Preventing progressive download FLV file from downloading until Play is clicked
by Nicholas Shera
on
Mar 11, 2009 at 11:34:27 pm
I've already posted this question in the Flash forum but have not received a real solution to my dilemma. I was therefore wondering if anyone on this forum can solve my problem. Repeating my post below:
I've searched the whole internet for hours and no one seems to be able to answer the following simple question:
"How do you embed an FLV file (using a program such as Dreamweaver) with progressive download, such that the user's browser does NOT begin downloading until the Play button is clicked?"
I already know how to embed an FLV file using Dreamweaver, but I can't prevent embedded files from downloading automatically in the browser the instance you navigate to the relevant page.
This is a very important thing for me to be able to do, since some of my pages will have several embedded videos on them. However I have noticed during testing that ALL the videos begin downloading in the background. I do not want this to happen as it makes the video-watching experience unsatisfactory for users with slower connections.
Re: Preventing progressive download FLV file from downloading until Play is clicked by Fernando Mol on Mar 12, 2009 at 6:12:25 am
You can create a 1 frame flash movie with your play button and a snapshot of your video (or any design you like). Then, when the user click on the button you can load another flash movie with your video inside your actual flash movie.
This is making sense? You'll need to use actionscript inside Flash.
If you are not familiar with actionscript please ask again for more details.
Also, I remember somebody talked in a recent post about a plug-in or an extension for making exactly that.
Re: Preventing progressive download FLV file from downloading until Play is clicked by Nicholas Shera on Mar 12, 2009 at 6:19:37 am
Thanks for your suggestion. While I've been using Dreamweaver for some time, I've only just begun learning Flash. I guess having some knowledge of ActionScript would be useful in this instance. If you can provide me with some easy-to-follow advice about how to do what you've described, that would be appreciated. However, if this is too complicated for a beginner, maybe it's best that I complete my Flash tutorials first, and then ask you again later?
Re: Preventing progressive download FLV file from downloading until Play is clicked by Fernando Mol on Mar 12, 2009 at 4:00:41 pm
I'll explain it and you see if it works for you. It's made with Actionscript 2 and it's very simple to do if you have a few movies in your page.
Create your swf with your actual video. Publish and upload it to your server (you'll need the URL later).
Then, create another swf the same size of the previous movie.
Place a snapshot of your video or any image you want.
Create a button.
Select your button and open the Actions panel going
>window >actions
Now, open the Behaviors window going to
>window >Behaviors
This will open a window. You'll see in the upper left of the Behaviors window a blue plus sign. Click on it and it will show you a menu. Be sure you have your button selected and go to:
>Movieclip >Load external movieclip
Another window will open asking you to put the URL for the swf file you want to place (the one with your actual video). You can let the other options as they are.
Re: Preventing progressive download FLV file from downloading until Play is clicked by Fernando Mol on Mar 12, 2009 at 4:06:13 pm
Actually you don't need to open the Actions panel. First I wrote the coded version but then I remember there's a Behavior (and I forgot to erase that suggestion). But it's not a bad idea you look at the code the behavior will write for you. It's short and almost self explanatory.
Re: Preventing progressive download FLV file from downloading until Play is clicked by Stewart Wright on Mar 24, 2009 at 4:33:37 pm
Hi Nicholas
I'm looking for the exact same solution
Right now I'm thinking of loading a 1 frame blank FLV and then when play is clicked, load the real movie - doesn't seem like the right way to go though
Re: Preventing progressive download FLV file from downloading until Play is clicked by Nicholas Shera on Mar 25, 2009 at 4:37:58 am
Hi Stewart
Well to be honest I've been side-tracked lately so I haven't decided on anything, though I believe I will go with Fernando's suggestion of using a snapshot of the first frame of the video and the player controls.
