[thelist] Video on CD (Quicktime version detection problem)

George Dillon george.dillon at ukonline.co.uk
Thu Jan 11 08:10:29 CST 2001


BRIEF:
I'm creating a CD with video using an html interface.  I want to create a
page which will test the user's Quicktime plug in and tell them whether they
need an upgrade to play the good movies or the not-so-good movies, but I'm
having trouble using reference movies to test for Quicktime plug-in
versions, particularly on Mac IE5.  I don't know if the problem is in my
whole approach, my use of MakeRefMovie to create the reference movies, my
embed tag, my configuration of Mac/IE5 or a bug therein.

FULL:
As the target audience will be quite varied (it's for theatre, so I expect
it will include a fair proportion of legacy systems) I've opted for
Quicktime and to cater for users with older systems I've formatted the
movies twice using the Cinepak and Sorensen codecs.

I've created 3 files - qtverlt3.mov qtver3.mov and qtver4p.mov  - which are
single frame (Photo - Jpeg) files.  These simply tell the user that they
have less than version 3 (ok for cinepak, but need to upgrade for Sorensen),
version 3 (ok, but could/should upgrade) or version 4 or better (congrats).

Using MakeRefMovie I've created my reference movie - vertest.mov - in which
I've flattened the verlt3.mov file and set it's priority to last, with
version unspecified, while the other 2 are priority 2 and 1, with versions
specified as 3.0 and 4.0.

My embed tag reads:

<embed
 src="vertest.mov"
 width="320"
 height="256"
 target="myself"
 kioskmode="true"
 pluginspace="noqt.htm"
 bgcolor="ff0000"
 enablejavascript="true"
 volume="60">

this *should* redirect to the "noqt.htm" page or load the correct single
frame movie.

It seems to work on the PC, and MacNN but on MacIE5 all I'm getting from the
Ref movies is a broken movie icon.

I *could* do JS browser checking and redirection, to isolate MacIE5s and
then ask the user what version of QT they think they've got, but I'd like to
avoid this if poss.

Can anyone who's put Quicktime on CD offer me any suggestions?

TIA

George




<tip type="QuickTime MakeRefMovie">

When using MakeRefMovie for Windows:

It's a pain, but the pane isn't big enough, so when you click on Priority
select box arrow, your choices seem to be limited to :

Unspecified
Last choice
Second choice

To get first choice you have to click on Second choice and then click the
select box down arrow again whereupon you'll see:

Last choice
Second choice
First choice

Same thing if you want to set speed to Intranet/LAN.

</tip>





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