Previously I created a website in the normal Freeway fashion using CSS but discovered that increasing the size of the text reduced the site to a horrible visual mess, so I asked a friend for some help and he basically redesigned the same site using the box model and I now have a very basic understanding of the logic behind this system, though it’s far from perfect.
In my previous version, I worked out through trial and error that my 320x240 video actually required that the box dimensions had to be 380x280 to view the video with no loss of quality and it then played beautifully.
Roll forward to the new box model version of the site and I am finding that when viewed on any Mac browser I can see the player skin, but it utterly refuses to play the actual video. On Windows the video plays, but for some reason that old measurement I discovered of 380x280 isn’t right, so I am playing a guessing game to see what looks right and it takes a few minutes between every attempt because Freeway wants to upload the video again every time.
The only way I can view the video properly on the Mac is to avoid the box model method and just create a normal CSS layer, however, I am then back at square one if I try to enlarge the text because the flash player will flow over the text.
This whole business is driving me barmy and losing far too much time. Isn’t there a simple way of doing this so that it just works?
What are you using to embed the video? Was it exported out of a program other than Flash? Are you using a Flash Player to play a video clip?
I know I build box-model sites religiously and I’ve never had a problem with it. Typically I ‘insert an HTML-item’ and then I size it before I even insert the Flash item. Then upon import it works as it should. I use SlideShowPro for my slideshow and video-clip playing needs, but a lot of people on here use other software-based solutions.
The video was converted from QuickTime using flash by somebody I know who is very experienced with flash and they did it so that it includes a skin player which you can see at the site.
The html item was created and then the flash movie was inserted inside that space using the FLV player action. It seems odd that we have to basically guess how big the box should be to allow for the player and it doesn’t make a lot of sense that this is working in Windows but not on the Mac browsers.
I’ve just started working on a duplicate version of the site using Rapidweaver which I haven’t touched in ages, but in 5 minutes I already have a working flash video on the page at http://www.nudephotopro.com/Rapidweaver/
Hopefully somebody from softpress can explain what is wrong is here but I have tried both variations in the flash action and neither one makes a blind bit of difference. I can see that the video is loading in the Mac browsers through the player skin, but it’s just not playing like it does in the Windows browsers.
You have a layer item called “item12b1” that is sitting over all the
content, including the video, in the Freeway version. Because of this
it is impossible to click the play button on the movie. Make the item
smaller (a lot smaller, it just contains the adobe reader info as far
as I can see) and it should work properly.
If you’re still having problems then send the file into support (I
noticed you sent an email to us already) and we’ll take a look.
Regards,
Joe (Softpress Support)
On 4 Aug 2009, at 13:41, Ashley wrote:
I’ve just started working on a duplicate version of the site using
Rapidweaver which I haven’t touched in ages, but in 5 minutes I
already have a working flash video on the page at http://www.nudephotopro.com/Rapidweaver/
Hopefully somebody from softpress can explain what is wrong is here
but I have tried both variations in the flash action and neither one
makes a blind bit of difference. I can see that the video is loading
in the Mac browsers through the player skin, but it’s just not
playing like it does in the Windows browsers.
Looking here at the page in Freeway the container “item12b1” measures 926 wide x 76 high and it’s nowhere near the flash video. It contains the the Get Adobe Reader icon and about 1 sentence of text around it, but that is all. The actual page is 966 pixels wide, but there is 20 points of padding on either side of the text.
On a side issue I’d really like to know what the different options are inside the flash player flv action and also if there is a way to calculate the the ideal size for a box when taking account of the player skin. At the moment it all seems hit and miss.
Somebody who checked out the site said it was automatically starting to load the 7MB flash file and that it should only do that if the player button is pressed, but I don’t know whether or not this is a fault with the original flash file or something that I can control.
That’s strange I posted a reply, but it hasn’t appeared.
That item12b1 measures 926 wide x 76 high and it’s nowhere near the flash video so it shouldn’t really be messing up anything else around it.
On a side subject I’d really like to see more explanation somewhere about the flash player flv action regarding the options and also how to judge the right size to prepare a video when allowing for a player skin. It’s all a bit hit and miss at present.
Ignore that last post. For some reason posts are taking minutes rather than seconds to appear, so I was convinced it hadn’t worked. The server for this forum was also unreachable for an hour or two last night.
The flash video is now working from what I can see. After reading your answer, it was suggest I set item14 and item12b1 to clear and both which did the trick.
Now it looks like I can hopefully get this site launched at long last.
I subscribe by email and got your message just fine, not sure what
could have happened on the web side. I think it’s probably best if you
send in your file so we can take a look. The address to send it to os
support(a)softpress.com, if it’s larger than 10MB then please use a
free sending service such as http://www.senduit.com making the file
available for a min of 3 days and then send us the link (to support).
Re. preloading the movie, if you wait until someone clicks the movie
to start it loading then they will have to wait before it starts. By
loading as soon as the page opens you get a much smoother experience.
Re. the movie dimensions, the Action uses a fairly simple process
effectively squeezing the movie into a static stage (the area of the
Flash file that references the FLV). If you wanted something more
dynamic then you could use something along the lines of JWPlayer ( http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/
). I can send you instructions on how to do this through your
support ticket if you like.
Cheers,
Joe
On 4 Aug 2009, at 15:06, Ashley wrote:
That’s strange I posted a reply, but it hasn’t appeared.
That item12b1 measures 926 wide x 76 high and it’s nowhere near the
flash video so it shouldn’t really be messing up anything else
around it.
On a side subject I’d really like to see more explanation somewhere
about the flash player flv action regarding the options and also how
to judge the right size to prepare a video when allowing for a
player skin. It’s all a bit hit and miss at present.