jQuery Audio Player

Question

I was given 2 MP3 files, one that is 4.5Mb and one that is 5.6Mb. I was instructed to have them play on a website i am managing. I have found a nice, clean looking CSS based jQuery audio player.

My question is, is this the right solution for files that big? I am not sure if the player preloads the file, or streams it ? (if that is the correct terminology) i dont deal much with audio players and such...

this player is from happyworm.com/jquery/jplayer/latest/demo-01.htm

is there another approach i shoudl take to get this to play properly? I dont want it to have to buffer, and the visitor to wait, or slow page loading...etc..etc.. i want it to play clean and not affect the visitors session to the site.

thanks

Answer 1

The name is a bit misleading - the MP3 playing is done in a Flash component, as in all other similar players, too. The jQuery part of it is the control and customization of the player (which is very nice, I'm not saying anything against the product).

The player should be capable to play an MP3 file while it loads. It's not going to be real streaming (because you can't skip to arbitrary positions) but it should work out all right. Make sure you test the buffering yourself, using a big MP3 file. Remember to encode the MP3 files according to the rules because otherwise the files will act up, especially in older players.