[SWFObject] Problem with SWFObject, ExternalInterface and Microsoft Windows Media Center

Kareem Kouddous software at dottvtech.com
Wed Nov 15 14:16:28 PST 2006


I play WMV through the custom viewport in the MCE but use the same  
SWF to play FLV video in a regular browser. I have not experienced  
the audio issue with FLVs but now that I understand the problem  
better I think it should be pretty easy to only override the function  
if you are in the MCE by checking window.external.MediaCenter.

On Nov 15, 2006, at 4:40 PM, Geoff Stearns wrote:

> well, so it seems that the onbeforeunload is being triggered when  
> you return to the page (or when you leave it) and that's what is  
> killing the swf...
>
> since you removed that code, you may find that if you have a video  
> playing, and you leave the page, the audio may continue for that  
> video...
>
> are you using flv video in the MCE app? (our experience with this  
> was bad since it looks like crap on extenders - ms generally won't  
> let you do that if you want your app to appear in their online  
> spotlight area)
>
> but your solution to take out the code is certainly a viable fix if  
> you don't see any side effects with your streaming flv videos. As I  
> said before, flash player 9 inserts similary functions, so the  
> trick is to remove those but not replace them with the custom code  
> in swfobject.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 15, 2006, at 12:51 PM, Kareem Kouddous wrote:
>
>> Thanks Geoff.
>>
>> I removed the lines below from the swfobject.js and it fixed the  
>> problem. What do you suggest I do going forward? I wish I had the  
>> cycles to try and research and fix the problem but unfortunately I  
>> don't. I was thinking that a temporary band-aid is to leave these  
>> lines removed locally and manually merge any updates to swfobject  
>> until this problem is resolved. Do you see any issues with this? I  
>> only use swf on my page but I do steam FLV video.
>>
>> // fixes bug in fp9 see http://blog.deconcept.com/2006/07/28/ 
>> swfobject-143-released/
>> deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.prepUnload = function() {
>> 	__flash_unloadHandler = function(){};
>> 	__flash_savedUnloadHandler = function(){};
>> 	if (typeof window.onunload == 'function') {
>> 		var oldUnload = window.onunload;
>> 		window.onunload = function() {
>> 			deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.cleanupSWFs();
>> 			oldUnload();
>> 		}
>> 	} else {
>> 		window.onunload = deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.cleanupSWFs;
>> 	}
>> }
>> if (typeof window.onbeforeunload == 'function') {
>> 	var oldBeforeUnload = window.onbeforeunload;
>> 	window.onbeforeunload = function() {
>> 		deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.prepUnload();
>> 		oldBeforeUnload();
>> 	}
>> } else {
>> 	window.onbeforeunload = deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.prepUnload;
>> }
>>
>>
>> On Nov 14, 2006, at 8:43 PM, Geoff Stearns wrote:
>>
>>> Well, I've used SWFObject in a couple of MCE apps, and all has  
>>> been fine.. but I'm not sure than any of them use the  
>>> customviewport to show fullscreen stuff, though.
>>>
>>> That article that you linked made me think of something though:
>>>
>>> In FP9, some code was added in to 'clean up' the swfs on the page  
>>> when the page unloads - if you are using external interface, the  
>>> Flash player inserts a function in the page... I actually ended  
>>> up rewriting the functions with SWFObject because they are a  
>>> little buggy - if you have more than one swf on the page you get  
>>> an out of memory error... but anyway...
>>>
>>> what may work is this: try overwriting the functions that are  
>>> inserted into the page - you can see how to do this if you look  
>>> at the current swfobject code (ceck the uncompressed version) -  
>>> this replaces the functions with my own, but you could just  
>>> replace them with empty functions and see if that fixes it... the  
>>> white screen might be the leftover space that the swf is taking  
>>> up after their special script unloads it.
>>>
>>> let me know if that doesn't fix it... i'm actually installing MCE  
>>> in parallels right now to do some testing of our old apps (and I  
>>> seem to remember another bug we had in a new MCE app that's just  
>>> about finished).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Nov 14, 2006, at 3:24 PM, Kareem Kouddous wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> I am having a problem with an HTML Media Center Application  
>>>> (like MTV's Overdrive or Comedy Central's Motherload) using  
>>>> SWFObject to embed a flash movie that uses ExternalInterface. My  
>>>> application uses the Custom Viewport to play video and if you go  
>>>> fullscreen and then try and go back to the application the flash  
>>>> movie disappears and is replaced with white background.
>>>>
>>>> - This may be related to this problem - http://blog.metawrap.com/ 
>>>> blog/ 
>>>> externalInterfaceUnderFlashPlayer9IsEvilTheWhiteScreenOfDeath.aspx
>>>> - The problem occurs even if the swfobject.js is included in the  
>>>> page but not used (as long as ExternalInterface is used for  
>>>> javascript to flash communication).
>>>>
>>>> Has anyone else experienced this problem? If so, are there any  
>>>> known workarounds (apart from going back to my custom way of  
>>>> embedding the flash movie)? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Kareem
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> SWFObject mailing list
>>>> SWFObject at lists.deconcept.com
>>>> http://lists.deconcept.com/listinfo.cgi/swfobject-deconcept.com
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SWFObject mailing list
>>> SWFObject at lists.deconcept.com
>>> http://lists.deconcept.com/listinfo.cgi/swfobject-deconcept.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SWFObject mailing list
>> SWFObject at lists.deconcept.com
>> http://lists.deconcept.com/listinfo.cgi/swfobject-deconcept.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> SWFObject mailing list
> SWFObject at lists.deconcept.com
> http://lists.deconcept.com/listinfo.cgi/swfobject-deconcept.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.deconcept.com/pipermail/swfobject-deconcept.com/attachments/20061115/e5784647/attachment-0005.htm>


More information about the Swfobject mailing list