SMIL or some other timeline format support? Created Dec 15, 2008

As I understand SMIL is quite large standard an implementing it would be a massive effort. Given the fact that we are trying to make a browser based video player for the masses we still think that this is not our focus at the moment.

Of course if SMIL could be implemented as a plugin and someone is interested on doing it we will definitely encourage such efforts.

(Terve vain!)

Even a really small subset of smil would be usefull and hugely valuable. I haven't had a look at your plugin architecture. The real challenge is in the smooth playback of multiple files. To jump from a clip to another without glitches means that you have to orchestrate some kind of multifile prebuffering. Also jumping to locations between key frames is challenging. Do you think the plugin api is flexible enough for these requirements.

ps. I have some experience from solving these problems. The video editor project I worked with also had its own flash video player.

(Terve - pista vaikka Facebook kutsu. En ollu varma kuka oot siella.)

Do you think RTMP would solve your needs. It has the ability to combine streams. There is one example here

http://flowplayer.org/plugins/streaming/rtmp.html

look down the document a little. You can combine streams without any gaps between them.

Hello,

i try this for highwinds's smil format here:
http://hwcdn.net/d4c6x9a6/fms/thereturn.flv.xml

but it's not good

an idea ?

<a href="/fms/thereturn.flv" id="playerContainer"> 
<img src="../images/logo_stream64.jpg" width="64" height="56" border="0px" /> 
</a>

flowplayer("playerContainer", "../player/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.3.swf",{ 
plugins: {  
    pseudo: { 
	url: '../player/flowplayer.rtmp-3.0.2.swf',
	netConnectionUrl: 'rtmp://69.16.188.147/d4c6x9a6/_definst_'
	}  
},  
clip: { 
    autoPlay: true, 
    autoBuffering: true, 
    provider: 'pseudo',     
} 
}); 

Doc:


Flash Media Streaming supports any file type that is compatible with your flash player (FLV,
MOV, MP3?). When you upload one of those types to the Highwinds CDN, for example by
putting "movie.flv" in the "fms" folder, the publishing URL is an XSPF playlist or a SMIL
playlist, as follows:
Transparent:http://hwcdn.net/a4d3g8y7/fms/movie.flv.xspf
Transparent:http://hwcdn.net/a4d3g8y7/fms/movie.flv.xml
The Highwinds CDN dynamically generates playlist files that contain an rtmp URL pointing to
the movie.flv.
There are two ways to publish:
1. Use the SMIL URL in your FLVPlayback Component player (supports both AS2.0 and
AS3.0)
2. Use the XSPF URL and add parsing code (typical for players using the Media Object)
Use the SMIL URL if you're new to playlists or can't make code changes in your Flash player.
Any Flash player using the FLVPlayback Component will seamlessly interpret the SMIL (xml)
format.
If your Flash player uses the Media Object or if you have the ability to make player code
changes, you may want to implement XSPF playlists support. This requires 3-5 lines of
parsing code that we will be happy to provide to you on request.
Both the XSPF and SMIL URLs are valid at any time and special configuration or setup is not
required. Using the sample URL above results in true streaming, not progressive download, of
the Flash video. Highwinds does not support directly calling an rtmp URL -- all publishing URLs
for Flash Streaming are in the playlist format described here.
If your site uses playlists already, and these playlists contain multiple video links, our
implementation engineers will assist in integration assessment and consult on nested playlist
format.

It works when escaping the clip url:



HTML setup for the player

<!-- include latest Flowplayer javascript file -->
<script language="javascript" src="path/to/flowplayer-3.2.8.js"></script>

<!-- player container with optional splash image -->
<a href="path/to/video_file" id="playerContainer">
	<img src="path/to/splash_image" />
</a>

JavaScript coding

Following script will install Flowplayer into our player container

<script language="javascript">
// our custom configuration is given in third argument
flowplayer("playerContainer", "path/tohttp://releases.flowplayer.org/swf/flowplayer-3.2.11.swf",{
clip: { 
   url: escape('fms/thereturn?doppl=06abcb8e4fccdac6&dopsig=1a4bdfb0c7d14457ff4a542cf35df8c8'),
   provider: 'highwinds' },

plugins: {
  highwinds: {
     url: '/swf/flowplayer.rtmp-3.0.2.swf',
     netConnectionUrl: 'rtmp://69.16.188.157/d4c6x9a6/_definst_'
  }
}
});
</script>

Sorry, it's ok now

Pre-parsing the SMIL or XSPF and feeding the resulting RTMP URL into the FlowPlayer will bypass load balancing and won't generally produce the result that you're looking for -- even though it will work for individual users. If you do pre-parse it and use the contents of the playlist as the stream URL for all users, everyone will receive the stream from the same edge server regardless of their location. The SMIL or XSPF URL should be fed to the player, which then needs to parse it just prior to playback on the client-side. This isn't terribly difficult (it's really only a few lines of code), but URL manipulation needs to sit low enough in the player stack to be able to properly service other plugins. If anyone from the FlowPlayer team would like to discuss this further I'd be more than happy to do so. In the mean time, here's a sample URL that should be good for anyone who wants to test:

http://hwcdn.net/n9f8m6x7/fms/donotchange3.flv.smil

Here's the same file, just using the XSPF notation:

http://hwcdn.net/n9f8m6x7/fms/donotchange3.flv.xspf

Thanks,
Chris Bray

Highwinds SMIL streams are now officially supported. Look for this:

http://flowplayer.org/plugins/streaming/smil.html

A web-based video editor application does sound cool if...

01) It's cross-browser.
02) It's cross-platform.
03) It uses little to no server-side activity.
04) It can run online and offline.
05) It can import a variety of video formats.
06) It uses a global frame rate, bitrate, audio, resolution, etc.
07) It uses non-linear method for video editing.
08) It has a preview window.
09) It has basic effects such as fades, titles, wipes, slides, zooms, etc.
10) It plays the edited video flawlessly, no delays, no skipping.

And is free. I also hope that it could run smoothly with a normal PC.