Currently I have my demos in WMV format streamed from my website. However, when someone views the webpage, all they see is the embedded Windows Media Player default image. Is there a way to change the default image and have say, an image of the couple inside the player but still displaying the controls?

Not possible with the current version of WinMedia software. Flash does that, and you also have a better chance that all of your viewers have the player. Problem is, flash is lower quality video...

Try mp4/h.264 played back with the flash player, I got awesome results, quite possibly better than wmv.

Thanks for that.
I was under the impression from threads posted here, that Flash was actually a superior format to WMV but the latter has more global covergae than the former. You seem to indicate the opposite is true.

See this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=118400; toward the middle I posted some statistics that show, Flash is the most popular player, installed on virtually all computers, followed by WinMedia.

As far as quality goes, it's a mixed bag. Flash can look very good, when the insanely expensive ON2 method is used; regular flash quality falls behind wmv at least in my tests.

A few month back Flash incorporated playback of MP4 QuickTime files (the H.264 flavor) and that looks awesome. It can be done with free tools!

[I love to see someone from Aberdeen! I visited your city and northern Scotland a few years back and fell in love with it... castles, lochs, monsters... the quiet life... lovely].

it is possible if you set the mediaplayer to be transparent at start.
then you can overlay a picture.
the problem being to disable transparency when video starts.
this require to write some javascript code.
look at http://www.imagidee.ch/image2/index.asp
select first menu item (demo video)
in that case i made the picture disappear after 11 sec (the usual time for the video to start)
i could have made it clever by reading the player status and use the frame pointer.

here is the code

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript">
On Error Resume Next
lngMP70 = IsObject(CreateObject("WMPlayer.OCX"))
document.write "<OBJECT ID=MediaPlayer "
document.write "STANDBY=""Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player components..."" "
document.write " WIDTH=368 HEIGHT=266 "
If (lngMP70) Then ' Windows Media Player 7 Code
document.write " CLASSID=CLSID:6BF52A52-394A-11D3-B153-00C04F79FAA6>"
document.write "<PARAM NAME=""url"" "
Else ' Windows Media Player 6.4 Code
document.write " CLASSID=CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95 "
document.write "CODEBASE=http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=6,4,5,715"
document.write "type=""application/x-oleobject"">"
document.write "<PARAM NAME=""FileName"" "
End If
</SCRIPT>

VALUE="mms://your.stream.server.IP/imagidee/">
<param name="uiMode" value="invisible">
<PARAM NAME="windowlessVideo" Value="0">
<PARAM NAME="animationatStart" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="TransparentAtStart" Value="-1">
<PARAM NAME="AutoStart" VALUE="-1">
<PARAM NAME="EnableContextMenu" VALUE="-1">
<PARAM NAME="ShowDisplay" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="ShowControls" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="ShowStatusBar" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="PlayCount" VALUE="0">
<param name="AutoSize" value="-1">
<param name="Mute" value="0">
<param name="Volume" value="30">

<embed type="application/x-mplayer2" pluginspage="http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/Downloads/Contents/MediaPlayer/" width="368" height="266"
src="mms://your.stream.server.IP/imagidee/" filename="mms://your.stream.server.IP/imagidee/"
autostart="True" showcontrols="False" showstatusbar="False" showdisplay="False" autorewind="True">
</embed>
</OBJECT>
</td></tr></table>

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function showvideo() {
MediaPlayer.uiMode = "none";
}

setTimeout("showvideo()", 11000);

</SCRIPT>

See this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=118400; toward the middle I posted some statistics that show, Flash is the most popular player, installed on virtually all computers, followed by WinMedia.

As far as quality goes, it's a mixed bag. Flash can look very good, when the insanely expensive ON2 method is used; regular flash quality falls behind wmv at least in my tests.

A few month back Flash incorporated playback of MP4 QuickTime files (the H.264 flavor) and that looks awesome. It can be done with free tools!

[I love to see someone from Aberdeen! I visited your city and northern Scotland a few years back and fell in love with it... castles, lochs, monsters... the quiet life... lovely].


Thank you for your kind words about Scotland. I am a true patriot and someday VERY soon you will be able to visit an Independent Scotland, no longer part of the UK. I cannot wait.
Regarding "Flash" I am utterly confused. I know I have Flash player on my system because Flash content plays from the web. However, I cannot find any "player" in my program list and also when I right click on a file to "open with" it never gives a flash option, only WMP or QT.
I encoded a short video file with the QT mp4 option in Vegas which I belive is H264 and end up with a file of mp4 extension.
I am utterly frustrated Ervin!!

It is a bit frustrating... flash works different than other players. When you download it to your computer, you're not downloading a stand-alone program, but rather a plugin that works only inside your web browser. There are a few stand-alone flash players out there, however, I don't know what version of flash they support, or if the MP4 files will work with these. Google aroud for "stand-alone flash player" and you will find them.

If you would like to embedd a flash player into your webpage, a very trendy one is available at http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_FLV_Player from Jeroen Wijering over in Holland; free for personal use, 20 Euros for commercial applications. Easy to implement even with basic html coding knowledge.

PM me if you need more help.