While "streamlining" some code for a web site, I just discovered that my solution doesn't work on my 2 Win8.1 PCs, but works in Vista 32-bit and Win7 64-bit machines. I've tested it in IE, Firefox and Chrome.

The change I made was to have all web pages in the "root" directory of the web site, and the videos (.swf and .flv files) in the "video" directory. Previously, the web pages that ran the videos were in the "video" directory. (This still works on the Win8.1 PCs.) I added the "base" parameter to the code (shown below) to direct the Flash Player to the "video" directory.

I've been poring through the Adobe site and various forums (fora ?) looking for a clue, but came up empty. Can anyone shed some light on the issue?

If you want to see the site, goto http://theolivebranchforchildren.org to see the current version,
and go to http://theolivebranchforchildren.org/index.php to see my revamped version.
Go to the Gallery page and click on any of the video links in the sidebar.


This is the code (as copied from the "view Source" option of the browsers - all identical) that runs in Vista and Win7 but not in Win8.1 ...

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0" width="502" height="322" id="FLVPlayer">
<param name="base" value="video" />
<param name="movie" value="video/FLVPlayer_Progressive.swf" />
<param name="salign" value="lt" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="scale" value="noscale" />
<param name="FlashVars" value="&MM_ComponentVersion=1&base=video&skinName=Halo_Skin_3&streamName=aids&autoPlay=true&autoRewind=false" />

<embed src="video/FLVPlayer_Progressive.swf"
flashvars="&MM_ComponentVersion=1&base=video&skinName=Halo_Skin_3&streamName=aids&autoPlay=true&autoRewind=false"
quality="high" scale="noscale" width="502" height="322" name="FLVPlayer" salign="LT"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
</object>

FOLLOW-UP 10/21/2013 -- I almost got around the problem by creating soft links in the web site's root directory to the files in the video directory. This is an ugly workaround, but suggests that the "base" parameter is being totally ignored in the Win8.1 implementation of Flash Player by Firefox & Chrome, both of which can now play the videos. It still doesn't work in IE11, though.

I'm not familiar with the parms for SWF object embeds but could there be a conflict with the base of "video" and the movie value of "video/filename" that the older versions tolerate but the new does not. Does removing the video/ from the movie value break the embed in the older browsers?

Also, for IE11, is this the only SWF video that doesn't work i.e. not an issue with the flash plugin for the browser?

Sorry I'm not much help, but I face these types of inconsistencies/idiosyncrasies daily, so I know they can be a pain to deal with....

Hi Rich.
I have 4 videos, that all play correctly in Firefox and Chrome, now that I've added soft links to the files in the webroot directory. I can probably get IE11 to play the videos if I rip out the "base" parameter altogether. From what I understand, Microsoft actually implemented their own bastardized version of Flash Player in IE11, so that would explain it being different from Firefox and Chrome -- the other 2 at least used Adobe's version of Flash Player.
I've posted the issue in Adobe's forum as well, and had 83 reads so far, but no replies.
I also just posted in in Microsoft's IE11 support forum. I'll keep an eye on it over the next couple of days to see if it wakes somebody up at Microsoft.
I'd rather see this issue fixed by the powers that be, rather than continue to use a workaround.
... AL