Quicktime and the HREF Track

The latest version of QuickTime (now version 4) allows you to add a special track that will direct your browser to a specified web page when a particular frame in the movie is reached.

Below is an example that directs the browser to "Teach Yourself HTML" opening an new browser window in the process. You must have the latest QuickTime plugin (version 2) which you can download from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

Play the movie below to see it in action

The movie contains a special text track, renamed HREFTrack, with the following content:

    {QTtext} {font:Geneva} {plain} {size:12}
    {textColor: 65535, 65535, 65535}
    {backColor: 0, 0, 0} {justify:center}
    {timeScale:30} {width:160} {height:16}
    {timeStamps:absolute} {language:0}
    [00:00:00.00]
    [00:00:08.16]
    A<http://www.chepd.mq.edu.au/boomerang/teaching.www>T<_blank >
    [00:00:18.00]

The important details are the Time Stamps which indicated at what time in the movie the URL is called into play. The <_blank > simply opens a new browser window for the URL to appear in. A movie can have a number of URL's invoked at differnt times.
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