Delivering multimedia

Table of Contents | Appendices

Delivering multimedia

Electrifier Pro creates multimedia which can easily be delivered to the web or to other software programs.

Electrifier Pro multimedia can be seamlessly imported into any standard WYSIWYG website design tool or can easily be embedded on a web page using simple HTML.

Electrifier Pro can also be simply integrated into any other program which supports QuickTime, from Director to Microsoft word.

Delivering multimedia on the Web

Embedding QuickTime movies on a web page

Embedding a QuickTime movie created with Electrifier is simple. If you are using a visual HTML editor such as PageMill or Cyber Studio, import the QuickTime movie into the page as you would any other element. If you are generating the HTML by hand, using a text editor, you will need to set up the necessary tags for the example you are creating. The necessary HTML code to embed a QuickTime movie on a page is:

<embed src="URL" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" width="h" height="v">

Additional parameters may be added following the height of the movie, as desired. If you don't need to adjust the playback options for your movie, you can omit all the optional parameters.

Required parameters

src="URL": Specifies the full name of the QuickTime movie to embed in the web page. As with all embedded content, the src pameter can either be a full URL such as http://www.apple.com/quicktime/preview/samp/trans/samplest/explode.mov or a relative URL such as samplest/explode.mov.
pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/": Specifies the URL from which the user can fetch the necessary plug-in if it is not installed. This parameter is handled by your browser. If your browser cannot find the plug-in when loading your page, it will warn the user and allow them to bring up the specified URL, from which they can download the QuickTime Plug-In. This parameter should be set to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ which will point to the latest version of the plug-in.
width=h: Specifies the width of the QuickTime movie in pixels. You should never specify a width of less than 2 since this can cause problems with some browsers: if you want to hide the movie, use the hidden tag instead.
Under normal circumstances, the width you specify in the HTML should be the same as the width of the Electrifier movie. If you use a different width and do not use the scale tag, the movie will be cropped or padded to fit the embedded box, as necessary.
height=v: Specifies the height of the embedded document, in pixels.You should never specify a height of less than 2 as this can cause problems with some browsers: if you want to hide the movie, use the hidden tag instead.
Under normal circumstances, the height you specify in the HTML should be the same as the height of the Electrifier movie (plus 16, if you will be showing the controller). If you use a different height and do not use the scale tag, the movie will be cropped or padded to fit the embedded box, as necessary.

Optional parameters

scale=value: Specifies how to scale the movie. Possible values are tofit, aspect, or a number. If tofit is used, the movie is scaled to fit the embedded box as specified by the height and width tags. If aspect is used, the movie will be scaled to fit the embedded box but will maintain its proportioning. If a number is used, the movie will be scaled by that ratio (e.g. 1.5). If you do not specify scale, its default value is 1.
autoplay=value: Specifies whether the movie should start playing as soon as the QuickTime Plug-In estimates that it will be able to play the entire movie without waiting for additional data. Acceptable values for this parameter are true and false.
If you do not specify autoplay, the default is specified by the user setting in the QuickTime Plug-in Preferences.
cache=value: Specifies whether the browser should cache the movie for faster reloading. Possible values are true or false, or simply cache (which implies true).
Note: The functionality of this tag is only supported by Netscape Navigator 3.0 or 4.0. However, the plug-in settings allow the user to always save the movie to disk cache.
If you do not specify cache, it defaults to the setting specified by the user in the Preferences dialog.
hidden: Specifies the visibility of the movie. There are no values to supply for this parameter. If you do not supply hidden, then the movie will be visible. If you supply hidden, the movie will not be visible (this is generally only appropriate for sound-only movies).
volume=value: Specifies the volume of the movie as a percentage of the maximum volume. If you do not specify volume, it defaults to 100.
bgcolor=hexadecimal value: Specifies the background color for any space that is not filled by the movie. This is separate from the Electrifier movie background color, which provides a solid backdrop for the actors within the movie. You can specify the color of the movie background to match either your web page background color or the Electrifier background color. The bgcolor parameter uses the standard web page color description format, and appropriate values can be simply generated using the HTML color picker in Mac OS 8.
controller=value: Specifies the visibility of the movie controller. Acceptable values for this parameter are true and false. If you do not specify controller, the default is true for QuickTime movies. For compatibility with existing web pages, the default is false for QuickTime VR movies.
playeveryframe=value: Specifies whether every frame of the movie should be played even if it is necessary to play at a slower rate to do so. This parameter is particularly useful to play simple animations. Acceptable values for this parameter are true and false . This option is appropriate for QuickTime movies. Note: playeveryframe=true will turn off any audio tracks your movie may have. If you do not specify playeveryframe , the default is false.

Unnecessary parameters

(these duplicate functionality provided in Electrifier Pro)

loop=value: Specifies how the movie behaves when it has finished playing. Acceptable values for this parameter are true, false and palindrome. Setting loop to palindrome causes the movie to play alternately forwards and backwards. If you do not specify loop, the default is false.
href=URL: Specifies the URL to open when the movie is clicked on. This will provide default behaviour for the movie as a whole, but it does not allow you to specify actions for individual actors, so we recommend that you use Electrifier's actions instead of the href parameter for greater control over your movie's interactivity.
Note: if you are using a relative pathname for the href then it should be relative to location of the movie specified in the src parameter. Note that you can additionally specify a target frame with the href parameter.
target="frame_name": Specifies the name of a valid frame (including _self, _top, _parent, _blank or an explicit frame name) that will be the target of a link specified by the href parameter. Leaving target unspecified will open the new file in the same place as the current movie.
For example, href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank" would open the QuickTime home page in a new window when the movie was clicked on.
hotspot n = "url": The URL to open when the specified VR hotspot is clicked on.
pan=integer: The initial pan angle for a QuickTime VR movie.The possible range of values is 0.0 to 360.0 degrees. If no pan angle is specified, the default is 0. The pan attribute will set default values for the movie, but it does not allow you to set the angle in response to user actions, so we recommend that you use Electrifier's Set Pan Angle action for greater control and flexibility.
tilt=integer: The initial tilt angle for a QuickTime VR movie. The possible range of values is -42.5 to 42.5 degrees. If no value for tilt is specified, the default is 0. The tilt attribute will set default values for the movie, but it does not allow you to set the tilt angle in response to user actions, so we recommend that you use Electrifier's Set Tilt Angle action for greater control and flexibility.
fov=integer: The initial field of view angle for a QuickTime VR movie.The possible range of values is 0 to 85.0 degrees. If no value is specified for fov, the default is 0. The fov attribute will set default values for the movie, but it does not allow you to set the field of view angle in response to user actions, so we recommend that you use Electrifier's Set Field of View action for greater control and flexibility.
node=integer: The initial node for a multi-node VR movie. If no value is specified for node, the default node and view is used. The node attribute will set default values for the movie, but it does not allow you to change the default node in response to user actions, so we recommend that you use Electrifier's Go to Node action for greater control and flexibility.

Configuring your server for QuickTime

To use QuickTime movies on your web pages, your Web server needs to be configured to recognize the QuickTime file name extensions and assign them the correct MIME type. MIME (Multipurpose Internet Multimedia Extensions) types are used by web servers to identify what kind of data they are sending.

Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have already configured their web servers to support QuickTime. If yours has not, the server will need to be reconfigured.

Some ISPs maintain a single set of MIME settings fro the entire server, in which case the settings must be changed by the system administrator rather than the user. The configuration files and settings for the most commonly used Web servers are as follows:

Server Configuration file Text

NCSA srm.conf AddType video/quicktime mov

Netscape mime.types type=video/quicktime exts=mov

Apache srm.conf AddType video/quicktime mov

Once the file is updated the server will need to be restarted.

Server	Configuration file	Text
NCSA	srm.conf	`AddType video/quicktime mov`
Netscape	mime.types	`type=video/quicktime exts=mov`
Apache	srm.conf	`AddType video/quicktime mov`

Some ISPs allow the user to set MIME settings for their own files as an alternative to changing the configuration of the entire server. In this case, you can create a file to add the MIME types in your personal web directory. The configuration files and settings for the most commonly used Web servers are as follows:

Server File Text

NCSA .htaccess AddType video/quicktime mov

Netscape .nsconfig <Files *.mov> exp=*.mov type=video/quicktime </Files>

Apache .htaccess AddType video/quicktime mov

Server	File	Text
NCSA	.htaccess	`AddType video/quicktime mov`
Netscape	.nsconfig	`<Files .mov> exp=.mov type=video/quicktime </Files>`
Apache	.htaccess	`AddType video/quicktime mov`

If you use another server, you will need to consult your server' documentation for configuration instructions. The MIME type for a QuickTime movie is video/quicktime and the correct file name extension is mov.

Generating multiple-data-rate movies

The new QuickTime web browser plug-in supports movies which refer to other movies for their data. Now you can create a small movie that points to several other tracks, customized for different connection speeds. Since the QuickTime plug-in can specify the user's conection speed, this allows you to create a single movie which will adjust its compression algorithm and data rate to fit the user's web connection. You can designate one version of a multiple-rate movie as the default that will be played with older versions of QuickTime, so the feature is fully backwards-compatible.

Delivering multimedia to other programs

Delivering multimedia to applications which can display QuickTime movies is as easy as exporting a movie. Because of the structure of QuickTime, any application that can play movie files can play movie files from any application, regardless of the nature of the movie! Electrifier-generated multimedia can be used in all your favorite programs, from multimedia applications such as Director or mTropolis to your lowly word processor.

Some Windows applications may need to be upgraded to play back QuickTime 3 movies because of major improvements in QuickTime 3, but this issue is not specific to Electrifier Pro.

Users of Macromedia Authorware and Director should download the new QuickTime 3 Xtra to take advantage of QuickTIme 3's advanced features.

For more information

For detailed information about exporting files, see the File menu section of the Menu Reference.