JW FLV Media Player 4.4

Installation

This section details a step-by-step process of how to install the JW FLV Player onto your page. The download ZIP contains everything you need to get started.

Step 1: Transfer the player.swf and swfobject.js file from the ZIP to your website. (Make sure that you’ve also uploaded all the necessary videos / songs / images to your site.)

Step 2: Embed the player in your HTML page with the lines of code below. Note: If you place the files in different directories, make sure to set the references in this code accordingly.

<p id='preview'>The player will show in this paragraph</p>

<script type='text/javascript' src='swfobject.js'></script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var s1 = new SWFObject('player.swf','player','400','300','9');
s1.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');
s1.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');
s1.addParam('flashvars','file=video.flv');
s1.write('preview');
</script>

Notice the flashvars parameter above can contain a list of variables for configuring the player to use different Plugins or Skins. To quickly set up flashvars, use the setup wizard. Simply choose an example, select the variables you want to use and paste the code onto your page. It’s that easy.

Documentation

All documentation of the JW Player can be found in the JW Player Wiki. The Wiki also includes our product roadmap, source code and bug tickets. Here are some direct links:

1. Release overview and complete change log for the JW FLV Player.
2. Supported file and playlist formats, along with implementation information.
3. Supported flashvars (variables) you can select to customize the player.
4. Javascript API overview (included with the player).
5. List of all skinnable elements in the player and information on how to create a skin.

If you’ve created a CMS module that embeds the player in an existing CMS (or you’ve found one online), please submit it here.

Also, make sure to check out one of our many tutorials, which cover topics such as:

1. Embedding a flash object in your site (simple embed and SWFObject).
2. Converting your video to FLV or MP4.
3. Adding accessibility features (closed captions and an audio description).
4. Controlling the player through JavaScript.
5. Setting up HTTP video streaming (seeking, throttling, security, lighttpd).
6. Skinning the JW Player.
7. Building JW Player Plugins.
8. The Yousearch plugin tutorial (a step-by-step Plugin coding example).

Support

LongTail receives a lot of requests for creating customized versions of our player. In most cases, a clever flashvars setting can provide the solution you’re looking for, so please check this list of flashvars or the setup wizard. Also, remember we’re always expanding the player’s functionality, so check out the new features that will be plugged into the next update.

If you still can’t find what you’re looking for and you’re familiar with ActionScript, you can change the player yourself. To get started, we've provided a PDF with clear overview of the application structure. And remember, you can review all the source code from the Wiki.

Here's a list with some frequently-encountered problems.

1. If you want to play YouTube videos, make sure to upload the yt.swf to the same directory as the player.swf! The yt.swf serves as a small proxy; it is included in the download.
2. Javascript interaction and playing remote files will not work when testing locally due to security restrictions. Also note that JavaScript interaction doesn't work for SWF files inside a <form> tag.
3. True fullscreen only works if you have the Flash Player 9,0,28,0 or higher installed. H264 videos only from version 9.0.98. If you use the SWFObject javascript to embed your player, you can activate the auto-update functionality. And don’t forget to set the allowfullscreen set to true in your embed code!
4. If your MP4 files cannot be seeked before they are completely downloaded, the so-called MOOV atom (which contains the seeking information) is located at the end of your video. Check out this little application to parse your videos and fix it.
5. If your MP3 files playback is too fast or too slow, they likely contain variable bit rate encoding or unsupported sample frequencies (eg 48Khz). Please stick to constant bit rate encoding and 11,22,33,44 kHz. If you need a free MP3 encoder, check out iTunes software.
6. If the progress bar isn't running with your FLV file, or if your video dimensions are wrong, your FLV file doesn't have metadata. You can fix this by using this application.
7. If FLV playback doesn't work on a site running off an IIS server, the FLV mime type isn't added to the server. If you're a webserver administrator, here's how to fix it; otherwise contact your sys admin.
8. Loading playlists (or SWF files, ID3 data, etc.) from another web server is not permitted by the Flash Player security model. You can circumvent this by placing a crossdomain.xml file in the root of the website that contains the media files. If you don't have access to the external site, you can use a proxy (example).

For additional tips, tricks, information and bug reports, please visit our support forum.