Quicktime and You: Quick FAQ

Q: What formats of media does the in-world QT utility support?
A: See here.

Q: Wait, what about WMV files?
A: At the time of this writing, I HAVE seen WMV files play on a prim. However, this functionality was taken out of test for some reason (perhaps it was just a bug to begin with). DO NOT attempt to load a WMV in your parcel - it converts the entire movie as active text on a prim.

Additional Information, provided by Robin Linden quoting an unnamed Linden:


Q: Can I "click" on prims that ask me to? (eg. Flash Movies with Preloaders)
A: Yes! But only by a bug and you have to get lucky currently doing so.

Q: Do the Lindens wish to support active clicking on prims in this manner?
A: Quoted from Philip himself:


Q: Does QT support text formats?
A: Yes! See my next thread.

Q: How do I get a movie to play or run on my plot?
A: Try reading this.

Q: Great! When do I start streaming in porn?
A: Uhhh....

Q: Can QT be run off web URLs?
A: Yep.

Q: I can't see streaming media of type <add name here>. What's wrong?
A: Update to the latest version of QuickTime and ensure you have streaming media enabled in Edit -> Preferences.

Q: Where can I find a good resource for the scripting involved?
A: I SAID try reading THIS!

Also: Video on Demand

Jeff - hope you don't mind a question in response to this thread

I've got a DSL connection with 6mb Down/768 Up. Is that 768 kb/s upstream sufficient to stream video on my parcel to say - 10-15 Avatars? I don't have the budget in RL to purchase more bandwidth or hosting... if there's a way I can do this by taking advantage of my decent DSL connection, it'd be awesome.

I thought it would be neat to have random cartoons playing from time to time, and just point the media URL at a box on my local network hosting the media files.

Do you think this is realistic? Any advice anyone could give would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Travis

Excellent!


Thank you Jeffrey for doing this.

768k up - 15 Avatars watching - thats 15 streams... 768k/15 = 51.2k per Avatar. Thats scarcely enough to do fuzzy video at 120x160. So .. maybe, IF: 1) you dont want high quality. 2) You have an encoder that can produce a stable 50k stream (MPEG4IP does not. mpegable may do - this is under investigation). 3) You dont want audio. AAC audio adds another 8k to the stream.
You can play with the Number of viewers, stream size and quality to best fit what you want to do.

Fremont Cunningham.

This depends on how many avatars will be accessing the stream at a time (actually downloading it, I mean), the size of the stream, etc. If by virtue of random cartoons you mean a physical file (not directly streaming), it should be easier to do than, say, broadcasting shows actively (which requires significantly more bandwidth).

Note my usage of "stream" here is incorrect - but it's become the "jargonized" term for media in SL.

Also, bandwidth nazi I am not, but this also varies as your actual throughput fluctuates. So, really, I have no idea.

Thanks, guys..... that helps. Bursts my bubble a little, but helps nonetheless

If each client is downloading the media separately, does that mean they each watch it in their own time? I.e., if I go to a drive-in movie, and someone else is already there, do I come in during the middle of the movie, or do I start my own copy? I can sort of see advantages either way....

Or does that depend on some configuration parameter I've missed?

Thanks,

neko

I have not been able to get this to work yet, and suspect I am missing a step. It would be really helpful to have a working example to play with. (All of the editable ones I found in Preview used the old media command).

There was one step in the instructions I had trouble with:
* Create objects you want to use as PLAY, STOP, PAUSE & LOOP (play forever)

I don't know what "Create objects ... as PLAY..." means. The next step says to create a script with a PLAY command; that I understand. Is there some PLAY option on the object itself?

WMV (aka. Windows Media Video) is a totally proprietary Microsoft format unplayable by Quicktime. If you did indeed see a WMV play (which I doubt) then it must have been at a time that the preview or beta supported embedding the Windows Media Player (which I also doubt).

At any rate, WMV won't likely be something that is supported since the Windows Media player isn't nearly as supported or flexable on the Mac as it is on the PC... unlike Quicktime which is fully cross platform.

https://secondlife.com/badgeo/wakka.php?wakka=llParcelMediaCommandList

Harris: I realize that. Chances are, at the time, it was relying on external plugin support *directly,* instead of QT. That's why I quoted it as a probable bug as opposed to feature. However... LL needs to make it so WMV (or similar M$ filetypes) "gray out" much like they do for bad URLs. The fact a WMV import-to-plot can lock the client for two to five minutes while it converts to text is... rather bad.

If you are watching a 'fixed' file, then its possible that someone arriving late and starting the player will see that file starting at the beginning, while others are seeing it in the middle.

If you are watching a live stream then everyone sees it at about the same time +/- buffer length variations. (For someone on a bad link buffers can extend well beyond the usuall 5 to 10 seconds.) People arriving late start viewing the stream at its current time, as there is no file or huge buffer that allows them to start at the original stream start. That could have been hours back!

As of last night, on Leopard's publically voice operated video display, there wasa problem that the only way for a late arriver to see an existing stream was for someone to stop and re-start the stream, which affected everyone, but does force all into sync. I think that needs work.

FC.

Thanks for the clarification.

If you want to have MST3000 type heckling, you need everyone to be watching the same thing at the same time, I think. And for many short clips, I think it could work well to do it that way. But for other kinds of experiences, having people be able to see it from the beginning when they arrive is good. I guess if you're going to a drive-in with your date, you'll both get there at the same time anyway.

I see advantages to being able to set it either way.

neko

(Like an analog movie in the RL theater...) Chop long presentations into smaller reels, then knit them together with a script. Newcomers would only be out of synch until the next reel is loaded -- and only by the size of the reel instead of the film length. Not ideal, but workable with the current tools.

Hm... I suppose for B-grade SF movies like MST3000 usually screens, this would work just fine. Not like it really hurts much if you miss a chunk of "plot" at the end of one reel. And for some of what other people seem to want to show, well, plot doesn't seem to be an issue there, either.

neko

Ah, Jeff, you had my respect up to that.

Added quotes from over at the Linden Hotline concerning QT support.