[k2director]

I want to create a couple of web sites that feature QuickTime video that I've already encoded, but I want the video frame to appear with a poster frame AND with a big Play button that you have to click before the video starts to play.

Here's a great example of what I mean on Apple's Final Cut Studio site (notice the video in the middle of the page, under the Final Cut in Action heading:

Apple - Final Cut Studio 2

Anyone know what web design tools will let me do this? Dreamweaver? Freeway? The cheaper the better! I checked out iWeb, but it won't put that Play button in the center of the frame, and I kind of want that.

Any help much appreciated, thanks much!

[besson3c]

You don't need anything but the free Quicktime browser plug-in, and something to encode your video with (a number of options there). If you want to wrap your video in custom playback controls other than what is provided by the QT plug, Flash might be a good choice.

There are all sorts of tutorials regarding the QT plug and what arguments are supported.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Ya flash is prob better and easier.

[Steve SpotOn]

What you see with the PLAY button is just a jpeg image... that links to the QuickTime video.

Other sites (e.g. YouTube) which have a similar PLAY button use Flash.
I've been using a great flash player and set up wizard here. You'll need to encode your video to flv format. Then upload it, an image from it and the player to your web server. The wizard on the web site then helps you generate the html embed code. Simply paste the code into your web page.

Steve