Flow player is a very popular website media player and has a vast range of customizing options.

Start out with the free version and get a license if you want to use it commercially and/or remove the logo and change skins.

The player can be loaded with a splash image which can include descriptive text and a play button if you want to get fancy.

Check out the Flow Player Website to see the options and explore the possibilities.

The How to Build a Custom Website ebook has a 10 page section on how to implement these players.

The audio version can be seen HERE.

The version shown here is quick and easy to set up - either in a snippet or added to the html of the webpage.

Auto buffering is set to true and autoplay to false so that the first frame loads with the web page but the movie doesn't play until the visitor mouses over and clicks the start button.

The controls in the above player have been set to autohide. This option can be set to false and the player height increased if you want the controls showing all the time. The full screen button can also be remove if not required or the movie quality doesn't justify it.

Setting up the basic player is well within everybody's capabilities. Step by step instructions and a download link to get the player assets are included in the How To Build a Custom Website ebook.

Click the button above to see the movie in a popup window.

The movie is set to auto load in the popup and autoplay.

The popup version is referencing a "video.html" file which contains the code to implement the player so that it plays in all browsers and devices.

The popup window "height" has been increased by 30 px to get it to display correctly in Google Chrome.

This is a Splash image that loads with the webpage.

The movie doesn't load or play until the visitor clicks it.

This allows for a faster loading webpage.

FlowPlayer Using A Splash Image

Popup Movie Player

Click HERE to see demos of the latest version of flowplayer which is really easy to set up and has a lot of new features.