The do’s and don’ts of the autostart feature
By Rudolf Boogerman |
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Autostart is an attribute of embedding code to determine if rich media should start to play automatically when a page is loaded. There is a bit of confusion about when to use this feature, so I’ve thrown a couple of scenarios on a heap to explain best practices.
When is autostart a bad idea?
Generally, it is considered bad form to automatically start a video or audio for various reasons.
Scenario 1: a visitor comes onto your page in the middle of the night, the speakers are set to medium or high. Suddenly your video or audio blasts away unexpectedly. The visitor turns into a panic and doesn’t know what to do while the whole household gets up, wondering what is going on.
Scenario 2: You are on the phone or on Skype when the video starts yapping away happily in your headset. Try to concentrate on the conversation that way.
You get the picture, don’t you? 
The worst way to use autostart is to embed rich media while not providing a control bar with a pause- or stop button. This happens quite a lot with audio. A site owner thinks about bringing some atmosphere to the site by introducing music on the home page. This is often the fastest route to lose an audience, especially if they do not like the music. Give visitors a choice to listen or not, do not impose it on them when they expect it the least.
When is autostart a good idea?
OK, if it is so bad, why provide an autostart in the first place? There are circumstances which allow audio/video to play automatically.
Scenario 1: You have a list of links to video tutorials or a playlist. Using autostart with playlists is a good idea because the visitor is more or less expecting action when clicking on a link in the playlist or on a list of video tutorials. It might even be counterproductive not to start the video on load because it could create the impression something is wrong.
Scenario 2: You have a site with audio samples, it stands to reason that when you click on an audio link, the audio begins to play on load of the page.
Scenario 3: You have a sales page. It is arguable, but sometimes you have a better result with a video playing from the start on a sales page, notwithstanding the objections in the previous section. The thing to remember is that automatic play can be obtrusive, yet in some cases this is what you need to push sales. It is like a subscription popup, everybody hates it, but it really works.
How is autostart implemented?
Autostart is used primarily in embedding code. This can take several forms, like:
<param name=”autostart” value=”true” /> play automatically
<param name=”autostart” value=”false” /> wait for the visitor
or:
<embed src=”myvideo” autostart=”true” other attributes….. ></embed>
<embed src=”myvideo” autostart=”false” other attributes….. ></embed>
Default, autostart is false, meaning that if you do not set the attribute autostart specifically, the media will not play automatically.
See also S3 Amazon: How to embed video in your site for practical examples of embedding code and how to adapt it to your needs.
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