Wierd apparent auto-download of Shockwave audio

I

Isaac Grover

Hi everyone,

I have recorded some conference calls for my business partners, put them online
in Shockwave audio format using a player available from Shockwave. And I'm
encountering an annoying problem.

When someone connects to my page at
http://users.myexcel.com/igrover/wednesday-recordings/ using Internet Explorer,
even though the browser says the page is finished downloading, there is heavy
traffic in the background that, according to Ethereal, is the Shockwave audio
being automatically downloaded. But according to the configuration, I've
disabled the auto-play feature of the Shockwave player.

Why is the Shockwave audio automatically downloading in the background?

Thanks in advance,

Isaac

Are you losing $14,200.00 per year without your knowledge?
http://bigmoneyandfreetime.web1000.com
 
S

Spartanicus

I have recorded some conference calls for my business partners, put them online
in Shockwave audio format using a player available from Shockwave.

You'd do much better by choosing an accessible sound format like mp3 and
leave the choice of player to the user.

OMG, you are asking for trouble by using such an overly complicated
method. Scrap the entire page and start again, I suggest you serve audio
files using redirector files:
http://www.spartanicus.utvinternet.ie/streaming.htm
using Internet Explorer,
even though the browser says the page is finished downloading, there is heavy
traffic in the background that, according to Ethereal, is the Shockwave audio
being automatically downloaded. But according to the configuration, I've
disabled the auto-play feature of the Shockwave player.

That's what you get if you attempt to embed audio, don't:
http://www.spartanicus.utvinternet.ie/embed.htm
 
I

Isaac Grover

You'd do much better by choosing an accessible sound format like mp3 and
leave the choice of player to the user.

Yes, I realize that, but due to space limitations, I would rather stick with a
small format like Shockwave audio. These calls are roughly an hour long, with
the resulting .wav file consistently around 730Mb. An .mp3 file converted from
this .wav file sits around 63Mb, RealAudio files are around 16Mb, and a
Shockwave Audio file is around 8.5Mb.

Most of the viewers who connect to my page have more important things to concern
themselves with than using the latest and greatest MP3 player. They just want
it to work with the least amount of hassle on their part. And for the most part
they use IE 5.0+ on Windows, with the rare exception using Netscape, or myself
using Opera. So I'm not looking at building this page for the whole world to
see - only those who it is intended for.
OMG, you are asking for trouble by using such an overly complicated
method. Scrap the entire page and start again, I suggest you serve audio
files using redirector files:
http://www.spartanicus.utvinternet.ie/streaming.htm

Thank you for the link, but again, due to space limitations, I choose to stick
with a smaller format that requires little hassle on the end user's part.


Isaac

Are you losing $14,200.00 per year without your knowledge?
http://bigmoneyandfreetime.web1000.com
 
D

David Graham

Spartanicus said:
You'd do much better by choosing an accessible sound format like mp3 and
leave the choice of player to the user.


OMG, you are asking for trouble by using such an overly complicated
method. Scrap the entire page and start again, I suggest you serve audio
files using redirector files:
http://www.spartanicus.utvinternet.ie/streaming.htm


That's what you get if you attempt to embed audio, don't:
http://www.spartanicus.utvinternet.ie/embed.htm

Hi Spartanicus
I like the idea od redirector files. There is only one thing I am not sure
about. All the instuctions at
http://www.spartanicus.utvinternet.ie/streaming.htm
include a line about setting the 'proper mime type' on the server. How do
you actually do that? I guess I should write something in my .htaccess file
but I don't know the code for this - also, doesn't my ISP already set this
sort of thing for me?
thanks
David
 
T

Toby A Inkster

Isaac said:
Yes, I realize that, but due to space limitations, I would rather stick with a
small format like Shockwave audio. These calls are roughly an hour long, with
the resulting .wav file consistently around 730Mb. An .mp3 file converted from
this .wav file sits around 63Mb, RealAudio files are around 16Mb, and a
Shockwave Audio file is around 8.5Mb.

Judging from these numbers, your MP3s have a bitrate of 128kbps joint
stereo. Reduce that to 24kbps mono and you'll see the file size come down
dramatically.
 
B

Bob Long

In
Isaac Grover said:
Yes, I realize that, but due to space limitations, I would rather
stick with a small format like Shockwave audio. These calls are
roughly an hour long, with the resulting .wav file consistently
around 730Mb. An .mp3 file converted from this .wav file sits around
63Mb, RealAudio files are around 16Mb, and a Shockwave Audio file is
around 8.5Mb.

I presume the conference calls are just voice? I'd expect that you could
encode to MP3 at a lower quality, mono, and reduce the file size. I'd expect
you could get down to about 6~7MB for an hour. 16Kbps/22.05Ksamples/sec give
results you can try here (sermons, roughly 2MB for ~20 minutes):
http://www.mpc.org.au/resources/resources04.html

Bob Long
 
S

Spartanicus

David Graham said:
I like the idea od redirector files. There is only one thing I am not sure
about. All the instuctions at
http://www.spartanicus.utvinternet.ie/streaming.htm
include a line about setting the 'proper mime type' on the server. How do
you actually do that? I guess I should write something in my .htaccess file
but I don't know the code for this

Example .htaccess config line:
AddType audio/x-mpegurl .m3u
- also, doesn't my ISP already set this
sort of thing for me?

Maybe, probably not tho.
 

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