Embeded Video

[Disco Octopus]

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?

Thanks

 

[dorayme]

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?

Consider not getting a headache and loading it up to youTube and getting
their code to make it play on your page. Come back and tell about your
experience with this.

 

[Adrienne Boswell]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed dorayme

Consider not getting a headache and loading it up to youTube and getting
their code to make it play on your page. Come back and tell about your
experience with this.

Agree with you completely. Recently, I was given a wmv movie done by my
client's daughter. Try as I might, every single time I tried to open
that file on my computer, my video card would crash! After rebooting
three times, and cursing don't know how many times, I finally uploaded
the thing to Youtube, and embedded it in my client's website from there.
Much better - let Youtube deal with it.

You're more than welcome to have a look:
http://favoriteplacerestaurant.com/tour.php - and yes, everything is
absolutely delicious.

 

[Neredbojias]

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?

Despite the comical anecdotes from the women, I'd advise using Flash
(-not for the page, only for the vids [as .flv files]). I have
single-page selectible clips on my adult sites in both wmv/mpg and
flv/mp4 formats, the latter using the excellent and free jw player, and
in a day or so I will have an entire movie up on the regular .org site
(where there is currently a more-or-less sample page called "misc
clips" or something like that). Check it out. Sure, javascript is
required as well as the requisite plugins, but do you really think you
can provide video content for the ultra-conservatives?

 

[richard]

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?

Thanks

<http://www.swishzone.com/index.php?area=products&product=video>

get swish video 3.
Various styles of controls are included so there's no need to link to
adobe.

It will create what you need to put in on web page.

 

[cwdjrxyz]

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 to http://www.cwdjr.net/flash3/catfight.php you 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.

 

[dorayme]

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, ...

I want you to know cwdjrxyz that I keep your remarks on this sort of
thing in a special folder for reference. You have been most generous in
explaining a lot of this stuff for quite some time now.

 

[Neredbojias]

If you will go to http://www.cwdjr.net/flash3/catfight.php you 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.

Excellent quality, superior rendition, and _nice_ player! If you don't
mind my asking, what was the native frame rate?

 

[cwdjrxyz]

Excellent quality, superior rendition, and _nice_ player!  If you don't
mind my asking, what was the native frame rate?

On encoding, I just selected original frame rate. You could also have
selected other frame rates. Checking back on the summary of settings
used before I started encoding, I find that the native frame rate was
29.+ fps. This number is just slightly under 30 fps and is used a lot
for sound era movies, although slower frame rates were used in the
silent era. Why this fractional number was selected instead of 30 fps
is unknown to me, but it is quite common.

 

[rf]

On encoding, I just selected original frame rate. You could also have
selected other frame rates. Checking back on the summary of settings
used before I started encoding, I find that the native frame rate was
29.+ fps. This number is just slightly under 30 fps and is used a lot
for sound era movies, although slower frame rates were used in the
silent era. Why this fractional number was selected instead of 30 fps
is unknown to me, but it is quite common.

29.97?

That's the frame rate of NTSC (Never Twice the Same Colour) analogue
television as used in the U S of A.

More sane countries use PAL at 25 FPS.

 

[David Mark]

I want you to know cwdjrxyz that I keep your remarks on this sort of
thing in a special folder for reference. You have been most generous in
explaining a lot of this stuff for quite some time now.

Your special folder now contains a recipe for Flash that invariably
fails in the latest Windows version(s) when used with IE. What do you
plan to cook up with that?

 

[dorayme]

Your special folder now contains a recipe for Flash that invariably
fails in the latest Windows version(s) when used with IE. What do you
plan to cook up with that?

I like a sharp eye and I might tell you what I am going to do when I get
time to attend to this matter. In the meantime - buster - I take the low
down easy route to earthly happiness, and use the free youTube as I
mentioned in another post. btw, I am very surprised you have time to
post here Mark, so early after you promised to read all my posts for the
last two years. <g>

 

[cwdjrxyz]

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.

 

[cwdjrxyz]

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.

I just took a look at the YouTube and MySpace sites on a 64 bit Visa
OS using the 64-bit IE7. You would not believe how calm and peaceful
both sites were. Both use mainly flash videos and music, and many use
autostart. But even YouTube's featured top videos would not play.
Going back to both sites using Firefox instead of 64 bit IE7, both
sites were normal. My parrot, who is a member of MySpace, posted in a
forum there explaining the 64 bit problem. Both MySpace and YouTube
had a very large number of posts about videos not working, although
there are many possible reasons why a video may not work.

 

[Neredbojias]

On encoding, I just selected original frame rate. You could also have
selected other frame rates. Checking back on the summary of settings
used before I started encoding, I find that the native frame rate was
29.+ fps. This number is just slightly under 30 fps and is used a lot
for sound era movies, although slower frame rates were used in the
silent era. Why this fractional number was selected instead of 30 fps
is unknown to me, but it is quite common.

Sounds like ntsc, dropped just under 30 to solve sound-and-color
interference. I thought it might have been PAL because the vid was in
French (but I s'pose it could be Canadian, et al.) Merci beaucoup.

 

[Travis Newbury]

Consider not getting a headache and loading it up to youTube and getting
their code to make it play on your page. Come back and tell about your
experience with this.

The problem with youtube is the link back to their site. Better to
upload it to youtube, then download the resultant FLV file. Then put
it on your own server and use one of the many free Flash players you
can easily skin and put on your web page.

Let youtube convert the file for you. But serve the file yourself.

 

[David Mark]

[snip]

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.

Horse feathers. I predict it won't be fixed soon and that you work
for Adobe. And regardless, you can't build sites with predictions.

[snip]

 

[cwdjrxyz]

[snip]

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.

Horse feathers.  I predict it won't be fixed soon and that you work
for Adobe.  And regardless, you can't build sites with predictions.

Time will tell. I expect that the many users of flash ads will become
quite upset when they hear that their ads are not being seen on 64 bit
Vista using 64 bit IE7. I expect they may complain to Adobe,
Microsoft, federal government agencies, and anyone else they can think
of until the problem is solved.

I never have worked for Adobe or any other software or media company.
Many think there is money to be made in selling of video and music and
thus want a piece of the action. Thus they use dozens of video and
audio formats, give you free player programs, etc in hope you will buy
some media they offer or media related programs. Hence we have a media
format war that makes the old browser war era look tame by comparison.
Real media was displaced on many large commercial web sites by
Microsoft media formats. Now with video quality greatly improved on
flv/swf, it has displaced Microsoft video formats on many large sites.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring. I do expect that Adobe, Real,
Microsoft, and Apple will continue to leave no stone unturned in their
attempts to gain more of the media market. None of the video formats
used on the web are anywhere near perfect. The different ways various
formats greatly compress video can make some differences even if the
various formats are at the same bit rate. How do you trade off video
vs sound quality etc. To get top DVD quality streaming on the web, you
would need a connection that allows over 10 Mbps for good streaming.
But even DVDs are compressed considerably. Hence the need for much
higher rates. A Blu-ray movie of average length may use 35 to over 40
GB on a 50 GB DL Blu-ray disc. Even this does not allow the full
resolution of the best that 70 mm film movies can offer.

Finally, do you work for Microsoft or do contract work for them?

 

[David Mark]

[snip]

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.

Horse feathers.  I predict it won't be fixed soon and that you work
for Adobe.  And regardless, you can't build sites with predictions.

Time will tell. I expect that the many users of flash ads will become
quite upset when they hear that their ads are not being seen on 64 bit
Vista using 64 bit IE7. I expect they may complain to Adobe,
Microsoft, federal government agencies, and anyone else they can think
of until the problem is solved.

Piffle. What does that mean to the guy building a site *today*.

[snip filler]

Finally, do you work for Microsoft or do contract work for them?

Who do you think I am? They'd have to pay me an obscene amount of
money to talk to them (or use a shell company.)

 

[cwdjrxyz]

[snip]

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.

Horse feathers.  I predict it won't be fixed soon and that you work
for Adobe.  And regardless, you can't build sites with predictions.

Time will tell. I expect that the many users of flash ads will become
quite upset when they hear that their ads are not being seen on 64 bit
Vista using 64 bit IE7. I expect they may complain to Adobe,
Microsoft, federal government agencies, and anyone else they can think
of until the problem is solved.

I never have worked for Adobe or any other software or media company.
Many think there is money to be made in selling of video and music and
thus want a piece of the action. Thus they use dozens of video and
audio formats, give you free player programs, etc in hope you will buy
some media they offer or media related programs. Hence we have a media
format war that makes the old browser war era look tame by comparison.
Real media was displaced on many large commercial web sites by
Microsoft media formats. Now with video quality greatly improved on
flv/swf, it has displaced Microsoft video formats on many large sites.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring. I do expect that Adobe, Real,
Microsoft, and Apple will continue to leave no stone unturned in their
attempts to gain more of the media market. None of the video formats
used on the web are anywhere near perfect. The different ways various
formats greatly compress video can make some differences even if the
various formats are at the same bit rate. How do you trade off video
vs sound quality etc. To get top DVD quality streaming on the web, you
would need a connection that allows over 10 Mbps for good streaming.
But even DVDs are compressed considerably. Hence the need for much
higher rates. A Blu-ray movie of average length  may use 35 to over 40
GB on a 50 GB DL Blu-ray disc. Even this does not allow the full
resolution of  the best that 70 mm film movies can offer.

Finally, do you work for Microsoft or do contract work for them?

The official Adobe information on the 64 bit issue is at
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/000/6b3af6c9.html .