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Complete video solution for FLV hosted on 3rd party provider

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Phate@drupal.org - Tue, 2008-08-05 09:28

Hi!

I've been looking at the video packages and modules for drupal, there are numerous solution for similar of different purposes: emfield, media field, video CCK, media mover, asset, openpackage video... but I 'm having trouble in finding the best solution for my task, maybe you can help me out. ^^

I found that drupal handles very well video when dealing with files that are saved on the local server, and also a pretty good integration with external services "out of the box", like YouTube, vimeo and revver. But I have not seen a simple way to display FLV video files coming form an arbitrary source.

I wanted to have the chance to integrate JW player into drupal nodes using an external URL for the FLV video file.

Example:

drupal installation: mywebtv.com
flv file: anotherwebserver.com/video.flv

I'm guessing the best would be to create a CCK field in which I insert the URL of the FLV, sniff it and make it play with JWplayer. I tried emfield. it works pretty well with, say blip.tv, but it uses ITS player. Can I make it work so that it uses the JWplayer instead?

Also, jquerymedia was interesting, very simple syntax, very easy to use. I tried with JWplayer 3.99 (3.x is uspposed to be supported)... but the flashvars do not work! I can't put a logo, play it fullscreen or anything else. Yes, I checked the syntax and I think it's correct, since I tried the same vars with the standalone player.

OK, maybe I made some cunfusion (^^), maybe there is no such a solution already, but this is what I'd like to have:

  • paste the URL of a FLV file into a node and watch it with the JW player (URL is an external file)
  • create playlists froms a list of URLs of videos and thumbnails, or nodes contaning those values

Maybe I just have to try to make my own, but my experience tells me that the drupal community is full of clever people who can come out and say something like "Hey, it's actually pretty easy and you don't need new modules, you can use X in conjunction with Y and you'll be good to go", or something like that ^^

Thanks in advance for the help!

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flvmediaplayer

arthurf's picture
arthurf - Tue, 2008-08-05 16:09

You should be able to do this with flvmediaplayer- enable per-node overrides and just paste the url to the flv file in the flashvars options (file=http://.....). You'll also need to install swfobject_api to render the player, but it's a simple setup.


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I am doing something like

DevinJohnston's picture
DevinJohnston - Thu, 2008-08-14 19:07

I am doing something like your idea on my site (devinjohnston.ca), because I found that flvmediaplayer.module and swfobject_api were administrative overkill for my purposes (and, in any event, I use a modified embedding code for the media player that is more standards-compliant). My videos are hosted on the same server, but that doesn't affect the implementation at all.

Basically, I have a CCK text field in which I add the URI for the video and another one for a preview image. Then I use the content template (contemplate) module to assemble the cck fields with the my embed code to generate the full player and all its variables.

This implementation works well for me for a couple reasons:

  1. All of my videos are a standard size, so I don't require fine-grained control over display settings on a per-video basis.
  2. It is very quick and easy to just dump the URI's into their respective fields and publish the node.

If you need more fine-grained control over how each individual video is displayed (e.g. because you are pulling videos hosted at different sites, in different resolutions, etc.), then a more robust approach like flvmediaplayer.module and swfobject_api are probably a better bet.

Devin Johnston
LL.B. Candidate
Robson Hall Faculty of Law


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