Full-bleed background video?

Question

Similar to this question (that one doesn't want to use Flash, though, while I'd be fine with it):

Is there a reliable, works-in-most-browsers way to have a full-area Video background in an HTML page, the Video starting to play automatically and looping endlessly, and being able to put HTML on top of it?

I'm fine with using a Flash video player.

"Most browsers" means, support for IE 6 would be perfect, but if it can't be done it can't be done. IE7 is a must, though, as are all the modern browsers Firefox 2.x and 3.x, and the Webkit family. Don't hesitate to also post solutions that have a more limited scope, though.

Ideally, it would automatically stretch to 100% document width anmd resize the video accordingly.

I'm open about which video format to use, although H.264 would be perfect as I can produce that quickly.

Also ideally, this could be done with a minimalistic player component that works out of the box (i.e. doesn't require me having Flash to compile a movie). A simple volume control / mute button would be nice but is not mandatory.

Unlike in the question I linked to, waiting for HTML 5 is not an option.

Answer 1

This is not so much of a problem. Basically, you have to set the right wmode when embedding the SWF, for the browser to be able to render above the FlashPlayer. I'm not a pro on that, so either someone else can tell you, or you'll have to try. As far as I know, this can have quite a hit on performance though.

The video format doesn't matter at all, as long as it's an FLV-codec.

So to basically answer your question: yes, this can be done using flash and it is quite straight forward. You can either find a playback component, that suits your needs, or start from scratch using flash.media::Video. Using flash.external::ExternalInterface you could also create an interface, so that you can implement any controls you want in JavaScript.

greetz
back2dos