MPEG Video

 

Compatibilities:

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How can I play MPEG video in Director?

There are a number of ways, no one is any better than another, and it will be different on the Mac and the PC. Having said that, here are the 4 most common solutions. 1. Use an Xtra. To see a list of currently available ones click here. This makes it easier to work with, good product support, but many are not cross platform. 2. Use ActiveX controls. This is only a solution on the PC, but a behavior to control the Microsoft Active Movie ActiveX component can be found here. Note that this is more limited than an Xtra, but is free and works well for standard playback. 3. Use QuickTime. This is another that is for one platform only. On the Mac QuickTime supports MPEG, but on the PC you are out of luck. 4. Use MCI calls. This is another PC only one, but works fairly well. Note that the playback engine is only 16 bit, so performance may not be as good as other solutions and it calls directly from the system so control is limited. Also, Microsoft no longer supports these calls. For MCI behaviors click here. Try them out and choose what works best for you, but remember that MPEG can act differently on every platform, so test on a wide variety of machines!!