Hi, I've been looking and trying to find out when I play a video
outside of a browser ie:(.move, .avi), how do they
companies/individuals track videos, what do they embedd into the video
to tell that its being played? For instance in .mov files, are they
using smil? For .avi files , are they using xml?  How do they do this
and how can I do this as I would like to track my own videos? also can
you please give me the sources of info. Thank You

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 02 May 2004 12:26 PDT

critical1...

What leads you to believe that these movies are
being tracked when played outside a browser?
I have never heard of this, or seen evidence
that any contact with a website is being 
attempted when a movie is played on a computer.

sublime1-ga

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Clarification of Question by critical1-ga on 02 May 2004 13:51 PDT

Hi Sublime,

For an example if you download a clip from the site below and play it
you will see that the site logs that you have actualy played it! and
this is with out the video clip being in a browser? As if it was
played wihtin a browser I would suspect Javascript being used!

http://www.dmc.co.uk/index.php?bD0xOA==

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 02 May 2004 15:20 PDT

critical1...

Interesting. I downloaded the Windows Media version both
with a downloader program and by right-clicking in my
browser. In both instances, it did not register an increase
when I refreshed the webpage.

When I played the downloaded file, it played through and,
when finished, gave me an error message, saying it was
unable to open the given URL. After playing it several
times, and getting the same message, the tracking counter
on the webpage still failed to increase.

I suspect that this is because I'm using Media Player 6.4,
and that the tracked file requires a functionality found
on Media Player 7 or higher (which is one of the reasons
I still use 6.4).

It seems that the movie file has been altered to trigger
contact with a tracking URL after the movie has finished
playing. This appears to be something internal to the file,
and dependent on some functionality in WMP 7 or above.
I could not tell you exactly how it is done, except that
it surely has to do with the file containing a URL which
WMP attempts to connect with at the end of the movie.

If this satisfies your interests, I'll be happy to post 
it as a formal answer.

sublime1-ga

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Clarification of Question by critical1-ga on 03 May 2004 04:58 PDT

Hi Sublime,

It goes some way to explaining the question but not fully!

I use Windows Media Player Ver9 and QuickTime Ver5.

I know that they put something into the file is it asking for an
adittional content and this is what gets logged, i could monitor the
requested urls from my pc but this would not still answer my question
as to how they do they embedd the request into the video file for both
avi and mov files.

Also what is the additional functionility of these newer players so
that I might be able to exploit this.

I still consider this question unanswered 
as from my initial question quote "How do they do this
and how can I do this as I would like to track my own videos? also can
you please give me the sources of info" still remains

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Clarification of Question by critical1-ga on 03 May 2004 12:23 PDT

I think that maybe the the question I have asked is too broad, I will
refine this and ask this of only one file format (.mov) ignoring
the(.avi)file format, of course if you are a wizard and wish to answer
both file formats of course please do :)

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Clarification of Question by critical1-ga on 04 May 2004 05:27 PDT

Hi gunner0812-ga,

In view of the fact that the .AVI part of this had been previously
answered on Google Answers
(http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=17042) Well done
gunner0812-ga for digging this out.

I do feel a need to again clarify my question I will
refine and ask of this file format (.mov) which is an Apple format but
also (MPEG4 or 3GPP)(MPEG4 sits in a 3GPP wrapper both are
identical)which apple create via QuickTime Pro , of course if you are
a wizard and wish to answer all file formats then of course please do
:)

Hi again, critical1...

I finally found the time to pursue the answer to this
interesting question. I, too, wish to thank gunner0812 
for locating the information with regard to avi files.


Embedding URLs in mov files (and also MPEG4 or 3GPP)
can be accomplished by the use of Quicktime Player.
Of course you will need the Pro version. Version 5
is able to accomplish this with mov files, but you
will need Version 6 to do this with MPEG4 files, and
Version 6.5 to accomplish it with the 3GPP format.
This is evident from the pages on Apple's website
which discuss the MPEG4 and 3GPP formats:

MPEG4

"MPEG-4 is ready to stream incredible-quality audio
 and video today in QuickTime 6. With the free
 QuickTime Player or browser plug-in, you can play
 back any compliant MPEG-4 file. Upgrade to QuickTime
 Pro, and you can author your own MPEG-4 content."
http://www.apple.com/mpeg4/

3GGP

"QuickTime 6.5 includes support for the following
 key components of the 3GPP and 3GPP2 specifications.

                   3GPP          3GPP2

Network Type 	   GSM          CDMA2000
Video            MPEG-4, H.263  MPEG-4, H.263
Audio              AAC, AMR     AAC, AMR, QCELP
Text               3G Text      3G Text
File Format Basis  QuickTime    QuickTime
File Extension     .3gp         .3g2"
http://www.apple.com/mpeg4/3gpp/

Version 6.5 of Quicktime Player Pro is available
for $29.99 from this page:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/


A tutorial for using Quicktime Player (Pro) to
accomplish the embedding, through the use of a
specialized form of text track called an 'HREF
track', is carefully detailed on the following
page. I cannot reproduce the 12 steps here, due
to copyright restrictions, but you will find
that the tutorial thoroughly covers this lengthy
but not difficult process:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tools_tips/tutorials/hreftracks.html


Another tutorial which discusses Quicktime support of 
Media Formats, and mentions the embedding of URLs, is
found on the Cardiff University site for Dave Marshall,
Senior Lecturer in the Cardiff School of Computer Science:

"Text annotation can be used with any QuickTime-enabled
 media types: AVI for video files, and WAV, AIFF, or
 MPEG-1 for audio files. It can also be deployed as an
 HREF track, allowing you to embed URLs in your movies."
http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave/Multimedia/node290.html#SECTION04342000000000000000


Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that  
the answer cannot be improved upon by way of a dialog  
established through the "Request for Clarification" process. 

sublime1-ga


Additional information can be gleaned from an exploration of
the links resulting from the Google searches, outlined below.


Searches done, via Google:

quicktime
://www.google.com/search?q=quicktime

quicktime "insert URL"
://www.google.com/search?q=quicktime+%22insert+URL%22

quicktime "embed urls"
://www.google.com/search?q=quicktime+%22embed+urls%22

MPEG4 OR 3GPP quicktime
://www.google.com/search?q=MPEG4+OR+3GPP+quicktime

The QuickTime answer was well researched and referenced.
A credit to Google Answers. This for me was a difficult question that
had been bugging me for several months.

Well Done sublime1-ga and Thank You

I too am anxious to see if any one can explain how the creator of a
video file can cause a browser window to pop up when the movie is
opened/played. This is incredibly annoying and somewhat disturbing as
well (and I wouldn't be surprised if they are logging IPs of
"visitors"). What's to stop someone from embedding this feature in a
movie and then embedding automatically executed malicious code in the
resulting web page? I have tried to look at various files affected
with this feature using video editing software and even a hex editor
but with no luck. Its becoming more common, especially with movies
traded on file sharing networks like Kaaza and IMesh.

I just found an answer to my own question (should I pay myself
handsomely for this?)

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=17042

Now to set to work removing all those links!

Do you know the url of "Advanced Script Indexer" as finding this
within the site is proving impossible???

critical1...

I'm not positive what you mean, but the description of
using the Advanced Script Indexer to embed URLs is 
in the middle of the right-hand frame on this page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwmt/html/wmp7_urlflips.asp

As for a download, MS may no longer be supporting it,
but you can download it elsewhere:

Fileflash:
http://www.fileflash.com/index.php?action=info&program=2047

Jumbo Multimedia:
http://www.jumbo.com/mm/files.asp?x_fileid=190529&S=12966&ord=&mv=6


Other possibilities may be found in Google search results:

"Windows Media Resource Kit" -book -ISBN
://www.google.com/search?q=%22Windows+Media+Resource+Kit%22+-book+-ISBN

Best regards...

sublime1-ga