Re: Embeded Video
- From: cwdjrxyz <spamtrap2@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 22:22:14 -0700 (PDT)
On May 14, 3:36 am, cwdjrxyz <spamtr...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 13, 4:36 am, Disco Octopus <di...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi,
Long time... Hope you are all well.
I have been asked to embed a video in one of my web sites.
Of all the time I have spent on building sites, I have actually never
done this. I can think of some reasons not to do this, but he is the
customer, and that's what he want... Hhhmmm. Anyway....
A couple of questions...
1. What is the best/most accessible format to use (.wmv, .ogg, etc)?
2. How best to embed it? Should I opt for a choice in the format, and
therefore the embedding method?
If you give only one format choice on a page, modern flash flv/swf
likely is the best way to go for general web pages. Sites with heavy
video activity, pay sites, and other special purpose ones may make one
opt for some other format. However it is quite possible to offer more
than one video format and the same format for various speeds such as
high or low broadband. Video on dialup speeds usually leaves very much
to be desired and works best for fairly static images, such as someone
seated reading the news. Flash flv/swf will stream well by progressive
download from an ordinary html server provided the download rate
provided by an isp can keep up with the rate required by the video. If
you are interested only in videos, there is no need to buy the very
expensive official full flash suites. There are several flv/swf
encoders available at reasonable price. I am currently using the Moyea
Flash Video MX Pro, which costs US$90+, but this company and others
have less complete encoders for about 1/2 as much as this one. You can
input several video formats to convert to flv/swf. You can control bit
rate, video codec used, make many styles of players in the swf file
which is encoded along with the swf file, and do many types of
adjustments. Your output is a flv file which contains only video
information and a swf container file that includes the custom player
you made. You upload both of these files to the same directory on your
server. You only call for the swf file in your html code. When you do
so, the server automatically starts downloading the flv to a temporary
cache on the viewing computer.
Some people think of flash only in terms of the early versions with
cartoon-like images. There is still plenty of that in flash ads. The
older Sorenson H263 codec was replaced by Flash 8 which allowed high
quality video. Also flv files come in 4 versions for special purposes,
but all can use the extension .flv without problems. Recently the H264
codec has been added. This is based on mp4 and allows flash video
quality equal or better than many of the other video formats. Flash
video has now nearly displaced Real and WMV on many large sites that
include video such as YouTube, MySpace, major US news network, and
federal government agencies. With the improved H264 codec and support
of a native movie frame rates, Adobe may now be able to replace many
Microsoft streaming sites.
At present, there is a problem for flash support on Microsoft 64 bit
OSs when the 64 bit version of IE7 is used. The browser will tell you
you need flash and direct you to the Adobe site for a download.
However when you opt to take the download, nothing happens. If you go
directly to Adobe on a Vista 64 bit OS using the usual 64-bit version
of IE7 and try to install flash, you get a message that it can not be
installed and that native 64 bit support will be included in the next
version. However, even on a 64 bit Vista OS, you will have no problem
with flash if you use a Firefox, Opera, Safari for Windows, or likely
several other browsers. On my new Dell 64 bit Studio XPS PC, another
solution is provided. If you go to all programs you will find the
correct 64 bit version of IE7 which will not work for flash. However
you find a selection labeled just IE7 which is either the standard 32
bit or some modified version that will work for flash and likely for
other 64 bit related issues.
If you will go tohttp://www.cwdjr.net/flash3/catfight.phpyou will
find an embedded flash video page that I just completed. It is for
high broadband for maximum quality. It uses the most recent H264
codec, native movie frame rate, and a 2180 kbps video bitrate. You
will notice the custom player which is contained in the swf container
file.
As I said above, one can offer a choice of several players. See
http://www.cwdjr.net/flash3/catfightclips.php for the same video in 4
formats. This involves much php. When you select a player from the
image map, your choice is reported to the server which writes the html
code for the player you selected and downloads it to your computer.
This avoids the clutter of code that will not be needed once you have
made a selection. Also it works even if script is turned off on the
computer. If you select a player that that is not installed on the
computer, usually you just get no view of anything new and can then
select another player.
When there are updated versions of OSs, browsers, or players, issues
can show up from time to time. Often these are soon corrected, but
until they are you usually can choose another type of player. For
example the K-Meleon browser is not working for wmp since the last
upgrade of it, but it still is working for the other 3 players. I will
look into that, but since this browser is not widely used, I am in no
rush and likely will wait and see if the issue goes away with the next
frequent udate of K-Meleon.
I predict the issue for flash on 64 bit Vista used with 64 bit IE7
will be resolved soon. Adobe likely will be rushing to solve this
problem because their flash is so widely used. On a personal level I
could care less because I only use the IE7 browser to check web pages
I have written. Other browsers I use do not have this 64 bit problem.
However there are those who still use the very imperfect IE7 browser
which can not even support any type of xhtml served properly as
application/xhtml+xml although xhtml has now been around many years,
while most other often used browsers have good true xhtml support. It
is interesting that the flash issue for 64 bit Vista shows up on the
64 bit IE7 browser, but not current versions of Firefox, Opera, Safari
for Windows, K-Melon, and likely other browsers I have not tried. It
is also interesting to note that flash has replaced Windows media
formats on many large sites mentioned earlier. Thus, I would not
expect Microsoft to expend much effort to overcome the problem, even
though other most used browsers do not have the problem. I suppose
some might consider conspiracy theories, but as very many strange
things have happened on IE browsers over the years, the problem could
well be just an accident.
.
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- Re: Embeded Video
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