Thanks for steering me in the right direction balinor - a great help. My goal is an auto start, looping product video created from an avi file and compressed for the web into a flv or swf. Here are a few things that I learned over about six hours (I am a flash newbie).
It seems the the embed method (if not all methods) of presenting video has lots of issues for browser compatability and I have confirmed that by testing with different browsers. That aside, this is a couple of examples of what has worked for me, just pasting into the new product field:
<embed src="
http://www.yourstore.com/video/player.swf" width="320" height="240"
bgcolor="#FFFFFF" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="
http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"
flashvars="file=http://www.yourstore.com/video/yourvideo.flv&autostart=true" />
The above worked for the JW FLV Player (referenced as player.swf), which apparently has a limitation of no loop for a single video (as opposed to a playlist). I got a headache trying to locate a cheap player that I could easily configure. I thought there were more available. So I came up with the below that does not require a FLV player because it uses a swf file (created from Flash 8 Pro, Sorensen Squeeze, and others)
To embed a swf file and use the "preferred" object method I had success with this.
This auto started, did no loop, so I used Squeeze to create loop effect within the swf, and it works that way. Change size as needed:
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" ╩ data="
http://www.yourstore.com/video/yourvideo.swf" width="600" height="240"> <p>Alternative content</p> </object>
</object>
You can add parameters, paths and adjustments to this for your own preferences.
If anyone has an urgent need to see what I have done I can post it temporarily on my unrelated site that is live. I can tuck it into a infrequently visited product "corner". Hope to have a new site up soon with lots of examples.
If there are any flash experts out there I have a question about file sizes. Sorensen Squeeze (VERY feature rich) allows me to batch process avi files to swf, create watermarks, and easily set a looping video. Only catch is the file size is greater than when I use Flash 8 Pro (Not as feature rich), even when I match the parameters of compression. Why?