Playing QuickTime through Shockwave

This tutorial describes the steps necessary to get an online QuickTime movie to play within a Shockwave Adobe Director movie. The process is easy, but it is not well-documented or intuitive.

Follow the steps below to play streaming, or linked online QuickTime movies within Adobe Director.

First, make sure the QuickTime movie you intend to play through Shockwave plays correctly outside of Director. Post the QuickTime file to a server and enter the URL in a browser. If the QuickTime movie plays through the browser directly it should work through Director. Testing an online QuickTime movie this way helps eliminate potential playback problems within Director later.

You may need to install the latest Shockwave plug-in, if your QuickTime movie doesn't play in your browser. You may also need to export the QuickTime asset through QuickTime player to optimize it and make it more "streaming" friendly. QuickTime Pro is probably the best tool to use for this, and it's reasonably priced at under $30.

The two methods described below involve using an "Internet" link for the QuickTime movie that is to be played within a Director movie. Using "Internet" as a source for the file tells Director that the asset is located online.

Method 1:

Use this method when you don't already have a QuickTime movie asset in your cast.

1) Go to "Insert" -> "Media Element" -> "QuickTime". This will create an empty "shell" for a QuickTime movie asset.

Insert media element menu

2) Give the "shell" cast member a name. If you don't name the shell cast member Director will not save it to the cast.

Type a name for the cast member.

3) Next, configure the QuickTime cast member so Director looks for it online with a URL path.

Click the "Internet" button to set the URL path for the asset.

4) Type a valid URL path for the QuickTime file on the server you want to link to your Director movie, then click the "OK" button.

File URL

5) Set any properties you like for the QuickTime asset, such as "Looping", "Controller", "Streaming", etc.

If you play your movie now you should see the QuickTime controller timeline "bar" progress as the movie is loaded into the cache. If everything is set correctly, your URL-linked QuickTime movie should play through any type of Adobe Director or Shockwave movie.

6) Publish the movie as a Shockwave and upload the .DCR and .HTML files to your server. Note: This method also works for non-Shockwave Adobe Director movies.

Method 2:

This method works when you already have a QuickTime movie in your cast that you want to access from the Internet.

1) Import a QuickTime movie into the cast, then click the QuickTime cast member in the cast window so it is selected.

Selected=

2) With the QuickTime cast member highlighted, go to the "Property Inspector" window and click the "Member" tab.

Property Inspector

3) Under the "Filename" field click the ellipsis button. (The ellipsis button has three "dots" in it.)

4) Type or paste the URL path to the online QuickTime movie asset, then click the "OK" button.

File URL

5) Set any properties you like for the QuickTime movie, such as "Looping", "Controller", "Streaming", etc.

If you play your movie now you should see the QuickTime controller timeline "bar" progress as the movie is loaded into the cache. If everything is set correctly, your URL-linked QuickTime movie should play through any type of Adobe Director or Shockwave movie.

6) Publish the movie as a Shockwave and upload the .DCR and .HTML files to your server. Note: This method also works for non-Shockwave Adobe Director movies.

Here is a link to a source Director movie that includes QuickTime streaming.

Here is a link to a live Shockwave movie that plays URL-linked QuickTime.

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