MediaDisplay woes - Flash 2004 Pro

[AslansMane]

I am trying to use the MediaDisplay component in a fla that I started in Flash MX and am finishing in Flash MX 2004 Pro. For some reason, the video doesn't play and all I see when I play the published swf is a white box that says "display". I got the video to play when I started from scratch and created a couple different test files, so I know I'm setting it up correctly in the component inspector. Anyone had this problem before and know what would be causing the white box to appear instead of the video?

Thanks!

[AslansMane]

Well, I copied and pasted all of the frames into a new fla and things are working fine. I don't know why the old fla was giving me such a headache - maybe it was saved as an MX file instead of an MX 2004 file - regardless, it works now. If you ever have this problem, try copying and pasting to solve it. )

[AslansMane]

I honestly don't mean to keep replying to myself, but I have another problem that's completely stumped me.

I have six scenes each with a video. The videos are .flv files that are playing externally via the MediaDisplay and MediaController components.

Here's the major problem: A user visits scene 1 and watches the video. She gets bored with it and moves on to scene 2. After watching the video in scene 2 she decides to return to scene 1 and watch that video again. Only she finds that the MediaDisplay has disappeared and the controller doesn't work. There's no way for her to watch the video again. This happens consistently.

Anyone have experience in MX 2004 Pro and know how to work around this? I have tried making the scenes as scenes, different spots on the timeline, and used loadMovie to load the next scene and unload the current. Nothing is working!!! Any suggestions?

[Fuzatron]

I ran into this problem. Also I had the problem of jumping to another video in the timeline and the audio from the last one continues playing..... I was able to get it to work when played off my site. But would not work properly when played locally... even through IE. I finally just decided to put them each in it's own swf and use load movie.

I would also be interested in hearing what causes this, and how it can be prevented.

[chrisemersonnc]

I just became a new member of this club (w/the MediaDisplay object not working locally (or anywhere except in-Flash) .... projector just says "DISPLAY" .....

Anyone know what causes this yet? Such a tease too because I think these new Media objects would be really helpful for my company.

/wave

ps. btw - i tried the "copy frames/paste frames" approach - but having same problem....

[jamesrichard]

go to your publish settings, and change the actionscript settings from 1.0 to 2.0.

[chrisemersonnc]

They've been set to 2.0 for every file I've tried this on!

I even tried serving my FLV off an HTTP url (although that is not how my company would be able to use it) but that didn't work either - still just says "DISPLAY" on a white background.

=(

any other ideas? (This is driving me nuts!)

[hp3]

looks like there might be a need for a forum just to discuss macromedia built in components.

[chrisemersonnc]

Found out my problem!

I'd left FlashMX installed after installing MX2004 and that was my problem. Evidently, installing MX2004 doesn't update your local SWFLASHPLAYER.exe (or whateverthenameis).

After uninstalling FlashMX, I was able to point all my SWFs to the local MX2004 player and now it all works correctly.

If anyone else has this problem and my explanation doesn't make sense let me know and i'll try to be more detailed....

** now my only prob is going to be making all my stuff 7.0/AS 2.0 compliant to be able to use this FLV/mediacomponent stuff... **

/wave

[Wheels]

I somehow had Flash 6 plugin reinstalled on all my browsers - weird bugs with 2004 so far.

I've had mixed results with the 2004 media components, granted - I gave up pretty fast. But after reading the white paper and the Ultrashock tutorial (see tutorials thread) I'm both impressed and a bity stymied by Flash's new video capabilities.

Just to clear up a note

... even tried serving my FLV off an HTTP url (although that is not how my company would be able to use it)....

It's my understanding that .flv's can now be served via http provided you are publishing as Flash 7 regardless of your server configuration. Also, there was mention of having to be AS2 complient - I guess that's true if you are trying to access the media players properties??? It has it's own Object structure that should be accessible with AS1. I guess it depends what you are trying to do, but AS1 in the rest of your scripts is fine.

I think I'll start a sticky thread on the Media Components so we can figure out the bugs and team up on knocking them down. I've spent the last couple of months building my own Flash 6 version of the Media components - so I'm reluctant to start over with MX2, but it's inevitalble.

I'm cutting off development of the F6 version and will soon be diving into the next version written in AS 2.0 and published as a .swc component (which gives you some code protection) - so I'm sure I'll have a great deal to add to the thread.

[jammer2]

Originally posted by Fuzatron
I ran into this problem. Also I had the problem of jumping to another video in the timeline and the audio from the last one continues playing..... I was able to get it to work when played off my site. But would not work properly when played locally... even through IE. I finally just decided to put them each in it's own swf and use load movie.

I would also be interested in hearing what causes this, and how it can be prevented.

Did you actually get it to work?
I acutally tried it and it doesn't work.
The same problem still exists.
If you have solved it loading swf's, can you post your code?

The only way I have found an acceptable way round it is by having the components on the timeline all the time. Use actionscript to move it when you don't want it there.

And then... when you want to play a movie... use the myMedia.setMedia(contentPath, mediaType) function on the mediadisplay component.

In fact just leave the movie url parameter empty and use actionscript to set the property (and use similar actionscript to set the movie length).

Anyone find a better way? Let us all know!

[jammer2]

Just to recap...
I've been having the same prob as everyone else with the media components. i.e. when using mediacontroller and mediadisplay and switching between movies, the first one's sound still keeps on playing when the second movie plays, and when you go back to the first movie nothing happens.

OK... I still had my 90 days/2 calls support since I had just recently purchased.

I called Macromedia and told them the problem (AND also asked them if it was possible to get rid of the maximise button on mediaplayback).

They asked me to give them an FLA showing the problem. I sent them an FLA showing clearly the problem.

They wrote back after a few days and said:

Yes, you can get rid of the maximise button in mediaplayback!
Their solution: you have to build your own version of the component using the mediadisplay and mediacontroller components.
(Em... yeah right... I might as well write the whole Flash program myself while at it.)

(The whole reason why I had resorted ot using the mediadisplay and mediacontroller was to get rid of the pesky maximise button which was getting in my way!)

Now in relation to the mediadisplay and mediacontroller - THEY DID give a solution!

I had sent them a file with one instance of mediacontroller and mediadisplay on frame one and another instance on frame 10, with two button jumping to and fro.

They sent me back a version of the FLA I had sent them.
Now what they did was they replaced the first instance of mediacontroller and mediadisplay with an instance of mediaplayback. They also added a stop function on the buttons to stop the movies playing before switching from frame 1 to 10.

They told me that it was the stop action that I was missing and that this was what solved the problem.

Unfortunately... this doesn't solve the problem. The problem is not with mediaplayback. When mediaplayback is replaced with the original seperate components AND their suggested stop action added... it still doesn't solve the problem.

I've sent them back an email telling them the above.

[Wheels]

Crazy....

Sounds much like the solution I used to implement before F v. 6.79.

I can't believe Macromedia even included those components considering all the issues I've heard so far...

[jammer2]

I have got a way round the problem... (I think).
I mentioned it in another post...
It's bit of a hack...
But you can have just one instance of the mediacontroller and mediadisplay and simply change the movie playing using setMedia.
And move the components off the screen when you don't want them to be there. (This of course means that they're 'on stage' all the time.)

Worryingly though, I've been having problems with mediaplayback as well. When I test my Flash file and repeatedly reload a movie that plays an FLV using the component, on the 6/7th reload, the same problem with mediacontroller and mediadisplay happens.

Anyone else had this prob?

[Xyren]

I've run into this same problem even though I use flash to load swf files rather than using scenes or frames to control. Doing this, I have been able to get the movies to stop playing by loading them into the same layer and stopping that layer, and I have actually made the videos work more than once, but they will stop working after about 3 times switching back and forth. I will be working on trying to resolve this using different actionscript all day today, and if I come up with a fix, i will be sure to post it here.

[jammer2]

OK... Macromedia have got back to me.
They gave me a file that solves the problem.
They didn't bother explaining, but what they gave certanly works!
At first... I couldn't really see anything special they had done.
But... with further investigation... I figured it out.

This is what you need to do:

1. If you use mediacontroller, then you MUST attach it to mediadisplay. You must NOT attach mediadisplay with mediacontroller.

I don't know if there is a rule or instruction from Macromedia for this. Doing this just for one movie works fine. But, if you have several movies and you jump about, then you'll have the problems as discussed in the above messages and countless other postings.

Macromedia certanly did not explain this. And I had to work this out by experimenting. Maybe, they didn't know themselves.

2. You need to stop any other movies that might be playing. This might sound obvious and many of you might have tried this and still not have had the problem solved. I have found that if you do not do as instructed in point 1 above, then you'll still have the problem.

So if you have a button that jumps to another frame that plays a movie, make sure you have a command that is something like myMedia.stop() before you jump to the other frame.

Obviously, both the above instructions mean that you have to give instance names to your mediadisplays and mediacontrollers.

And... well that's about it!
I think I've covered everything.

You can download a demo file that I've made that demonstrates the above. I've got five movies in my timeline. The last two have the mediadisplays attached to the controllers. This is just to demonstrate the problem still exists as mentioned in point 1 above.

Also, I stop all movies apart from the one I want to play. I'm sure there's a much easier way of doing it than the way I've done it. I did it the way I did because in my work, I need to have all of the buttons present regardless of what movie is playing.

The example that Macromedia gave back to me had different instances of buttons that jumped to different frames. In that case, you simply stop the movie that's playing and jump to the other frame.

(Em... let me know if the above doesn't make sense... and I'll post some code to demonstrate.)

My demo file can be downloaded from the following link:

www.medicap.co.uk/macromedia
(The file is 2.7mb, so I couldn't post it.)

As I said, the file uses 5 different movies called abc1.flv ... abc5.flv. So you'll need that many movies to test.

Please test to see if all of what I've said is correct and that there is a definite solution to the problem.
Even if it is correct... Macromedia still have a major bug.


Jam


And... if anyone's interested... I've got a really cheap solution to my other problem: getting rid of the maximise button in mediaplayback.

What I've done is to put an invisible button over the maximise button. That does the trick.

If you want to hide the button altogether, then recreate the corner in your button and simply put it over. The maximise button can't be seen, but you still have a button though.

[Wheels]

Alright, I'm convinced - these components are crap. Another 30 minutes of my life wasted.

I did have a small amount of luck. I'm not sure why you are using both the Media conroller and the display window. I had all kinds of problems with that setup. It would be nice to know how to target. I feel sorry for non-programmers.

But, when I used the Media Playback component with your arrangement it worked pretty good. Just couldn't use the drager to go back and forth - it just went back to the start everytime I grabbed it - and the indicator snaps back to the end. But the button to frame method worked.

I clicked on the "help for this component" which leads you to a glowing review of the component - but no "help" in sight. MM? Directions please.

So my 50 cents - seems to mostly work if you place instances of the Media Playback component on frames - like jammer2's .fla.

My advice to those following this thread. Don't use these components without copius amounts of testing.

Thanks for staying on this Jammer2.

PS Jammer - repost that .fla if you would, but clean out whatever weighs 2.5 mb's. I can't find it, but there is something in there that's heavy. Maybe an old video instance. Weird.

[jammer2]

I was using (well trying) mediacontroller and mediadisplay because I couldn't get rid of the maximise button in mediaplayback.

Also, you'll have to use mediacontroller and mediadisplay if you want to create your own look and feel player as opposed to what mediplayback gives you.

Fromt he amount of posts I've seen everywhere, loads of people where having problems with mediacontroller and mediadisplay. So hopefully, the suggested solution will solve most problems.

Surely your problem with the dragger is because you have not put in a time length for your movie? It works fine when you put in the time in its properties.

But... whatever... you're absolutely right in everything you've said about the cr** components. Macromedia should have tested and developed the product much more. The ONLY reason why I purchased MX 2004 Pro was because I needed the video capabilities. Else, I was more than happy with Flash 5.

With regards the file size... I've got no idea. The file size just seems to get big as soon as you drop an instance of the media components. I'm just as perplexed as you because the resultant swf file size is very small.

[Wheels]

Alright, I tried one more time - I'm done ranting about it.

I've found a way to use this component in a completely dynamic fashion. Here's a little tutorial.

1. Create a new movie clip.

2. Click on the info button for the clip in the library and give it an instance name of videoPanel and check the export for actionscript checkbox.

3. Place a button on the stage and add this script:

on(release){
   myTarget.attachMovie("videoPanel", "video", 1,{_x:75, _y:75});
}

4. Now go back to your movie clip and drag an instance of the Media Display to the stage and name it "display_mc". Also drag an instance of the Media Controller to the stage and give it an instance name of "control_mc".

5. Set the upper left corner of the display to 0,0.

6. Set the MediaContoller in a position centered under the display - I have yet to find a way to auto size this to your video instance, so you may want to use a set size for the display.

7. Add this code to the first frame of your vidPanel movieClip:

display_mc.setMedia("abc2.flv", "FLV")
display_mc.totalTime = 60;
display_mc.associateController(control_mc);
display_mc.autoSize = true;
control_mc.activePlayControl = false;
control_mc.controlPlacement = "top";
control_mc.associateDisplay(display_mc)

That's it. Make sure your targeting is correct and publish (make sure your .flv is in the right place).

So you could create a playlist via xml, populate buttons with the information, and you'd have a fully dynamic loading system. Or just assign the information by hand for each buttone - either way, it's flexible.

You could create an object to pass these parameters when you attach the MC from the library in the init (like I did with _x and _y).

All of the methods are listed in the reference panel. My .fla is 1.5 mb, weird. The .swf was 68k, of which 40k is the UI class, the rest must be the controllers. A bit heavy for my tastes.

[moodvibe]

Hey all !!! I bought studio mx 2004 and we use it specifically for actors and showcasing their demo reels on digital business cards and a follow up website. I had this same problem and the way I worked around it was as follows:

I have an empty movieclip in my main swf called content. I load all of my swf's into this movie clip when called. When called I load my video.swf into this. In my video.swf there is my media display component and media playback component. One layer above these components I have my actionscript layer. On this I have:

mov1.onLoad = function(){
	unloadMovie(105);
	mov.screen.setMedia("video/trial.flv","FLV");
	mov.screen.play();
	mov.screen.totalTime = 34.5;
	mov._visible = true;
}
mov1.onRelease = function(){
	unloadMovie(105);
	mov.screen.setMedia("video/cancer30.flv","FLV");
	mov.screen.play();
	mov.screen.totalTime = 34.5;
	mov._visible = true;
	hold.gotoAndPlay(1);
}
mov2.onRelease = function(){
	unloadMovie(105);
	mov.screen.setMedia("video/cancer15.flv","FLV");
	mov.screen.play();
	mov.screen.totalTime = 34.5;
	mov._visible = true;
	hold.gotoAndPlay(1);
}
mov3.onRelease = function(){
	unloadMovie(105);
	mov.screen.setMedia("video/ink60.flv","FLV");
	mov.screen.play();
	mov.screen.totalTime = 61;
	mov._visible = true;
	hold.gotoAndPlay(1);
}
mov4.onRelease = function(){
	unloadMovie(105);
	mov.screen.setMedia("video/ink30.flv","FLV");
	mov.screen.play();
	mov.screen.totalTime = 61;
	mov._visible = true;
	hold.gotoAndPlay(1);
}
mov5.onRelease = function(){
	unloadMovie(105);
	mov.screen.setMedia("video/ink15.flv","FLV");
	mov.screen.play();
	mov.screen.totalTime = 61;
	mov._visible = true;
	hold.gotoAndPlay(1);
}

mov1,mov2 ...etc are all buttons which load my flv's into a movieclip called mov, which holds my display and components. display component is called screen !!!

You can see a demo here:
http://www.icatmedia.com/monica/
http://www.icatmedia.com/cynnamon/

Stuff being worked on
http://mirrorballproductions.com/site/

If anybody needs to see the fla's you can hit me up with an e-mail and I will send em off.