Technical Q&A QA1593

How to play a sequence of movies in a Web page

Q: I'm putting QuickTime content in my Web page and I'd like to have the QuickTime plug-in play a sequence of movies, one after the other. Is this possible?

A: Yes, the QuickTime plug-in has many special features that you can control from HTML by inserting parameters in the page using the <EMBED> tag. You can specify the QTNEXT parameter in the <EMBED> tag in your HTML to tell the QuickTime plug-in to play a sequence of movies, one after the other, to create an endlessly repeating playlist. When the current movie finishes, the next movie in the list starts. This can also be a good way to deliver a long movie; users never need to store more than a small piece of it on their computers at any time.

Here's how to specify the QTNEXT parameter:

QTNEXTn="<Filename> T<Target>" or "GOTOn"

Here's an example:

<EMBED SRC="First.mov" HEIGHT="176" WIDTH="120"
   QTNEXT1="<Second.mov> T<myself>"
QTNEXT2="<Third.mov> T<myself>">

Note: QTNEXT is supported on the iPhone and iPod Touch beginning with the 2.0 Software Update.

You have to append a number between 1 and 255 to each QTNEXT. They execute in numerical order.

Note: You must place angle brackets around the <Filename> and T<Target> values, and quotes must surround both values jointly:

"<Filename> T<Target>"

Set <Filename> to the name of the file you want to play next. You can include a relative path or the full URL.

The T<Target> parameter is optional. It specifies where the movie plays. If it's not specified, the next movie replaces the current browser window or frame, and any subsequent QTNEXT statements are lost. The special value of T<myself> targets the QuickTime plug-in and is normally the value you want; the next movie replaces the current movie, and subsequent QTNEXT statements are executed in turn. The target can also be the name of a browser window or frame. If no window or frame of that name exists, a new browser window with that name is created. You can also specify T<quicktimeplayer> as a target, which opens the movie in QuickTime Player.

IMPORTANT: The special targets T<myself> and T<quicktimeplayer> are case-sensitive in some versions of QuickTime. Use all lowercase.

Each QTNEXT statement has an index number, which is the order in which the movies play.

IMPORTANT: We recommend you number the QTNEXT statements in simple numerical order (1, 2, 3, and so on) because this technique will work in all environments.

The special index value of 0 is assigned to the original movie named in the SRC parameter (or the QTSRC parameter, if it was specified).

Why have index numbers? Because instead of a filename, you can specify GOTOn, where n is the index of the QTNEXT you want to go to. You normally do this to create a simple loop:

<EMBED SRC="First.mov" HEIGHT="176" WIDTH="120"
QTNEXT1="<Second.mov> T<myself>"
QTNEXT2="<Third.mov> T<myself>"
QTNEXT3=GOTO0 >

This example plays First.mov, then Second.mov, then Third.mov, then goes back to First.mov (index 0), in an endless loop. You can use values other than 0 to cause QTNEXT statements to play in arbitrary order, or to start looping from some midpoint. For example,

<EMBED SRC="Intro.mov" HEIGHT="176" WIDTH="120"
QTNEXT1="<First.mov> T<myself>"
QTNEXT2="<Second.mov> T<myself>"
QTNEXT3=GOTO1 >

would play the Intro.mov just once, then play First.mov and Second.mov in an endless loop.

IMPORTANT: If you use a relative URL in a QTNEXT parameter, it must be relative to the currently loaded movie, not relative to the current Web page. In a series of QTNEXT statements, each URL is relative to the previous movie.

Special Considerations

The EMBED tag alone will work just fine on Safari and on Firefox. However, we recommend you use an EMBED tag nested within an OBJECT tag because Internet Explorer will automatically offer to download and install the QuickTime ActiveX control if the user doesn't already have it. In Firefox and Safari, the OBJECT tag code is ignored.

Here's what the nested code looks like:

<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" width="320" height="256" 
    codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
        <param name="src" value="First.mov">
        <param name="controller" value="true">
        <param name="autoplay" value="true">
        <param name="qtnext1" value="<second.mov>T<myself>E<controller=true autoplay=true>">
        <param name="qtnext2" value="<third.mov>T<myself>E<controller=true autoplay=true>">
    <embed
        src="First.mov"
        width="320" height="256"
        controller="true"
        autoplay="true"
        qtnext1="<second.mov>T<myself>E<controller=true autoplay=true>"
        qtnext2="<third.mov>T<myself>E<controller=true autoplay=true>"
        pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
    </embed>
</object>

Also, in early 2006, Microsoft made available an updated version of Internet Explorer browser for Windows. This new Internet Explorer for Windows handles QuickTime and other ActiveX controls in a new way. Your website may be affected if it features QuickTime content that is contained in an HTML web page using OBJECT, EMBED, or APPLET tags. See Instructions for Updating Websites to Include QuickTime Content for more information.

The QTNEXT parameter can also support sub-parameters for each movie.

Here's example HTML code:

In the OBJECT tag:

<PARAM NAME="qtnext1" VALUE="<second.mov>T<myself>E<CONTROLLER=true AUTOPLAY=true>">

In the EMBED tag:

qtnext1="<second.mov>T<myself>E<CONTROLLER=true AUTOPLAY=true>"

References

Document Revision History

Date	Notes
2008-08-08	First Version

Posted: 2008-08-08

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