T-Mobile recently started converting my mobile videos to WMV (without consulting me, I might add). This prompted me to create a WordPress plugin to allow me to easily post those videos to this blog. The plugin is based on my seemingly useful QuickTime Embedding Plugin.
To install, download and extract the zip file. Upload the two files to your WordPress plugins folder (not including the directory). Once it is there, you can activate it from the WP administration pages.
After it is installed, you can us the following syntax to embed a Windows Media movie in a post:
[WINDOWSMEDIA http://www.xxxx.com/movie.wmv 320 257]
Always start with a bracket “[” followed by “WINDOWSMEDIA” then the path to the file, the width and the height. End with a closing bracket “]”.
Also implemented the ability to specify whether or not the video should auto start/autoplay and/or have a controller. To use these two options you would form the tag as follows:
[WINDOWSMEDIA http://x.com/movie.wmv 320 257 true false]
The first “true” or “false” value is whether or not it should auto play and the second is whether or not a controller should be visible.
If you like this script or are having problems with it, let me know, leave a comment below. It should be noted that I really haven’t had a chance to test this on a variety of browsers/operating systems so it probably does have some issues.
Of course, updates and additions to the script are appreciated. If you are interested, I use it at: MobVCasting and Open Vlog.
Last, if you are looking for a similar solution that will work with Flash and Windows Media as well as QuickTime and not only WordPress but Blogger and other places, check out Enric’s videos Playing In Place
Is this confirmed with WP 2.1? I am only seeing my text in my post of [windowsmedia…
Hi Keanen, I just upgraded to WordPress 2.1 and everything is peachy. The only problem I have now is formatting since I am just now getting around to looking at it on a PC. Wow.. Looks terrible with all of the controls on a PC. I think I will change the defaults.
Greetings all, I just updated the plugin. I added GPL language as well as set the defaults so that the the status bar and play list do not show by default. They were just plain ugly..
Also, I fixed a bug which probably prevented the plugin working for anyone but myself (a small typo in a link to the javascript). In any case, if you tried it in the past and gave up, you might want to give it another shot now..
It would be great, if it worked.
Hi David, Perhaps I can help.. What happens? Can you send a test posting?
Wonderful plugins, but I have a slight problem. Windows Media files autoplay no matter what I set the preference to. This does not happen with QuickTime movies. I don’t have an example up to show you, because then I would have to subject my readers (all four of them) to autoplaying movies ;-). I’m running WordPress 2.1.3 on a Windows XP Pro Box under IIS, MySQL 5.0.19. Thanks again for these great tools!
Uncle Andrew
Another bit of information: apparently the problem with autoplay only happens on the Mac platform. Browsing to a test page via Explorer or Firefox on the Windows XP SP2 works fine, same page via Safari or Firefox on OS 10.4.9 autoplays no matter what. Just thought I’d throw that into the mix. :-)
Hi Uncle Andrew,
Yes, that is behavior that I have noticed as well. I have tried several alternative calls to the plugin embed code without success. I suspect that it is an issue with Flip4Mac (are you using that?).
-shawn
Hey Shawn,
Yes, I’m using Flip4Mac. Now that you mention it, I can see where that might very well be the source of the problem. Ah well; nothing to be done about it then, most likely. Thanks for getting back to me!
Uncle Andrew
not working for me at all.
Nothing comes out. Even though the code doesn’t show on my blog page
Can you point to a post that you are using to test so that I can have a look and see what the problem might be?
hi, it seem to work fine for me – except – it seem to want to load the WHOLE thing before you press play (even when auto play is set to false) and as the file is 200mb and on my front page its very annoying.
Any way to stop this?
link : http://www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/?p=69
Thanks for the plugin. Works great on latest version of wordpress in both latest firefox and IE 6 and 7
Can’t get it to work at all and just a blank line where the syntax was inserted. I am running another ‘Media’ type plugin for embedding .flv files and wondered if there might be a clash of some sort.
Great plugin – how do cause it to show a still picture from the movie befoe and when it’s not playing ? (like youtube).
What Adif asked: How do you place a still image in it’s place of the video before and after playing it?
Hi aaronr,
Sorry.. This plugin doesn’t support that..
Thanks for the great plugin! A lot easier and more painless than other equivalents out there. Only thing I’ve noticed is that if the latest version of Windows Media Player is installed (12?) then the toolbar/controller does not show up. Not a big deal. Thanks again!
I’m REALLY new to WP. I’ve followed the instructions on your page as closely as I know how, and yet I am not seeing the videos.
Is there something I need to install which supports the plugin, and you are assuming I have it installed?
The plugin worked in wordpress but not in wordpress mu (multi user) install.
Does it work for anybody in wpmu ?
plugin worked after enabling ‘plugin’ from siteadmin – options.
When I upgraded to BuddyPress1.1 it is not working again. WPMU is still 2.8.4a.
It works if I am playing individual files, but not when I use .m3u file. It used to work before.
I had it working on my site until I update to the latest Quicktime 7.6.4 and now the video plays but only sound, no picture. Nice script though, very simple to use.
Hi,
this is great plugin thanks for this but I want to know how do I make a video gallery with it pls advice
thanks in advance
sarah
Hi Sarah,
Sorry, I don’t have any advice on making a gallery. I suppose you would want to modify the plugin so that it works on a page instead of just on posts and then use it to put a bunch of videos on the page.
just getting a blank. No syntax is showing, but no video either. Here is the link: http://www.hoodcleaninghelper.com/news/video-testimonials-do-you-use-them
Anthony, you seem to be missing the JavaScript file in your install. I sent you an email about this.
Thanks, Shawn. It’s working great now and it’s an awesome plugin.
I uploaded the plugin, added the code to my post, but do not see anything…no link, no verbiage, no video. What am I missing?
P.S. web page is: http://highercallingcommunications.com/?p=169
spoke too soon…re-loaded the plugin and figured it out. Thanks!! :-)
all i have is the syntax showing up for me. can you please take a quick look for me:
http://wwm.griotmedia.com/?page_id=2