Windows Media Files

Problems embedding and playing windows media

[peterzak]

I have 2 problems with the windows media files I'm trying to run on my site.

1. I tried embedding them on a HTML page but they would not start autoplaying until they were at least 60% loaded. There was no buffering % display so I was worried people would think the video wasn't loading.

2. I tried just using a simple <a href="filname.wmv">click here to watch video</a> but that didnt work from some IE browsers.

Is there any way to indicate that the video is loading while keeping it embedded on a site's page?

[Corey Bryant]

What code were you using to embed? Have you thought about converting it to Flash to help with browser compatibility?

-Corey

[kalos]

Flash will only help slightly as more and more users are not installing it (or with Firefox, blocking it until they _want_ to run it) because of horrid ads.

[peterzak]

This is the code I am using at the moment:

<OBJECT id='mediaPlayer' width="320" height="285"
classid='CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95'
codebase='http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=5,1,52,701'
standby='Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player components...' type='application/x-oleobject'>
<param name='fileName' value="/folder/video-file.wmv">
<param name='animationatStart' value='true'>
<param name='transparentatStart' value='true'>
<param name='autoStart' value="true">
<param name='showControls' value="true">
<param name='loop' value="false">
<param name="controls" value="StatusBar">
<param name="console" value="av">
<param name="uiMode" value="full">
<param name="stretchToFit" value="true">
<EMBED
src="/folder/video-file.wmv" width="320" height="285" autostart="true" loop="false" type='application/x-mplayer2'
pluginspage='http://microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/en/download/'
id='mediaPlayer' displaysize='4' autosize='-1'
bgcolor='darkblue' showcontrols="true" showtracker='-1'
showdisplay='0' showstatusbar='-1' videoborder3d='-1' designtimesp='5311' filename="/folder/video-file.wmv" animationatstart="true" transparentatstart="true" controls="StatusBar" console="av" uimode="full" stretchtofit="true">
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>

I've noticed the effect I'm trying to achieve in the BBC news site under their video section: [news.bbc.co.uk...]

where there is a staus bar above the controls that shows ifo like "connecting to media", "buffering" and "playing". for some reason the media player on the bbc site and the one displayed on mine appear different even though both seem to be playing in windows media player.