Ever try to use Presenter Video created using the On2 VP6 codec and have problems with it displaying in Articulate Presenter?

How can you get On2VP6 Presenter video to display in Articulate Presenter?

1. Insert your On2 VP6 FLV as you normally would insert Presenter Video
2. Publish to your desired output
3. Navigate to your output directory
4. Open the "data" folder
5. Open the "presentation.xml" file in notepad
6. Find this chunk of XML:


7. Modify the width and height value to match your desired width and height for the video
8. Save the file
9. View your output

Note: Currently Articulate Presenter 5 does not support FLVs created with the On2VP6 codec, that is why you have to use this workaround. The issue is that when AP5 came out the On2VP6 codec had not been released, and at that time, we couldn't correctly determine the dimensions of the FLV.

Also, FLVs created with the On2VP6 codec will only display in Flash Player 8 and later.

Labels: FLV

Do you use FLV video in your Presentations, Engage interactions, or in any Flash content for that matter, and get feedback from users that either the video plays poorly (is choppy), or takes a significant amount of time to display?

This can happen if you use FLV video that is optimized for high-bandwidth situations, but your users are operating in a low-bandwidth environment, such as dial-up modem, or slow DSL connection. Most of the programs that create FLV video allow you to specify a compression setting for the video, where you can specify the output FLV in terms of the target bandwidth rate of the end viewer. It is a good idea to compress your FLV to a level that matches your target audiences bandwidth (for example, you wouldn't want to create an FLV that is optimized for a high-bandwidth situation if your targeted viewers are all using a 56k modem to view your presentation or interaction).

Some of the popular FLV creation programs are:

Sorenson Squeeze

Sorenson allows you to select any number of predefined compression settings, that are labeled rather intelligently based on target bandwidth rate. For example, they have a 56k_Dial_Up predefined setting that is a good compression settings if your users will be viewing the FLV over a 56k modem.

Below I have created a sample movie that shows you how you can apply a compression setting in Sorenson Squeeze.







Flash Video Encoder

Flash Video Encoder has options that are similar to Sorenson Squeeze, but they call it "Quality" in Flash Video Encoder. So lower "Quality" video will be more compressed. Unfortunately they only have quality settings that go down to 150 kbps, which is a compression setting that is targeted for a faster connection than a 56k modem.

Flash Video Encorder is included with Flash Professional, but the available options for quality settings are much more limited than Sorenson's options for compression settings.


Sothink Video Encoder for Adobe Flash

The Sothink Video Encoder allows you to specify "Profiles" (shown below) that allow you to target your output FLV for various bandwidth speeds. The available profiles range from 56 Kbps to 2.1 Mbps.

Note: Video compression is "lossy", meaning the more it is compressed, the lower the quality. Click here for more info on video compression.

Labels: Engage, FLV, Presenter

One possible reason is that in IIS in WINDOWS 2003 FLV needs to be configured as a supported MIME type. I continually foget this, so I am posting here for two reasons:

1. Maybe it will help someone else out
2. Maybe it will help me remember to do this

To setup IIS to support FLV as a MIME type follow the directions below:

1. Right click the site in IIS and select Properties
2. Select the HTTP Headers Tab
3. Select File Types
4. Under the MIME Map section and select New Type
5. Type ".flv" as the associated extension and "video/x-flv" as the content type
6. Select OK

Your FLVs should now play back when viewed from the server. If you use a hosting company to host your files it is best to check with them about adding FLV as a supported MIME type.

Labels: FLV

For those of you who haven't heard...Articulate announced it's new product Articulate Engage today. For anyone who has come to my blog looking for advice on how to add Flash Video (FLV) to a slide, Engage now allows you to easily add slide level FLV without a bunch of complicated work arounds or having to know Flash. You can find out more about Engage here.

To see an example of how you can add FLV video to a slide in Articulate Presenter click the presentation image below.

Labels: Engage, FLV

If you are looking to add short videos to your slides in Articulate Presenter a great option for converting your videos to SWF format (or FLV for that matter) is Sorenson Squeeze for Flash. It is a great (and relatively inexpensive) tool that can convert almost any common video (mpeg, avi, mov) to SWF format.

Converting your videos to SWF is a great option if you are looking to embed short video clips (less than a minute in length) into an Articulate Presenter slide.

If you already own Sorenson and don't know how to create an Embeded Video watch this demonstration on creating an embedded video in Sorenson. By default when using Sorenson to convert a video to SWF it will actually create SWF player that loads in a linked FLV. The link above will show you how to create an embedded video that actually embeds the video in the SWF.

Benefits of using Embedded Video:

• Can easily be controlled by the Articulate Presenter playback controller
• Results in only a single output file
• Only requires the Flash Player to view

Pitfalls of using Embedded Video:

• Can only be used for videos less than a minute in length

Note: Embedded video should only be used with short video clips (less than a minute in length).

For other options for longer video (more than a minute in length) see the following blog postings:
Flash video in a slide
Slide level FLV without Flash

For more info on Sorenson check out the following links:
Converting Non-Flash Movies to SWF
Sorenson Squeeze 4.3 for Flash

For more information on Flash Video in general:
Delivery Options for Flash Video

Labels: FLV, Presenter

Hello again!

Sorry for the delay in posting...I have had a serious case of bloggers block and wasn't able to think of anything to blog about. Well, I was reading a post on the forums today and something someone posted gave me some ideas how I could improve upon the post I made a couple of months ago about adding Slide Level FLV in Articulate Presenter without the use of Flash (Want slide level FLV but don't have Flash). So I went ahead and made some changes to the files to add some additional functionality based on feedback I have recieved from the previous posting. The new version of these files I am posting allows you to do several things:

1. Add an FLV video to a slide in Articulate Presenter without using or knowing Flash
2. Allows the playback controller on the Articulate Presenter player to pause the FLV
3. Allows the volume controller on the Articulate Presenter player to control the audio of the FLV

I was able to make these changes and by using the Articulate Presenter SDK. If you have not heard of the SDK, and want to find out more, check out the blog post on the Articulate Presenter SDK.

Instructions for use

1. Download slidevideo20.zip (35 KB)
2. Open up PowerPoint
3. Select slide where you want the FLV video
4. Select Articulate>Insert Flash Movie
5. Select 'Display in slide'
6. Click Next
7. Select Browse
8. Browse to and select 'slidevideo_wpause_sound.swf'
9. Select Next
10. Select 'Play Flash movie and slide in sync'
11. Select 'Move to next slide when user clicks next'
12. Click Next
13. Click Finish
14. Select Articulate>Publish and publish your presentation
15. Navigate to the dirctory that you published to
16. In the root level of your output foler (root level will also contain the player.html file) copy the flv.xml file contained in this zip

17. Open up the FLV.xml in any text editor such as notepad
18. Change the source file to match the name of your FLV file
19. Change the x-location to the position you want the FLV to appear on the X axis. The upper left hand corner of the slide is considered to be an x-position of 0. The farthest right x-position is 720.
20. Change the y-location to the position you want the FLV to appear on the y axis. The upper left hand corner is a y-position of 0. The farthest botttom y-position is 540.
21. Save the file so the name matches the slide number name (i.e. if the video is on slide 1 it would be 1.xml)
22. Copy your FLV into the 'player' folder in the output folder
23. View the output

Your presentation should now launch and your FLV will play in the slide.

Limitations

• Only works in Flash Player 8 or later
• Slide must be set to 'Play Flash movie after slide has begun'

Additional Questions?

My email address is posted in the readme file in the download. Please let me know if you have any questions.

If you would like access to the source of the SWF that I have used I can send you the source as long as you are a member of the Articulate Platinum Membership plan. Sorry, can't send it out to everyone as it exposes a bit of the Articulate API.

Labels: FLV

Check out this new post on this topic! (8/31/06)

So back in March I created a blog posting about using FLV video at the slide level and have been getting a lot of positive feedback on the topic and I am beginning to see more and more people incorporate video into their Articulate presentations (Flash Video in a Slide).

Well the example is great and all, but the it doesn't help anyone who does not have access to the Flash authoring environment. So I have been trying to think of ways to allow users to take advantage of using FLV video at the slide level without having to go purchase Flash, or learn the Flash authoring environment, because after all, who really wants to, or has time to learn Flash, right?

Well here is what I have done. I have created a SWF that can be inserted into Articulate Presenter that will read in an XML file that will tell the SWF which FLV to play, and where to position the FLV on the slide. This is great because it allows anyone to take advantage of using Flash video at the slide level without having to use, or know Flash.

Quick Instructions for use (the zip file contains more detailed instructions via a readme.txt):

1. Download and unzip the zip file from:
   http://www.mozealous.com/downloads/dwmslidevideo.zip (830 kb)
2. Insert the slidevideo.swf in Articulate using Articulate>Insert Flash Movie menu item
3. Set the Flash Movie to 'Play Flash movie after slide has begun' when prompted
4. Publish your project
5. Navigate to the directory you published to
6. Copy the flv.xml file contained in the zip file downloaded in step 1 into the output directory
7. Open the flv.xml file in notepad
8. Change the video.flv file to the name of your FLV
9. Change the x-location tag to the location that you would like your FLV to appear on the x-axis
10. Change the y-location tag to the location that you would like your FLV to appear on the y-axis (note: upper left hand corner is x-location=0 y-location=0)
11. Copy your FLV into the player folder
12. Launch the player.html file

Your presentation should now launch and your FLV will play in the slide, and you didn't even need to touch flash to do so!

Limitations

Although this example works well, there are some things that currently just don't work in this example. Below is a partial list of known issues/limitations.

• Articulate Player playack controls don't control FLV
• Only works in Flash Player 7 or later
• Slide must be set 'Play Flash movie after slide has begun'
• Doesn't support On2 VP 6 codec since that is only supported in Flash Player 8

Additional Questions?

If you have any addtional question on this example please feel free to either leave a comment on the blog, or email me via the email address provided in the zip file. But please read all instructions carefully.

Hope this helps everyone out!

Labels: FLV, Presenter

Someone asked me today what the Optimal Dimensions were for an FLV video used in the presenter panel of Articulate Presenter. I thought I would post it here, in case anyone else wanted to know. Technically, there isn't really an optimal dimension for an FLV video since Articulate Presenter will scale anything that is too large to fit in the presenter panel...but if you wanted to know at which size it would start to scale, that size is 233 pixels wide. So anything that is larger than 233 pixels wide will be scaled down to 233 pixels, and the aspect ratio will be maintained.

Labels: FLV, Presenter

Hello again!

A little while ago I was asked by a couple of people if I could show some examples of effectively using Flash movies inside of Articulate Presenter. Well, I finally created an example, that is somewhat of a work-in-progress at this point.

The following example gives you an example of video inside of Articulate Presenter.

Articulate Video Examples (9:46 minutes)

The example contains examples of the following:

• Software demonstration in a slide
• Use of Presenter video
• Use of Presenter video and slide video for the same slide
• FLV Video in a slide
• A Web Object in a slide

I say that it is a work in progress because I will be making some changes to it soon, such as adding audio, and making the presentation a little shorter in duration.

If you can think of any other examples that you would like to see please feel free to comment and I will do my best to accomidate:-)

Labels: FLV, Presenter

Hello Again!

When I began to write up and research my blog posting titled 'Flash video in a slide' I decided to only create directions and an example of adding Progressive Download Flash Video (FLV) into an Articulate Presenter presentation. I had some thought about also adding an example of how to use Streaming Flash Video from a Flash Communication Server (now known as Flash Media Server) inside a slide, but I guess I figured that not enough people were looking for an example of Streaming Flash Video inside of Articulate Presenter to warrant an example. Well, less than 2 days after posting the original article I was contacted by 2 people asking if it was possible to add Streaming Flash Video in a slide. Well, it is, and in this blog posting I will explain how to add Streaming Flash Video from a Flash Communication Server into an Articulate Presenter slide.

In this blog posting I won't get into the specifics of the advantages of using Streaming Video over Progressive download video because it is covered pretty heavily in the Delivery Options for Flash Video developer center on the Macromedia/Adobe website.

What is needed to add Streaming Flash Video into an Articulate Presenter Slide?

1. Articulate Presenter
2. Access to a Flash Communication Server, or Streaming Media Service such as VitalStream
3. Flash MX 2004 or later
4. A basic understanding of Flash
5. access to my FLV2apstream.FLA file (click to download)

Like my previous example of adding Progressive Download FLV into Articulate Presenter at the slide level, you will need to create a SWF shell to playback the FLV, which can then be imported into Articulate Presenter for playback. Currently Articulate Presenter only supports direct FLV import into the presenter panel, so in order to get this to work you must first create a SWF shell, that will act as the player for the SWF at the slide level.

To create a SWF that loads an FLV from a streaming server:

1. Download FLV2apStream.zip
2. Unzip the file
3. Open it in Flash MX 2004 or later
4. Select the Actions panel
5. On line 2 of the ActionScript you will see a line that looks like this:
   nc.connect("rtmp://serverurl/project/_definst_");
6. Change the 'rtmp://serverurl/project/_definst_' to the location of your FLV on your Flash Media Server .
7. On line 7 of the ActionScript you will see a line that looks like this:
   ns.play("shining");
8. Change the 'shining' value to the instance name of your FLV (it will be the name of your FLV without the FLV extension)
9. Save the File
10. Preview

Watch a demo of these steps here.

If you have set this up properly the FLV should now stream into your SWF and should look something like this Streaming Flash Video. For more information on how to do this in Flash check the help file for Flash Communication Server and search for NetStream.play().

To insert the SWF into Articulate Presenter for streaming video in a slide:

1. Open up PowerPoint
2. Select Articulate>Insert Flash Movie
3. Select 'Display in slide'
4. Click Next
5. Browse to and select the SWF created earlier
6. Select 'Move to next slide when user clicks next'
7. Change the Buffer time to 0
8. Click Next
9. Click Finish
10. Publish your presentation

If everything has been set up properly your FLV should now stream into your Articulate Presenter slide and should look like this Streaming Video Example.

Stay tuned to the blog, eventually this will be a 3 part series on Flash Video. The next installment will be on Streaming LIVE Flash Video into an Articulate Presentation.

Labels: FLV, Presenter

As Flash Video (FLV) is becoming a more widely adopted delivery option for video on the web more and more eLearning content creators are looking to add video to their eLearning content.

In Articulate Presenter you have several different options for delivering video:

1. Display in slide (supports SWF)
2. Display in presenter panel (supports FLV and SWF)
3. Display in new browser window (supports SWF)

Since SWF is currently the only option availible at the slide level, many users are trying to embed large videos inside of SWF content for delivery in Articulate Presenter at the slide level.

The problem with this option is that embedded video in SWF format is not a good medium for delivering videos over 90 seconds in length. When you begin to exceed 90 seconds in length for embedded video you will run into audio synchronization issues, and video skipping issues. (For more information on this subject see Delivery Options for Flash Video.

For this reason it has becoming increasingly important to look to alternatives to embedding Video in SWF content. My recommendation for including longer videos at the slide level is to create a SWF file that loads in a Flash Video. This will give you the option of minimizing project file size, but adding the richness of video content. You will then be able to import your SWF which will then load the FLV during presentation playback..

Note: In order to create a SWF that loads a Flash Video File (FLV) you will need to have access to either Flash MX 2004 or Flash 8.

Once you have Flash MX 2004 or later installed, you can edit the FLA file that I created to point to your FLV.

1. Download the following ZIP file that contains the source FLA:
   http://www.mozealous.com/downloads/flv2ap.zip
2. Open up the source FLA in Flash
3. Select the Actions layer
4. Change all the FLV links to links to your FLV
5. Publish for Flash Player 6
6. Open your Articulate Presentation
7. Select > Articulate > Insert Flash Movie...
8. Select Next
9. Select Display in slide
10. Select the published SWF
11. For Synchronization select 'Play Flash movie after slide has begun'
12. Deselect option to 'Allow player to control inserted Flash movie'
13. Select Next
14. Select Finish
15. Publish your presentation

You can then customize the SWF to meet your needs for dimension and background color.

Labels: FLV, Presenter