Paaiškinimai
The purpose of this page is to:
- introduce the video broadcast services on the European Parliament's website
- introduce a list of programmes, tools and plugins in line with the most common needs of users.
Please note that the use of these programmes, tools and plugins is at the responsibility of the user. This list is given only for information purposes and in no case can the European Parliament be held responsible for any direct or indirect damage caused by their use. For further details concerning the question of liability, we refer you to the Europarl website's legal notice.
Sommaire de la page :
- Live or VOD, what does that mean?
- What formats are available and why?
- What services are available?
- Live - play it in your browser
- VOD - play in your browser
- VOD - downloading
- VOD - post a video on the web
- Configuration
Live or VOD, what does that mean?
The European Parliament broadcasts events, which take place on its premises, live and in recorded format. The live broadcast is called "Live" and the recorded broadcast is called "VOD" (Video on Demand)
What formats are available and why?
Two video formats are available:
- WMV (Windows Media Video)
- MPEG-4 (Moving Picture Experts Group)
These two formats both meet the following requirements:
- Streaming: Each event is broadcast in real time, which requires the use of Streaming. Progressive downloading, often used for broadcasting videos on the web, is not sufficient.
- Multilingualism: Each event is broadcast in all the official languages of the European Union (when interpretation is available).
- Simultaneity: Parliament currently broadcasts up to 13 events simultaneously.
- Multi-bitrate: Each event is broadcast in three different qualities to allow access by the largest possible number of citizens, depending on their internet infrastructure.
What services are available?
The broadcast services for the public are developing continuously.The following table shows previous developments and explains why certain services are or are not available for the videos you watch.
| Available services | Plenarinės sesijos | Committees and other events |
|---|---|---|
| VOD - play in your browser - WMV Windows Media Player |
Session, Available services :Video recorded after April 2006 | Committees and other events, Available services :Video recorded after January 2009 |
| VOD - play in your browser - MPEG-4 QuickTime player |
Session, Available services :Video recorded after September 2008 | / |
| VOD - Free downloading between two points. | Session, Available services :Video recorded before August 2008 | Session, Committees and other events :Video recorded after January 2009 |
| VOD - Downloading by speech - WMV | Session, Available services :Video recorded after September 2008 | / |
| VOD - Downloading by speech - MPEG-4 | Session, Available services :Video recorded after September 2008 | / |
| VOD - Downloading by subject - WMV | Session, Available services :Video recorded after September 2008 | / |
| VOD - post a video on the web : Display the HTML "embed" code, which allows a user to add a video directly on their website - QuickTime player | Session, Available services :Video recorded after September 2008 | / |
| VOD - Search functions : Search video by date | Session, Available services :Video recorded after April 2006 | Committees and other events, Available services :Video recorded after March 2009 |
| VOD - Search functions : Search video by speaker | Session, Available services :Video recorded after September 2008 | / |
| VOD - Search functions : Search video by subject | Session, Available services :Video recorded after September 2008 | / |
| VOD - Search functions : Search video by committee | / | Committees and other events, Available services :Video recorded after January 2009 |
Live - play it in your browser
The schedule for the live broadcast is available through the "Schedule" menu. It allows you to see all live broadcasts, current and future. The schedule allows you to choose the event and access the broadcast page.
How to play WMV format
To watch the live broadcast in WMV format, Windows Media Player must be installed on your computer and your browser should include the necessary plugins. You can get these at the following links:
If you cannot watch the video feed directly in your browser, it is possible to open the video feed in a video player capable of playing WMV format. To do this, use the following tool and copy/paste the URL in the player:
How to play MPEG-4 format
Live broadcast is currently not available in MPEG-4 format.
VOD - play in your browser
How to play MPEG-4 format
To watch the VOD broadcast in MPEG-4 format in your browser, QuickTime player must be installed on your computer.You can get it through the following link:
The MPEG-4 format is available only after September 2008 (see table below)
How to play WMV format
To watch the VOD broadcast in WMV format, Windows Media Player must be installed on your computer and your browser should include the necessary plugins. You can get these at the following links:
How to choose the player
To choose one of the two players, please use the following tool:
VOD - downloading
Plenary session recorded before August 2008 and committee
The free downloading tool allows for two points to be set in the video, between which you can obtain a recording. This recording is produced automatically and you will receive a link via email for downloading the recording.
Note: This recording contains only one linguistic interpretation version, the same as your navigation language.
Plenary session recorded after September 2008
The downloads are immediately available, with one click, by speech or debate. It is no longer necessary to provide your email address or to wait for the file to be produced.
Note: The complete debate is not available in MPEG-4 format.
Note: Downloading is recommended for multiple use, unless you wish to add the video to your site, for which you should use the "embed" code introduced in the next chapter.
Note: This recording contains all the linguistic interpretation versions available. You can then choose the language in your player. Example: Windows Media Player: When the video is playing, go to "Play"--> "Audio and language tracks" in the menu and choose your language.
VOD - post a video on the web
How to add a video directly to my site/blog
Here we explain how to insert a speech or a debate on your website, by using the European Parliament's feed and to benefit from its services (Streaming, Multi-bitrate, Multilingualism) WITHOUT having to host the videos on your server or on other video sharing websites.
The video recordings under the heading EP Live on the Europarl website have an "embed" HTML code available for each speech in plenary session. You can paste this HTML code on your webpage. On opening your webpage, this HTML code will load the video, in the chosen language, in a QuickTime player. The targeted feed is the European Parliament's feed, thus it doesn't weigh down your server.
This code is proposed with a series of default options. You can modify them according to your requirements. For example, you can change the start or end time of the video, you can show or hide the toolbar, etc. The following links outline the functionalities of QuickTime in a browser and introduce the list of options for personalisation:
How to post a video on other sites, in a given language
If you want to upload video extracts downloaded from Europarl on other video-sharing websites, you may encounter a problem with the linguistic version. The videos downloaded from Europarl contain all linguistic versions. When they are uploaded onto YouTube, DailyMotion, or similar sites, the videos are transcoded in another video format. During this operation the linguistic version that is kept might not be the one you require.
To get around this problem, you can transform the downloaded MPEG-4 file before uploading it onto another site, in order to extract only the desired language. You can use a tool of your choice, here is one possible tool: