Short Videos for Website - Help

Browser issues

[Litefoot]

I am presently creating a site for a client that will incorporate some short mpegs. The problem I've come up against is this:

I have to set up the vids for a IE user as well as a NS user. Seems that IE will show a blank area where the video is until a mouse-over occurs (option) and the Netscape crowd will only see the photo that acts as a placeholder for the video as Netscape does not support videos.

Is there another way to set them up so that they can be viewed no matter what the browser? There will only be maybe 2 or 3 max on a page and will be swapped out for newer versions often.

I'd like either the photos to show as a starting point leading to a mouse click starting the mpegs or just the starting frame of the video would do nicely.

Thanks for any advice on this.

[bill]

I tried working with a cross browser embedded solution for a video page recently, and found it extremely frustrating. You'll save yourself a lot of frustration by simply linking a photo to the mpeg file and letting the user's default handler kick in.

[vrtlw]

SSShhh,

I hate to say it, but have you thought of flash?

You can import a movie clip into a .fla then export to a .swf and the compression will be far superior.

The downside is that the user will have to have a flash plugin, but done correctly would not need to be the latest.

Paul

[Litefoot]

Thanks, I'm no good with Flash right now. I've tried looking at it from several angles and am starting to think the linking the mpeg to a photo may just be the best way to go with it. I'm including URL's to the various players for those that need them as a courtesy.

I've seen some sites that actually had a player's "face" with the mpeg (or photo) in it. Wonder just how that was done...screenshot maybe? With a little judicious cropping?

Hmmm, food for thought. Thanks again. This is one of the best places in the world for sharing information.