Using videos

[Starhunter]

I finally found out how to set to that codec in Format Factory. But it didn't change the results. One thing about Format Factory I wasn't thrilled about was that after converting to MP4 it didn't change the date. And the file still plays the same in Real Player.

[ShapeShifter]

Not sure what's going on for you then. I use this routinely and it always works 100%
Don't expect the file to play in the Web Designer window, it won't - you will only see the player placeholder bitmap. But it should play fine in browser preview.
IE will ask for activex permission.

Not understanding what you mean about the date??

You could upload a sample .mp1 to min.us and paste the link here for me to try?

[Starhunter]

Tried converting to flv and it works! It plays in both the WD window and in browsers. Resizes OK. The main problem now is that the screen image in all browser views is a blank screen with just the arrow.

The date, after a "new" mp4 or flv file is created, stays the same as the original. This is the first time I ever saw a "new" file created without the date it was created.

[ShapeShifter]

Yes, as I mentioned earlier in post#2, .flv is better for streaming via the swfplayer.
File creation date changes to the date the file is converted to the new container format for me (I use Windows7 64bit and FF 2.20)

[Starhunter]

I've been considering moving my videos from Wordpress to my own web site. But still need some clarification: Will WD accept MP4 or not, despite .flv being better? And how can I get an image from the video to appear (ie as Youtube does) instead of a plain box? The video feature is obviously very important for many web sites.

[ShapeShifter]

Yes it does support MP4 (h264) and FLV, of course - it's why Xara included this feature. But some oddball codecs are not supported by the player
No, it does not show a picture like youtube player does.
But you can use a screen shot:

[1] Drag your .flv to the page in Xara
[2] Play the video in web preview and stop it at a frame you want to use as the picture
[3] Press PrtScrn to take a screen shot.
[4] Paste into your page and crop to the player (click image twice to start the crop tool)
[5] Align the cropped screenshot and .flv placeholder together and set the screenshot image to the back
[6] Preview to make sure the alignment is neat.

Here's a DEMO of just that

[Starhunter]

OK, that system works for showing the photo. The main advantage is that, unlike Youtube, I can pick my own image. The main problem is the extra steps needed.

So I next tried the Youtube widgets, and can't get either one to work. After clicking "Insert" at the bottom, it only pops up with a message:


Unable to find the HTML code for the widget on the widget site or on the clipboard.

- Browse youtube for your required video.
- Customise the Embed link if required
- Click the Insert button below to add the video to your page.