Link to starting time within an mp3 or mp4 file hosted on box.com?

Is it possible to link to a starting time within a media file that's stored on box.com, using a share link? The functionality I'm looking for would be similar to what can be done on google drive or youtube, using a "&t=" parameter with the URL call, e.g. this to a point 2 min 10 sec into blender.org's "big buck bunny" video uploaded to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE7VzlLtp-4&t=2m10s .

I'm looking for this as a way to create box.com direct file links that would point to particular times within a long research interview mp3 or teaching video mp4, for instance, so the file could be played directly from that point in a browser. These could be useful e.g. to build web pages using a CMS such as WordPress, that would point authorized users to those direct links, display the files' transcriptions from a different file also loaded using a box.com direct link, and provide a space for the users to annotate and discuss the specific segments. I'd be interested in whether this might be doable either in box.com itself, a media player plugin, or some kind of scripting that might call html5's currentTime property, for instance.

Thanks.

Jim

jcleblanc

April 19, 2019 12:04

Hi ,

As far as I'm aware there isn't a way to deep link to specific locations within a media file from the file browser. With that said, this thread does cover how to create a direct file URI with the APIs to load a media file directly (as opposed to through the Box UI). Using that, there may be the potential to load the file directly into a media viewer that allows linkage to specific places in the media file.

- Jon

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