Digital Workshop

Hello! Can't find any answers in postings or tutorials, etc. Guess it's just too basic!

I am trying to add demo videos to what will be a CD stand alone publication using Opus Pro 5.5, Win 2K, and a good computer.

Opus has worked nicely so far but I cannot see the videos. Tried .avi and wmv. (The movies are given to me and apparrently cannot be saved in mpeg-1.) The audience for this Demo will be high-end users with plenty of power/speed and running Win 2K, XP, or XP Pro.

On each movie page, I have Start, Pause, Stop buttons. I wanted the movie to begin when the viewer navigated to that page and to use the buttons once the movie was running. I am more than willing to forego the synchronized start if I cannot have both.

The priority now is viewing any video! :0

This is what I do. I hope you can see where I am going wrong:

1. Open/view my page

2. Click Video/Animation on the tool bar

3. See a cross on my page. Drag the cross and make a nice big space for the movie to show.

4. Video dialog box opens automatically.

5. Use Browse and select my video.

6. See the Alert Box about large videos. Close it.

7. Click "Start Automatically", "Scale to Fit," and "Keep Aspect"

8. Click Mouse Pressed

9. Click Actions tab

10. See my Video. Click Left Mouse Click

11. Click other Actions tab

12. Click Audio/Video

13. Click Play video

14. Am taken to the Play video tab where I double-click my video

15. Click Start at 0:00

16. Click Apply

17. Click OK

18. Returned to my page. See video's name in light grey exactly where it belongs.

19. Hit F5. Nothing.

20. Wait 30 seconds. Nothing.

21. Hit head on keyboard. Nothing.

22. Repeat a dozen times. Nothing.

23. Write the Tech Support Forum


I look forward to your insight, wisdom, etc. thanks for your time.

Hi Margaret

Is there any chance that you can post an example imp with a small video that is giving you problems? I'm not an expert on using videos, but I'm sure someone will come up with something for you.

A related issue;



That might well be the case, but I have had some success with a a program called SUPER (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer) which is available FREE from http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

If you can load your video into SUPER, you might just be able to convert it to something that works for you.

This might not solve your immediate problem, but I've been surprised just how often it has helped me by easily converting audio and video files from less common to more common formats.

HTH

Dear Ray,

thanks for replying. My client is being extrememly flexible and would probably work with me to change the videos -- although it's not a first choice!

Other people who posted here with video problems complained of inferior quality, timing, etc., but they could see the videos. That's why I think the problem is something i am doing wrong in the adding/embedding.

when I click on the videos in Windows Explorer, they run. They just won't appear in Opus.

Anyway, I did a teeny publish of one movie page, which i can pass along if it will help anyone help me. Basically, it's blank.

I can send that link privately but don't want to post it. I know I sound cloak-and-dagger but the the new interface is very hush-hush. My client is in a business where contracts hover around $100,000 USD.

I highly doubt my clients' competitors will search here first to see the new interface, but better safe.

Meanwhile, although Opus is helping me make a nice presentation, I am not holding up my end very well with blank screens on the movie pages!

Will still experiment with the http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html. I saw that tip but didn't realize it was so easy.

Thanks again.

Margaret,

Have you tired altering the video mode on the Video Properties.

You have three option in Opus:

Rendered, On top & Chroma Key (Chroma key is the defualt)

If changing this helps, then it may indicate a problem with your graphics card drivers. Try downloading and installing the latest drivers for your graphics card.

Regards

Brenden Kniifton

Dear Brenden,

Thank you for your reply.

<<Rendered, On top & Chroma Key (Chroma key is the defualt) >>

This did not work.

When I began more detective work, I realized that the video does not even show in Preview. It is as though Opus doesn't see it. Opus does see other videos. So I am thinking again may be a problem with the video and not the way I am embedding it.

(The "bad" video can be played outside Opus so I didn't think the video was corrupted.)

Here's my new thought: the diff between the good and bad videos is the format in which they came to me. The good video came on a CD while the bad video was posted on my client's server and I downloaded it.

Then I thought that I may have FTP'ed in the wrong mode and thereby corrupted the file enough to upset Opus even though I can view the video if I click on it directly. Sadly, I redownloaded it in binary and then in ASCII and it still won't function.

Am I on the right track?

Happy Easter and thank you!

Margret --

Sorry to hear you are having trouble with seeing videos within OPUS. Trust me -- they work. I use dozens of them in every Pub I build.

First, are these standard format AVI files which someone has given you? Can you view them with your Windows Media Player?

You listed many steps in your description of the problem. Let's try to keep it much simpler:

Select the Video Object from the Toolbar.

Left click on your Page, then drag the object you are creating to be about 320x240 pixels (see Status line, lower left corner).

When the Properties window pops open, select one of the videos which comes with OPUS.

Click OK.

Press F5 to Preview.

The defaults are Autostart and view Once, so you should see a video playing. I'm not sure what you were trying to accomplish with all the other items on your description list.

If you don't want the Video Object to Autostart, then un-tick that option, then create a Button Object with a Left Click Trigger, then an Action of Play Video. MAKE SURE YOU HIGHLIGHT WHICH VIDEO YOU WANT TO PLAY, then click OK.

When you then Preview, the video will just sit there, waiting for you to click the button.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your help. Had another client whom I've had to concentrate on the past two weeks.

Tried your ideas and used Opus sample videos.

I got them from: Opus Pro 5\Samples\ -- is that where you meant?

the QuickTime ones showed a still image but would not play a video.

when I found a wma file (Opus Pro 5\Samples\Training\Resource\S49.wma) it was like Old Home Week: no preview, no image, no video.

The videos are being made with SnagIt. Videos made last July by my client work. Unfortunately, they aren't current with my clients products. The new videos are the ones that don't work. My client has done repeated avi/wma saves and no result.

I have tried launching the videos with Wind Media Player and that works but bypasses the professionalism of having the videos embedded with my own "buttons" saying Start, Stop, etc.

I imagine this is a simple setting problem with either me or my client but I am totally clueless as to what it is.

TIA

Margaret,

Looking back at your original post, you do not need any of the stages from 8 onwards.

Try removing the steps from 8 onwards and see if this makes any difference.

The most likely cause of the problem is a bad codec. When you play a video back, Windows uses a codec to decode the video information. Some poorly written or corrupt codecs do not always work outside of media player.

(WMA file are audio files not video)


Regards

Brenden Knifton

Thank you, I will do this now. I meant wmv :p . We went back and forth using avi and wmv bc of the codec issue but neither worked.

I did steps 1-7 and I still don't see the video in the Preview window. when I don't see the video in Preview, I never see it in the Opus presentation.

What video resource is in my Opus 5 that I can test with? I don't have time to go thorugh any more resource folders in Samples and most of the ones seem to be audio. Perhaps I am looking in the wrong place.

could you send me the location of a known working video that is in my Opus? I can try that and then return to my client with more confidence that it is not on my end.

As I said, my client has SnagIt. I can't really find too much concern about
SnagIt on the web except a recommendation to launch Camtasia products rather than embed--which I don't want to do.

Thanks again.

I have just created a test video for you, it uses a standard installed codec (Cinepack)

400x300 @ 25 frames / Second.

(4MB)

It can be downloaded from http://www.digitalworkshop.com/misc/happy.avi

Regards

Brenden Knifton

Ok! I see it. Many thanks!

I will pass on your video reqs/standards to my client.

I was also able to reset my Stop, Start, Pause buttons. Thank you. We know now that the problem is not on the Opus end.

Thanks very much for not giving up! It's up to the SnagIt tech support now

The video is an example of one of the many Codecs Opus supports.
I used this format as it is as old as the hills and in most cases Winodows installs it by default.

For mass distribution it is still hard to beat mpg1 as this is almost universaly installed on Windows machines.

Regards

Brenden Knifton

I think that my client is going to have to reshoot the videos--which they don't want to do, naturally.

If they do reshoot, i will recommend the mpg1 format. Otherwise, is there a place in Opus where i can see the codecs that will install for publishing a stand alone CD?

I can pass those codecs along as a last ditch effort to resave the existing videos as avi with known codecs.

Again, multiple thanks!

Margaret,

Opus does not install any codecs. Opus will try to work with any codec that is installed on a machine. If the codec is poorly written then Opus will perform poorly. Most codecs are tested by their writers; with media player, but a number of authors do not fully test for third part compatibility outside of Media player.

Regards

Brenden Knifton

Margaret --

Is your SnagIt video using Camtasia's TSCC codec? If so, this can create problems for Opus. Also, it would require that anyone trying to view the final product would have to have TSCC installed on their machines.