QTSS won't recognize reference movie

Question

I have uploaded a reference movie (which contains links to alternate movies) that to a Quicktime Streaming Server directory.
When I open the URL in Quicktime Player 7, I get an 'unsupported media type 415' error. If I upload the reference movie to a folder on my web site instead, the appropriate video will start to stream. However, QT Player 'thinks' it is a live broadcast.
Something still isn't right.
* ALL files in the folder within the QTSS directory have hinted tracks.
* the non-referenced movies on the QTSS all play when the URLs are opened in QT Player7.
* the reference movie, which is supposed to call the appropriate movie for streaming, reports 'unsupported media type 415' error when I try to open the URL in Quicktime Player 7.
* the reference movie, which is supposed to call the appropriate movie for streaming, works fine when I open the file on my hard drive, i.e. it starts playing the appropriate file from the streaming server (I used absolute URLs)
* the reference movie, which is supposed to call the appropriate movie for streaming, works fine if I upload it to a directory on my web site (http) instead of a directory on the streaming server (rtsp).
I used MakeRefMovieX to make the reference movie. To keep things simple, I did not flatten a default movie into the reference movie.
The Apple tuorial for reference movies says:
Save the reference movie and place it and all the alternate movies in the same directory. Upload the directory or folder to the server.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/refmovies.html
Another tutorial says:
http://www.iupui.edu/~nmstream/tutorials/quicktimevideo.php
FTP this file to your streaming server and ideally place it under the same folder that holds the streaming video files.

Answer 1

To get the captioned text to appear BELOW the movie,
do you simply adjust the coordinates for the text box
in the text file before adding it to the reference
movie?
Hi Cris
Well the answer is yes and no, yes you do have to set the coordinates of both the movie and the text, but these are controlled by a third file known as a .smil file.
Here's how you make it all work, (all these documents are located on the http server, in the same directory together, with the exception of the http document, which can be located in a different folder if you choose:
Documents involved are:
http web page, with QT java code embedded in it, http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/embed.html
.smil file, which contains the window size, movie and captioning text file.
.mov or text file, containing the captioning text only, with timecode reference as part of the file.
MSTR.mov, also know as the reference movie, containing the alternate movie locations.
You need to create an http document with the QT java code embedded in it, the window size, which needs to be able to accommodate the movie window, the text window and if you choose the movie control bar, which is controlled via java code, which references the .smil file.
When a patron opens this document, this sends a request to the .smil file, which is located in the same directory as the MSTR.mov, (ref movie) as well as the .txt or .mov text file. The .smil file then contains all of the information that controls over all window size of the displayed parts, MSTR.mov, (ref movie) and text or .mov text file.
You may wonder why the window size is in both the http document as well as the .smil file, this is because the http document is making a hole for the .smil file to be displayed in the http document and the window size in the .smil file is for combining all the independent files or as you put it, coordinates for each part. These appear in the hole, created in the http documents QT java script window size, (think of the http document as the mask for the .smil file.)
When the .smil file is accessed, the reference movie contacts the QT RTSP streaming server, then places the movie and text, (captioning file) together and are sent to the http document where they are viewed as a unified web page.
The .smil file has specific code and can be found here: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/quicktime/Conceptual/QTScripting_SMIL/i ndex.html
When I get back to work on Monday, (if you need me to) I can post you both the java scripting we use in our web pages and the .smil coding in our .smil files.