Sound options
Track control panel
The track control panel allows the track to be stopped and
rewound. If it is not displayed then the applet will be invisible and not take up any
space on the web page.
After displaying applet
Once the applet is displayed the sound need not be started. If the control panel is
also displayed then the user can choose to start the movie when they are ready.
At end of track
When the track finishes the applet creator can choose to have the sound terminate or loop.
Termination can involve simply ending the track or the option can be selected to blank out the movie screen in which
case the resources that the track consumes on the client computer are immediately released.
Location of software to play movie
The software to play the track can either be included in the applet or the applet can
expect to find the Java Media Framework plugin installed on the client machine.
Expecting the plugin has the advantage that the maximum numbers of media types is catered
for and that the best possible performance can be achieved using a version of JMF
that is tuned for a particlular platform (eg. the Windows version). There are two
disadvantages:
- The person listening to the applet has to have taken the time to download the JMF plugin
- The Netscape browser will display a number of dialog screens asking the user if
additional privileges can be granted to the applet.
Including the player software with the applet does not require a plugin and will not
cause Netscape to ask questions. The disadvantages are:
- The extra download overhead between of between 200K and 250K
- Certain formats are not supported, in particular MP3
Width of control panel
The control panel is always the same height but the width in pixels can be set.