f4v Playback Issue / jwplayer

[majonsey]

Hey everyone, thanks in advance for any help on this. We've recently installed fmss 3, and working with our first site with major streaming needs. I've decided to use jwplayer (longtailvideo.com) to playback content from the fmss, but am having playback issues with IE8. I'm using swfobject to embed, and here's the code:

     <script type="text/javascript">
     var so = new SWFObject('jwplayer.swf','mpl','600','366','9.0.0', 'expressInstall.swf');
     so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');
     so.addParam("bgcolor","#000000");
     so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');
     so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");
     so.addVariable('file','video.f4v');
     so.addVariable('streamer','rtmp://ourdomain.com/application/');
     so.addVariable('image','image.jpg');
     so.addVariable('dock','false');
     so.addVariable('autostart','true');
     so.addVariable('bufferlength','5');
     so.useExpressInstall('/flash/expressInstall.swf');
     so.write('video');

I've checked with the folks that produce the player, and they think the issue is lack of metadata, but really don't know much about metadata and where to insert. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Mark

[Guest]

Can you clarify what you mean by "playback issues"?

[majonsey]

Yes sorry...I get no video...the swf player and skin all load just fine, and video streams beautifully in ffox / safari etc., but nothing in IE8.

Mark

[Guest]

Since the problem is specific to IE8, I suspect the problem is not the f4v file.

Any chance your IE8 has an outdated version of the flashplayer?

[majonsey]

No, because the skin / player are loading fine, just not streaming the file correctly. Since the folks at jwplayer think it's a metadata issue, what's the best mechanism to inject metadata into an existing fv4? Or, in the future, what steps should we take in our encoding process (final cut --> media encoder CS4) to ensure proper metadata is inserted?

Thanks again,

Mark

[Guest]

The skin and player loading doesn't necessarily indicate that you have a flashplayer version recent enough to view h.264 encoded video, which is why I asked. What version of the flashplayer do you have installed on IE8?

About inspecting the metadata, I don't know of any desktop apps for inspecting f4v files (perhaps someone else here has a suggestion), but there is a PHP class that will do it at:

http://code.google.com/p/php-mp4info/

[majonsey]

A thought just occured...i'm only requiring version 9.0 of flash player (using express install). Could someone with version 9 load the player, and not an h.264 encoded video...a la f4v?

Mark

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Yes. That's why I asked. H.264 decoding wasn't introduced until flashplayer 9.0.115. Any earlier version will not be able to display h.264 encoded video.