Question : Problem: Progressive Download of a .mov

Hiya,

I've got a .mov video on a non-streaming / standard server. However when viewing it, you have to wait for the whole movie to download before you can view it.

Can anyone tell me how to have it progressively download?

Thanks

Answer : Problem: Progressive Download of a .mov

Well, that's the parameter you need to tell QuickTime to calculate download speed.  It takes the download speed and tests it against the size of your movie.  Based on that calculation, the QuickTime plugin (on the user-side) begins playing your movie when it has calculated that it has enough data to play uninterrupted while it downloads the rest.  That is the solution to how to get QuickTime movies to do what you're after -- I've used this numerous times and it's always done the trick.

However, a couple of considerations.  First, the HTML parameters you pass are read by the QuickTime plugin.  So it's all about the user's machine and the user's QuickTime setup.  Once you've coded the HTML, it's really up to QuickTime to do the rest.  So,

1) The attribute requires QuickTime 3 or later to work properly.  Also, I believe the user can override settings so that movies have to download before they begin.  So check your QuickTime prefs to be sure your personal version isn't doing that.  

2) Another consideration is short movies / slow download speeds.  Short movies often will download completely before starting because they do so before QT does its calculations.  

3) Slow download speeds (or upload server speeds, or high traffic) can cause QT videos to take more time to serve to the viewer.  In that case, the QT plugin will calculate that it needs LOTS of lead time before starting the movie.  Often, it will download the entire content before starting.  I've seen this numerous times on certain sites I frequent.

4) The browser sometimes can use a different plugin (based on the user's computer setup) rather than using Quick Time's.  If that's the case, then the parameters you pass are often useless.  You could add this parameter to force it to use the QT plugin:

-------------

QTSRC="URL" (optional...requires QuickTime 4)

This attribute allows content developers to force a browser to use the QuickTime Plug-in for a file no matter what its MIME type is. The attribute treats it's value as a URL to load, and ignores any data loaded by the browser from the "src" parameter.

www.apple.com/quicktime/sample2.mov">

This does not require the file type to be .mov. This can be any media type that QuickTime can read such as:

www.apple.com/quicktime/sample.mp3">

------------------

So, all that said, your solution with Quick Time movies, I can say with a pretty good deal of confidence and experience -- that the autoplay attribute is what you're after.  If it's not working when you test it, there could be a variety of reasons.  Some I listed above, and others are as simple as a typo in your HTML.

You could play with it, and perhaps test on another user's machine.  You might also want to test with different lengths of video.