Digital Workshop

Hi All,

A simple question that I can't seem to find a answer too. (I have looked honest)

I'm building a web site for my sons band using Opus creator 5.5, and would like to include some streaming video (in . swf format). I've chosen to publish it using the flex option to avoid viewers having to install the plexus plug-in and make it Mac compatible.

Is it possible to play a video clip within the publication? i.e in a doc view or similar

At the monent all I can do is open a new browser window at full size with the video clip in it which looks ugly.

I do not want to embeding the clip because of the increased download time hence the streaming option.

Thanks in advance
Terry

Terry,

You can't play a video in a Flex exported page. You will need to link your Opus publication to external HTML pages with the videos in them. I am sure Macromedia will have templates you can use to create the external pages.

If you wanted to use the WMV format you can download the Media Player Software Developers kit (SDK) free of charge. Included in this are examples of how to put video into HTML pages.

Hope this help.

Brenden Knifton

Hi Brenden,

Thanks for the info.

Cheers
Terry

It is not entirely true that you cannot embed swfs within a Flex publication. You can but there are problems.

The Swf must be imported as a video. It can stream the swf from your server on the net somewhere so it does not have to be embedded within the publication and when you launch your Flex publication on the web, this publication will then stream your video.

BUT and it is a big but, all interactivity is lost until the video has completely streamed (note streamed and not played). If you have a fast connection, then perhaps the video will stream quite quickly ie. it will download the video while it is playing, and will download quite a while before it has finished playing. So interactivity can be reacquired before the video has stopped.

When I say interactivity, I mean you can press a button and your Flex publication will respond.

I have used video in Flex publications and have managed to work around the problem by getting the video to stream completely at the beginning of the publication and then use the same video in more interactive pages. You can see two examples here.

http://david.moxon.free.fr/troy.html
http://david.moxon.free.fr/temp/gaulle.htm

I teach English so obviously the video is not used for the same purpose as a promotional video for a band, but it might give you an idea for a workaround.

Hi, I have been able to run video as swf if it have the same frame rate that Flex.
Cheers
German

Hi David,

Thanks for the additional information. Unfortunately I was not able to see either of the examples you posted. I received a "page cannot be displayed message" this may be a temporary problem and I will try again later from a different PC.

How do you tell your publication where to find the video file?

Do you create a video object then put the web address in the Filename field e.g http://www.mywebsite/video/band.swf....

or do you enter the choose a local address eg C:\myvideo\band.swf and then use the resource manager to tell the publication to look for an external location. Using the base location and copy files on publication options, so that it looks in the publication directory for the file.

Or am I missing the point completely.

Thanks again
Terry

Hi Terry,

I think the problem with seeing the video sites is at your end. I have tried the links on independent machines and they work.

What I did was to have the original video swf file on the local machine, and indicate in the video settings indicate where the video is, and then just publish the resulting Opus swf publication on the local machine. The published files should appear in the same directory. You can check this by opening "Open Publish Folder" after the Opus publication process.

You will have two swfs (the Opus Flex swf and the video swf) and an html file. Then upload these files to your online server (making sure they are still in the same directory) and it should work.

As I said in the original post, I have not been able to get interactivity working until the video swf has completely streamed, BUT the video does stream immediately, so viewers do have something to watch while you wait for the streaming download to complete. Once the video has completely streamed, interactivity is restored.

Sometimes, once the video has comletely downloaded, the streaming of the video starts again as if Opus is resetting the publication from the beginning. This is unfortunate but at least we can have Flex with video once we have got past these problems at the beginning.

You can have immediately interactivity on a Flex publication if the video is NOT on the first page. Interactivity is halted only when the page with the video is displayed.

Hi David,

Thanks for the update. I tried it on another machine and it worked fine.

Am I correct in thinking that you use the resource manager to tell the program to look in the publication directory (on the webserver) for the video file.

Regards
Terry

Hi Terry,

No, I did not use the Resource Manager. I believe the default setting is for Opus to load the video in the same directory as the swf it produces itself. If you do want to use the Resource Manager then you should find that selecting the default setting (ie. same settings as parent program I think it is) should work. But I did not even go into the Resource Manager. Just publish the progam for Flex on the local machine. Open up the folder with the newly created swf and you should find your video swf and the html file with the Flex publication swf. Upload it all to the distant server and as long as all files stay in the same folder, it will work.

The onlythink I told Opus of course was where to find the video on the local machine before publishing via the Video tab. Just create a normal video in your publication and then select the video you want to play via the video tab. It will have to be a swf video. Once published, this video will be copied and placed automatically in the published directory on your local system. I believe Opus does this automatically unless you tell it otherwise.

Hope this helps. I can send you an imp file if that helps.