Make embedded video (.wmv) download only when played by user

Content
1

Hi, on my website www.maltawildplants.com I have an introduction video of 2mins which is about 35Mb. I wish I could make it take less space while keeping a good quality, but I have failed. Maybe I am not using the right converter.

Now my approach is different. Currently, every time one visits the site, the massive file is downloaded, even if it is not played. I wish that the file is downloaded only when the user press play button, with perhaps a short message stating video downloading and starting in 10 seconds.

(2) I also wish that when the player is static, instead of a black empty screen, there will be an image (maybe a frame from the video), like youtube style.

How can I achieve these aims please?

Embed code (the usual stuff)

<center>
	<OBJECT ID="MediaPlayer" WIDTH="192" HEIGHT="190" CLASSID="clsid:CFCDAA03-8BE4-11cf-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA"
	STANDBY="Loading Windows Media Player components..." TYPE="application/x-oleobject">
	<PARAM NAME="FileName" VALUE="!gfx/misc/SlideShow/mwp_intro_anim(m).wmv">
	<PARAM name="autostart" VALUE="false">
	<PARAM name="ShowControls" VALUE="true">
	<PARAM name="ShowStatusBar" value="true">
	<PARAM name="ShowDisplay" VALUE="true">
	<PARAM NAME="PlayCount" VALUE="1"> 
	<PARAM name ="ShowAudioControls"value="true">
	<PARAM name="ShowStatusBar" value="true">
	<EMBED TYPE="application/x-mplayer2" SRC="!gfx/misc/SlideShow/mwp_intro_anim(m).wmv" NAME="MediaPlayer"
	WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="360" ShowControls="1" ShowStatusBar="1" ShowDisplay="0" autostart="0"> </EMBED>
	</OBJECT>
	</center>
2

Hi Steve. Clicking your link gives this message:

You don’t have permission to access / on this server.

Anyhow, wmv seems like an old and not very useful web format any more. Have you looked into the new HTML <video> element yet? You can set simple controls for how the player works without using any JS. But you do need to provide your video in various formats, like H264 and WebM. (Miro provides a useful converter for this.)

Is there any reason you don’t just use YouTube?

3

Sorry, the web is working.

I have just replaced the whole thing with a javascript slideshow. The history of this was that initially I had a java-script animation but recently it gave permanent security errors so wanted to avoid javascript and thought of an animation instead, but that also had its drawbacks (large size). Through this forum (thanks Pullo!) I have now reverted to another popular java slideshow hoping this will not have security issues in few years if the project is abandoned.

It was good to learn thanks to you, that my goal was quite impossible and should avoid wmv files. The youtube suggestion was not a bad idea actually - didn’t pass from my mind

THANKS