QuickTime Embed
QuickTime Embed is a WordPress plugin made to ease the pain of inserting QuickTime movies manually. Once installed, QuickTime movies can be added in your blog posts using simple, intuitive inline [qt:] tags.
Geoff’s QuickTime Javascript is used to detect and insert QuickTime movie, making this implementation XHTML compliant.
Vodcasting is supported. Links to download iPod version of your movie can be inserted below your embedded QuickTime movie, if desired.
Features
- uses simple, intuitive tags to generate QuickTime movies for your posts
- standards compliant: valid XHTML
- movie autostart can be globally turned on or off
- supports poster movie
- supports text only output for RSS that ask reader to visit the original post for QuickTime content
- supports vodcasting
- requires javascript to display content, but will prompt user to enable Javascript when disabled
- no annoying ActiveX pop ups for users that do not have QuickTime installed
Usage
There are 3 different ways to use the [qt:] tags, each method differs by the number of arguments you need to provide within the tags. Here’s a list of the possible cases:
- Embed a QuickTime movie only
- Embed a QuickTime movie with poster movie
- Embed a QuickTime movie with poster movie and iPod video download link
QuickTime movie only
3 input arguments are required, they are:
- path to the movie
- movie’s width in pixels
- movie’s height in pixels
Example input:
Example output:
QuickTime movie with poster
To use poster movie, make sure $qt_useposter (see Options) is set to 1. If $qt_autoposter is set to 1, poster movie argument need not be entered i.e. the tag usage is the same as the previous case above.
If $qt_posterpath is not defined, the poster movie is assumed to be named with the same filename (no extension) as the movie but with “_poster.mov” appended to it. If it is, the poster movie is assumed to be in the poster directory and with the same filename as the movie file.
For explicit poster movie location, 4 input arguments are required, they are:
- path to the movie
- path to the poster movie
- movie’s width in pixels
- movie’s height in pixels
Take note that the height of your poster movie should be 16px larger than the height of the main movie. The reason for this is that when poster movie is shown, the QuickTime controller will be hidden.
Example input:
Example output:
QuickTime movie with poster and iPod video download
5 input arguments are required, they are:
- path to the movie
- path to the poster movie
- path to the iPod format video
- movie’s width in pixels
- movie’s height in pixels
The default text link for downloading the iPod format video are “iPod version”. You can change this text to something else such as “Download podcast” if you wish by changing some of the options. Please refer to the Options section for more information.
Example input:
Example output:
iPod version (2.7 MB)
Users without QuickTime or Javascript
Unfortunately, not all of your users might have QuickTime installed on their computer. When it happens, the mighty QuickTime Javascript will detect and output appropriate messages that prompt these users to download and install QuickTime onto their computers. Here’s an example screenshot that show you how this works:
While most modern browser supports Javascript, some users are too afraid that Javascript will screw up their computer so they turn it off just to be safe. This becomes a problem because this WordPress plugin relies on Javascript to display the QuickTime movie (in order to be XHTML compliant). To solve this problem, “noscript” tags are used to prompt these users to enable their Javascript and refresh the page for the QuickTime movie to show up. Here’s an example screenshot:
Text only output:
By default, this plugin will output text that reads “[See post to watch QuickTime movie]” for your RSS feeds only. I don’t think there’s a point to include any Javascript or QuickTime embedding code in your feeds. :P
Options
Hopefully this plugin will work as desired in an “out of the box” way so that you don’t need to change anything. However, few extra parameters can still be tweaked if you want to have extra control over the plugin’s output.
Since this plugin is still in its early stage, setting options via the WordPress admin panel is not supported yet. For now, you will need to open up the php file using either your favourite text editor or WordPress built-in plugin editor to change some of the variables you can find near the top of the code.
$qt_autostart: 0 to disable autostart, 1 to enable (strongly discouraged as it’s annoying from a user perspective)$qt_kioskmode: 0 to disable kiosk mode, 1 to enable (when enabled, right click menu is disabled)$qt_targetcache: 0 to disable caching of target movie, 1 to enable (target movie = main movie when poster movie is in effect)$qt_showcontrol: 0 to disable controller, 1 to enable (this only affects movies with no poster)$qt_useposter: 0 to disable poster feature, 1 to enable$qt_autoposter: 0 to disable automatic poster*, 1 to enable (take effect when no poster argument is given)$qt_globalposter: path to global poster (e.g. “/poster.mov”), this overrides everything, leave blank to disable$qt_posterpath: path to poster movies (e.g. “/poster/”), used when only filename is given as poster argument i.e. not absolute or site relative path$qt_moviepath: path to directory storing QuickTime movies (e.g. “/qt/”), used when only filename is given as movie argument$qt_ipodtext: text link to download iPod format video
* the plugin will append movie filename with “_poster.mov” as poster movie if $qt_posterpath is undefined, or look for poster movie with the same filename in the directory storing poster movies if defined
Installation
- Download and extract the “quicktime-embed” folder
- Upload the “quicktime-embed” folder to your WordPress plugin directory, usually “wp-content/plugins”
- Activate the plugin in your WordPress admin panel
Upgrade
- Deactivate the plugin in your WordPress admin panel
- Remove the “quicktime-embed” folder in your WordPress plugin directory
- Follow the installation guide above
Download
QuickTime Embed plugin 0.2 for WordPress (6kb .zip)
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If you like this plugin, express your love by donating and sharing this plugin with your readers!
Support
If you have any questions, suggestions, or found any bugs in this plugin, feel free to post them in your comments. I’ll try my best to answer them but there’s no guarantee, so don’t be disappointed if you do not hear back from me promptly. :/ If you find this plugin useful and feel like donating some money for my effort, please use the PayPal link below, thanks! <3
History
0.2 [2008.03.02]
- Major rewrite of the code
- Added: show hide controller feature
- Added: target cache feature
- Added: custom movie and poster path feature
- Added: global poster feature
- Added: global enable/disable poster feature
- Fixed: automatically detect .m4v filesize
- Fixed: height + 16px hassle
0.1.1 [2007.10.08]
- Fixed: server path error
- Added: kiosk mode support
0.1 [2006.07.09]
- Initial release
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This worked great, right out of the box, as promised. I didn’t try anything fancy – no autostart, for instance – just the basics, and it was functioning immediately. Thanks!
I do have a question that I don’t see answered in your post, however. I’d like to have a static image show up on the screen, rather than just have it be blank. I see that you have that on your sample videos above. How can I add that to mine?
Much appreciated. Great plugin! Hope accessing the tools inside WP is on its way…!
Oh, and sorry if you DID answer this in a reply to someone else…I didn’t read all 200+ comments…
Wow! This is a cool plug-in. Thanx so much for developing it!
Guys is this plugin still under active development? Is there any reason why the plugin might break as people update their versions of wordpress to 2.8 etc? the plugin is fantastic but getting nervous about using something that is no longer under development.
I am using this plugin, and it seems to be great except for one niggling issue: there are no controls on the bottom. There isn’t the “Click here to play” or anything, just a black bar. If you click randomly in the black bar, you can find where the controls are supposed to be, but it’s not very friendly to visitors. I’ve gone into the options and made sure the “show controls” is enabled, but to no avail. Anything else I should try? Thank you!
I tried using your demo movie just to test the code, and I still cannot get beyond the Quicktime logo. Here’s what the code looks like:
plugin test:
[ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ]
hi! I am having the same problem jorn has.
all I see is a quicktime logo with a BIG QUESTION MARK, no player buttons or movie!
please help us… what is the problem?
Thanks a lot!
I have created a wonderful slideshow with iPhoto to be displayed using your plugin. The mov is 20MB so its first time load is very slow. Any suggestions?
Is there anyway to display an image while waiting to start the movie?
Also, additional code can not be added to the post. I would like to add a link below the movie and maybe have the movie active.
Great plugin, many thanks!
Hi Eyn,
great plug-in! Thank you.
I think I’ve run into a bug in Safari (at least on Mac). The quicktime will always be the uppermost object, even with z-index specified. It does work in Firefox though.
See here:
http://www.homemaderobot.com/?cat=10
Thanks
Jon
I should add, you can see the problem with the footer when you scroll the page.
I’ve tried 3 other quicktime embedding wordpress plug-ins and they all have the same problem, so I’m assuming it’s a problem with either the javascript, or simply a Safari problem. If anyone knows of a work-around, please let me know!
OK… I’ve come up with a work around.
It detects to see if the browser is Safari and if so adds: myQTObject.addParam(”wmode”,”transparent”);
To do this, in quicktime-embed.php I added:
function theBrowser($string) {
return !(strpos($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"], $string) === false);
}
and then in function qt_embed($matches) I added:
if (theBrowser(”Safari”)){
$wmode = qt_addParam(”wmode”, “transparent”);
}else{
$wmode = qt_addParam(”wmode”, “window”);
}
and replaced:
var myQTObject = new QTObject(”{$start}”, “{$id}”, “{$width}”, “{$height}”); {$href}{$target}{$controller}{$autostart}{$kioskmode}{$targetcache}
with:
var myQTObject = new QTObject(”{$start}”, “{$id}”, “{$width}”, “{$height}”); {$wmode}{$href}{$target}{$controller}{$autostart}{$kioskmode}{$targetcache}
The downside is that I think this does have a negative effect on performance with Safari users, but I don’t know if it’s significant – I’m using a very fast mac so I haven’t noticed anything, but it’d be great if any Safari users could test this and let me know.
Thanks!
Hey thanks for this plug-in but unfortunately I can’t seem to get it working. I copy pasted all of JW mediaplayers files on my server and also the mov.
I downloaded your plug in and put in in the plugins folder for the specific site i want it to appear on using wordpress(mijnbrein.nl/wordpress). and I made a link refering to this mov. in the new post field
[qt:/http://www.mijnbrein.nl/trainmanetjee.mov 480 240]
but all I see is a quicktime logo, no player buttons or movie!
please help me, I’ve been fighting this problem for four whole days now…
Thanks a lot!
Jorn
[qt:http://www.mijnbrein.nl/trainmanetjee.mov 480 240]
Try it without the / after qt:
thanks but all I get now is the little ipod icon (link to the ver small mov.) and above that a still with the quicktime logo. no controls or anything!
thanks in advance
Cris same problem here http://www.donaldjenkins.com/test1
Full path try [qt: http://www.donaldjenkins.com/wp-content/videos/clip-2009-06-24;41;59.mov
simple path input [qt: wp-content/videos/clip-2009-06-24;41;59.mov 480 360]
neither seem to be working.
Loaded files through ftp to a new folder in wordpress sub directory “videos”.
Any step by step for us noobs?
After doing some testing, it may not be a WP 2.8 issue. Not sure. I changed the path of the video in the [qt: statement and it loads much quicker. The actual video file is on another site of mine.
I am having my ISP look into this now.
Great plugin.
I do seem to have a concern, related to WP 2.8. I recently upgraded and noticed that my Quicktime videos that I host on my own site have slowed down considerably. Under WP 2.6.5, they were quicker to download.
I have another site that is currently on WP 2.7.1 and there are no speed issues with the same videos using the same Quicktime Plugin.
Not sure if this is a WP 2.8 slow issue in general or something specific.
Good to hear you are continuing work on this plugin. It’s been a great solution for my videos.
Can you tell me the name of the artist in the demo videos included on this page?
Oh, and great plug in – worked like a charm!
Dan
Thanks – I figured out who she was – Ai Otsuka.
Hi. Will this plug-in work with the new Wordpress 2.8 version?
Hey there,
Great plugin, works brilliantly thankyou, like Randy above me though im curious is this still being developed? It says compatable up to 2.1 and we’re on 2.7 with 2.8 looming – if this project has become mothballed would be a great pity!
Hi Josh. Yes I am still available to work on the plugin, it’s just that when we started using FLV for videos my focus has been on FLV Embed, another plugin I wrote for embedding flash videos. Since there isn’t any major issues with this QuickTime plugin, I leave it as it is till now.
I am planning to integrate the two plugin together at some point so it can support both QuickTime and Flash video using a single plugin and with a similar tag style. This will probably come sometime after FLV Embed 2.0 is released.
Let me know if there’s any feature you would like to see in the next version of QuickTime Embed, and I’ll see if I can add them when I finally get around to continue develop this plugin.
Looks fine. Does it work with Wordpress 2.7.x?
Still another question.
Can you pease give me an example of how the path to the video would look like if I host it on my own webspace?
Thanks a alot
Thomas from germany!
Yes, this plugin along with many others I have developed will always be compatible up to the latest stable version of WordPress.
If you host your own video under the same domain, you can write your path as site relative path e.g.
[qt:/videos/sample.mov 480 360]If the video is hosted in a separated domain or separated subdomain, you will need to put the full path into the tag e.g.
[qt:http://video.example.com/sample.mov 480 360]Hello!
Is your QuickTime Embed plugin WordPress 2.7.1 compatible? Moreover, will it be WordPress 2.8 compatible? That is, are you still actively working on it?
I just installed it on our site to run our 20 different QT movies and turned off PodPress to see how your plugin works works under a heavy load. We’re currently running WP 3.7.1 and so far, with Mac OS X Safari and Firefox (latest versions as of this writing), it works flawlessly!
Thanks in advance for your help with this!
I’ve been using this plug-in for a couple of years and it’s been really fantastic…..I’ve just run into a problem though…..my videos have recently totally ‘disappeared’ from my Production Highlights page. I’ve checked the code and everything’s still in place and i haven’t made any changes for ages. Any idea as to what could be going on…is this a plug-in thang or more likely something to do with wordpress or ftp or ???
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Ashley
Hi Ashley, your theme’s header template is not calling the
wp_head()function properly. Make sure this function is called before the</head>Suggestion/nitpick: To simplify life for Wordpress MU administrators, modify the two lines that currently reference the plugins directory such that they are relative rather than absolute — then the plugin would work from whichever plugins directory it’s running from. I just added “mu-” to the “plugins” part of each line and now the plugin works swimmingly on our WPMU site. Thank you!
Nice Marion, thanks for the feedback. I don’t use WordPress MU myself so I don’t have any idea how to make it compatible with MU. I’ll look into what you suggested to improve the portability of this plugin.
ehey uis there a way to stretch the video? Making the parameters bigger just changes the window size! I want to stretch! That’s the best way to get bang for your byte.
Guy,
What you might try is to create a reference movie, open that, change the dimensions, then save.
Quicktime streaming video no longer compatible with Firefox
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=472015
I filed a bug report above. Unfortunately, I do not know about trunks and barnches and all the nomenclature and how software is developed in an open source collaboration to beginn to know how to find out at what point Firefox started screwing up playback of RTSP Quicktime streaming movies.
If you can help, please do. If I ever can get embedded Quicktime movies streaming from a Darwin Streaming Server to play right in Firefox, then I will like to see a full screen function added to quicktime embed plugin, if that is at all possible.
Full screen button can only be added by Apple when they eventually decide it’s about time for QuickTime to support such a basic function.
I am able to play mov files, but having difficulty in playing m4v ones. Is it easily possible to embede m4v which are lying remote servers on http protocol?
m4v are generally for portable devices like iPod. The container is not designed for “play as you download” so the video needs to be fully downloaded before they can be played.
I suggest you use mp4 as your file format and fyi, HandBrake is a great tool for encoding that.
I saw a mistake in the code and fixed it but it still does not work. Now on the page I can see the poster , but the movie is not there and will not play:
[qt:http://www.sitename.com/wp-content/uploads/ellul.mov http://www.sitename.com/wp-content/uploads/ellul_poster.jpg 320 240]
I used this code:
[qt:http://www.sitename.com/wp-content/uploads/video/ellul.mov http://www.sitename.com/wp-content/uploads//video/ellul_poster.jpg 320 240]
When I load the page, the image shows up for a few seconds and then a quicktime image loads with a question mark (and obviously this won’t play the video.
Is there something wrong with this code?
Hi there, love your plugin but it doesnt seem to be working for me :<
http://seandekkers.com/site/work
for some reason i just get the code i pasted in. any help would be greatly appreciated.
Kind Regard
- Solly
I can’t see the playahead, play, pause etc. when I insert the link. I can see the movie and play/pause by clicking on the movie, but how can I get it to show the above?
Don’t worry. Got it to work, I read some of the prior posts and realized I put a space after the qt: – removing the space it all started to work.
Thanks for a great plugin.
Hi,
This plugin is just what I need for my Wordpress blog site, but unfortunately it looks as though it is going to work, but doesn’t.
I have uploaded the folder to my wp-content/plugins folder as the installation instructions states. I have activated it with no problems. But when I put [qt: http://foylefamily.com/.... 320 200] of course the …. is the rest of the path name to the movie file with .mov on the end.
The picture of the first frame comes up, there are no video controls (I have not customized any parameters), then after about 30-60 second a big Q with a question mark comes up.
Can you please advise?
Thx
Colin
Very helpful! Do you know of a way to embed quicktime in Wordpress comments? Or a way to embed other types of video. It’s just important though that it not rely on an external service like Seesmic because I want to use this for a private blog. Thanks.
Thanks for the groovy plugin; worked the first time. Very well written guide, too.
Does anyone know if this plugin is compatible with Wordpress 2.7? I would like to continue using this plugin if at all possible.
Thank you in advance!
Yes it is compatible with WordPress 2.7.
Scott writes:
>Hello,
Every time I export from Final Cut to Quick Time I set the aspect ratio for 16:9 and it always comes out 4:3. How can I get it in 16:9?
Scott,
Is your source footage 16:9 or are you cropping from 4:3 footage?
If you are editing in 16:9, you need to change the sequence setting to 16:9 BEFORE you drop clips on it.
If you are editing 4:3 and then cropping for 16:9, you can export as 4:3, then crop in Compressor. For 720 x 480 source footage, you will need to crop 60 pixels from the top and 60 from the bottom and set pixel aspect to square. If you are using Quicktime Pro app, I believe you can use a custom size to crop your video, but I haven’t done that in a while.
Hello,
Every time I export from Final Cut to Quick Time I set the aspect ratio for 16:9 and it always comes out 4:3. How can I get it in 16:9?
Great plugin which I’ve been using – only one thing – is it possible to stop the movie from auto loading? I’d like it to start loading the movie only if the viewer clicks on the play button.
Thanks!
How can I get this working for dreamweaver CS3. I need the java scipt and correct HTML Code. I would like to embed this on my website. http://www.db84.com
It seems that Firefox 3.0.3 is not compatible with Quicktime 7.5.5. At first I thought that the problems I was experiencing may have had something to do with the Quicktime Embed plug-in, but that is not the case. The problem is with H.264 streaming media (I am NOT referring to progressive download, but to media streaming from a Darwin Streaming Server). When I enter the URL for the streaming movie in the address bar of Firefox 3.0.3, I get the same behavior as with the embedded video: The stream ‘breaks up’ and remains screwed uo until the next key frame. Safari doesn’t show this problem. Also, it is not particular to one movie. All my Quicktime movies now have this problem with Firefox 3.0.3.
Most are ~300 kbps reference movies, though some have alternates for different data rates.
H.264 encoded, 24 fps, frame re-ordering is on. Encoded with Apple Compressor 2
I am wondering what would happen if I deselected frame re=ordering before encoding. Frame re-ordering is supposed to make it easier to decode.
There is no problem what-so-ever playing the videos directly in Quicktime Player ap.
I’d like to give viewers the option to view embedded quicktime movies full screen.
Quicktime Player 7 now includes a full screen feature in the non-pro version, however, there is no full screen toggle in the plugin’s control bar. Given this deficiency, might there be a work around?
Hi
Is there any tutorial on using this plug in? I’ve uploaded my QT movie to a folder in wp-content/videos and can’t figure out how to link it using these instructions (after I activated the plug in). Thanks.
Pete
I am having a major problem using Quicktime Embed.
I have a one-hour long movie on a Darwin Streaming (rtsp) Server, and a reference movie with added chapter track on an (html) web server. Codec is h.264 and data rate is ~300 kbps.
The reference movie is about 4 K. The reference movie plays fine when I open the file on my computer’s hard drive in Quicktime Player. It also plays fine when I open the URL for the reference movie that I had uploaded to the web server,
However, the video that is embedded in my wordpress blog breaks up.
This is not a data rate problem on my end. In fact, I can play both the reference movie that resides on my computer, and the reference move uploaded to the web server, at the same time and there is no skipping or break-up. Again, both the reference movies point to the actual file on the Darwin streaming server.
Here is the URL for the wordpress post:
http://tompkinsagainstwar.org/2008/10/31/video-resisting-empire-%E2%80%94laila-al-arian-and-camilo-mejia-at-cornell-102708/
Here is the URL for the reference movie:
http://cmprovideo.net/streaming1/Resisting_Empire_10-27-08/Camilo_Mejia_Laila_Al-Arian.mov
BTW, the documentation for Quicktime Embed no longer mentions adding 16 pixels for the playhead. My video is 480 pixels x 270 pixels. I tried both the exact pixel size and with extra pixels; 480 x 286. The behavior was the same in both cases.
I have the plug in running, two things though…
1 The click to play instruction is missing.
2 The movie moves up a couple of pixels when you click on the poster still.
Any help much appreciated.
Thanks in Advance
Paddy
Having trouble figuring out where to point it to in terms of the URL. I uploaded it to the media section, and can play both the movie and the poster, but no dice no matter how much or little of the path I include in the arguments. Kinda frustrating.
@D.J. – Creating a QuickTime movie with poster is the answer, and is detailed above.
Is there a way to configure the video so that it does not automatically download as soon as the page is loaded?
If I have 5 posts on a page, I don’t necessarily want a 30MB video to download unless someone indicates that they want to watch it.
Great plugin, and thank you for your time.
is there any way to fast-start the movie? the quicktime logo appears until whole video file is being cached, so this takes years and years. any suggestions?
Is the last version 0.2 compatible with Wordpress 2.6?
Thank!
It doesn’t work for me on the iPhone. I loaded this page on the iPhone, scrolled to the 3rd video, clicked the link under “iPod version (2.7 MB)” but instead of showing the video, Safari displayed a white page with the binary contents of the video file.
Hi great plugin, thou i have problems with the auto caching, it caches even when i disabled the function in the php script.
Any suggestions?
related questions
http://www.aikoworld.com/blog/category/aiko-world-animations/
This looks like a nice plugin. The problem is, I don’t have Wordpress, and I figure it is a Mac program, and I use a PC.
Could you please post on this page sample HTML code for the various attributes? (Of course one would have to substitute the location, title, and size of one’s own movie, for the one in your sample.) (Please include the noscript code, the info about downloading to Ipod, and how to have the QT icon say “Loading”, when the movie is loading.
Thank you.
Mike, Wordpress is a blogging platform. Since it’s web-based you can use it with any Internet-enabled computer, regardless of platform (ie. it works with a PC too) Check out http://www.wordpress.org for more information.
Hi there!
Love the plugin, and its working great for me for standard QT, but Im looking to embed a QT VR into my website. Everything so far has been working just fine, except that I can’t seem to get the controller to show. I suspect that this is because the controls for QT VR aren’t the same as a standard QT file. I’ve checked and rechecked all my settings, and everything looks right. Ideas?
Also, the pages that Im using this on also use Suckerfish for dropdown menus- but the menus come up behind the movie, making it kinda hard to navigate :( For the time being, I can adjust the design so they wont overlap, but I was wondering if there was a fix for this, or if thats just the nature of the beast.
I am having the hardest time with this. What exactly do I paste into my “code” tab under a wordpress post? I just can’t seem to get the movie to load or show up. I do have the generic quicktime logo, but no boundry box. I think I have the movie uploaded to my site appropriately. Any help would be very greatly appreciated.
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