Putting Video on the Web - A Practical Guide to Video and Audio Compression - page 422

Table 26-4 Class ID Values for Plug-In Objects

Player Class ID value

QuickTime

02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B

Real

CFCDAA03-8BE4-11CF-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA

Window Media 9

6BF52A52-394A-11D3-B153-00C04F79FAA6

Window Media (legacy)

22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95

Macromedia Flash

D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000

The <OBJECT> tag is defined as a W3C standard and should be implemented con-
sistently by all browsers on all platforms, but it is not. You have to use the <OBJECT> tag
in MSIE on the Windows platform, but on all other browsers the best choice is the
<EMBED> tag. The <EMBED> tag in MSIE on Windows does not support the PLUGINSPAGE
attribute, so the failover mechanism for fetching the plug-in does not work. If a QuickTime
movie is called for, then the <EMBED> tag only works in MSIE Win if the QuickTime has
been installed. On the other hand, the <OBJECT> tag lets you specify an ActiveX control
and this does not depend on the MIME type. Furthermore, if the ActiveX control has not
been installed, MSIE for Windows knows where to go to get it and offers to fetch it for you.
Table 26-4 lists the CLASSID values for the <OBJECT> tag.
Yes, I know— CLASSID values are intended for computers to understand and not
human beings. Nevertheless, it seemed like a good idea to collect this information into one
place. Note that this only applies to using the <OBJECT> tag on the Windows platform.
Table 26-5 lists the CODEBASE values for ActiveX downloads.
When you use the <EMBED> or <OBJECT> tag, include some height for the controller.
The amount of allowance to make for this depends on the plug-in type. QuickTime, Real
Networks, and Windows Media players all look slightly different when rendered into the
display buffer. The movie itself may have switches set internally that activate or deactivate
the controller, or the movie may have an alpha mask or skin that changes its shape to some-
thing other than a rectangle. You must be aware of what you are embedding to ensure that
sufficient space is set aside for it when the browser manufactures the page layout.

Table 26-5 Code Base Download Values for Plug-In Objects

Player Code base values

QuickTime

http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab

Real

http://www.real.com/player/index.html

Window Media There are no .cab files supported for Windows Media Player.

The necessary support is delivered automatically within the
operating system installation. Note that this may now not be true
in all European versions of Windows.

Macromedia Flash

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/
cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0