Topic: Old Debate: QT vs WMP (Page 1 of 1)

I know this question has been bandied about before (at least I've been part of said bandying in the past) and I was curious as to the prevailing opinion here.

When embedding a movie file in a website, is it better to use QuickTime or Windows Media as the format for the movie? Also, is better to have the movie auto-play, or stream as it is stopped?

Thanks in advance...

~~~
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

In the MOV vs WMV battle, it's tie for the 1st place between xVid and DivX.



(Edited by poi on 08-24-2006 19:57)

Not sure about formats, but as far as players go I prefer QuickTime. For one, QuickTime allows you to "step forward" (or backward) through the clip (that is, you can move the locator thingy along the time bar and it will show each frame as you go). WMP allows you to move the locator thingy, but it doesn't show each frame as you move (sorry if that doesn't make sense, but I don't know what any of those elements are called... you know, the "locator thingy" and "time bar").

As for playback, I like to have as much control over that as possible. I'm not sure what you mean by "stream as it is stopped," but I like to be able to stop my video, move forward and backward, etc. Some sites that have embedded video don't allow you to go forward or backward, and that annoys me. In the end, I think the user should have full control over the playback.

So, that's mostly from the user point-of-view, and it's a limited point-of-view, but there you have it.

[Edit: Clarification on the streaming video thing. I do not like streaming video. I was just trying to watch a video clip, and it would buffer, play a little, then stop while it rebuffered, then play a little more, then stop again, then play, then stop, and on and on. My connection speed tends to lag a lot at times, so the buffer is never enough to play a clip through to the end (in fact it's rarely more than enough to play for five seconds). With a non-streaming video I can hit pause and go do something else until the whole thing loads (like on Google videos or YouTube). But with streaming video if you hit pause it just stops and doesn't continue loading. I am correct with my understanding of streaming video here, no?

If so, then I can definitely say that I detest streaming video. It pretty much makes video clips unwatchable for me. Personally, I do not understand the advantages of streaming video. Does it save bandwidth? Is it harder to steal? It still sucks.

End of rant.]


___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-25-2006 04:43)

Nah, they're all streaming if they start showing the video while it loads.

Stopping to load on-pause is just broken design, meaning somebody didn't think.
(Oh, and maybe you could increase the buffer size somewhere rightclicking the streaming media... that might help a bit)

so long,

->Tyberius Prime

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Tyberius Prime said:

Nah, they're all streaming if they start showing the video while it loads.

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See, that's what I thought it meant. But then I encountered these absolutely frustrating clips that only streamed while the clip was playing. So I became confused.

Anyway, Gothmatum, whatever you do, don't do that.

And thanks for the tip, TP. I'll try right-clicking next time.

Ideally you would use flash to play your video, it will acheive greater accessibility, plus you'll be able to customize it more.

All you should ever have to use is <object data="moviefile" type="mimetype"></object>; the rest should just be taken care of by a wrapper that points to whatever you have set to play that mimetype. It's my browser, let me use MY plugin of choice. If you want to customize every little thing including embedded media controls, you should put in the time and work (and no I don't mean use Flash ).

As for the format, yeah, a non-cutting-edge MPEG is the way to go if you want the most support, and Ogg/Theora is the way to go if you want to propel an open internet (easy to have an object setup to fallback to an MPEG anyways).

Reiso, that sounds interesting, have you any examples of that method in use?

Flash is wonderful stuff but I don't know how many people will have it, i.e. my boss or the client (in this case, my boss' boss). There's also the fact I don't have Flash here at the office.

More's the pity. I miss my Flash.

~~~
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

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Blaise said:

Reiso, that sounds interesting, have you any examples of that method in use?

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http://reisio.com/eso_eats_babies/