Hi,
I'm sorry, I've found old support threads chastizing people for this solution being posted, but most of the toubleshooting links I come to are 404 missing.

(I've only been successful getting video to display via Flowplayer. I'd rather use jPlayer but it only ever shows a quicktime logo. I think it's because my server is only php5 not higher. So, all this Flowplayer question is moot to me if I can get that working. so I guess that makes this a double question, sorry)

Ok, so I have a working video called "jose-basso-medium.m4v" and I've uploaded a jpg called: "jose-basso-medium.jpg" via the zenphoto uploader. When I view the album folder in an FTP client, it shows both the m4v and jpg files, but Zenphoto does not show the jpg in the album when I go to Edit Album Images. So I'm GUESSING Zenphoto is hiding this jpg and associating it with the video. No? Why would an image show up in my FTP list but not in Zenphoto? The first time, I didn't have the capitalization exactly the same and it was shown in Zenphoto. When the filename before the extension matches, it becomes invisible to Zenphoto.

I'm running 1.4.4 [4d20f7093e] (Official build) and cannot upgrade without breaking my template, I'm told by the template designer.

I spent 3 hours just getting the video to play now almost another hour on the thumbnail.
PLEASE ADVISE!!!

Thanks.

but most of the toubleshooting links I come to are 404 missing.

The troubleshooting has been restructured a while ago so this might happen. You should take the time to look at our user guide directly.

But sorry, the flowplayer3 plugin has been abandoned with Zenphoto 1.4.5 and is not supported or maintained anymore.

jPlayer should work with 1.4.4 as it is even included. It has nothing to do with PHP5 or newer. If it doesn't I have to recommend upgrading. We cannot really support older Zenphoto releases.

Quicktime is not a supported video container format by any of the players anyway so if you see that icon you probably don't have the video-class plugin and no player plugin enabled. Also please see the error logs. Please see the bug report guidelines:
http://www.zenphoto.org/news/general-contributor-guidelines#reporting-bug

If a video does not work that can have several reasons. jPlayer plays in HTML5 natively on certain browsers and with a flash fallback on some others and especially older ones. (jplayer.org has a table with what browser supports what natively).
Generally all these players don't always play all codecs or codec settings (respectively flash does not)

Regarding videothumbs:
If you have a video files and an image of the same name it is associated as that the purpose of an videothumb. If the video is not recognized the image is not used naturally. If the image has a different naming or letter case (servers are case sensitive, your desktop system is not!) it is recognized as a normal image.

Thanks Acrylian,
I sure wish your user I could use your guide directly. I've looked and not found what I needed. maybe I'm stupid.

Thanks for you advice.

I'm not reporting a bug though, I'm asking how to use this darn thing properly.
I thought this was "The Simpler Media Website" but having spent HOURS searching for a set of cohesive instruction is NOT simple.

Like I said, the Flowplayer is working. Assuming I don't have the video class enabled? that's like the only straightforward instruction I can find here.

could you maybe link to this relevant section in the User Guide? I can't find it. Searching with the site tools has not found it either. I mean, chastise me, sure, but post a link please.

The video class is a plugin that you should see but if flowplayer works it is enabled. If the video is not it might be the video or something else. Bugs or asking just for help requires more general info "my video does not work" is not really much.

Sorry, there is no exact user guide article for flowplayer since it is abandoned. But video and video thumbs work the same for all players (that is jplayer and the half official medialementjs player)..

Might be that you have to use the .mp4 suffix instead of .m4v but I don't remember if that makes any difference with flowplayer. Again, mp4/m4v is a container format and can contain lots of codecs. IT can be a wrong video codec, a wrong audio codec or just wrong settings. Not all can be played by flash. Please refer to Adobe's info about Flash.

My FLowplayer works. It doesnt' show the thumbnail.
I see now how Zenphoto has use that samename.jpg and used it as the thumbnail in the backend. That's cool I guess.

But I don't even want to use Flowplayer, really. Jplayer isn't working for me.
Sooo. I just disabled Flowplayer to try Jplayer again.
When I try to use the insert thing, the ZP button (I think it's called Tinyzenpage or something) it shows my .mp4 and .m4v files with red outlines on the thumbnails. These are both H.264. the mp4 was encoded as per the instructions on the jplayer.org and Apple Safari sites. But when Zenphoto Article sees it, it throws me a Flash Player Exclamation point. Is this a bug? I'm NOT linking it to any FLV or SWF file.

At this point I will pay for support. I've spent $150 worth of my employers time on this already.

So you are talking about embeding media content within Zenpage items. That is again why it is important to tell all information from the beginning. Again provide error logs etc.

Sorry, but in any case I have to suggest to upgrade to the current Zenphoto version.

Sure, I guess I am.
I'll regroup and figure out a better way to ask my question.