Streaming/Progressive download video can be done
in a couple of different formats, both QUickTime
and Windows Media. Streaming video requires that
you have a streaming server, and a lot of
knowledge on how to use it, so stick with
Progressive Download. This is support by the
"normal" servers. I'm not familiar with QT, so
here's how you do it with Windows:
- Download the free Windows Media Encoder
from Microsoft. The WMV profiles supplied with
Liquid don't support progressive download.
- Fuse your timeline to an AVI.
- Start the Windows Media Encoder. Use the
New Session wizard and choose Convert A File.
Put in the filename and from the Distribution
dialog choose Web Server (Progressive
Download).
- In the Encoding Options you pick the
bitrate. Choose Full Screen Video. This uses
the same size as the source. Select the
appropriate bit rate (higher bit rates give
better quality but increase the file size). If
you don't want a full size NTSC or PAL frame
you're better off resizing in Liquid to the
proper size first rather than resizing in the
WMV encoder.
- Fill out the display properties (if you
want), make sure the Begin Converting when I
click Finish checkbox is checked and click on
Finish.
This will create the progressive download .WMV
file. But this alone will not progressively
download if put on a web server. You need to
also use an HTML file which embeds the player.
Here's a short piece of HTML which will do the
job:
<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title goes Here</title>
</head>
<body>
<OBJECT ID="MediaPlayer" WIDTH="320"
HEIGHT="240" CLASSID="CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95"
TYPE="application/x-oleobject">
<PARAM NAME="FileName" VALUE="http://someserver.com/myfile.wmv">
<PARAM NAME="autostart" VALUE="1">
<PARAM NAME="showcontrols" VALUE="1">
<EMBED TYPE="application/x-mplayer2"
SRC="http://someserver.com/myfile.wmv"
WIDTH="320"
HEIGHT="240"
AUTOSTART="1"
SHOWCONTROLS="1">
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>
</body>
</html>
Copy both files to your web server. Edit the
HTML and change the size parameters to match the
frame. Change the URLs to point to the .WMV file
and the title as appropriate. Now when you
reference the HTML file it will start the
appropriate media player for your system, buffer
the video, and begin playing while downloading.
Hope this helps.
Dave S.
