Video
A Video page or pagelet displays video, audio or flash content within your site. As well as simply adding a multimedia file to a site, you can use a Video for:
- Podcasting or Videocasting
- Adding background music to your site or a particular page.
When you first create a Video, no media file is yet associated with it, so it looks like this:
Video pages and pagelets use Apple's Quicktime software to embed the multimedia within the page. Because of this, visitors must have Quicktime installed on their computer to play the Video.
If you wish for visitors to be able to view multimedia content without Quicktime installed, you need to add the file to your site as a File Download and then link to it (instead of creating a Video page).
Ways to add a Video to a site:
- Use the "Pages" or "Pagelets" items in the toolbar.
- Choose "Add Page" or "Add Pagelet" from the Site menu.
- Drag a video file to the Site Outline.
Downloads
Visitors can only directly download a movie file if they have Quicktime Pro installed. If you wish to make a movie easily downloadable by visitors, you must also add it to your site as a File Download and then link to it.
If a Video page is part of an RSS feed, it is automatically added as an enclosure, so it will be correctly downloaded by applications subscribing to the feed.
Video Sizes
When you add a Video to a site, Sandvox checks the video's width (measured in pixels). If the video is wider than the limits listed below, Sandvox will automatically scale it down and the video will be displayed at this smaller size.
The maximum widths for movies are:
- 200 pixels for pagelets
- 320 pixels for pages with the Sidebar visible
- 640 pixels for pages without the Sidebar visible
Scaling the film down can result in poor quality while viewing online and longer download times. So it's best to scale videos down before incorporating them into your site.
One good tool for resizing is Apple's Quicktime Pro. Resizing before adding the video to your site will speed load times.
Note that Sandvox only scales the video file down for viewing. The published file is exactly the same as the original, so if a visitor downloads the movie using Quicktime Pro, they can watch it at full resolution. If you want to display a video on your site that is wider than 640 pixels, add it as a File Download and then link to it.
Referencing
Sandvox allows you to specify whether media files (such as videos) are copied into the Sandvox document of a site. Due to their large size, we generally recommend that you do not allow Sandvox to copy video files into the document. Instead, set this behavior to "Automatic" and keep the movie files in your "Movies" folder. For more information, please see the "Media" article.
Settings
To edit a Video page:
- Click the Video in the Site Outline to select it.
- Open the Page Inspector. The top half contains general page attributes; the bottom holds settings specific to the Video as shown below.
To edit a Video pagelet:
- Select the Video by clicking it.
- Open the Selection Inspector. The top half contains general pagelet attributes; the bottom holds settings specific to the Video as shown below.
Please note that it is possible for site visitors' own computer settings to override some of the settings here.
Source
You can use any video or audio file that Quicktime can handle or Flash movies. For more information on this, please see "Supported Video Formats."
Video can either be from your computer, or from an existing location on the internet.
To set the Video:
- Click the "Choose…" button.
- Select a video, audio or Flash file from your computer.
or:
- Set "Movie Source" to "From URL."
- Enter the URL of an existing video on the internet. e.g.
http://www.example.com/mymovie.mp4
By using an external URL for the movie, you save the time and bandwidth you would have spent downloading it yourself.
When using a Video page or pagelet, keep in mind your visitors' connection speed (try to use relatively small video files) and their installed software (avoid unusual codecs that they may not have).
Automatically Play
If you check this, the movie will start playing once the page has loaded.
Show Controller
Determines whether or not the video controls (pause, play, etc.) will be visible to visitors.
This applies only to regular video. (The controller is always visible for audio-only files and never visible for Flash movies.)
Enable Popup Menu
Allows visitors to control-click or right-click the movie to bring up a menu of additional commands. When selected, more commands are available then when not selected. Also sets the visibility of the popup item at the far right of the control strip below the movie (Not for Flash).
Loop
If checked, the movie will play continuously, starting again once it has finished.
