Embedding your QuickTime Movie in a Web Page

© 2000 Gary S. Stager
www.stager.org

Your QuickTime movie may be linked to as a file to be played in a web browser or embedded as part of the visual look and feel of a web page. In either event, be sure your filename ends with .mov Filenames without spaces are much preferred in web publishing.

Linking to a movie

• Upload your QuickTime movie to your folder on a web server
• Use the following HTML code:

<P> Click < A HREF=http://www.myserver.com/foldername/mymovie.mov>here </A>to watch my movie! </P>

Embedding the movie in a web page

• Upload your QuickTime movie to your folder on a web server
• Determine where your movie should appear in the web page. Most web authoring tools allow you to insert a movie and move it with precision around the page.
• Use the following HTML code:

<EMBED SRC="mymovie.mov" WIDTH=240 HEIGHT = 196 AUTOPLAY=true CONTROLLER=true LOOP=false PLUGINSPAGE=http://www.apple.com/quicktime/">

• This means that your movie, mymovie.mov, will be played in that spot in your web page.
• The width of the movie is 240 pixels.
• The height is really 180 pixels, but since you want the controller to be available for your user, you need to add 16 pixels for it to appear.
• The movie will play automatically since AUTOPLAY=true. Making it equal false would force the user to click on the movie to play it.
• LOOP=false means that the movie will play only once instead of infinitely.
• The PLUGINSPAGE tag tells the users browser where to download the QuickTime plug-in if they don't already have it.

Using a poster movie in your web page

A poster movie is when the web page has a still image chosen from the movie used as a 'button' that when clicked on by the viewer loads the actual movie. This is a nice way to create a professional-looking page without annoying the viewer by waiting for a movie to load every time they look at your web page.

You may export a frame from your movie within iMovie by following these simple steps:

• Move the play head along the scrubber bar to the frame you wish to export.
• Choose File - Save Frame As from the File menu.
• Give the file a one word easy to remember name
• Save it as a JPEG file with the file extension, .jpg (ie… posterframe.jpg)
• Create a new project in iMovie
• Import the jpeg into your movie and drag it to the timeline
• Click on the clip and then in the textbox at the top of the timeline window and make the clip have a duration of 00:00:01 (one frame).
• Export this movie from the File - Export menu option, name the movie posternovie.mov and click Save.
• Add the following HTML code to your page. The changes are in bold.

<EMBED SRC="postermovie.mov" WIDTH=240 HEIGHT = 180 AUTOPLAY=true CONTROLLER=false LOOP=false HREF="mymovie.mov" TARGET="myself" PLUGINSPAGE=http://www.apple.com/quicktime/">

This HTML instruction tells the browser to load the postermovie and if the user clicks on it, get the actual movie.

Playing the movie in QuickTime Player

If you would rather have the movie open in a separate application, QuickTime Player, than in the browser use the following HTML code. This allows the viewer to control attributes of the movie such as its playback size. Use the following HTML instruction:

<HREF="mymovie.mov" TARGET=QUICKTIMEPLAYER>