Video Playback Issues Summary

[Trevor Newell]

C. HTML Embedded Video

The easiest solution to overcome the initial problem is to simply use an HTML embedded video. By embedding your video file into an HTML document, you're allowing for an exterior mechanism to play the file. If MediaLab can't play the file, another program may have more success. By embedding your video file into an HTML file, and then using this HTML file as a stimulus for your experiment, you're allowing for the video file to be played through your internet browser through MediaLab, rather than directly through MediaLab itself. The solution not only allows for the same effect to take place as simply running the video file through MediaLab's video playback mechanism - many more options are opened in the process.

For example, if you choose to embed your video files, you could technically display multiple video files at once and have them all play at the same time. You can't do this with the normal Movie item-type that MediaLab supports.

Embedding Manuals
Quick Time: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/embed.html
Windows Media Player: http://www.mioplanet.com/rsc/embed_mediaplayer.htm

Video Embedded HTML Tutorial / Examples
[ copied directly from: http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=654 ]
Another solution for playing video files, is to create an html file and play them as an HTML item in MediaLab rather than as a Movie item. A sample is attached as a zip file.

The sample HTML can be modified in any text editor (like the Windows Notepad). Or you can create it from scratch using an empty text file.

To create the HTML item from scratch:
Copy the code below into the empty text file and change the name of the video file from "text.wmv" to whatever your video is called (note the name is used twice!). Also note that in this sample, the video should be located in the same folder as the HTML file.

<object type="video/x-ms-wmv" data="test.wmv" width="320" height="255">
  <param name="src" value="test.wmv">
  <param name="autoStart" value="1">
  <param name="showcontrols" value="false">
</object>

The above sample works with the Windows WMV format. For MPG and MOV file formats, you can use the following variations:

MPG

<object data="test.mpg" type="video/mpeg" width="320" height="255">
  <param name="src" value="test.mpg">
  <param name="autoStart" value="1">
  <param name="showcontrols" value="false">
</object>

AVI

<object data="test.avi" type="video/x-msvideo" width="320" height="255">
  <param name="src" value="test.avi">
  <param name="autoStart" value="1">
  <param name="showcontrols" value="false">
</object>

MOV (QuickTime)

<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
        codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"
        width="320" height="255">
  <param name="src" value="test.mov" >
  <param name="controller" value="false" >
  <param name="autoplay" value="true">
</object>

-

A variety of additional parameters that you can set on an embedded video can be found here: http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=236

For an easier, all-purpose embedding code, you can also try:
www.tizag.com/htmlT/htmlvideocodes.php
e.g.,
<embed src="movies\mymovie.mpeg" autostart="true" />
or
<a href="movies\mymovie.mpeg">click me to play</a>

Please feel free to post any additional samples that you may have created that could assist others in working with embedded videos.