HELP! I have a .mov and PC people can't see it. Can I reformat?

Question

HELP PLEASE!
I am a relative novice to web building and QT, and have a problem that should be easy for SOMEONE out there to help me with...
I am hearing from TOO many PC people that they can not view my video (.mov, @40mb) on my website. Some hear the sound but see no images, some see or hear nothing.
I have a report from someone with XP Pro that it is just fine, but his XP Home gives him just sound. I have a "savvy PCer" who has no problem at all. Most get a quicktime error, need ActiveX enabled or get no message (or video) at all.
I want to either put up a format that as many Mac and PC users as possible can see, or, I can put a "click here if you are on a PC" button to take them to a new page with a better format for these people.
I would prefer the viewer NOT have to download ANYTHING to view the movie... Cause nobody really wants the hassle of that, and these are potential clients.
This is the code I have in the site, if it helps... is it just a simple code change?
<embed src="images/movie.mov" width="336" height="274.5" loop="False" align="middle" autoplay="true" controller="true" pluginspage="http://apple.com/quicktime/download/" border="3"> </embed>
How do I save a Windows Media Player format? Do I need to buy some third party software?
PLEASE, EXPERTS OF THE WORLD, HELP! I really want to fix this TODAY for new company launch!!
PowerBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

Answer 1

As mentioned by the good folks above, you're embedding your movie, but you're not telling the browser which plugin to use. Also, for Internet Explorer, you need to use an <object> element and pass in additional <param>s. below is some code that should work for you. It uses both <object> and <embed> for maximum compatability:
<object<br>
classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"
height="290.5"
width="336"
<param name="src" value="images/movie.mov"/>
<param name="scale" value="aspect" />
<param name="controller" value="true" />
<param name="autoplay" value="true" />
<embed<br>
type="video/quicktime"
pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"
height="290.5"
width="336"
src="images/movie.mov"
scale="aspect"
controller="true" //the controller adds 16px to height
autoplay="true"
/>
</object>
The HTML code above contains an <object> element which contains several <param> elements and an <embed> element. Here is a breif description of what each of the <embed> parameters are doing:
1. type specifies the MIME type of the streaming media so that the web browser knows which plugin to play the streaming media with. Do not change the value of this parameter.
2. pluginspage this is an optional parameter which gives the user a location that they can download the appropriate plugin from. Do not change the value of this parameter.
3. height refers to the media display height in pixels. If this parameter is not provided, the media will display using its actual hieght. When used it is important to remember to add 16 pixels to the height value if the controller bar will also be used.
4. width refers to the media display width in pixels. If this parameter is not provided, the media will display using its actual width.
5. src refers to the URL or location of the reference movie. The URL can be relative or absolute.
6. scale is an optional value that will scale the media display according to the height and width specified multiplied by the value given. The default value is 1 (i.e. 1x). If you used a 2, the display would be twice as big as the height and width specified (i.e. 2x). You can also use the values "tofit" and "aspect". "tofit" will stretch or compress (change the apsect of) the movie to fit the height and width specified. "aspect" will fit the movie as closely as possible to the height and width specified without changing its aspect ratio.
7. controller is an optional parameter that will not display the controller bar if the value given is "false". The default value is "true". When displayed, the controller bar will use 16 pixels from the value provided in the height parameter.
8. autoplay is an optional parameter that will cause the media to not automatically play if the value given is "false". The default value is "true".
The <embed> element and its parameters are supported by most web browsers except for Internet Explorer. This is why the <embed> element is nested inside the <object> element. Notice that the <object> element has its own height and width parameters. Also, the <object> element contains classid and codebase parameters which are required for your media to work properly inside of Internet Explorer. Do not change the values of classid and codebase.
The <param> elements are used to pass additional parameters to Internet Explorer along with the <object> element. Notice that each of the <param> elements duplicate the remaining parameters provided in the <embed> element with the exception of the type and pluginspage parameters, which are specific to the <embed> element. Additional parameters for the <embed> and <object> elements can be found at Apple Computer Inc.'s QuickTime HTML Scripting Tutorial.