Can't fast forward in Windows Media Player when source is FTP

Question

there's probably a good reason for this, but streaming WMP from an FTP folder disables a few features in wmp. This is probably because of unknown filesize etc. But could there be a way to avoid this? I have been thinking of some form of a local cache of the files. But that would require one to finish the playback the first time for the cache to be read. Could there be a way of being able to fast forward the first time playback?

Answer 1

It is possible to resume (restart) from a different point by sending an FTP REST request for a different start position in the file, therefore fast forwarding should work. My best guesses are:

• The version of Windows Media Player you're using hasn't implemented the use of FTP's REST.
• The server you're downloading from hasn't implemented REST. Server's aren't required to implement it.

For more info on REST, see RFC 959.

Answer 2

I would guess there isn't, FTP is pretty basic protocol. It may be possible to start downloading the file via FTP and while it is downloading start playing it in Window Media Player. See if it works that way.