Embedding Video

I've done some preliminary searches but I just want to get a couple things clarified.

If I embed Windows Media Player (9) into a web page, does it automatically try to 'load' up the entire video while loading the webpage? What I would like to do is have perhaps a single frame (or pic) inside the player and when the user hits play then it will start playing. Now am I right in saying that this will only work on a host with a streaming server?

I assume the only other option is NOT to embed the player but just a link to the video where it will open the external player and start playing while it continues to download data.

Thanks.

if you use the embed tag and your file is either avi or wmv(avi files are huge in size) the result is an embedded media player with controls.

if you are considering streaming your video you better convert it to a .wmv file I think a coonvertor is avialable at microsoft.com as a free download, expertiment with various types of outputs, and choose the one you think best describes your target audience.(28.8/56/128/T1/T3/ etc) and convert the file to .wmv

i think you should also consider visitors who donot have the media player plug-in, what if they prefer real media or Quick Time (as most mac users will have)

try to figure out all these things.

consider the file size(s) and the download time.

One more option could be importing video into flash mx ,

playing video on the web isn't simple, I am not discouraging you, but that is the truth.

by the way how many seconds is the duration of the video?


all the best

RHS

Oh I plan on using both .wmv and Quicktime files to cover all bases. I'm not a big fan of Real media.

I don't have the finsihed video on hand. They will be about 3 minutes in length I'm guessing. I like the look of embedding the player into the web page but what ends up happening is it tries to load up the video before loading up the rest of the page. All I really want is the user having the option to watch the video on the page without loading an external player. But the more I think about it the harder it will be to take into account all the different media formats and bandwiths.

It might just be easier to have links and use an external player. I haven't tried video in Flash MX yet but I'm trying to keep the site non-Flash so I don't really want to go that route.