Using Video online
You have an increasing range of options for adding video to your web site:
1. Link to the file, it will open in the user's default media viewer, most likely Windows Media Player, QuickTime or RealPlayer.
2. Embed the video file as a QuickTime.mov, Windows Media Player.wmv or .avi using the Dreamweaver's generic media Plugin content option (the Plugin icon resembles a jigsaw piece 
) . Here is the Media tab from the Insert palette in Dreamweaver MX, the Plugin icon is furthest to the right:
Dreamweaver 8 has changed the User Interface (UI) by grouping the icons into drop-down menus, making it much harder to find the right symbol for new users.
The Plugin may now be hiding behind whichever media symbol was last inserted (see the options on the right) >>
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Once embedded you need to resize the jigsaw piece icon to the size of your movie file. If you make it smaller you will just see that area of the movie, if you make it larger there will be a white border around the movie in the browser. To see the controller add 17 pixels to the height for good results on the Mac, Windows has changed and now looks better with about 25 pixels - test!
Quicktime sound and movie files can be controlled using the parameters button on the properties panel. Click here for some of the options
Video files are big despite ongoing improvements to the many different competing compression/decompression 'codecs' such as DivX and H264.
Converting your Video with Flash Pro
To reduce the frustrations of dealing with so many formats you might want to use Flash Pro to deliver video that is played and controlled in the common and often seamless Flash player - which Windows has started to 'helpfully' block! Mp3 is also
fully supported by the Flash .swf animation format which also offers the
most reliable way to create audio and visual interactivity for a website.
If you want a multimedia website Flash is the way to go. All the Flash
features are supported within a single downloadable plug-in which has
a huge installed base already. You can also use a small Flash movie just
to transmit sound. This can be useful to slip through college firewalls,
to prevent easy copying and to make use of the Flash plug-in rather than
taking pot-luck with the user's default media player which might be Windows
Media Player, Real or Quicktime.
Hosting Your Video
You may wish to save your own hosting space and bandwidth and make use of the services becoming available online:
http://video.google.com and www.googleidol.com
and don't forget myspace videos at myspace.com - find Jed at jednetuk
photobucket.com now accepts video up to 3 minutes in length
putfile.com takes files up to 25MB and allows a free homepage and a rating system.
atomfilms.com hosts work but you will be in company of the quality of Angry Kid by Darren Walsh of Aardman and Ninjai the Little Ninja.
Flash work can be hosted at albinoblacksheep.com or imageshack.us
Keep in mind the Intellectual Property ('IP') rights and copyrights involved if you have reused any video or music - the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) laws are draconian - a work that even bears a "substantial similarity" to an original copyrighted work can be punishable by a year in prison and up to $50,000 in fines, even if it's never shown commercially).
Viral marketing
If the work is interesting enough you may have success in having people e-mail it to one another in the manner of viral marketing. In this case it is vital to keep the filesize small and to have used a common compression algorithm (codec) such as Sorenson Video 3 rather than using one so brand new that people cannot see your movie. They will not forward on to others something they have not seen themselves.
Selling your project on DVD
You may find yourself unable to play a downloaded file. One Windows solution may be gspot and have a look at 3ivx.
