MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX 2004-USING DIRECTOR, Use Manual, Page: 259 / 500

Using RealMedia content in Director 259
When you use streaming digital video in a movie that is distributed on the Internet, remember
the following points:
•
The video begins to play immediately unless the member’s
pausedAtStart
property is set to
TRUE
or the
controller
member property is set to
TRUE
.
•
After a digital video begins to download, the download continues until it is finished, even if the
sprite no longer appears on the Stage. Use the
percentStreamed
QuickTime sprite property
to test how much of the media has been downloaded.The feature works with QuickTime
videos only. For more information about this property, see the Scripting Reference topics in the
Director Help Panel.
Synchronizing video and animation
To pause the playhead until a specified cue point in digital video is reached, you can use the Wait
for Cue Point option in the Tempo dialog box. You can also use this function to wait for the end
of the digital video, even if it has no cue points. Cue points can also be used to trigger events that
are interpreted by Lingo or JavaScript syntax.
The techniques for synchronizing digital video and animation are the same as those for
synchronizing sound and animation. For more information, see
“Synchronizing media”
on page 240 .
Using RealMedia content in Director
The Macromedia Director Xtra for RealSystem Streaming Media (Xtra for RealMedia) adds
RealAudio and RealVideo to the media types supported by Director and handles the playback of
RealMedia content in the Shockwave Player using an embedded RealPlayer engine. Support for
the RealAudio and RealVideo media types allows Director developers to add streaming
RealMedia content to Shockwave content and manipulate it using the standard controls available
in Director. This content can be viewed by users who have the Shockwave Player and RealPlayer 8
or RealOne Player installed on their system.
RealNetworks RealAudio and RealVideo formats are recognized as the standard for streaming
media content on the web today. The ability to add RealMedia content to Shockwave content
allows Director developers to take advantage of the millions of RealPlayer programs currently in
use, and because the Xtra for RealMedia provides an automatic detection and installation prompt
feature for RealPlayer 8 and RealOne Player, there is no risk of locking out any of the millions of
users who have already installed the Shockwave Player. In addition, the Xtra for RealMedia is
automatically downloaded and installed the first time a user attempts to view Shockwave content
containing RealMedia content.
This document contains instructions for using existing RealMedia streams in Director and
assumes a basic familiarity with Director, including using inspectors and behaviors.
You cannot create or edit RealMedia content in Director. RealMedia streaming content is created
with RealNetworks production tools such as RealProducer Plus and RealProducer Basic. For
information about creating content with these tools, see the RealNetworks website at
www.realnetworks.com .