes made then return to this page and continue.

• Relog Firestorm and open the Search window
• Go to your computer processes and look for “slplugin.exe”
  • For Windows users, go to Task Manager → Processes Tab
  • For Mac users, go to Activity Monitor → My Processes (usually by default, but you can check top right drop down)
  • For Linux users, go to Command Terminal, and type “ps aux”
  • You may see four instances of the slplugin running (that is normal behavior)
  • If you do not see any instances of slplugin running, that is the cause of media failing
• If slplugin is not running, disable all firewall and virus protection (including anti-virus software and windows or other operating system firewalls). Do this check also for llceflib_host.
• Relog and attempt video playback again
• If it works, you will need to stop your firewall/virus protection from blocking the slplugin and/or llceflib_host files by granting appropriate permissions in your firewall/virus protection software
• NOTE: If you have several viewers installed, you will have to allow to each one access through your firewall, as well as to SLPlugin and llceflib_host for each one.
• If all of the above does not resolve the issue, you can try downloading the latest SL Viewer 2 viewer and replacing your Firestorm slplugin file with the one from Viewer 2.

• In Preferences → Sound & Media → Sounds, make sure the “Enabled” checkbox to the right of the “Media” slider is checked
  (For audio, check “Streaming Music”)
• In Preferences → Sound & Media → Media, check “Allow inworld scripts to play media”
• In Preferences → Network & Files -> Connection, make sure the Maximum Number of Web Browser Windows dropdown is set to Five, Ten or Unlimited
• Make sure the issue is not with the specific television you are using, by attempting to view videos on a television that plays video normally for other Firestorm users.
• Make sure that “Enable plugins” is ticked in Preferences → Network & Files -> Connection, else the external media plugin can not be executed, and you may see a message saying: Adobe Flash Player or an HTML5 supported browser is required for video playback.

• Windows users:
  • In order to play Flash format videos (e.g., YouTube videos), you must have the Opera & Chromium version of the Adobe Flash plugin installed. Unless you already have this specific version of Flash installed already, you will need to get the Opera & Chromium Flash plugin from Adobe.

• Linux users
  • You need to have the pepperflash plugin installed, which can be satisfied by installing pepperflashplugin-nonfree for Chromium

• Mac users
  • Mac users currently need the Safari & Firefox version of Adobe Flash plugin installed. Download it from Adobe.

• All users: Test your Flash
  • To make sure you have successfully installed the correct version of Flash and that it is working, use the in-world Flash game to test it.
    • Open the Developer menu: CTRL-Alt-Q. (Close this after testing; it's best not to leave this menu open.)
    • Then type CTRL-SHIFT-Z to open the internal browser.
    • Once the browser loads, click the Home icon in the upper left of the browser window.
    • Click “Flash game” (3rd column, 4th row).
    • A bubble-shooter game should load.

• NOTE: If you experience graphics driver crashes on nVidia cards when viewing Flash media (for example Youtube) both in-world and on a website and/or severe drops in your GPU clock mhz on any card then you will need to disable hardware acceleration on Flash Player. To do this, go to Youtube and Pick any video. Right click the video play area to bring up the options and follow the instructions here.

QuickTime is no longer needed for Windows users (and never was for linux users). Mac users, however, still need to have it.

• If YouTube videos suddenly will not play, and you just get a white screen, go to Preferences→ Privacy -> General, and click on Clear History, then try again.
• See also the Flash section, above.

Go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds and make sure the volume sliders for streaming music and media are not all to the left and that there is no mute symbol (red no entry sign) on the speaker icon next to those. Make sure the Master Volume is not all to the left.

Check that Sound Source rolloff distance (Media tab) is correct; set back to default, if you changed it (5m and 30 respectively for min and max).

Go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds and check that you have the Sounds and UI sliders up high enough and that there is no mute symbol (red no entry sign) on the speaker icon next to those.

Go to the top menu bar→ Advanced → Use Plugin Read Thread, and disable it, if it is enabled - or vice versa. (If you cannot see Advanced on the top menu, press Ctrl-Alt-D.)

If that doesn't help, first ensure that you have your bandwidth set correctly. Also, test the audio stream in your regular media player, and/or try a different audio stream in-world.

If the music volume fades as you cam around or edit objects, check the sound equalization settings in your operating system. For example, this may be caused by “Loudness equalization” being enabled in your speaker properties on Windows 7. (Refer to http://jira.phoenixviewer.com/browse/FIRE-19885.)

This error is due to Flash not being installed, or not installed correctly. See above.