Quicktime - instantly loading first frame?

Instantly loading first frame

[macnab]

Can someone please put me out of my misery and tell me how on the web some lengthy quicktime movies instantly load a frame which stays on screen until the movie starts playing whereas some just show the logo then a blank screen until the movie starts

[Rich_Maffei]

I'm trying to find out the same thing. If you guys are not clear of macnab and my question, check this link to a movie I posted.

<snip>

As you can see it waits for the whole movie to load before it even shows the first frames. All you se is the quicktime logo the whole time the movie is loading. How do I get it to view what's loaded allready before the whole movie is done loading.

Thx!

[edited by: korkus2000 at 1:33 pm (utc) on Nov. 11, 2003]
[edit reason] No code reviews please [/edit]

[macnab]

Hi Rich

I generated a discussion with the same question at [discussions.info.apple.com...]

You might find it interesting/useful

[Yidaki]

Pretty simple. Set the movie's embed object in your html code to autoplay=false.

<embed src="yourmovie.mov" autoplay="false" otherparameters>

Another possibility is to make a start up screen using a jpg picture (you'll need the free MakeRefMovie [developer.apple.com] tool for this). This way the movie only starts running if a user clicks the image.

[Rich_Maffei]

Yidaki,
I just tried switching auto play to false like you said and it still didn't work. Check it out and view my source code to see if there is anything else may be doing wrong.

<snip>

Thx!

PS.
Macnab,
If I'm using after effects to save out my movie then what is the equivelant of "fast start" in after effects and not iMovie?

[edited by: korkus2000 at 1:33 pm (utc) on Nov. 11, 2003]
[edit reason] No code reviews please [/edit]

[macnab]

I am not that familiar with After Effects but from what I have seen the choices are similar to Quicktime Pro i.e. file>export then choose "quicktime movie" which should give you a whole range of compression choices including "fast start" and "fast start compressed header". I believe "fast start compressed header" is the best choice (slightly smaller file size) unless you are concerned about older version 3 quicktime players.
Hinted Streaming is for RTSP (real time streaming protocol)

[Yidaki]

Sorry, i misread you Rich. Autoplay should be set to true and the movie should in fact be saved as fast start movie. With the tool i mentioned (MakeRefMovie) you can even create multi data rate movies and load them depending on the bandwith settings in the clients' quicktime preferences. This way you can have movies that run smooth while loading even on 28k modems - streaming.

[Rich_Maffei]

OK I figured out what to do if your not using iMovie. You can either use quicktime pro or after effects to save out or export your movie as a "hinted movie". That worked for me... check it out!

<snip>

[edited by: korkus2000 at 1:32 pm (utc) on Nov. 11, 2003]
[edit reason] No code reviews please [/edit]