Taking screenshots of DVD, MPEG, AVI, and other video on Windows machines requires a couple of extra steps. A normal screenshot is easy enough to capture by pressing the “Print Screen” button on your keyboard. To capture a screenshot of video display, however, you need to disable hardware acceleration to make it work. To do this on Windows machines, go to your Desktop properties and click on the Settings tab. Click on the Advanced button and then on the Troubleshooting tab. Slide the Hardware Acceleration to “None” and then capture and process your screenshot as normal. Once you are finished taking your screenshot, don’t forget to switch your Hardware acceleration back to its original settings (e.g., “Full”).

Continue Reading

Earlier this year, Geoff Stearns and Bobby van der Sluis teamed up to create the “ultimate JavaScript library for embedding Flash content” into web documents. For those of you familiar with techniques for embedding Flash, these two names are instantly recognizable. Geoff Stearns is the author of SWFObject and Bobby van der Sluis is the author of UFO. Easily, SWFObject and UFO are the two best and most widely used techniques for detecting and embedding Flash content. Needless to say, when I heard that these two great minds were collaborating on an even better method to embed Flash, I was very excited to check out the fruits of their collective efforts..

On July 25th, 2007 the first publicly available version (0.2 - public alpha) of SWFFix was released to the masses. SWFFix is a Flash-embedding JavaScript library featuring standards-compliant markup, Flash-version detection, and Express-Install support. SWFFix uses the nested-objects method to optimize cross-browser support, deliver alternate content, and facilitate graceful degradation. SWFFix “fixes” the issues commonly associated with the nested-objects method (e.g., the click-to-activate requirement of IE6 and Opera 9+), providing greater functionality and a richer user experience. SWFFix also features dynamic embedding of Flash content for (X)HTML documents. Best of all, the SWFFix library consists of a single, extremely lightweight JavaScript file — only 12KB (unzipped) or 3.4KB (gzipped)! Overall, definitely impressive.

Continue Reading

Pardon this post! I am posting this information online for personal references purposes. I may need to revisit this code at some point in the future, and if I post it here I will always know where to find it (trust me, it would disappear into the abyss if I tried storing it offline). So, although it is intended solely for myself, feel free to extract and use anything you like, as long as commented attribution remains. What we have here are two different methods for including a slideshow on a web page. The first method employs the techniques discussed in this article, while the second method skips the Flash and employs only the JavaScript portion of the slideshow. Here is some additional help with embedding Flash content, including slideshows, and JavaScript techniques.

Continue Reading

Embed Flash or Die Tryin’ Web designers and developers looking to embed Flash content into a web page currently enjoy a wide variety of methods from which to choose. The most common methods vary along several key dimensions, including standards-compliance, user-friendliness, and universal support. Some methods make it easy to provide alternative content, others enable auto-activation of Flash content, while others feature plugin-detection functionality. In an attempt to round-up the myriad techniques, this article presents nine of the most useful, practical, and popular methods for embedding Flash content.

Continue Reading

In our previous article, Alternate JavaScript Slideshow for SlideshowPro, we present an elaborate method for providing alternate content specifically for SlideshowPro. Although the method points toward a more generalized adaptation, its overall functional implementation remains focused on the presentation of slideshows.

This article explores the generalization of the previously defined method for providing alternate JavaScript content when Flash support is not detected. Using skyzyx.com’s excellent Flash-detection script, Flash Detect 3, we will outline a general approach for supporting the following browser configurations:

Browser supports the required version of Flash

Excellent. This is the ideal situation. Your Flash-based content will be displayed as intended.

Browser supports Flash, but has not upgraded to the required version

Okay. In this situation, you could serve either JavaScript content or retro-Flash content (i.e., Flash content that requires a lesser version of Flash). Detection is also provided for virtually any version of Flash, enabling delivery of multiple movie alternatives.

Browser does not support Flash, but does support JavaScript

Not bad. Non-Flash browsers will receive alternate JavaScript content. User’s won’t know what they’re missing.

Browser does not support JavaScript, but does support Flash

For Flash content that does not require JavaScript to function, the browser will display the Flash content as intended, assuming sufficient Flash version. When the version of Flash is insufficient, non-Flash users will see either retro-Flash content, animated gif content, or static image content, depending on your preference.

Browser supports neither JavaScript nor Flash

Worst case. Even so, all hope is not lost. In this situation, visitors will see either animated gif content, or static image content.

Continue Reading

For the unenlightened, SlideshowPro (SP) is a Flash-based slideshow-authoring system that delivers full-featured, high-end, Flash-based slideshows. Websites featuring SP slideshows present content in sophisticated fashion, inspiring users with elegant captions, beautiful transitions, and intuitive navigation.

However, many visitors are unable to experience SP slideshows because they lack the requisite Flash support. SlideshowPro-based slideshows currently require Flash 7 or better to function. And, although Flash 7 is quite common, it is far from ubiquitous. In the "worst-case" scenario, Flash-challenged visitors will see a broken webpage or missing content. Unfortunately, the typical "best-case" scenario is not much better, as non-Flash users typically will see a single, static image, which is generally served via something similar to:

<object classid="clsid...">
 <param name="movie..." />
 <embed src="http://domain.tld/..." />
 ...
 <img src="http://domain.tld/path/to/alt/image.jpg" alt="alternate image served for non-Flash browsers" />
 ...
</object>

Continue Reading

This post contains random notes for embedding QuickTime within web pages.

QuickTime Embed Attributes via CSS

<style>
<!--
embed, .embed {
   pluginspage: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/;
   controller: false;
   autoplay: true;
   bgcolor: #000;
   loop: true;
}
//-->
</style>

Continue Reading

Embed Windows Media Player via the object tag

Here is the general format for including .wmv files in web pages:

<object type="video/x-ms-wmv" data="http://www.domain.com/path/to/winmovie.wmv" width="340" height="280">
  <param name="src" value="http://www.domain.com/path/to/winmovie.wmv" />
  <param name="controller" value="true" />
  <param name="autostart" value="true" />
</object>

Continue Reading

Shouts out to Freakish Carnival Utopia for capturing this clip from a very popular Japanese television show (right-click and save to computer):

Japanese Insanity ( ~1.5mb | zipped .wmv file | 909 downloads )

second visit to dune lakes with audio recorder & video camera..

beautiful
beautiful
beautiful

i love the fog.

entering mae valley westshore drive…

seems the fog has lifted — to a degree.
we have… extremely light showers,
barely a thing.
fog. who knew.
but let me just say this:
pink floyd in the house
– ahh yeah.

Continue Reading