Lachlan Hardy wrote:I've never had to provide video online, but surely you can just use one of the generic video file types that every player recognises?
I just knew that was going to get me in trouble...
Unless I'm mistaken, there are many video players that can play MOV files (just as it's not just MS' Media Player that can play AVI).
What generic video file types do you mean? I could only think of MPEG, off the top of my head...
I had thought of that, AVI and AU
I'm bound to get shot down by someone who has actually done this in practice, but I did some quick research anyway
Apparently every version of Windows Media Player from WMP7 will play .mov files [1], except that they is not associated with the player by default. Nor are they listed in the File Types menu. In fact I can't find any indication of compatibility. However I just checked and it works with .mov files, and .qt files as well. Makes me feel a tad silly about missing all those downloads for the last few years
It also plays .au, .snd, .mpg, .mpeg and .ivf (and other lesser known video types, and of course the WM family)
I didn't download QT for testing (seriously, register to download? As if) but I scoured their site. The best info I could get was here [2].
So, common video file types playable in both Windows Media Player and QuickTime Player are .au, .avi, .mpeg, .mov, .qt (NOTE: these are only video file types. I haven't compared audio types)
Apple do not specify any compatibility with any of the WM family. I remember reading somewhere that QT doesn't play .wmv files etc. Most of you can probably check that pretty easily yourself
Of course, then it depends whether you are downloading the files or playing them in the browser. Because I still can't play .mov files via the browser as I don't have the correct plugin
Hope that helpful to someone
Cheers, Lachlan
[1] http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q316992 [2] http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qt/specifications.html ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/
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