1. Make a QuickTime movie that contains just the still image. This will serve
as the poster movie.
2. Embed the poster movie in your Web page and set the HREF and TARGET parameters so the real movie loads in the same space when the poster is clicked. Remember that the HEIGHT needs to include the space for the controller in the actual movie so you need to add 16 pixels
See the source code of poster1.htm for the proper EMBED syntax.
3. Most of the time you will not want the single-frame poster to have a controller. Add the parameter CONTROLLER="False"
See the source code for poster 2.htm
The file poster3.htm adds the BGCOLOR parameter so that the poster and the actual movie occupy the same space on the page.
4. Depending on the user's QuickTime preferences, the AUTOPLAY may or may not be enabled by default. Some users will have to start the actual movie manually and others will see it immediately. It is possible to add EMBED parameters "inside" the movie rather than in the HTML. However, you need special tools to accomplish this. In the Tools folder you will find PlugInHelper. To really make this all work properly, we add the parameters for the controller and the autoplay preference directly to the movie.
Just open the actual movie in PlugInHelper and click the Add button:
See screenshot (pdf) of PlugInHelper settings
5. Export from PlugInHelper (you may want to change the file name so as not to overwrite your original)
View poster4.htm to see the final results.
6.When you really want to get fancy and include multiple poster movies on the same Web page, you need to think about performance and memory. This last example places two movie posters on the page and when click each plays the actual movie and then reverts back to a poster. An automatic HREF track is added to the end of the actual movie which points back to the poster. As an added bonus, the poster movie has the HREF parameter embedded in the movie, thereby concealing the actual URL from view in the HTML.
This frees up RAM memory for the browser and QuickTime.
See example with concealed HREF
See example of multiple posters