BBCode: Videos and Music

BBCode: Videos and Music
Morrighan
Morrighan
11-07-2006

This tutorial will evolve as events warrant. As of today, it's now possible to include videos and music into your posts.

___________________________
Hosting Your Videos and Music

As with images, the first step is that the video or song must be hosted. Photobucket will allow you to upload short videos for free, but you have to use their paid service to upload long ones.

These sites, however, will host the videos for you, as far as I know, and provide you with a URL to post those videos elsewhere:

Google http://video.google.com/
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/
vSocial http://www.vsocial.com/
iFilm http://www.ifilm.com/
MetaCafe http://www.metacafe.com/
DailyMotion http://www.dailymotion.com/video/
CurrentTV http://www.current.tv/studio/
Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/
Sharkle http://www.sharkle.com/video/
FreeVideoBlog http://video.freevideoblog.com/
MyVideoDe http://www.myvideo.de/

So really, a Photobucket would just be useful for the funny videos people email you, or videos you save off the internet. The most important thing, regardless of how you acquire the video, is this: you must have a URL to host it at.

I don't know of any sites to recommend other than Photobucket, so I leave that to you to figure out. I'm sure other members of the site know where you can host videos.

___________________________
Including the Movie or Song into Your Post

The following is a list of the different file types you can use in this forum. When I say "file types," this means the last three letters of your file. For example, for image files, they will always be saved as .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .png, and so forth. For videos and music, these are the file extensions:

Adobe Flash:
swf, spl, flv

Quick Time:
mov, qt, mqv, mpeg, mpg, m1s, m1v, m1a, m75, m15, mp2, mpm, mpv, mpa, flc, fli, cel, rtsp, rts, 3gp, 3gpp, 3g2, 3gp2, sdv, amc, mp4, sdp

Real Media:
rm, rmvb, ra, rv, ram, smil

Windows Media:
mp3, wma, wav, ogg, ape, mid, midi, asf, asx, wm, wmv, wsx, wax, wvx, avi

P2P File:
torrent, emule, foxy, pplive

I'll be honest, I don't even know how to use all those extensions, so this will be a learning process for all of us. I've mostly used Windows, Realplayer, and Quicktime (if I have no other choice.)

The gist of this being, however, that any file YOU host in Photobucket or a similar site must end in one of those tags. Google videos, YouTube, and the others listed above don't have to end in that file tag, and most often won't.

So You've Hosted Your Video...

And you have a URL for it. The simplest next step is just to type this:

HTML Code:

[media]The URL where your video or song is hosted[/media]

And that's it. Your video will appear in the default text box. I'll give you two examples, with screenshots, so you know what to look for.

Photobucket:

Put it in the media BBCode tags, and you're done.

For Youtube and similar sites:

Again, put the URL between media tags.

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Formatting Your Video or Song:

The default tag, without options, again:

HTML Code:

[media]url_of_the_file[/media]

Tag with options:

HTML Code:

[media="width, height, autostart, loop, extension"]url_of_the_file[/media]

HTML Code:


[left][media="width, height, autostart, loop"]url_of_the_file[/media]
[media="width, height, autostart"]url_of_the_file[/media]
[media="width, height"]url_of_the_file[/media][/left]

Meaning, these are all the different options you have so that the video will play the way you want it to.

Width: How wide the viewing area of the video is, in pixels. Default is 380 px.
Height: How tall the viewing area of the video is. Default is 300 px.
Autostart: The video or song starts playing as soon as a member clicks onto that page of the thread. This is discouraged, as it can be annoying. For the purposes of a game, though, we may need this option.
Loop: If you enter this into the tags, the video or song will repeat. Over and over. Until you leave that page of the thread. If you set this, I may have to unset it if I get complaints. Be considerate.
Extension: If you want this video or song to play in Realplayer, you'd type rm. (No period.) If you want Windows, type wm. Default is Adobe flashplayer, so if you don't type any extension, then the video will play in Flashplayer. If you're unsure, leave it with the default.

Examples:

HTML Code:

[media="300,380,yes,2,rm"]http://server/file.mp3[/media]

HTML Code:


 

[left][/left]

It will use the real player to play the file.mp3,

the object is 300px width, 380px height,

it will autostart and will repeat twice.

HTML Code:

[media=250,150,0,3]http://server/file.flv[/media]

HTML Code:


 

[left][/left]

It will use the flash player to play the file.flv,

the object is 250px width, 150px height,

it'll NOT autostart but will repeat for 3 times.

HTML Code:

[media=400,480,false]http://server/file.swf[/media]

HTML Code:


 

[left][/left]

It will use the flash player to play the file.swf,

the object is 400px width, 480px height,

and it'll NOT autostart.

HTML Code:

[media=421,211]http://server/file.pdf[/media]

HTML Code:


 

[left][/left]

It will post the pdf object on the page,

the object is 421px width, 211px height.

Other Formatting Rules:

WIDTH and HEIGHT are both required if you want to add any other options.
Available values for the AUTOSTART option: 1, true & yes.
Separate the options with commas.
Don't forget quotation marks! Type your BBCode precisely as I did, or it won't work.

___________________________
Cipher Rules for Videos and Music

These are rules I will strictly enforce, and repeatedly breaking them will result in disciplinary action. If you're unsure about the content of a video, PM an administrator or moderator. Do your experimenting in The Laboratory area if you're not sure you can make it work or think you'll need help. I'm learning as much as anyone else, but I'll do what I can.

No pornography or sexually explicit material. At all. Period. If there's any brief nudity, post the video in The Erotic Mistifalia area.
Post content warnings for anything you think might be rated PG-13 or above. Meaning:
- First, do not put the video on autostart. Remember, default is not autostart; members have to click to play the video. If the video autostarts, it's because you told it to.
- Provide your estimated rating, G-R, and any content warnings (language, violence, explicit language).
If you plan to post a thread with many videos or lots of music, then start a new thread. Lots of videos or images will slow down the loading time of each page, so for members with slow internet connections, you could accidentally crash their browser. Post warnings in the thread title, i.e. "Lots of videos" or "Lots of music." This way members can avoid the load-intensive threads. Another option would be to hide the videos or music beneath spoiler tags, i.e.
- HTML Code:
```
[spoiler]Your video or music info, including the media tags[/spoiler]
```
  .
Ask a moderator or administrator before posting anything vaguely political or religious. In the interests of humor in good taste, we'll bend a bit for videos or music, but we won't bend far.

I'll add new rules as they become necessary, but use good judgment, and when in doubt, ask.

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