Autoplay on audio files

I apologize if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find anything about it in the forums. I am creating an exhibit and have used audio for one of the pages. The audio file automatically begins to play once the user navigates to the page. Is there any way to disable the audio autoplay?

Thanks!!

Autoplay should default to off for the embeds that Omeka produces. Are you using any plugins that change the media embedding, like Html5Media?

Regardless, does the autoplay happen the same way on different browsers, or just one? If you can, a link to the exhibit page showing the problem would be helpful to include too.

I don't have Html5Media installed. I reviewed my plugins and don't have any sound-related plugins installed. I'm just using the Exhibit plugin.

On Firefox, the file autoplays, but I have the controls available on the player and can stop it.

On Chrome, it autoplays, but there are no controls on the player, so I can't stop it without leaving the page.

On safari, I get a missing plugin message, saying I need quicktime, which isn't supported with the apple OS El Capitan upgrade.

The site is set to a private vpn, but I can see if our network services can make it public for a short amount of time, if it's helpful.

What kind of files are they? If they're something that HTML5 Media supports (like MP3), using that plugin may help with this problem and also with problems in more modern browsers like Safari on El Capitan.

I'll see if we can confirm the problem with the stock Quicktime-based player, though. What version of Omeka is this?

All the audio files are .m4a. I installed the html5 media plugin. I then deleted the audio files from the exhibit and re-added them to the page. I'm still experiencing the same auto play issues on all browsers.

We're using Omeka version 2.3.1 and Exhibit Builder version 3.2.1

It's particularly problematic when I have more than one audio file on the same page, as they both play simultaneously.

Are these audio files Omeka Files that are part of Items that you're attaching to the exhibit page, or are you writing your own HTML to embed them into the exhibit?

The Omeka defaults are definitely to have autoplay off, so it shouldn't be happening for Omeka's embeds it creates for Files unless you've edited the core or plugins to specify that autoplay should be on.

The audio files are each items we've uploaded to omeka with metadata associated to them. We have attached them through the exhibit blocks - not by embedding them. We haven't edited anything on the backend, so I'm not sure why it's happening.

I can write to open the page so you can have a look, if that makes it easier to diagnose! Thanks so much for your help!!

Should I try and reupload the audio files now that I've installed the html5 plugin?

One thing you could share to shed some light on the situation is parts of the source code of a page with an autoplaying audio file on it. You'd be looking for an audio tag if HTML5Media's in use, or object and embed tags for the legacy Quicktime embed. Seeing the actual HTML that's getting output should shed some light on why the autoplay is happening.

Another possibly helpful point of data: do the files autoplay on the Item or File show pages on the admin or public sides? Or is it just when they're in an Exhibit that they autoplay?

It's not necessary to reupload any files.

Here's the source code for that section. Is that sufficient?

<object type="audio/mp4" data="http://mickeykatz.cdh.ucla.edu/files/original/43e8c3765f216458fb934280824e75b3.m4a" width="200" height="20" autoplay="false"><param name="src" value="http://mickeykatz.cdh.ucla.edu/files/original/43e8c3765f216458fb934280824e75b3.m4a" /><param name="controller" value="true" /><param name="autoplay" value="false" /><param name="autostart" value="0" /><param name="loop" value="false" /></object></object><div class="exhibit-item-caption"><p>C'est Si Bon (Ces Tzi Bon)</p></div>

Here's that entire section:

<div id="exhibit-blocks">
<div class="exhibit-block layout-file-text"><div class="exhibit-items left fullsize captions-center">
<img class="full" alt="00001C_Cartoon of Borscht Capades performers.jpg" src="http://mickeykatz.cdh.ucla.edu/files/fullsize/acbfa70b08e132fccd716f0cc6cf8171.jpg" title="00001C_Cartoon of Borscht Capades performers.jpg"><div class="exhibit-item-caption"><p>Cartoon of Borscht Capades performers</p></div> </div>
<p>Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium.</p></div><div class="exhibit-block layout-file-text"><div class="exhibit-items left fullsize captions-center">
<img class="full" alt="0004RC_The Family Danced Capitol Records Front Record Cover M. Katz.jpg" src="http://mickeykatz.cdh.ucla.edu/files/fullsize/b4961c1dce96959555f87460691e0111.jpg" title="0004RC_The Family Danced Capitol Records Front Record Cover M. Katz.jpg"><div class="exhibit-item-caption"><p>C'est Si Bon (Ces Tzi Bon) recoved cover</p></div> <object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab" width="200" height="20"><param name="src" value="http://mickeykatz.cdh.ucla.edu/files/original/43e8c3765f216458fb934280824e75b3.m4a" /><param name="controller" value="true" /><param name="autoplay" value="false" /><param name="loop" value="false" /><object type="audio/mp4" data="http://mickeykatz.cdh.ucla.edu/files/original/43e8c3765f216458fb934280824e75b3.m4a" width="200" height="20" autoplay="false"><param name="src" value="http://mickeykatz.cdh.ucla.edu/files/original/43e8c3765f216458fb934280824e75b3.m4a" /><param name="controller" value="true" /><param name="autoplay" value="false" /><param name="autostart" value="0" /><param name="loop" value="false" /></object></object><div class="exhibit-item-caption"><p>C'est Si Bon (Ces Tzi Bon)</p></div> </div>
<p>"Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium"</p>
<p> </p>

Okay, my new suggestion is this: Have HTML5 Media installed and activated, and then go to the plugin's Configure page.

On the configuration form, in the Audio Settings section, add audio/mp4 to the list of MIME Types (making sure to add a comma separating it from the existing types).

That should make HTML5 Media actually "take over" the embedding for these files and that should fix the autoplay problem.

The autoplay problem with the "legacy" embed code seems to be that the browsers don't interpret the autoplay and autostart parameters the same way they used to, especially for the browsers that no longer work with things like the Quicktime plugin. Using HTML5 Media will instead use the current standard HTML5 media embedding code, which works better and more consistently.

Huzzah!!! That did it. The autoplay stopped and the audio player changed. I checked and it works on all browsers. Thank you so much for talking me through this.

I have had the same issue for over a year and so glad that there may be a solution. Glad the .mp4 works.

I've tried the above solution by installing and activating the HTML5 plugin but my files are .wav and are therefore already on the list

the HTML media is not taking over and the file automatically plays on all browsers.

Any idea why?

Should i convert files to .mp4?

here is one example http://lakesideheritage.omeka.net/items/show/16

In your case I think it's just a minor difference. Looking at the markup makes it clear that the MIME type detected for your files is "audio/x-wav", while the plugin's default list only has "audio/wav".

Adding "audio/x-wav" to the MIME type list for audio should get it working.

John you are a legend!!!!! working perfect now

I've added those two types (audio/mp4 and audio/x-wav) to the default set in the new version 2.5 of the plugin.

Hi...I have a slighly different problem...I have sound file (.aiff),

I'm using the default theme, when click on the sound file, instead of playing it, it downloaded it first and play it after the file is downloaded. However if it's a .wav file, it play it on click.

Based on this thread, I installed HTML5Media plugin, and add audio/x-aiff and audio/aiff to the mime sound, but it behaving the same.

Any ideas? Thanks all.

Any idea

Most browsers can't play AIFF audio with HTML 5. Safari might be the lone exception.

Ok...thanks John.