SMIL File

A SMIL file can describe a multimedia presentation.

SMIL File

A SMIL file contains all the information needed to describe a multimedia program.

The file extension for storing SMIL files is *.smil.

A SMIL file includes:

  • The layout of the presentation
  • The timeline of the presentation
  • The source of the multimedia elements

SMIL Tags

Since SMIL is based on XML, its tags are case-sensitive. All SMIL tags must be in lowercase.

A SMIL document must start with the <smil> tag and end with the </smil> tag. It can contain a <head> element and must contain a <body> element.

<head> Element is used to store information about presentation layout and other meta-information.

<body> Containing media elements.

<smil>
<body>
  <seq repeatCount="indefinite">
    <img src="image1.jpg" dur="3s" />
    <img src="image2.jpg" dur="3s" />
  </seq>
</body>
</smil>

How to Play SMIL Files?

To play SMIL presentations, you need a SMIL player. Different SMIL players can be found on the Internet:

  • RealNetworks of RealOne Platformprovides full support for SMIL 2.0
  • Oratrix of GRiNS for SMIL-2.0 provides a SMIL 2.0 player
  • InterObject of SMIL PlayerBasic Framework Supporting SMIL 2.0

Playing SMIL Presentations in Internet Explorer

With Internet Explorer 5.5 or an updated version, SMIL elements can be inserted into HTML files.

In this way, any SMIL presentation can run as a standard HTML file on the Internet.

The rest of this tutorial will demonstrate the use of different SMIL elements using Internet Explorer 5.5 or a higher version.