How to get wmv file not to show blank screen

[jfrizelle]

Hi,

I've been given a wmv file to put on our website, but it just shows a blank (black) screen until I press Play - is there a way to get it to show the first frame, or anything other than this blank screen, when the page loads?

The girl who created the file has played around with it, and it displays the start of the video when she saves the file. How can I get it to do the same on the website?

Sorry if it's a dumb question - I've never worked with video content before.

Thanks,
J.

[vwickam]

It's not a dumb question. I would highly suggest using Flash Video (FLV) rather than Windows Movie (WMV) format for your video.

It is a smaller file format, and what you are wanting to do should be doable. Youtube does it.

There are two easy ways to convert the video to a Flash Video.

1. Upload the video to youtube. Youtube will automagically convert your video to flash video.
2. Use Riva Flash Video Encoder, which is a free download.

<in your signature only please>

[lamico]

You definitely want to go with Flash, MAC users and older browers can have trouble with wmv files and they can be very slow to download if it's a big file. Once you covert the wmv file to a FLV you might want to get a embedded flash player like the Wimpy Player (Wimpy Website Audio and Video) . They have several versions and you can select image thumbnails and skins. It also streams the video very well so file size ifs not an issue.

There are also some sites like dailymotion.com that you can uplad the file and just get the embed code.

Lou Amico
Video Production Charlotte

[lamico]

You definitely want to go with Flash, MAC users and older browers can have trouble with wmv files and they can be very slow to download if it's a big file. Once you covert the wmv file to a FLV you might want to get a embedded flash player like the Wimpy Player (Wimpy Website Audio and Video) . They have several versions and you can select image thumbnails and skins. It also streams the video very well so file size ifs not an issue.

There are also some sites like dailymotion.com that you can uplad the file and just get the embed code.

Lou Amico
(Video Production Charlotte, NC)

[jfrizelle]

Guys, thanks a million!

I'm after converting the file to flv, and I'm in the process of checking out FlowPlayer to embed it in the site (I checked out Wimpy Player, but FlowPlayer appealed more because it's open source)

Anyway, have to go now, I'll let you know how I get on.

Again, many thanks. Your help is much appreciated!

J.

[jfrizelle]

Hi again,

Well, things are not going so good...

I've converted the file to flv using Riva Encoder, and when I double-click the newly-created flv file it plays fine.

I've downloaded FlowPlayer (v 2.2.4 and v 3.0), and found numerous examples of how to embed flv files in a page, but can't get any of them to work.

Here's a couple of samples of what I've tried:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="FlowPlayerClassic.swf"
width="300" height="240" id="FlowPlayer">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain"/>
<param name="movie" value="FlowPlayerClassic.swf"/>
<param name="quality" value="high"/>
<param name="scale" value="noScale"/>
<param name="wmode" value="transparent"/>
<param name="flashvars"
value="videoFile: 'Movie.flv'"/>
</object>
--------------
<object width="300" height="240" classid="clsid:27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0"> <param name="salign" value="lt"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="scale" value="noscale"> <param name="movie" value="FlowPlayerClassic.swf"><param name="flashvars" value="videoFile=Movie.flv"><embed width="300" height="240" quality="high" scale="noscale" salign="LT" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="FlowPlayerClassic.swf" flashvars="videoFile=Movie.flv"> </embed></object>

----------
and here's a sample page I downloaded from flowplayer.org, modified to point to my own files:


<head>

<title>Simple Flowplayer example</title>

<!--
include flashembed - which is a general purpose tool for
inserting Flash on your page. Following line is required.
-->
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/flashembed.min.js"></script>

<!-- some minimal styling, can be removed -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/common.css"/>

<script>

/*
use flashembed to place flowplayer into HTML element
whose id is "example" (below this script tag)
*/
flashembed("example",

/*
first argument supplies standard Flash parameters. See full list:
Flash OBJECT and EMBED tag attributes
*/
{
src:'FlowPlayerDark.swf',
width: 400,
height: 290
},

/*
second argument is Flowplayer specific configuration. See full list:
http://flowplayer.org/player/configuration.html
*/
{config: {
autoPlay: false,
autoBuffering: true,
controlBarBackgroundColor:'0x2e8860',
initialScale: 'scale',
videoFile: 'Movie.flv'
}}
);
</script>

</head>

<div id="page">

<h1>Simple Flowplayer <em>example</em></h1>

<p>
View source the page source to see how Flowplayer is installed.
</p>

<!-- this DIV is where your Flowplayer will be placed. it can be anywhere -->
<div id="example"></div>
<p>
<button onClick="location.href='index.html'">&laquo; back to examples</button>
</p>

</div>

---------------------

In all cases the examples display a blank screen on the web page, and in 2 of the examples I get the 'play' arrow, but nothing happens when I click it. According to what I've read, it's supposed to be really easy to get flv files working on a site... what am I doing wrong??

Many thanks for your input,
J.

[lamico]

J.

Unfortunately you often get what you pay for. I checked it out and it's quirky. As I told a web developer friend of mine, "The reason I pay the license for the Wimpy Player is because my time is worth more than the $35 fee. I honestly don't have the expertise to help you and I don't want to learn when there's an easy tool that works.

Just my opinion.

Lou Amico

[jfrizelle]

Thanks Lou - I've downloaded the demo version of Wasp player, got it to generate the code, and copied it into my webpage, but still no result. It displays a black page with the 'play' arrow on it, but does nothing when I click it.

I'm wondering now is it something to do with the flv file - how can I check that that's ok? I downloaded Riva FLV Encoder, ran my AVI file through it, and got an FLV file out the other end. When I double-click that FLV file, it plays fine, so I assumed that the FLV file was fine... but maybe not?

Any chance I could email my FLV file to one of you guys and see if you can successfully embed it in a web page?

Many thanks,
J.

[jfrizelle]

Anyone?

[lamico]

Did you create a wimpy folder on the root directory and put all the files in there? Also how big is the FLV file?

[jfrizelle]

Thanks Lamico.

I didn't create a folder called wimpy - I created a folder called Media, and in that I have Movie.flv, Movie.html, Movie_code.html, wasp.js and wasp.swf. The Movie.flv file is 817kb. The 2 html files are what wasp generated, and when I browse to either of those files I get the black movie screen, but when I click the play button... nothing happens.

This is why I'm starting to wonder if there's something amiss with the flv file - although if I double-click that directly on my PC, it plays no problem.

J.