So what is Shadowbox anyway?
Unfortunately, I can't demonstrate the effect here live because it requires access to the html code of the host site, but you can see it demonstrated at both DV-Kitchen.com and Shadowbox-js.com
But in short, Shadowbox is a neat piece of javascript that dims the background web page and launches your video in an overlay box, front and center as depicted below.
You can launch the effect from a text link or a linked placeholder image. And you can have multiple movies on one page that users can jump through.
The user manual explains the deployment of this effect in detail, but the really cool part is that DV Kitchen will generate all the necessary code for you on the fly.
I don't know of any other Mac encoding suite that offers this built-in support for this very popular effect.
Note that Shadowbox requires a license for commercial use, which you can purchase right from the DV Kitchen interface. Or you can give a tip if you’re using on a personal site.
It's only $20 for a commercial license and it's good to support the geniuses who write this code.
Also note that at the time of writing, (surprise, surprise) IE8 has an issue displaying the Shadowbox effect correctly.
The problem and fix is described here .
It has to do with the fact that IE8 contains a reference to IE6 which is tripping up the script.
What happens is that for shadowbox links located part way down the page, the video overlay only appears when you scroll back to the top of the page.
The fix involves replacing one line of code in the script and is worth the trouble to get the right effect.
Okay, that's just a quick heads up on what I think is a super feature of the DV Kitchen publishing suite.
Thanks for stopping by.
If you'd like to learn about another feature unique to DV Kitchen, then head on over to how to republish an existing web video remotely.
