How to play a sequence of movies in a Web page
Q: I'm putting QuickTime content in my Web page and I'd like to have the QuickTime plug-in play a sequence of movies, one after the other. Is this possible?
A: I'm putting QuickTime content in my Web page and I'd like to have the QuickTime plug-in play a sequence of movies, one after the other. Is this possible?
Yes, the QuickTime plug-in has many special features that you can control from HTML by inserting parameters in the page using the <EMBED>
tag. You can specify the QTNEXT
parameter in the <EMBED>
tag in your HTML to tell the QuickTime plug-in to play a sequence of movies, one after the other, to create an endlessly repeating playlist. When the current movie finishes, the next movie in the list starts. This can also be a good way to deliver a long movie; users never need to store more than a small piece of it on their computers at any time.
Here's how to specify the QTNEXT
parameter:
QTNEXTn="<Filename> T<Target>" or "GOTOn" |
Here's an example:
<EMBED SRC="First.mov" HEIGHT="176" WIDTH="120" QTNEXT1="<Second.mov> T<myself>" QTNEXT2="<Third.mov> T<myself>"> |
You have to append a number between 1 and 255 to each QTNEXT
. They execute in numerical order.
"<Filename> T<Target>"
Set <Filename>
to the name of the file you want to play next. You can include a relative path or the full URL.
The T<Target>
parameter is optional. It specifies where the movie plays. If it's not specified, the next movie replaces the current browser window or frame, and any subsequent QTNEXT
statements are lost. The special value of T<myself>
targets the QuickTime plug-in and is normally the value you want; the next movie replaces the current movie, and subsequent QTNEXT
statements are executed in turn. The target can also be the name of a browser window or frame. If no window or frame of that name exists, a new browser window with that name is created. You can also specify T<quicktimeplayer>
as a target, which opens the movie in QuickTime Player.
Each QTNEXT
statement has an index number, which is the order in which the movies play.
The special index value of 0
is assigned to the original movie named in the SRC
parameter (or the QTSRC
parameter, if it was specified).
Why have index numbers? Because instead of a filename, you can specify GOTOn
, where n
is the index of the QTNEXT
you want to go to. You normally do this to create a simple loop:
<EMBED SRC="First.mov" HEIGHT="176" WIDTH="120" QTNEXT1="<Second.mov> T<myself>" QTNEXT2="<Third.mov> T<myself>" QTNEXT3=GOTO0 > |
This example plays First.mov
, then Second.mov
, then Third.mov
, then goes back to First.mov
(index 0
), in an endless loop. You can use values other than 0
to cause QTNEXT
statements to play in arbitrary order, or to start looping from some midpoint. For example,
<EMBED SRC="Intro.mov" HEIGHT="176" WIDTH="120" QTNEXT1="<First.mov> T<myself>" QTNEXT2="<Second.mov> T<myself>" QTNEXT3=GOTO1 > |
would play the Intro.mov
just once, then play First.mov
and Second.mov
in an endless loop.
Special Considerations
The EMBED
tag alone will work just fine on Safari and on Firefox. However, we recommend you use an EMBED
tag nested within an OBJECT
tag because Internet Explorer will automatically offer to download and install the QuickTime ActiveX control if the user doesn't already have it. In Firefox and Safari, the OBJECT
tag code is ignored.
Here's what the nested code looks like:
<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" width="320" height="256" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"> <param name="src" value="First.mov"> <param name="controller" value="true"> <param name="autoplay" value="true"> <param name="qtnext1" value="<second.mov>T<myself>E<controller=true autoplay=true>"> <param name="qtnext2" value="<third.mov>T<myself>E<controller=true autoplay=true>"> <embed src="First.mov" width="320" height="256" controller="true" autoplay="true" qtnext1="<second.mov>T<myself>E<controller=true autoplay=true>" qtnext2="<third.mov>T<myself>E<controller=true autoplay=true>" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"> </embed> </object> |
Also, in early 2006, Microsoft made available an updated version of Internet Explorer browser for Windows. This new Internet Explorer for Windows handles QuickTime and other ActiveX controls in a new way. Your website may be affected if it features QuickTime content that is contained in an HTML web page using OBJECT
, EMBED
, or APPLET
tags. See Instructions for Updating Websites to Include QuickTime Content for more information.
The QTNEXT
parameter can also support sub-parameters for each movie.
Here's example HTML code:
In the OBJECT
tag:
<PARAM NAME="qtnext1" VALUE="<second.mov>T<myself>E<CONTROLLER=true AUTOPLAY=true>"> |
In the EMBED
tag:
qtnext1="<second.mov>T<myself>E<CONTROLLER=true AUTOPLAY=true>" |
References
Document Revision History
Date | Notes |
---|---|
2008-08-08 | New document that how to have the QuickTime plug-in play a sequence of movies, one after the other, in a Web page |
Copyright © 2008 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Updated: 2008-08-08