Opera used to play embedded MP3 files in websites like ucollective and bandcamp on my last win98 install. I don't ever recall doing anything special, it always worked.

I got a new motherboard and started over and starting with Opera 11.64 and Opera 12.02, and I did not keep any backups of the old OS install to do any kind of testing on.

On my laptop I got the same problem, that one never played embedded MP3s in any site. embedded OGG and WAV files play however.

No such problem in XP SP3, all formats paly fine.

Does anyone know any solution to this problem ?

Check this ...

Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Downloads > MIME Type > Audio/mpeg

Click "EDIT"

see if the extensions list includes: mp3,mp2,mpga,mpeg,mpg,m1s,m1a,mpm,mpa,m2a

make sure the main selection is : use plugin

So it seems I'll need a plugin. I wonder where did I get one on my last install, I did not deliberately went to look for anything...

One other thing I have noticed that Opera does not seem to use a font that website would supply, I don't remember the correct term of that feature.

You can either do that ( Quicktime or whatever plugin ) or select one of the other options to route the file to a local already working media player like WMP or GOM or VLC.

I personally stopped doing this a while ago and just download them instead with "save to disk". This way I don't have them playing automatically anymore, and have the option to cancel the download if I change my mind. So I kinda changed Opera from being a media player into a more tamed file downloader.

The main point is that Opera at least gives a plethora of options through that dialog. That was always their main strength IMHO.

I would want to avoid downloading, particularly when I am not sure if the stuff is even interest to me. Perhaps VLC did push a plugin into my installation and that allowed the embedded files to work when play was clicked on the site.

This does not explain how on XP+ there is no need for this stuff, all stuff just works out of box. Only OGG and WAV seem to work on 98 out of box...

This does not explain how on XP+ there is no need for this stuff, all stuff just works out of box. Only OGG and WAV seem to work on 98 out of box...

May be this depends on the Windows Media Player installed.

I never installed any media player past 6 as I cannot stand the new ones, but I did have some relating DLLs in the system... maybe there's codec related stuff too in the mix, I shall experiment on XP.

Is L3CODECA.ACM installed among the audio codecs? I have had to manually add it before, either on 98 or 2K (or both) I forget.

The codec file is present and don't seem to make a difference. I installed WMP9 as a firend suggested and that also did not seem to make a difference...

I'll be doing some experiments on my laptop and a spare HDD and try various combinations. I have a feeling that upgrade path from Opera 10 to 12 made a difference on my old installation.

Figured out the problem :

Plugins on-demand breaks sites that don't have "visible" plugins... only indication that site uses plugins and they need to be enabled is a tiny icon in the address bar ! Once you click that all starts working.

Edited October 10, 201312 yr by TmEE

Is this the same reason why flash content on web pages show up as a big box with a > play symbol in the middle of the box and instead of playing or rendering automatically when the webpage is loaded you have to click on the > play symbol? (this is for opera 12.02).

Speaking of opera (12.02), is it normal to not have browser control buttons like the back or forward button?

Is this the same reason why flash content on web pages show up as a big box with a > play symbol in the middle of the box and instead of playing or rendering automatically when the webpage is loaded you have to click on the > play symbol? (this is for opera 12.02).

Speaking of opera (12.02), is it normal to not have browser control buttons like the back or forward button?

I think that is the default in 12. No menu bar either. Totally lame skin.

Having just made the switch to 12, I worked out the edits to the config file to restore full local skinning, including showing a specified folder of your own skins when you use Tools > Appearance. They show up in the "Themes" tab which used to be "Skins". If someone wants to know how, let me know.

Naturally you will need to have usable skins ( ZIP files ) with the buttons and everything inside.. BTW, I haven't looked, but I've heard that the huge online selection of skins were removed and instead they have those theme things.

Try Firefox3.6.28. It renders websites MUCH BETTER than opera 12.02. Youtube works better, newer versions of flash work better, the latest version of ad-block plus works, flash games work, ect. I went from having a 80% chance of a cite working to 99% its work the change. ( Yes sound cloud is one of them )

Ops didn't realize op fixed the issue sorry

Edited October 26, 201312 yr by lolnousernameforyou

Ever since I discovered Opera I could never go back to Firefox. Giant and slow uncustomisable thing... Largest of them all and least featured. With a bunch of addons I could get it to my liking but then the browser is less responsive than frozen molasses. I have it installed for the rare occasions when a site is not very usable in Opera, and last time it happened was over a year ago, sometimes all it takes is to change the User agent and bam a site works perfectly.

12.x I don't use normally, that thing is incredibly slow compared to 11.x, and the new Chrompera should not exist at all.... WTH were they thinking... anyway its their death.

Regarding 12.02, you should install it over 11.something. Vanilla install never quite worked well in my cases.

Edited October 26, 201312 yr by TmEE

I agree with you. Opera 11.xx is much better than 12.xx. I only switched because my favorite add-on did not work in Opera 11 so I switched to 12.02. Ad-block worked but more issues arose when I upgraded from flash 9 to 11. It didn't help that 12.02's java script didn't work properly but because of flash 11 now Ad-block didn't work nor the Youtube windows resizer. So I decided to switch browsers and my only real options were Firefox and Opera. Firefox 10 was a huge mistake and was the reason why I went to Opera in the first place for it crashed like crazy so I tried the latest version of Firefox 3.xx which I loved for it actually worked. For me Firefox 3 is not slow or unresponsive though not as quick as Opera was. Though if I can get Opera to work properly I would go back so I'm going to try what you did/recommend so I may re add it to my box.

**NOTE** The reason why Firefox isn't horribly lagged is because I have no-script, ad-block plus, and element hiding helper for ad-block plus.

Edited October 26, 201312 yr by lolnousernameforyou