How to not have flash video starting automatically?

[chuckee]

Hi,
I have just inserted my first ever flash video into a page in my website, and it always starts automatically whenever the page loads. I was wanting to make it so that the user has to click 'Play' in order for the video to start - preferably also with a big Play button on the actual video itself. The code I have in the webpage is this:

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" width="480" height="396" id="myflash_player" align="middle">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
<param name="movie" value="myflash_player.swf" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" />
<embed src="myflash_player.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="480" height="396" name="myflash_player" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
</object>

Thanks for the help!

[rocknbil]

1. Normally you put this in frame 1:

stop();

But with video, it depends on how you are playing it. If it's just inline - dropped on the stage - that might work. If you are using components, with the video player component selected, dig around in the properties panel, you'll find parameters, one of them should be auto play or auto start, or something. Set it to false.

2. Lose the invalid code and use SwfObject [code.google.com]. It will take all of 10 minutes to learn, the gray line "click here to play" will go away in IE, and your code will validate, making it easier to be cross browser compatible.

[chuckee]

Thanks for the reply.
So I take it that there is nothing I can do except regenerate the SWF file?

[rocknbil]

Well yes, you'll need to re-export it, but having the control you want depends on how you've built the player.