Hi guys! I want to embed an .avi file on my website and I want to do it using windows media player. Here's the code that I'm currently using: <OBJECT ID="MediaPlayer" WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="506" CLASSID="clsid:6BF52A52-394A-11D3-B153-00C04F79FAA6" STANDBY="Loading Windows Media Player components..." TYPE="video/x-msvideo"> <PARAM NAME="FileName" VALUE="video2.avi"> <PARAM name="ShowControls" VALUE="true"> <param name="ShowStatusBar" value="true"> <PARAM name="ShowDisplay" VALUE="false"> <PARAM name="autostart" VALUE="true"> <EMBED TYPE="application/x-mplayer2" SRC="video2.avi" NAME="MediaPlayer" WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="506" ShowControls="1" ShowStatusBar="1" ShowDisplay="0" autostart="1"> </EMBED> </OBJECT></noscript></noscript> Code (markup): The problem with it is that it downloads the whole movie file first and then it plays it... I want it to do a "progressive download" meaning it downloads a small chunk first then starts playing it and while the first chunk is playing the 2nd chunk is being downloaded so that the user doesn't have to wait too long. I'm using some big avi files (50 to 100 mb) so waiting for the whole file to download first isn't an option. Any ideas on how to do that?
I can't believe nobody on this forum didn't try to embed a video with wmp If you have the slightest idea on what should I try to make it "progressive download" please don't hesitate to reply I really need to have this working asap. Thanks, vlad
WHY are you using AVI? it's poorly supported globally and it's not a very space-conscious choice either. Go with H264 encoding, and you can put that in a .MOV which will save you space or have much higher quality in the same space over an AVI, and will play before the whole thing is done because it's a superiour format. Honestly, Windows Media Player is a program you have intalled in Microsoft windows, it is never in a browser. WMP may have a plugin that is called on and displays in your browser, on your computer which runs windows, when *you* load a WMV, but I can assure you on my linux or mac machines there is no WMP and my files load just fine! Without a doubt I'd go for MOV if you're hosting it yourself. Linux users will be able to play it right out of the box more than likely, all mac users can play it out of the box, and any windows user who has installed VLC, Mplayer or Quicktime can also play it. Although, were I in your shoes I'd lean towards Vimeo+ or some other high-quality video hosting service that allows HD embedding in your site - bandwidth isn't fun.
That sounds interesting I've never heard of H264 encoding until now. I'll give it a try Are you currently using an embedding code that allows the .mov to play from a web page and uses the "progressive download" technique? If you are kindly post it here I wanted to try WMP because over 90% of my users are windows users so WMP is already available. The only bad thing is that I can't find an embedding code that does progressive download ... -Vlad
I've tried to embed a mov file but I can't make it progressive download... Could you post the code that you're using? Please So no one knows how to embed an avi file with progressive downloading?
when you say: progressive downloading, I believe you are referring to 'streaming', but the term could loosely apply to a couple other downloading related methods like torrents and stuff like that. I currently don't have any examples of files online that stream from my site, I just use videos embedded from Vimeo in my blog. I believe there's an option when you write a file with Quicktime Pro about how it loads from the web as a file, and I'm not sure AVI's are suited to this sort of loading. Some formats you can read as you go, others required keyframing and require the entire file to be downloaded before it can sync the audio with the frames and it's just a limitation of a bad format.
Progressive downloading is the closest thing to streaming. Progressive downloading is when you download a small chunk of the file first and then the player starts to play it, while the movie is running the next chunk of the movie file is downloaded and fed to the player and so on. True streaming implies a streaming server that doesn't require the whole video file to exist on the server (like the way Online radio or TV stations work) I've heard of a certain "Fast start" feature that exists in QT pro that is specially designed for progressive download. Too bad this isn't available for WPM ...
Well, at least Quicktime is freely available for multiple platforms, unlike WMP. WMP may be your preferred media play, but let meassure you, AVI was made 16 years ago just after they released Windows 3.1, it's not windows media player specific and because of that, you don't have as much control in what it gets played in on a machine that doesn't have WMP. All Linux users often have preinstalled MOV capability, of not it's super easy to get, and all Mac users have Quicktime. And anybody on windows who owns an iPod, has iTunes or has installed Quicktime can play it (which is a LOT) so I'd go with MOV, because the formats it can save to are better and more efficient on your bandwidth and quality, and because it natively supports this functionality you're trying to do. Remember what the state of the internet was in 1992 when the AVI format was published. Nobody was thinking about progressive downloading anything. Now, Quicktime formats are current, top of the market, and support arguably the best encoding formats we currently have, as well as extended features like this downloading option.
Hi Vlad, Did you ever get an answer to your question? I am wondering the same thing. So far, the only solution I know of, is converting the wmv files to flv, and flash player 7 supports progressive download. I am guessing silverlight supports progressive download as well, so there is probably a way to convert the files to silverlight format. The other option is to stream the files using a streaming server, but I guess this requires more resources than progressive download? I'd have to have a dedicated server with a streaming server installed. With streaming the videos, the advantages are that the user cannot save the content from the cache, and live content can be streamed. Are there any advantages of progressive download over streaming? With progressive download, I can host my files on another server, not my own dedicated box with streaming server installed. I don't know if you can do streaming if your files are located not on the same box as the streaming server, can you? I also sent you a PM, please reply to email address listed there. Alex
The Microsoft scenario client-side: Silverlight or Windows Media Player server-side: Windows Media Services or IIS Media Services protocol: HTTP or RTSP data format: WMV