To change basic streaming settings for a movie, use the Movie Playback Properties dialog box. You can turn streaming on and off, specify a number of frames to download before playing the movie, and make Director display placeholders if cast members are not downloaded yet. The Movie Playback Properties dialog box also includes options for locking the current tempo.

Leaving streaming off (the default setting) makes sense for some types of movies. For example, a game that requires all cast members to be available at once might not be suitable for streaming. Other movies work best if the media for a certain number of frames downloads before the movie begins playing. This option is especially useful for streaming movies that were not originally designed for streaming.

Placeholders are rectangles that appear in place of media elements for cast members that have not yet been downloaded. Placeholders are useful when testing to indicate places where media is missing.

You can specify streaming options any time before saving a movie as Shockwave content.

1. Select Modify > Movie > Playback to define streaming options.
2. To let the movie stream automatically, select Play While Downloading Movie.
3. To make the movie wait for all media elements (internal and linked) for a specified range of frames, enter the number of frames in Download __ Frames Before Playing.

   By default, movies download the first frame only. Adjust this setting to the number of frames that is best for your movie.

4. To make the movie display placeholders for media elements that have not been downloaded, select Show Placeholders.

   The placeholders appear as rectangles when the movie plays.

5. To lock the movie to its current tempo settings, select Lock Frame Durations. For more information, see Locking frame durations.

To set Shockwave playback options, see Setting Shockwave playback options.