Because of the different multimedia formats it is sometimes difficult to download and play movies directly with QuickTIme on Mac OS X.
Some software tested on Mac OS X, with G4 and G5 computer systems:
Plugins Needed
Viewer
Acrobat Reader
ffmpeg, win32codecs,
QuickTime open source) for most computers.
After I installed all these plugins on my computer and switched to
movie15.sty, adding movies in PDF and configuring them to have them play
together, with/without the play/pause/stop buttons, ... became as simple
as including figures in my PDF!
The only problem that I have is that, once in a while, I include a larger movie and use a codec with higher compression (like DivX) that might not be shipped by default with some operating systems. I usually answer by asking them to google Mac DivX or Windows media player divx plugin for free software and easy installation instruction and that is enough for everyone to figure out how to dnstall a divx plugin and watch my movie. That's an easy fix.
Now, I do not even consider writing a paper and not putting a movie in it. The editor does not even notice it since, when you print the paper, the regular high-res figure is used instead of the movie. The paper will, however, contain movies that will play on computers that have the appropriate plugin (or on any recent computer for format such as Cinepak). Other computers will just render the still figure. These users do not see the movie, but they do not see any error either, so there is no harm at all. Once they upgrade to a PDF viewer that supports version 1.5, (e.g., Acrobat 7.0.8) they will start seeing the movies.
Notes from Francois Lekien