Posted by Ben C on 12/03/07 21:34

On 2007-12-03, Jonathan N. Little <lws4art@centralva.net> wrote:
> Ben C wrote:
>> On 2007-12-03, Jonathan N. Little <lws4art@centralva.net> wrote:
>>> Shelly wrote:
[...]
>>>> I phrased it badly. What I meant to ask was "Is there something **I can
>>>> install on the server** so that .mov files on the server that are included
>>>> in a web page will play on the user's browser even if he doesn't have
>>>> Quicktime on his machine.
>>> No. The client must be configured to view ".mov" in some way such as
>>> with any other proprietary file format...
>>
>> Can't you do something with content negotiation?
>>
>> If the client doesn't say it accepts whatever media type .mov files are,
>> then the server can perhaps be set up to give it the same movie but as
>> another kind of file instead (.avi, .mpeg, etc.)?
>
> That would have to be done client side, the server does not know nor
> should it, what you have installed on your computer.

The idea is the computer sends in its request headers the types of files
it would prefer.

So if the server sees Accept: video/quicktime then it gives the client
the .mov file. If it doesn't, but it does see Accept: video/avi, then
it delivers an avi instead, and that kind of thing.

But I don't know if anyone uses this for videos or if browsers reliably
send Accept headers for the plugins they have installed.

> anyway whether it is MOV, AVI, MPEG the client is going to have to have
> some type of application or plugin in order to view the file...

Of course.

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