embed problem - video image dont show up anymore???

R

Rhinolover

Hi all,

I have set up a video viewer on my website, that streams tutorial video. 3
version of the videos are setup. 56k, 100k, 300k.

Now 2 weeks ago, everything was working well and the video was loading with
no problem.

Now i try again, and only the sounds works, there is no image that shows up.

I would like to know what is wrong with my script since i havent touch it
since the time it was working.

Here is my script:

<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body bgcolor="#000000">
<OBJECT ID="MediaPlayer1" width=300 height=300
classid="CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95"
CODEBASE="http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.
cab#Version=6,4,5,715" standby="Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player
components..." type="application/x-oleobject">
<PARAM NAME="AutoStart" VALUE="false">
<PARAM NAME="FileName"
VALUE="http://mysite.com/html/videofolder/videocategory/d1128k.wvx">
<PARAM NAME="ShowControls" VALUE="true">
<PARAM NAME="ShowStatusBar" VALUE="true">
<PARAM NAME="animationatStart" VALUE="false">
<EMBED type="application/x-mplayer2"
pluginspage="http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/MediaPlayer/"
SRC="http://mysite.com/html/videofolder/videocategory/d1128k.wvx"
name="MediaPlayer1" width=300 height=300 autostart=0 showcontrols=1></EMBED>
</OBJECT>
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
if ( navigator.appName == "Netscape" )
{
navigator.plugins.refresh();
document.write("\x3C" + "applet MAYSCRIPT
Code=NPDS.npDSEvtObsProxy.class" )
document.writeln(" width=5 height=5 name=appObs\x3E
\x3C/applet\x3E")
}
//-->
</script>

</body>
</html>

Now i am not a programmer saavy, and would like to have advise and
explanation on what is wrong with it. Since it did work 2 weeks ago.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
H

Headless

Rhinolover said:
I have set up a video viewer on my website, that streams tutorial video. 3
version of the videos are setup. 56k, 100k, 300k.

You encoded 3 separate files I hope? With a single multi bitrate file
the version that is chosen depends on the client being able to request
the appropriate version and being configured properly, not all players
are able to do this, and you cannot rely on this being configured
properly, bad idea.
Here is my script:

<html>

That's html, not script.
<OBJECT ID="MediaPlayer1" width=300 height=300

You are attempting to force the use of MS MediaPlayer, this restricts
the number of clients that can play the video, dumb idea.
classid="CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95"

ActiveX, that restricts usage of the video even more, dumber idea.
cab#Version=6,4,5,715" standby="Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player

Forcing a client to hoist a monstrous application like MS MediaPlayer
into memory before they've decided to play the video is a big no-no.
<EMBED type="application/x-mplayer2"

Invalid html.
<script language="JavaScript">

Ah, there's the script.
if ( navigator.appName == "Netscape" )

Browser sniffing is far to unreliable, even when implemented properly,
the method above is the worst possible way you could have done it.
Any help would be appreciated.

Ditch the lot, re-encode the video to 3 separate files using a format
for which the decoding routine is open standard like MPEG-4.

Create redirector files if you want the files to play streaming, create
3 links to those files and place a link beneath those links that links
to a page with instructions for people who do not have the appropriate
decoder installed.


Headless
 
R

Rhinolover

I would like to offers to users on my site, streaming videos in 3 speed
format, 56k, 128k, 300k. For now i would like to support only Windows Media
Player (Until i get better and know better about embeding video correctly)

To reduce the user to save the streaming video onto their computer, i was
told that the best way was to embed the WMP player into my webpage. First of
all is this true?

Since i have more than one video , i decided to build a Database for it
(Mysql) and get the video dynamically using PHP4. Depending on the user
choice the selected video will be displayed.

Is it possible ?

And since it seems i did the whole process wrong. What is the correct and
perfect way to encode / embed a windows media player into a webpage, that
will be supported by IE browser and Netscape browser?

Is it an obligation to use Active-X to load the embedded player?
 
H

Headless

Point of order: please don't top post.
I would like to offers to users on my site, streaming videos in 3 speed
format, 56k, 128k, 300k. For now i would like to support only Windows Media
Player (Until i get better and know better about embeding video correctly)

To reduce the user to save the streaming video onto their computer, i was
told that the best way was to embed the WMP player into my webpage. First of
all is this true?

No. Video can be served in 2 ways: Streaming and Non-streaming.
Streaming enables playback to start without the video having to be
downloaded first, so this is the preferred method in most cases.

Embedding is something entirely different. It causes the mediaplayer
software to appear in a browser window as if it was part of the page.
This is undesirable for various reasons:

1) The mediaplayer software needs to be hoisted into memory before the
user has decided if they want to play the video or not, given the size
of some media players (MS MediaPlayer >=9 for example) this is a nasty
thing to do.

2) Embedding prevents some people from playing the video. All that
should matter is whether or not a user has _a_ player capable of
handling the video's file format. A user may have the necessary player,
but he/she has decided not to allow it to integrate with their browser.
Embedding prevents those people from playing the video.
Since i have more than one video , i decided to build a Database for it
(Mysql) and get the video dynamically using PHP4. Depending on the user
choice the selected video will be displayed.

Is it possible ?

Sure, but that is a completely different topic.

All you need to do is link to the media files, if you want to offer
various versions of the same video (requiring different bandwidths for
example), simply use more links:

<a href="example35k.ext" type="video/mpegurl">Video 35kbps</a>
<a href="example120k.ext" type="video/mpegurl">Video 120kbps</a>
<a href="example300k.ext" type="video/mpegurl">Video 300kbps</a>


Headless
 
R

Rhinolover

Ok, maybe it was a server problem, cause today everything works fine.

Now i know that by embedding the WMP within the page it may not be the best
thing to do, but this is the option i am going with for now.

I also have seen many site doing exactly the same thing.

YOu mentionned that the JS script snippet i used to detect Netscape was the
worst.

What is the best and clean way to detect browser? can you point a good
reference website on the topic?

And is there a way to make WMP embedded player within a page compatible with
most browsers? Or they is so much compability you can get.

I want to stay away from Mpeg since they are heavy, fair compatible with all
platform and browser but heavy, much heavier than a Windows media compress
video file.
 
H

Headless

2nd (and last time before I stop responding): please respect the rules
of this group and do not top post.
Now i know that by embedding the WMP within the page it may not be the best
thing to do, but this is the option i am going with for now.

I also have seen many site doing exactly the same thing.

That doesn't make it any less dumb.
YOu mentionned that the JS script snippet i used to detect Netscape was the
worst.

What is the best and clean way to detect browser? can you point a good
reference website on the topic?

Browser detection is fundamentally flawed, you do not need it, ditch it.
And is there a way to make WMP embedded player within a page compatible with
most browsers? Or they is so much compability you can get.

I repeat: you should not restrict usage to WMP and you should not embed.
No point in worrying about accessability if you are going to flaunt
basic usability guidelines by doing what you do.
I want to stay away from Mpeg since they are heavy, fair compatible with all
platform and browser but heavy, much heavier than a Windows media compress
video file.

Nonsense, Windows media is a proprietary form of MPEG4. You are
confusing MPEG4 with MPEG1.


Headless
 

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