Embedded Windows Media Player Not Playing AVI

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Embedded Windows Media Player Not Playing AVI

jshpik1

12:31 am on Mar 29, 2008 (gmt 0)

I'm making a website with streaming videos. The problem is the embedded videos won't work for the AVI files I have, but they're working correctly for MPG files.

Here's the code I'm using:

<center><embed wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425" src="http://www.example.com/videos/file-name.mpg"></embed></center>

Is there another player I can embed like this that will work properly. It's strange because the files are working on my computer. Thanks.

Demaestro

1:08 am on Mar 29, 2008 (gmt 0)

When you embed like that you aren't using a player you are telling the browser to use the default player that the user has defined. So it is up to the browser which player to use.. I bet on some people's computer it would work and on some it won't.

I would look at encoding in a format that forces a player on a user like flash or Quicktime.

jshpik1

2:36 am on Mar 29, 2008 (gmt 0)

Is there a way to force a certain player using code rather than encoding it again?

Samizdata

4:20 am on Mar 29, 2008 (gmt 0)

Firstly, you are NOT streaming video - streaming is a technical term with a specific meaning.

You could try embedding for Windows Media Player by using the appropriate tags but I wouldn't advise it due to cross-platform issues and general clunkiness (another technical term), and whether anyone can actually view your AVIs will depend on them having the codecs you used installed on their computer. You may also find that the necessary MIME-type is not set on your webserver..

As Demaestro says, encoding in a suitable format is the way to go, and while MPGs will play on just about anything the files will be larger than necessary - Flash, QuickTime or RealMedia offer good compression, and of these it is Flash that almost everyone has installed.

jshpik1

5:24 am on Mar 29, 2008 (gmt 0)

It works on my computer, I have the codecs. It won't work on the website, even though I have the codecs with the code above. What program can I use to encode the video to Flash?

Samizdata

6:12 am on Mar 29, 2008 (gmt 0)

It won't work on the website

It might if you put this in an .htaccess file in the directory where the video file is:

AddType video/x-msvideo followed by a space and avi

But that doesn't mean it's a good idea - who uses AVI on the web?

What program can I use to encode the video to Flash?

Umm... Flash is good for that kind of thing, but there are lesser alternatives and even free packages such as ffmpeg, or you could upload it to YouTube then rip it - but you still need to create an SWF file to play the resulting FLV video.

jshpik1

8:32 pm on Mar 29, 2008 (gmt 0)

I didn't realize it was so easy to encode them to flash, a heck of a lot easier than gordian knot. Anyway that's what I'm doing and using a free flash player thing.