Is WMV possible in Rev

[Dan Shafer]

Mark is probably a more serious multimedia developer than I, but I've done a
lot with video and audio importand play in Rev in the past few months. My
view is almsot the same as his (and I, too, own Flip4Mac, a delightful
program that not only lets me play WMV files on OS X without using Windows
Media Player but also lets me save QT files in .WMV format, which for Web
delivery is a real godsend).

I think the best solution for cross-platform playback is definitely MP3. I
have not used .AVI primarily because I've found MP3 to be so useful.

However, there is one potential problem with MP3s and that is the one Mark
alludes to in his response. You really have to stick to very generic codecs
when you create your MP3 files or you will find yourself eitner saddled with
the responsibility of notifying your users what codec to get and how or with
unhappy users whose experience with your MP3s is not on a par with their
experience with "everyone else's" MP3s, making it, of course, your fault
that your sounds don't play well.

WIth QT, that's less a problem, and since Rev handles QT files seamlessly, I
tend to deliver my sound and video products to end users as a Rev app with
QT files stored as custom properties and bundled with the app. So far,
nobody has said they couldn't play those files on any platform and nobody
has yet complained about quality or anything else. So that's my first
solution when I'm delivering a Rev app. I use MP3s when I store sound on the
Web for download without benefit of a Rev application.

(There are other advantages to using Rev custom properties to store the
sound files. The user gets a single download, and you can avoid the
necessity of the user even having to know where the files are stored
because...in effect...they're not.)

On 4/30/06, Mark Schonewille <m.schonewille at economy-x-talk.com> wrote:
>
> Hi RJ,
>
> I have Flip4Mac installed and can play WMV files in Revolution,
> running on a Mac with Mac OS X. The best option for cross-platform
> compatibility probably is avi or mpg. These formats can still use a
> variety of encodings and you will want to make sure that the encoding
> is available for all platforms.
>
> You could also write a script to detect the encoding needed for your
> files and present a dialog with information about where to get the
> necessary plugins. You could help your users by providing them with a
> direct link in the dialog that opens the correct web site.
>
> Best,
>
> Mark
>
>
> Op 30-apr-2006, om 23:09 heeft RJ McNicol het volgende geschreven:
>
> > Hi all.
> >
> > I am new to this list and am plodding along in the studio version.
> > I am seriously looking at the studio version to do cross platform
> > projects.    I already have a slew of questions but I'll keep this
> > brief.
> >
> > Are windows media files easy to implement in standalone projects or
> > would I be best to use QT.  Or maybe to better ask the question
> > what do you pros consider the best option for  Mac and Windows
> > compatibility?
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > RJ McNicol
> > Canada
>
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--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Shafer, Information Product Consultant and Author
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