mp4 requirements? And avoiding Flash..

[bjornkn]

I've been struggling with showing mp4 files on web pages.
When dropping files into Xara it very often refuses to accept the format. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't.
Exactly what are the requirements? AVC and Sony are key words here?
I have usually got good/working mp4 files using http://www.apowersoft.com/free-online-video-converter
When using WinX converter I get mp4 files hat will not work.
Running working mp4 files through mp4-faststart seems to not always work that well?

When dropping files Xara unfortunately always writes code for showing with Flash. Only if the page is shown on Android, iOS etc will it use the HMTL5 standard <video> tag. A PC browser without Flash installed/enabled will not show anything :-(
The Flash player used will not show any picture before starting to play :-(

After fiddling around I found out that I have to do this manually to get the results I want, so I either edit the tag used to:

<script type="text/javascript">
document.write("\x3cvideo src=\"index_htm_files/Plak7f.mp4\" controls width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\"/>");
</script>

or:

<video width="100%" height="100%" controls>
  <source src="index_htm_files/Plak7f.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>

Both works fine in a browser offline or online, both on Windows10 (Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Edge and IE) and Android (Opera), but both usually also fail in the preview inside Xara :-(
In the browser they also show the first frame of the video before playing, which is much better than showing nothing..

Time for an overhaul of the video "widget" in Xara? And the Preview engine options (adding Edge?)?

[Rob-Xar]

The mp4 is likely not encoded in a codec that Xara likes, such as h.264. If you send support your mp4 we can see how your file is encoded:

http://support.xara.com/index.php?/K...to-the-program

[bjornkn]

I have now found a conversion solution which I'll try to stick to.

But it would be nice if Xara could give us an option if we would allow Flash playing or not.
If Flash is disabled or the plugin is not installed it won't play at all, because html5 is reserved for phones/tablets.
After all, using the <video> tag now works everywhere, doesn't it?

[Rob-Xar]

After all, using the <video> tag now works everywhere, doesn't it?

Not really, a lot of older browsers don't support the video tag and some mobiles with stock browsers. One thing Xara features is that it maintains the look of your website regardless of the browser or that it degrades nicely.

Things have moved on now and fortunately older browsers are being less and less used, and the widget will be updated eventually to take advantage of modern web technologies.

You can insert your own placeholder with the video tag as well.

[bjornkn]

My current solution is to drop the mp4 into the page, which makes sure it is an accepted mp4 type.
Then I edit the html and remove all the Flash stuff, leaving only the <video> tag stuff.
This was Xara handles the file uploading as well as making the surrounding rectangle/<div> the original size of the video.
Unfortunately the previews doesn't work very well, but it does work fine when published :-)