VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

mcm · Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 7:13 am Post subject: Demo player recommendations?

It has been two years since I had to look into audio players for the web, and since then there was the whole Apple Isn't Supporting Flash thing. What demo players can you recommend? If you know of a good open source one that isn't invasive that would be swell, but I'd love to know about any that you like. Many thanks!

Deirdre · Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 11:09 am Post subject:

Long Tail has a setup that will display the players that work on the device that is visiting the site. I don't think it's free, but it isn't absurdly expensive, either.
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bransom · DC Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 650 Location: St. Louis, MO

I use the Long Tail thing on my site and it seems to work pretty well. It's called the JW Player, plays audio and (if you need it) video, can be skinned in a variety of ways, and, depending on the device, calls up either Flash and HTML 5 for playback.

It's not free though not bank-breaking: $89.
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Bob Ransom
"I really need a pithy quote here."

Bish · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:26 am Post subject:

There are a lot of nice little players out there. I use the "Maxi" mp3 player and it seems to work well enough with a few useful configurable elements.

However, a word of warning regarding HTML5 implementations. There are quite a few players out there that will test for HTML5 support in a browser, and if present, serve up the HTML5 version via the audio tag. This is great for things like the iPad, but also a lot of browsers... the problem is that HTML5 implementation across browsers is a bit of a dog's breakfast... Safari may look really nice and support the mp3 format just fine, but the Firefox implementation of the audio tag is downright ugly... and still only seems to play nicely with ogg vorbis files, and not mp3. IE and Chrome have their own problems. Bottom line, testing for HTML5 can lead to a downright ugly implementation.

So, what I did was not test for HTML5 support, but test for iOS devices instead. If iOS detected, then the HTML5 version is used, if not (regardless of HTML5 audio support) I use the flash player. I managed to get a javascript iOS detect script running, and then embedded the HTML5 calls in the javascript itself.

Until HTML5 has a uniform implementation across browsers and platforms, this is a kludge to separate out non-flash iOS devices and just serve flash to everyone else.

Cheers
Peter
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Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
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bransom · DC Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 650 Location: St. Louis, MO

Mine works the same way. I tried to go all HTML 5 but was somewhat horrified at the results. "Butt ugly" and "didn't always work" would be a nice ways to describe the results.

So on my site, if you're on an iPhone or iPad, you get HTML 5. Everyone else gets Flash.
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Bob Ransom
"I really need a pithy quote here."

anthonyVO · 14th Avenue Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 1470 Location: NYC

HTML5 is the way to go if you're not looking to change it again in a year or two. However, it's best for people that can code CSS, etc. if your player allows you to, because all-HTML5 players tend to be... well... plain. It works for my site... but that's for me...

Long Tail has great development, browser detection, and community support. Not to mention, it's very customizable. They'll even give you the code you need.

-Anthony

imaginator · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 1:45 pm Post subject:

this is all so helpful.

i've been struggling with what to do so that the most people possible can see and hear stuff on my site once i finally entice them to look.
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anthonyVO · 14th Avenue Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 1470 Location: NYC

I realized I spoke generally... generally speaking...
Here's the one I'm using. Since my site is Wordpress based, it's a Wordpress plugin:
http://madebyraygun.com/wordpress/plugins/haiku/

-Anthony

Dan-O · The Gates of Troy Joined: 17 Jan 2005 Posts: 1636

imaginator · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:19 am Post subject:

i sent one of the player links here to my web guy to see what he thought about using it on voices2go.com.

he came back with this one he found which seems to fit what i need for both audio and video. and it's free and apparently very easy to customize.

http://jplayer.org/

while i don't understand the technical aspects, i do trust my friend's opinions, and offer this additional solution for your consideration.
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rowell gormon
www.voices2go.com
"Mr. Warm & Friendly Voice...with Character!"
Rowell Gormon's Clogged Blog - http://voices2go.com/blog

bransom · DC Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 650 Location: St. Louis, MO

JPlayer actually looks pretty cool. After reading your message, I jumped to their site to poke around. I was looking at the circle player, trying out the demo. I hit the play button then tried to drag the progress circle to see if I could skip forward in the audio clip.

And it crashed my browser.

FWIW, I'm using the latest version of Chrome for Mac running Snow Leopard.
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Bob Ransom
"I really need a pithy quote here."

Steve Knight · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:39 am Post subject:

I too am upgrading my site to be ipad freindly, and have a question or 3

hey Bish, is the Maxi player usable in ios browsers?

Are Wordpress plug-ins usable on standard html sites?

The pickle player looks good, but $49 for the player, then another $49 for the skin designer is kinda steep

Bish · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:54 am Post subject:

Steve, I don't use the Maxi on iOS... what I do is test for the iOS operating system, and if present, use native HTML5 with the <audio> tag. I'm cheap, and have yet to try any of the paid options. If I can work out how to test for iOS and fork to serve the right audio handling, then I'm sure there will be a good universal (& free) solution around somewhere... I've yet to find it though.
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Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.