Probably not directly into your browser from inside the forums - that is unless you have a browser capable of displaying the movie, and I'm not aware of any. Indirectly - well yes, but ...
You should be able to do a process similar to what takes place with the spreadsheet download. The trick is for the Web server and client PC to recognize the ".mpg" extension. (This is called a 'MIME type'). A Web server will download just about anything. You want your PC to recognize the file type (mpeg) then automatically launch a player. This would take place outside the browser - in the same way Excel is launched outside the browser for those who use Netscape to d/l the spreadsheet. As noted earlier, even MS won't run MPEGs inside the browser although they can run a copy of Word or Excel inside the browser.
So yes - in the same way you can d/l my spreadsheet, you can d/l an MPEG file then play it locally outside the browser. Assuming of course you have a player. And it may have to be done from a normal Web page, and not from inside the UBB software. This may require a little experimentin'.
The Web typically will use a technique like JC uses to display the rotating Pt. Arena beacon - a series of GIFS. But that doesn't work well for a big animation. Alternatively, the hotshot way is through something like the ShockWave plug-in. But we won't go there - at least not this early in the morning.
I'm not an expert on this topic and this answer is as valuable as what you've paid for it. ;-> There could be an approach I'm not aware of of, so this may not be definitive.
MPEGs and AVIs are often quite large. Sometimes they need to be broken up into chunks then reassembled at their destination. The download time can be lengthy for those running 28.8-56.6 modems and one should have a pretty darn good movie to warrant the patience. :-)
Eventually, with enough bandwidth, we'll watch TV (heaven forbid) and movies over our computers. Can you say "cable modem"? DVD is a digital format available today - it should give you some idea of what the future will bring.
OK - here ya go. Click on the link labeled 'MPEG test' to download an MPEG file and play it in your Windows Media Player. I run NT and don't know if this same player is available in Win 95/98, but I'll assume there's something similar.
If you need the player, check here for a version that should work with IE4 & IE5: MS Windows Media Player 6.4
File size is 574KB, so it'll take a little while (minute or two) to download.
Course you'll need to supply your own MPEGs and a place to store 'em, just like JPEGs and other pictures.
Here's the code:
[a ref="http://www.yourURLgoeshere.com/filename.mpeg" target="_self"]Name or description of MPEG goes here[/a]
Replace the square brackets with angle brackets...
Now, let's see if works... __ /im
... OK - it worked! Doncha just love testing in production. :-)
Couple more notes.
The Media Player will pop up during the download. And the 'thumb' on the slider may move. (Didja know that was the name of the thingy you grab onto in a scroll bar - a 'thumb').
Wait til the D/L is all done. Then click the 'Forward' button - the large black triangle. You may need to click the black square (stop) before you can play. Same as your VCR. Fwiw, I had to run through the movie several times before the whole played. You'll know if you're playing the entire movie if you see Grommet spin around.
MPEG files may have an extension of 'MPEG' or 'MPG' Be sure to use the actual name of your file in the link.
1. Does the "MPEG test" work for you? If yes, then the 'theory' is at least right. If no, then please tell me your results when you click on it. tia
2. When I attempt to access your URL by clicking on the link, I receive the following message: The requested URL was not found on this server. You have tried to reach a web page that is not on the MindSpring server. If you got this page by typing in a URL, make sure that capitalization and punctuation are correct.
That tells me either a) your URL is incorrect, or b) the file is not on the server where the URL points.
I believe your HTML code is correct. I don't have a clue if you have the correct URL or if you've uploaded the file. When I use that same URL and run it through some tests locally, I get the same result, IE., file not found.
Things to check: i. the file is where you think it is at your ISP ii. if there, the name of the file at your ISP is exactly as shown in your URL. iii. your ISP, Mindspring, doesn't have your local storage area set up with an MPG or MPEG Mime type. We had to do that for JC in order to get the spreadsheet download working. You may wish to query them about this. iv. if all else fails, send me the MPEG file - hopefully its not *real* big. And I'll try it from my end.
>>although it crashed the Windows Player first time<<
hmmmm... don't know anything about that. eventually the world will be on NT (aka Win2k) and things will be more robust for all.
Yeah - I saw the ad - pretty clever place to put one. Probably doesn't matter what kind of ad it is - banner advertisers just want exposure. The real measure is the click-through rate. 5%-6% click through is supposedly excellent.
Maybe an ad for a search site would do well there. :-)
Tim - Gromet's movie worked fine. My version of MediaPlayer is only 6.02.
Sean - URL not found for Point Judith.
To all - you have done something funky here. Looking at the messages already here while I am posting this reply is very difficult as they are all side by side, not up and down as normal. Some of your links or URLs or whatevers have messed things up. (I hope it is not just me cause then you will all think I am crazy.)
Hey guys, I just went directly to Sean's link....minus the Dz19041.mpg at the end. The shortened version takes you successfully to his index list. Within it is the Dz19041.mpg file correctly placed, and it works OK when clicked on. I don't know why the full link is not working properly, it should. If you want to see his mpg, go here: hlfinders.home.mindspring.com
That suggests diagnosis item iii. The Web server serving up Sean's files needs to have a Mime type registered for 'video/mpeg' for files with an extension of '.MPG' or '.MPEG'. This allows the Web server to inform the browser about what type of file it will be receiving. Kinda unusual 'cause this is a standard MIME type and most ISPs permit this. Sean - you might wish to inquire of Mindspring (boing boing) what their policy is on this. They may be able to give you instructions or do it themselves.
The only other thing I can think of is Mindspring is intentionally blocking the transfer of MPEGs because of their size which is typically large. Size equates to the length of the movie and the number of frames per second. Sean's file happens to be rather small.
Or, it could just be The Bill Gates Mind Ray.
So the answer to Sean's question 'can you link to an MPEG file' is: yes you can, but you also need to provide a file that can be served up to the browser.
Quick acronymn dictionary MIME: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - specifications for messages. MPEG: Moving Pictures Expert Group - a group of standards for coding audio-visual data in a compressed format.
From the Oy Vey department: I see from Rod's flashing mouseover advertisement that The Next Big Thing to debug here will be Javascript embedded in messages. You gonna change your prior sigs again, Rod? [g,d&r]
Hey, Tim. Your the one who nudged me into javascripts a bit. (no I won't change all 550+ signatures. LOL)
I actually placed a few around my website last month, black backgrounds with white text, kinda cute and somewhat classy within that particular color scheme and specific locations, without being too obnoxious.
On the Forums though, I can't control the link, alink, and vlink colors for just my post alone, so I have to stick with the blueish and redish looking fonts as per the forum page codes. I tried a Cascading style sheet link from my site, but it changes the entire web page's links. I didn't want to be that much in control here. (St. John would reign down o'er me)
"You can give a guy knowledge, and he will do stupid things with it for a day...OR ...you can teach a guy how to increase his own knowledge, but he will just do many more stupid things for the rest of his life."
Geeez Loueeze - the more I think about this, the more it doesn't make sense. After re-reading my last post, I realized that if you can d/l Sean's MPEG file from Mindspring (boing boing) - and you can - then one should be able to link to it from here. And ipso facto obviously they're not blocking the transfer.
Hmmmm. I think my prior conjectures are off base. We need to ponder this some more.
And Rod, what you're doing is neat - keep up the good work. :-)
Here's the code I used: [a href="http://hlfinders.home.mindspring.com/Dzl9041.mpg" target="_self"]Test Sean's MPG from Mindspring[/a]
And here's Seans: [a href="http://hlfinders.home.mindspring.com/Dz19041.mpg" target="_self"]Point Judith Lighthouse[/a]
Aside from the text difference, I don't see it. Do you?
__ /im
Ok - looking at this in my posting - I think I've got it. Just like 75% of all the coding errors in the world - Sean, you made a typo - no big deal we all do it alot. In certain fonts a l looks a whole lot like a 1 but da kompooter knows the difference. Check the filename, and you'll see it. (Dzl not Dz1) I was able to build the working version because I only used cut-n-paste from the URL and the index at hlfinders.
Whew... problem solved. Now we can link to MPEGS! Lessee - at $200/hour that'll be...
Ok. Tim, your next mission...How do you alter the link, alink, and vlink colors on a particular post , without affecting the entire Forum page? (.css files will change the entire page, from my experiments)
Well I futzed with a CSS approach for a while Rod, trying stuff with the psuedo-classes such as: A:active and A:visited, etc.
Both with a style definition and in-line style. I tried mixing standard with psuedo classes too. The stuff I made work on a regular HTML page I didn't have any luck with here. Its late and I may be making a mistake somewhere, need to try a different approach, or it just ain't gonna work here. If I get a chance I'll try again tommorrow (later today), but lets not hold our breaths. (g) __ /im
