Linking to Streaming Files in DukeStream Personal

Creating Reference Movies (required for linking to QuickTime files)

Most reference movies are created using QuickTime Pro. QuickTime Pro costs about $30 and can be purchased online from Apple here.
Follow these steps to create a reference movie:

  1. Open Quicktime Pro.
  2. Select File -> Open URL.
  3. Type in the path to your QuickTime movie in its location on OIT's Quicktime Server. Example: rtsp://streaming.oit.duke.edu/~netid/servertest.mp4
  4. While the movie is playing, select File -> Save As.
  5. Type in a name for your reference movie. We recommend the same name as the movie itself with the addition of "_ref" at the end of the filename. Example: reference_movie_name.mov
  6. Click Save as a reference movie.
  7. If you give the ref movie a .qtl extension (as opposed to .mov), when a user clicks on the link the video will open directly in QuickTime Player, rather than in a Web page with a white background.

You must upload your finished reference movie to a web site such as your public_html shared space in WebFiles instead of the streaming folder where your media files reside. Once there, simply create a regular HTTP-style link to the reference movie. When a user clicks on this link, it will call up and stream the media file via its location on the DukeStream Personal QuickTime server.

Can't buy it?

If you cannot purchase QuickTime Pro, you can create a reference movie using a text editor.

  1. Open your text editor.
  2. Type RTSPtextRTSP://streaming.oit.duke.edu/~netid/real_movie.mp4
  3. Save this file with the extension .mov, and upload it following the instructions above.

Linking option #1: External QuickTime player

Sample link to a file in your personal webspace (WebFiles):

http://www.duke.edu/~NetID/yourMovie_ref.mov

You can create a link like the one above on your Web page that will open the external QuickTime player automatically and start playing your video. To do this, you must create what is called a "reference movie" as described above.

Once you have created your reference movie, you must upload it to a web site such as your public_html shared space in WebFiles - not to your Streaming folder in AFS with your media files. The link on your Web page will point to the reference movie, as in the example below:

Click here to view QuickTime video in external player

The link above points to a reference movie named "servertest_ref.mov" on the Digital Media Solutions website in the same directory as this Web page.

Linking option #2: Embedding the QuickTime player in a Web page

Embedding via a QuickTime "poster movie"

The video below uses a poster frame (an image of your own choosing) to stand in for the actual QuickTime movie. When a viewer clicks on the poster frame the video will begin streaming.

NOTE: You may need to click twice on the poster movie, once to activate the QuickTime window and once more to begin playing the movie.



The code used to embed this video is as follows:

<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab" width="320" height="256">
<param name="src" value="servertest_ref.mov">
<param name="qtsrc" value="poster_frame_cover_controls.mov">
<param name="controller" value="false">
<param name="href" value="rtsp://streaming.oit.duke.edu/~netid/servertest.mp4">
<param name="target" value="myself">
<param name="autoplay" value="false">
<param name="controller" value="false">
<embed src="servertest_ref.mov" qtsrc="poster_frame_cover_controls.mov" width="320" height="256" type="video/quicktime" controller="false" autoplay="false" href="rtsp://streaming.oit.duke.edu/~netid/servertest.mp4" target="myself" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</object>

How do I modify this code to match my video?

(note line numbers with instructions below)

1<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab" width="320" height="256">
2<param name="src" value="servertest_ref.mov">
3<param name="qtsrc" value="poster_frame_cover_controls.mov">
4<param name="controller" value="false">
5<param name="href" value="rtsp://streaming.oit.duke.edu/~netid/servertest.mp4">
6<param name="target" value="myself">
7<param name="autoplay" value="false">
8<param name="controller" value="false">
9<embed src="servertest_ref.mov" qtsrc="poster_frame_cover_controls.mov" width="320" height="256" type="video/quicktime" controller="false" autoplay="false" href="rtsp://streaming.oit.duke.edu/~netid/servertest.mp4" target="myself" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</object>

The lines where you have things to replace are:

line 1: Change pixel dimensions of your video
line 2: Point to your reference movie--could be a relative or an absolute link. An absolute link to a file in your personal webspace would look like this: http://www.duke.edu/~NetID/yourMovie_ref.mov. Instructions on creating reference movies are here: http://www.oit.duke.edu/web-multimedia/multimedia/dukestream/reference_movies.html)
line 3: Point to your poster movie via either a relative or absolute path. An absolute link to the poster movie in your personal web space would look like this: http://www.duke.edu/~NetID/yourMovie_poster.mov. Instructions for creating a poster movie are here: http://www.oit.duke.edu/web-multimedia/multimedia/dukestream/poster_movies.html
line 5: Enter the rtsp url of your actual media file. A sample link would look like this: rtsp://streaming.oit.duke.edu/~netID/yourMovie_streaming.mov
line 9: Point to your ref movie and poster movie (relative or absolute path). Modify the pixel dimensions to match your file, and enter the rtsp url of your actual media file again

Plain old embedding (no poster movie):

The code used to embed this video is as follows:

<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" width="320" height="256" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<param name="src" value="servertest.mov">
<param name="qtsrc" value="rtsp://streaming.oit.duke.edu/~netid/servertest.mp4">
<param name="autoplay" value="false">
<param name="loop" value="false">
<param name="controller" value="true">
<embed src="servertest.mov" qtsrc="rtsp://streaming.oit.duke.edu/~netid/servertest.mp4" width="320" height="256" autoplay="false" loop="false" controller="true" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/"></embed></object>

NOTE 1: When the "autoplay" parameter is set to "false" as in this example, the default QuickTime plugin may not match the size of the video. Setting "autoplay" to true will resolve this issue.

NOTE 2: The link to servertest.mov above implies that servertest.mov resides in the same directory as this web page. You will need to substitute your own relative link here. It doesn't matter what .mov file you use--this could be a one-second clip with any name--but it must be a valid QuickTime movie.

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