Digital Workshop

Hi.
I want to embed Realmedia sound files (or ogg or speex sound file) in one single standalone executable.

of course I can not use the sound action , because:
1- sound action dos not supprt Realmedia and speex sound files , and as a result these sound files can not be embedded.
2- sound action dos not have sound controls.

instead of that I have to use liunch file action to open the files in Real player or fobar2000 player.

The problem is that when I use this way i can not embed Realmedia sound files (or ogg or speex sound file).

Anybody knows how to get it work?

is there any solution?

All help welcome.

I am using Opus pro 4
I choose:
Create single standalone executable
Enable video embdding
In the Recourse manager : in the publish option : internal to the published opus.ilm file.

Ogg definitely works with Opus. It is the native codec that is used by Opus when you compress sound files in Opus 4. You can either allow Opus to compress your original Wav file or include an already existing ogg file as a sound file.

I don't believe speex is yet supported (though as it is closely related to the ogg vorbis project perhaps it may be at some stage). I would welcome this too.

Opus pro 4 dos supprt ogg , but the problem is that when you want to embed it you have to use " sound action" ; which dos not have "sound controls" :play , stop , pause , forward , rewind …

So I have to use the "liunch file" action to open the file in Real player or fobar2000 player (which have sound controls ) , but this option dos not allow me to "embed" Realmedia or ogg or speex sound files as far as I know.

Can it use the video object? I have no ogg files on my pc so I can't try it

I've also experienced the same problem and sent it to DW
The thread is at http://www.digitalgrapevine.info/viewtopic.php?t=341

I've been using the video object and embedding MP3s in it . That works fine and you can control the sound.

Hope that helps

Forgive my ignorance or perhaphs I have not understood your problem but why you do not convert your realplayer into windows media?

German

From the point of view of a novice who rarely uses complex audio, I tend to agree with Koala.

There are supported audio formats that can be used without relying on Realplayer.

To me, Realplayer files are a pain. I once received several audio files in that format. I located the freeware version of realplayer, installed it, and promptly filled my computer with ad-ware. Kept Ad-Aware and others busy for a while. I looked at the "pro" version, which to me seemed to be more expensive than could be justified.

There might well be good reasons for using Realplayer, but I don't know what they are, and have managed happily without that format.

"Can it use the video object?"
" I've been using the video object and embedding MP3s in it . That works fine and you can control the sound."

Thanks Melanie , Klaus.

I cannot use video object, because:
1- video object dos not support Realmedia, ogg, or speex sound files. Therefore, I think Opus will not allow me to "embed" these files.

2- video object dos not have already "sound controls"; you have to "make it your self", and this is Robin Garrett suggestion to add "sound controls":

- Launch Opus
- Create a blank new publication
- Select the Video tool and draw a video object on the page (the size and position are not important as no video is going to be displayed)
- In the Video properties, select the Browse button
- Open the 'Objects of' drop-down menu and select 'All Files (*.*)'
- Now navigate to the folder containing the sound file you wish to play
- Select the sound file and click Open
- In the 'Video Type' options, click Change
- Set the video type to 'On Top' and click OK
- Set the other properties as required, then click Apply and OK
- Now add a button to the page
- In the button actions, apply a Pause Video action, select the Video object you have just created and click Apply and OK
- Create another button on the page
- In the button actions, apply a Seek Video action set to the required amount, select the Video object you created, then click Apply and OK
- Create another button on the page
- In the button actions, apply a Play Video action, select the video object on the page and click Apply and OK
- Now preview the publication. The audio file should start playing and you should be able to control playback using the buttons.

well ; no problem if I have one or tow files , but the problem is that I have "hundreds" of files in my project !! this will take a lot of time and effort to do, because I have to do these steps for each file.


"why you do not convert your real player into windows media?"
Thanks Koala, but the problem will remain; because:
1- If I use the "launch file" action to open the files in windows media player: Opus will not allow me to "embed" these files.
2-if I use video object or sound action: I will not have "sound controls".
And of course, I cannot use Robin Garrett suggestion
because I have to do these steps for each file of my "hundreds" files.

Thanks.

Playing a sound file using a video object will allow you to pause, play, stop, rewind and fast forward the audio using the normal video actions. If you wish to change the volume of the sound, simply use a normal Change Volume action which is set to change the volume of all Wave sounds.



You can use a variable in the filename field of the video object and can set this variable to the path of the audio file you wish to play. For example, try typing <audiofile> into the filename of the video object, then apply a button to the page which sets a variable named audiofile (you will need to create this as a publication variable) to <SYSTEM_PUBLICATION_DIR>\audio1.mp3. Now copy an mp3 file to the same directory as your project .imp file and rename it to audio1.mp3.

Preview the publication and try playing the video. As the audiofile variable is not currently set, no sound will be heard. However, if you click on the button to set the audiofile variable to <SYSTEM_PUBLICATION_DIR>\audio1.mp3, then play the video, the publication will now look in the directory from which the publication is running and try to find a file named audio1.mp3. As we have ensured that this file is present and correct, the video object should locate the file and the audio should play as expected.

You will still need a number of Set Variable actions to change the contents of the variable to point to each audio file, but this should be a lot easier than handling hundreds of video objects.

Please let me know if you encounter any problems or require any further advice.

Kind regards,

The target file for a Launch File action must always be external to the Opus executable.

One workaround would be to set the attributes of the Real Media files to hidden before you write the files to the CD. You can do this by opening Windows Explorer (right-click on the Start button and select Explore), navigating to the folder containing the Real Media files and selecting all of these files. Now right-click on any one of the selected files and select Properties. You should now be able to enable the Hidden attribute and click OK to confirm the changes.

You may find that this causes the files to disappear from view. To correct this, simply click Tools > Folder Options > View and enable the Show hidden files and folders setting. Now click OK and the hidden files should be once again visible.

If your end-user uses Windows Explorer to view the contents of your publication, the chances are that Windows will be set to hide hidden files and they will not be able to see these resources. Of course, there is a possibility that an advanced user will notice a discrepancy between the used capacity of the disc and the size of the visible files and will know how to configure Windows to show the hidden RealMedia files. However, this method should prevent casual misappropriation of these resources.

Kind regards,

Hi Robin !

All the sound problems could be solved if it were possible to embed the Windows Media Player in an Opus PUB. That way, you'd have all the sound controls and many different types of sound files to play around with. Many of us would probably appreciate such a feature. And it would make life easier

Maybe it could be considered by your team in the next Opus version .

Hmm even if it's technically possible, a lot fewer of us would appreciate it if the associated license fee (I presume there is one) was to bump of the cost of Opus for everyone, mind you!

Windows Media Player is such a core component of Windows that I strongly doubt it would be possible to produce a 'pack-and-go' version which could be embedded into a publication executable. There may be other third-party MP3 players which can exist as standalone files on the publication CD and be sent parameters via the Launch File action, but I would need to look into this further to confirm if this is feasible.

It is possible to 'embed' the Windows Media Player interface into an Opus publication via a Browser object and HTML file. For example, try pasting the following into Notepad:



Now change "yourfile.mp3" to point towards an audio or video file on your system (you will need to specify the full path to the file if it is not in the same directory as the HTML file).

Close Notepad, and save the file with the filename embed.htm. Now launch Opus, create a blank new publication and add a Browser object to the page. In the properties of the Browser object, browse to and select the HTML file you just created.

Now preview the publication - the Windows Media Player controls should be visible and the selected file should start playing immediately.

Please note that the above example will only work if Internet Explorer is configured as your default browser. If you are using Netscape, Firefox or Opera, please see the following page for advice on how to embed Media Player controls into an HTML document:

http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/01 ... multimedia

Kind regards,

Robin Garrett
Digital Workshop Technical Support

I didn't think about that. I think you're right. Wouldn't want Opus to explode in price because of the Media player

Robin !

Thank you for your advice . I'll try that out. Since many people are using Firefox as a browser, I'll have to seriously consider that option too

Thanks !