Flash Video as Body Background ?

[WebCrawler]

Hello:

I gone through many forums and websites but didnt find a solutions or example script to use Flash .FLV video as XHTML page BODY Background.

We are building a site based on one popular CMS. We need to show one Flash Movie in our website as a body background rather then using traditional Image as Body background. On top of the movie, we will show our content in normal DIV based CSS/HTML. We are building this site based on XHTML Strict standard.

My first question is, is this possible ? If it is possible, then can anyone guide me using this script ?

Thanks.

[EastCoast]

It's possible but there'd be an issue with bandwidth and also cpu use - playing back video at the resolution of the typical desktop nowadays will consume a fair amount. If you have to do this, I'd monitor frame rate in the playback swf and if it drops too low, disable this feature. I'd likely disable video smoothing and set the stage aliasing quality to low too.

[WebCrawler]

Thanks for your reply. I do understand the issue related to usage of FLV. If I use SWF file like one example I found here thesquarefestival.com. If you can guide me on writing the Flash Video background script, that would be great.

[AlexDawson]

WebCrawler, you could embed the flash in the normal method, but give it an absolute position and stretch it to 100% width and height (then layer the normal HTML over the top using z-index positioning (like what ringvemedia.com does with an IMG element to span the full screen size), that should give you the effect you need, though I would advise against what your attempting, audio in the background which autoplays is a bad idea and video will distract from the content causing a serious accessibility (in terms of cognitive disability) and usability conflict... some people just can't stomach trying to read when stuff is moving in the background.

[WebCrawler]

Hello AlexDawson:

You got it right. The example which you give is just like what we are trying to achieve but in place of that background image, we will be using one small looping video, a sea wave.

Site owner is not much concerned with accessibility issues. Yes, using z-index positioning we can place the content on top of the Background Flash.

My concern is with different monitor resolutions. While exporting that flash video file, what should be the Width and Height ratio, so that the flash video adjust the size proportionally based on monitor resolutions.

[AlexDawson]

Well that's where you would absolutely position it to the top left hand side of the screen and apply 100% width and height to it... if it's scaled in percentages it'll resize with the window (as I mentioned). As for accessibility, you should be promoting it, not waiting for clients to request it, it's not exactly a "feature", it's the difference between lots of customers and a lot less customers, you would be supprised how disloyal customers can be when they encounter bad sites