Tutorial Spotlight: Embedding the Player

To embed or not to embed -- that is the question. Should I run my streaming from an embedded player? What are the advantages and disadvantages to embedding a streaming player as opposed to running the player as a stand-alone application?

These are some of the most common questions that my clients ask when they are creating a web site that involves streaming media. There are design considerations and technical benefits to embedding the streaming player. It is easier to run the streaming player as a stand-alone application, but if you are creating content that needs to be very interactive or needs to be integrated with other Internet technologies, embedding is the way to go.

A few years ago, embedded players provided the only means to create advanced multimedia applications like training modules and interactive scenarios. Lately, most popular player platforms have been implementing interactive content through information included in metafiles (SMIL, ASX, RAM). This new trend has made it easier to create the interactivity that developers are looking for, but it is still not as extensible as embedding the player. Each of the major platforms (Microsoft Windows Media Player and RealPlayer from RealNetworks) has options for embedding the player with either an Active X Control or a Plug-in.

If this sounds a little more complicated than the link you were using to launch the stand-alone player, you're right. You will need to understand advanced web development to fully exploit all of the functionality. The Netscape vs. Internet Explorer rivalry has made the situation even a little more complicated: Netscape does not support Active X Controls and the Windows Media Player has more functionality available for the Active X Control than the plug-in. You may also discover problems running embedded streaming players in operating system environments other than Windows. Mac, Linux and Unix players do not have as much functionality available as their Windows counterparts.However, if you want or need interactivity and a higher degree of customization, you'll want to explore your embedding options.

Some amazing things you can do with embedded players:

• Turn your web page into a branded, customized player
• Create any type of custom buttons from images
• Write your own functions that trigger on errors, mouse-over events, or player states

Some of the most interesting things that you can do with embedded players involve embedding events in the stream. Triggering events allows you to synchronize your streaming with other elements in the page--this is great for controlling other Active X Controls or Plug-ins.

If you are planning on embedding the player and creating something unique for your brand, you'll need to know quite a bit about web development, streaming technologies, and the differences between several browsers' implementations of JavaScript, Active X controls and plug-ins. If you are looking to learn more about embedding streaming media players, try the Windows Media SDK and the RealPlayer SDK, available for free download from Microsoft and RealNetworks.

Resources

Embedding RealVideo in a Web Page

Embedding Windows Media Player in a Web Page

Embedding QuickTime for Web Delivery

OverDrive Media is a full service streaming media development house delivering world-class streaming media solutions. Our core competency is streaming media Web development. We deliver streaming media integration to existing sites, build complete Web solutions that leverage streaming media or manage streaming media projects as part of a larger team. A partial list of our services includes project conception and consulting, professional graphic design, database design and programming, custom Web application development, audio and video encoding and MacroMedia Flash.