I just stumbled into another nice pop-up script called prettyPhoto. This one does everything, except it doesn't work in Opera browser when mootools is used in the webpage. It has some nice features for images, other media player is not very smooth and doesn't stream videos like others. Check it out.

PrettyPhoto for Nucleuscms

If we search the net, we would find tons of pop-ups scripts, most of them based on the... ... lightbox. After looking at many of these pop-ups scripts, we like these 3 4 best: Fancybox1.3.1, shadowbox 3.0.1rc (new version 3.0.3 doesn't display pdf file), mediaboxadv , prettyPhoto. We like them so much, we created the plugins for Nucleuscms system. BTW, all these scripts can be customized to do more, but our plugins were designed for simple web pop-ups. NP_FancyBox.zip, NP_MediaboxAdv.zip, NP_ShadowBox.zip, NP_PrettyPhoto.zip.

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1.NP_FancyBox.zip

Pluses:

1. Write a script once and use it over and over for the same type of files or display.
2. Change overlay colors on the fly, writing scripts with different color backgrounds and use them on the fly.
3. Able to display JWplayer playlist using JWplayer.
4. Play all flash players out there, JWplayer, Nonverblaster:Hover, Flowplayer.
5. Scrollmouse scrollable for images/videos galleries.
6. Totally Free.
7. 68% faster than shadowbox see it here. It's also faster than MediaboxAdv134. Just click the pictures below to see how they perform with your browsers.
   

Minuses:

1. Not much documentation, need jquery knowledge to use.
2. Not automatically detects the types of file and assigns the correct players.
3. Doesn't have slideshow built-in.
4. Jquery noconflicts need to be implemented, if not, will not work with other jquery scripts or mootools.

Browsers Compatibility

Safari works perfectly with Fancybox

Opera has some... ... formatting problem with QT & MP4 players

Opera works fine with youtube

Chrome has no problem with Fancybox

Firefox works perfectly with Fancybox

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2.NP_MediaboxAdv.zip

Pluses:

1. Autodetect all popular types of file and select the appropriate player for them.
2. Very easy to use, the scripts do all the work.
3. Totally Free.
   

Minuses:

1. Quicktime plugin doesn't automatically detect the correct video sizes (or at least we don't know how to set it up).
2. Doesn't have slideshow built-in.
3. Lightbox display is a little out-dated.
4. Flash player is Nonverblaster:hover default with JWplayer option, but doesn't seem to work.
5. Mootools doesn't work with all jquery scripts, all plugins or jquery scripts used on the same page, must have noconflict implemented for all of them to work together.
6. No window media player plugin.

Browsers Compatiblily

Safari works perfectly again with MediaboxAdv

Firefox has no problem with MediaboxAdv

IE8 works OK with MediaboxAdv, just doesn't support CSS3

Chrome again has no problem with MediaboxAdv

Opera 10.5+ works fine with MediaboxAdv and supports CSS3

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3.NP_ShadowBox.zip

Pluses:

1. Easy to use, can display almost all types of files and assign correct players to them.
2. Animation is fluid and can be customized.
3. Independent of all Jquery or mootools conflicts.
   

Minuses:

1. Non-redistributable software which can't be included in any plugin. We can't even use the option for V3.0.1rc which works great with everything.
2. The new version 3.0.3 doesn't display with ie8 in compatibility mode. Must force ie8 to disable compatibility mode by meta tag.
3. The scripts need to be modified to display quicktime video correctly.
4. The embeded "lightbox" command that redirects all scripts using the same "lightbox" command to shadowbox. This one needs to be taken out for other pop-up using "lightbox" to work.
5. Flash player is JWplayer only.

Browser Compatibility

Safari works perfectly with all 3 pop-ups

IE8 works fine with ShadowBox (NO CSS3)

Opera works fine with show images options.

Firefox has no problems in all 3 pop-ups

Chrome also has no problems in all 3 pop-ups

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So, everytime we use the pop-up, whichever is easiest at the time, we use it since we have all three installed. If we want to display different color of overlay, we use Fancybox. If we want to autodetect files, we use shadowbox or mediaboxadv.

MediaboxAdv seems to work with all browsers: Firefox, Safari, Chrome, IE8, Opera

The best 4 browsers for all 3 pop-ups: Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera.

Cheers,