It's a Mobile World - Good/Bad for Video Viewing?

Soniclight wrote on 6/30/2012, 4:17 PM
OK, let me rephrase and fine tune part that:as the specific embedded in this thread first:

--- I'm particularly concerned about people being able to use a [I]JW/LongTail player[/I] at my site for my upcoming video on mobile/non-desktop devices, i.e. iPad/Phone, etc. for their current "Supported Video and Audio Formats" states that the latter are not supported.

I can't test that out myself for I've so far never has a need for a cell or smartphone (I know, so mid-20th century, but I live on a fixed income and land line is fine for me -- at this juncture). In short, I'm very behind-the-times on the differences between brands in terms of what one can do vs. the other, i.e. Apple vs. Android vs. Galaxy, etc.

So now on to the more general issue...

Since most can play high resolutions videos, they re-size them to fit the viewer's screen, but I'm guessing that some videos and content will show up or work, others not due to their delivery platform -- such as from VImeo or Google vs. situations similar to mine (hosting on one's own site via a JW/Longtail or similar player).

In udder words...



I'd welcome input on this whole area.

~ Philip

Comments

Soniclight wrote on 6/30/2012, 4:36 PM
PS: Newbie as I am to this whole mobile thing, I did discover this possible compromise with the JW/Longtail vs. YouTube issue -- IF I find that YouTube doesn't butcher my video: host on YouTube, play through my site's JW/Longtail. From the page linked in opening post:
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Soniclight wrote on 7/1/2012, 4:38 AM
Pardon bump, but I'd really appreciate some feedback.
Thanks.
Soniclight wrote on 7/1/2012, 7:32 PM
Oh, Great Vegas Yodas, please respndeth to thy faithful acolyte's query... :D
Anybuddy out there?
ushere wrote on 7/1/2012, 8:53 PM
i suppose there's others reading this philip, but for my part i simply knock out a 'standard' 720 mp4 and call it quits.

i think using 'non-standard' players / codecs / whatever is just asking for trouble somewhere down the line.*

*when i did web design stuff i had not only pc's running various iterations of ie and other browsers but mac's too. amazing just how badly garbled a 'compliant' site can become when view on various browsers.....
Soniclight wrote on 7/2/2012, 6:05 PM
Well, upon further reflection on this, I spoze I'll take your lead on this one and just do what I do and not worry about it. Bob/Farss sometimes points out to me that I over-think stuff. Probably true in this case. Once again :D
rmack350 wrote on 7/2/2012, 6:49 PM
JW player is a flash player, as far as I know. If so, Apples phones and tablets won't support Flash. However (and this is just a guess) if you're feeding h.264 files to JW player I'd think that Apple's browser could play them directly through an HTML5 video tag. So what you're looking for is a way to have the JW Player called but ignored by Apple's browser. That's the gist of what I'd be looking for, anyway.

The JW Player folks ought to be able to guide you on this.

Rob
rmack350 wrote on 7/2/2012, 7:36 PM
And then I took a look at the JW player link you provided. They're basically confirming my assumptions. I didn't look too hard but it seems like they've thought this out a bit. If you use MP4 files then their flash-based JW Player should play your videos on platforms with the Adobe Flash Plugin. Platforms for which no Flash Plugin exists (Apple IOS phones and tablets) should fall back to playing the movies via HTML5 if you code the page right.

The question is, how do you test it? You need to have a browser like Chrome set up locally to NOT use Adobe Flash Player. It should default to HTML5 and play your videos. This is the best you can do short of asking people with Iphones to test for you, which you should also do.

Rob
Soniclight wrote on 7/2/2012, 7:55 PM
Thanks, Rob, that prompted me to do a Google on that and... tada!
Gonna have to upgrade and integrate.

JW Player for Flash and HTML5

And here is the...
Instructions page for HTML5

And from a cursory scan of these instructions, as long as one uses MP4 files, the Apple-ites will be able bite and taste one's offerings :D
Soniclight wrote on 7/5/2012, 10:38 PM
Since I'm delving deeper into all of this, I found this page that's interesting for those who use the JW Player.