Adding video to my website

[irishaff]

Hi Folks,

I want to add video to my websites. I have uploaded a wmv file and at the moment just have a link to it. I use win XP and when I click on the link a frame opens on the side of the browser and the video is opened in small format.

Does anybody know how I can make the video open in its own container at the res inteneded ( without user intervention? ) , I think this is done using javascript?

thanks

[bill]

That's the IE Media bar...you can't control when it pops up. That's something your users have to do in their own browsers.

[irishaff]

thanks, however I have seen examples when clicked on that pop the video up at a set size etc in a special player window .They used Javascript i think..All i could glean from the source code.

any ideas anybody?

thanks

[bill]

Oh, you're talking about embedded video then. That requires a plug-in on your user's side in many cases. Embedded video doesn't work consistently across browsers, so be careful. In addition to JavaScript, I've seen this done with Java applets and Flash. It really depends on your audience as to which is best. I tried a few of these methods and finally ended up just providing a link to the file like you are now. Then you don't have to fret about all the possible combinations of browsers and plug-ins out there.

[irishaff]

ok, im not going to re-invent the wheel!
thanks

[bill]

I saw another site doing this yesterday with Shockwave. You'll need some software to accomplish that.

As I said, a static link to the media file should suffice. Just place a screen-grab of one of the frames in there and let the user's setup handle the rest.