[thelist] which video format for clips on a site?

[Burhan Khalid]

DO> I have a client who wants to put video clips onto their site, taken from a
DO> promotional video (VHS).

DO> I wonder what format these should be in, and if they should be streaming or
DO> not.

Well, the answer to this question depends on how long the clips are.
You may want to think about a streaming server if your clips are
really long, or if they are relatively short, you may just want to
embed them (using <object> tags), and then the client's player will
cache the video before playing it -- this depends on what the client
has setup the video player to do.

As far as video codecs go, I am no expert, but from a personal view, I
find quicktime videos to have the best quality over the net -- the
latest quicktime player and codecs also help. The new hype is with the
divx codec, but afaik, you have to download them to the computer and
then play them on a separate player (ie, no streaming or inline
browser playing).  I have heard people talk about using wmp (windows
media player) to play divx videos online, but that depends very much
on your client side -- and if they have the divx codecs installed.  As
far as the latest and greatest goes, you might want to check out wmp 9
(still in beta). I have tried out the media player, and find it to be
a lot better than the old wmp.

Anyhow, I am sure someone else has more information along these lines.
I would concentrate on quicktime and maybe real media.

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| Burhan Khalid |
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| Email : burhankhalid[at]members.evolt.org |
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