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Audio On Cache Pages


klaus23

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<bgsound src="http://www.peckhampouncers.co.uk/THEME.AIF" loop="1">

 

Though I'm not sure is .AIF will work in all computers/operating systems/browsers.

 

And whatever you do, don't include all the HTML/HEAD/BODY stuff in a cache description!

Edited by rutson
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I can't find another file type - do you mean that it would only work in a Win/IE environment using Media Player?

No, it should be still be still a cross platform file format. Though the 3 letter version (.aif) is more associated with Apple OS and that crappy player 'quicktime' where as the four letter .aiff was historically the standard format accepted by both Netscape and iexplorer. Webserver and browsers of today should recognise both .aif and .aiff as audio MIMI types. But the browser may pop open a window and use an external player software (such as mediaplayer) to play the sound.

 

But hey... no one uses aif/aiff much any more because of the historical browser issues, it was always a safer bet to use the .wav format. You will likely find that a correctly formatted wav file will be played within most browsers without opening external player windows.

 

If you having problems or wish to avoid compatibility issues, why not covert your file over to a .wav ?

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Thanks for that bit of info stonefisk :o

 

I have been playing (no pun intended <_< ) around creating cache pages and I have been reading this thread ... and it did occur to me that I might instigate a popup player window on the readers browser and I didn't want to do that if I could avoid it :(

 

Bill.

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Klaus if the .aiff doesn't work, i'll host the wav for you. Both the .aiff and .wav are 1.5MB, so don't forget it won't start to play until it has fully downloaded into the users browser. I know it's not as nice as the .wav but I think you'd be better using a midi...it's only 18KB, and loads instantly. I have both files up on my server so see what suits you best. All you need to do is copy the html below and paste it into the short or log description box. The loop=1 means it will only play once, it can be stoped anyway by hitting the esc key. Hope this helps.

 

<bgsound src="http://www.mccartan.org/klaus/fools.wav" loop="1">

<bgsound src="http://www.mccartan.org/klaus/fools.mid" loop="1">

Edited by Donnacha
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creating cache pages

Hey! heads-up ppl! did you see that?.... Ullium is making cache pages!

Does that mean he has got a cache in the pipeline? or is this some freaky pass time that some geocachers do?

 

I have a feeling that one day we will wake to find Ullium has unleashed one big cache bomb and he'll have 100 cache placements to his name.

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creating cache pages

Hey! heads-up ppl! did you see that?.... Ullium is making cache pages!

Does that mean he has got a cache in the pipeline? or is this some freaky pass time that some geocachers do?

 

I have a feeling that one day we will wake to find Ullium has unleashed one big cache bomb and he'll have 100 cache placements to his name.

Yes very funny ... I would have thought you could have come up with something a bit more original considering that jibe has been done to death ??

 

Bill.

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Yes very funny ... I would have thought you could have come up with something a bit more original considering that jibe has been done to death ??

 

Bill.

what ?? you really mean you are creating fictional dry run cache pages to the extend of even adding sound but still have no cache in the works? my that is... well I really don't know what that is. Admit it, you are building a cache clone army that is going to dominate Scotland.

Edited by stonefisk
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Having tried to encorporate sound into one of our cache pages without success, I also asked the same question. I can't remember now which forum I asked on but the replies were numerous and very, very negative. Clearly, sounds on web pages are not popular. I therefore gave up on my attempt and bowed to the masses.

 

Regards,

Martin

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Personally I like sound effects and music on cache pages. I think they can help set the scene or add a small twist. If I find them annoying I simply turn the volume of my speakers down, or off altogether. Easy. I would be nice if the next version of IE lets you used HTML code to force repeated playings to fade out though...

 

SP

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If you are unlucky enough to still be using Internet Explorer then simply clicking the stop button once the page has loaded will kill the music.

 

Ah, but by then it's too late. If you're at work, everyone's looking round wondering what "One man went to mow" at full volume has got to do with shoes.

If you're at home, all the young telly watchers will finally think that you've lost it at last and start looking up the number of the local care home.

There should be a warning in the cache name, as it's getting to epidemic proportions up here. Naming no names!!

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If you must use sound on a webpage then I suggest that you provide a link to the file so that people can download it if they choose. This is the most accessible and user friendly way of doing it. Forced background sounds can be embarrassing if the user is in a quiet office or a cyber cafe.

 

Secondly forced background sounds can take a long time to download if the user is using a slow connection. Imagine if someone is browsing the page using a PDA over a GPRS connection. A 1.5 Mb background sound could very easily cost them over £4 to receive.

 

The bgsound tag is also not part of the HTML standard. It is a proprietary control. This may cause the page to not work in some browsers. Your page will also not validate as HTML and therefore will not technically be a web page. Being invalid in your HTML is a bit like speaking English with made up words and incomprehensible grammar. In a world where every day more and more legislation is brought in to make information sources more accessible to disabled users, for example the Disability Discrimination Act, using valid HTML becomes increasingly important.

 

Other ways to use media on a website could include embedding the sound in the page using media controls (You can do this using the <object> tag) or by embedding a flash animation to control the sound.

 

I was once working on a website where the previous designer had used a 10Mb mp3 file as a background sound. The file took so long to download that the user had navigated away from the page before it had a chance to start playing.

 

Regards,

 

Dan Durrans

Web Systems Developer

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Personally I like sound effects and music on cache pages. I think they can help set the scene or add a small twist. If I find them annoying I simply turn the volume of my speakers down, or off altogether. Easy. I would be nice if the next version of IE lets you used HTML code to force repeated playings to fade out though...

 

SP

....but if you're using the PC to listen to something else, CD, digital radio etc. you don't want to have to turn the volume off.

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