how do you embed a flash video so that non flash browsers ignore it.

[opoohwan]

I have a footer that is a flash video (which is placed over a still frame of the video). I would like to have it so that if a flash enabled browser logs on the flash file automatically plays, but if a non flash browser logs on all they see is the image behind it. I don't want any hint that flash was ever on the page for non flash viewers. is this possible?

[VIPStephan]

That’s why you can put alternative content inside the object element (with which the flash object is included). In case some browser can’t handle Flash the alternative content will be displayed. That’s the same approach as the alt attribute in images.

However, the best way to embed Flash nowadays is to use SWFobject which is going the progressive enhancement way by actually marking up your HTML (alternative) content as default and if a browser supports Flash/JavaScript, it will display the enhanced version, i. e. the Flash object. Plus it prevents the “click to activate” message to appear in IE.