linking movies and autostart

Y

yk

I'm unsure if this is the right place to ask...

Is it possible to turn off autostart when linking a movie via url?

I have several movie clips on one page. My concerns are:
1) I don't know what application people will be using (quicktime,windows
media, real...)
2) I don't want to embed all these files, as that would be several MB.
Although I might be able to set up a javascript to embed dynamically, so
the movie doesn't download unless the user wants it.

The main reason for this is my movies are choppy and unintelligible
until they finish downloading. If I wait and play them after downloading
they play as they should. I was thinking I can tell the user to wait
until they download before playing.

Perhaps I'm missing something though.
 
O

Owen Jacobson

yk said:
I have several movie clips on one page. My concerns are:
1) I don't know what application people will be using
(quicktime,windows media, real...) 2) I don't want to embed all these
files, as that would be several MB. Although I might be able to set
up a javascript to embed dynamically, so the movie doesn't download
unless the user wants it.

The main reason for this is my movies are choppy and unintelligible
until they finish downloading. If I wait and play them after
downloading they play as they should. I was thinking I can tell the
user to wait until they download before playing.

If someone's configured their player to start playing while still
downloading, who are you to tell them they're wrong? I would expect
them to be familiar with the choppy consequences. Because you, by
design, cannot know what viewer the client is using to view your media,
anything you might try to do to 'enforce' download-before-play will at
best work some of the time.

If it's really a problem you might want to advise users in the page
text that the movies are fairly large and that they may want to wait
until they've fully downloaded before starting to play them, and let
them decide whether to take you seriously or not.
 
Y

yk

Owen said:
yk wrote:




If someone's configured their player to start playing while still
downloading, who are you to tell them they're wrong? I would expect
them to be familiar with the choppy consequences. Because you, by
design, cannot know what viewer the client is using to view your media,
anything you might try to do to 'enforce' download-before-play will at
best work some of the time.

If it's really a problem you might want to advise users in the page
text that the movies are fairly large and that they may want to wait
until they've fully downloaded before starting to play them, and let
them decide whether to take you seriously or not.

No need to get all huffy, I'm no Bill Gates here :). It's actually for
my family's site, part of a family photo album I've created for
everyone, as we live all over the states, and not everyone gets to visit
each other as much as they'd like. So I'm pretty familiar with the
users. :) The older generations aren't too computer saavy, which is why
I'm trying to control everything I can. I'm not too sure they will
follow instructions well, being either impatient or unfamiliar with the
software. I was just trying to cover all bases and see if I could make
this as easy as possible for them. I know the younger generations will
at least enjoy the movie clips.

They do span oses and I think there might be a mac or two, which is why
I'd prefer to not embed. I guess it's possible to have javascript detect
whether they have quicktime or windows media, and if they don't just
provide a link to the movie to open it in whatever player they have. And
I can embed the file on demand, so they're not downloading all the
movies at once. But still if they press play before it finishes
downloading it might not work... I don't know if there's a way around
that. Not to mention I am not even sure I can get it to play
automatically only after the movie downloads. Embedding just looks nicer
and doesn't take you away from the browser window.

I don't remember what format or codec I used, I recall vaguely that they
could be saved for broadband or 56k. I don't know what the difference
is, is the movie just smaller, or does it stream more smoothly for
slower speeds? Is this part of the codec or compression? Does it matter
which codec you use?
 
G

George Self

yk said:
I'm unsure if this is the right place to ask...

Is it possible to turn off autostart when linking a movie via url?

I have several movie clips on one page. My concerns are:
1) I don't know what application people will be using (quicktime,windows
media, real...)
2) I don't want to embed all these files, as that would be several MB.
Although I might be able to set up a javascript to embed dynamically, so
the movie doesn't download unless the user wants it.

The main reason for this is my movies are choppy and unintelligible
until they finish downloading. If I wait and play them after downloading
they play as they should. I was thinking I can tell the user to wait
until they download before playing.

Perhaps I'm missing something though.

Can't you just use a simple concept like this:

<a href="movie1.avi">Windows Version</a>
<br />
<a href="movie1.mov">QuickTime Version</a>

I would think you could put a still photo of some sort in the document (a
"thumbnail" of the movie), with a number of links under that photo so your
family could click on the appropriate link to download and play the movie.

--George
 
Y

yk

George said:
yk wrote:




Can't you just use a simple concept like this:

<a href="movie1.avi">Windows Version</a>
<br />
<a href="movie1.mov">QuickTime Version</a>

I would think you could put a still photo of some sort in the document (a
"thumbnail" of the movie), with a number of links under that photo so your
family could click on the appropriate link to download and play the movie.

--George

Would changing the files to those formats fix the stuttering streaming
problem?
 
G

George Self

yk said:
Would changing the files to those formats fix the stuttering streaming
problem?
Again, I'm certainly no expert on video files (I've found them too large to
expect my visitors to wait for them to download). However, I believe that
if you set up an "<a>" link to an ".AVI" or ".MOV" file then these files
will not stream. They will completely download first, and then the visitor
can view them. I think that IE and Netscape both will pop up the video
viewer of choice, but that viewer will display some sort of "Downloading"
message until the file is completely in the visitor's computer.

Of course, someone with a lot more experience than me can correct these
thoughts. Or, just try it out to see what it does.

--George
 
W

Whitecrest

Again, I'm certainly no expert on video files (I've found them too large to
expect my visitors to wait for them to download). However, I believe that
if you set up an "<a>" link to an ".AVI" or ".MOV" file then these files
will not stream.....

Streaming means that you download it faster than you play it. Nothing
more. There is nothing on the server that "pushes" the video to your
clients.

Both Media Player and Real will "Stream" by default. I believe Quick
time needs a setting change (I don't use mov very often)

Your best bet (no doubt this will be argued with) is to encode with Real
and Microsoft Media. Using these 2, you have covered virtually every
system out there. (Yes, someone may have to download a player, but These
2 players seem to be pretty global in their use, and both offer free
encoding and players)

Look at what people use for streaming media. The MAJORITY use WMV and
RM.
 
Y

yk

Whitecrest said:
Streaming means that you download it faster than you play it. Nothing
more. There is nothing on the server that "pushes" the video to your
clients.

Both Media Player and Real will "Stream" by default. I believe Quick
time needs a setting change (I don't use mov very often)

Your best bet (no doubt this will be argued with) is to encode with Real
and Microsoft Media. Using these 2, you have covered virtually every
system out there. (Yes, someone may have to download a player, but These
2 players seem to be pretty global in their use, and both offer free
encoding and players)

Look at what people use for streaming media. The MAJORITY use WMV and
RM.

Thanks for your reply. Sorry for the delay in responding. I got tied up
in another project (actual work, rather than "fun"). I don't really
understand the encoding part yet, but will look into it.
 

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