You might want to use some form of compressed audio file, such as making it a Real Media (.rm) or mp3 file. That would load much faster than a wav file.
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what is the best way and best format from using and audio file ?
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The only problem with the above, is that they are very much non cross browser compatible, and will not work correctly it the user doesn't have the player.
The best way I have found, is to use a program (or code it yourself) and create a flash (.swf) file that is a little player. It is crossbrowser, and widely compatible (flash flayer is avaible in just about every platform).
A good program to do that can be found at http://www.soundnails.com/
NOTE: cnet.com uses something smilar to this for its video player :)
Josh
mp3's have nothing to do with browser compatibility. If you have an mp3 player on your system, and almost all modern ones do, it will play. Just make a link to the file and off it goes.
Unfortunately, however, many users do not have the Flash plugin installed, which is required to play swf files, so I never code in flash.
I guess it really depends on how you define "best".
If you want something that everyone will be able to hear without any additional software, stick with a wav like I said above.
If you want to include a lot of audio so that download speed or quality is a bigger issue, then one of the other formats is better.
Let us know what exactly you are looking for.
That flash is supported and will play on a lot more machines and platforms than an embedded wav file in my experience...
That aside, I tried the soundnail and that did not work on my pc, but that does not mean the idea is not a good one
the question was: What is the best way and I agree with Josh and you even yourself said "Not sure if this is the best way"
So..
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by: alexmayPosted on 2004-11-24 at 05:31:07ID: 12665032
Not sure if this is the best way, but I used the following and it seems to work fine:
<EMBED src="audiofile.wav" autostart="true" hidden="true">
Here I just wanted to play a simple audio file as soon as the page loaded.
If you want something more clever, let us know exactly what you need.