Help with HD Movie File Download Setup

[Bassman]

Hello,

I was wondering if anybody had some ideas on how to achieve a certain type of movie playback/download experience with Xara Pro6.

What I would like to have is a situation where the viewer clicks on a link, a dialogue box comes up that asks they want to open or save the file, then a progress bar comes up to show the download progress and then associated program opens to view the video. (if they choose "open")

This is similar to how a site like Yahoo handles attachements.

I have short HD video clips that I want to show at high quality so streaming is out of the question. I would want the user to play the file locally but without these dialogues I think something could get lost in translation.

Here is my site and the page with the two video clips uploaded.

http://watchmymvp.com/athlete-zone.htm

The videos are in Quicktime format but I would rather use Windows Media.

Thanks for your input!

[gwpriester]

Can you convert the files from quick time to Windows Media Files? There are dozens of conversions utilities on the web that can probably do this.

Then when the visitor clicks on the button he will be asked if he wants to Open or Save the file.

[Bassman]

Hello Gary. Thanks for your reply.

I can make the files WMV but in my experience WMV always streams. If you know a way to force that prompt to "open" or "save" I would definately be interested in how to do it.

[steve.ledger]

Not sure why you are equating 'streaming' to degraded quality?

Forcing downloads instead of launching the browser plugin for media like this is something that can only be done with help from your hosting service.

[gwpriester]

So what are you suggesting, Steve?

[steve.ledger]

It has to do with MIME types, browsers are set to deal with them in specific ways (mostly for security reasons). The server can be configured to react differently for selected file types but this is not normal.
Of course, the user can be instructed to right-click and 'save target as' in order to download a movie file.

See more here ► http://webtips.dan.info/force.html

Alternatively, you could .zip your movie file and this will cause the browser to offer the download dialogue, but will require your visitor to deal with the un-archiving task once they have the file.

[Bassman]

Hello Steve, thanks for your reply.

I have been reading about MIME types but after a long talk with my host tech support, a solution was never reached. I just want to make this process bullet proof and have a dialogue that asks the user to "open" or "save" the file like so many people do with e-mail attachments. Then the file could be played locally offering much more bandwidth for the video. Streaming=low bandwidth=low quality Local hard drive=high bandwidth=high quality.

If I ask the user to "save as" there is no play associated with the command. So if they don't look where they saved the file the whole process will go sideways.

I am looking at cloud storage just for the video files. That way the files would be an FTP transfer and would have a dialogue box upon clicking. I am wating hear back from a few I have contacted.

[steve.ledger]

Bassman - streaming does not equate to low quality.

You can stream HD / high quality or whatever and you can also play low quality on your hdd, the only difference between the two is buffer time.

Look at YouTube for example. If you upload a HD movie at 1080p your channel visitors can watch it at 1080p (yes, youtube *offer* lower res/quality for those who want it, but anyone can wait and watch the 1080p stream). The buffer time depends on their connection speed, but it won't degrade the quality of the stream.

[Bassman]

I am aware of these facts. I do video for a living. I am looking beyond this at the next step. Sure you can have huge bandwidth and the image quality will be nice but .01% of viewers will be able to play the video smoothly.

My DSL connection is 6Mbps but I can hardly play a 720p stream from Youtube and this is only after the recent grapgic card acceleration Flash update.

Point is, I have files I want to show the customer that are at 7500kbps, 1280x720 frame size. Local playback is the only hope.

If you get the chance, could I ask if you could visit the attached page on the first post and look at one of the two links. They are in Quicktime right now which is download only, which works great for playback. But I feel WMV is going to be the best for compatability.

Thanks for your input. I have my reasons to be chasing after this.