Video in Standalone (projectors)

[HansNyberg]

I just discovered while doing some experiments with the flvplayer that it does not at all work in the Standalone Flashplayer.

I am surprised that I can not find anything about this in the Forum archive,

In addition comes the problem with using non distorted videos in fullscreen.
Unless you use distorted the videos will go fullscreen. I know there is a workaround for this but it involves working in Adobe Flash and adding a line tin the .fla file. That should be implemented in the standard player.

Hans

[HansNyberg]

Just found Tommy's moviebox. Lets see if that does the trick for the Standalone.

Hans

[allSaints]

I wouldn't think so, Hans.

These FPP plugins have an init function, that doesn't execute until there is an INIT event caused by FPP. And this function will furthermore try to reference a number of FPP objects that has to be around...

So, they are really tailor-made to work only under these circumstances.


Tommy

[HansNyberg]

I have not seen any plugins before that does not work in the Standalone. For example the Tooltip works fine. And the mp3Hotspot.swf also.

I have to say that I can not get the moviebox to work at all. Tried everything but I get nothing.
Tried even to imitate your folder structure but I get no videos and I can see that only the xml and the moviebox.swf loads.

Hans

[HansNyberg]

Oh, BTW the flvplayer does work in the standalone fine if you rename the flv file to flvplayer.flv and open the player directly in Standalone.

But it does not work from xml

Hans

[HansNyberg]

Finally found out how the moviebox works.
Have to say it is not what I would call normal. Sorry Tommy.

The FLV videos has to be referenced relative to the pano.swf file not to the xml or moviebox.swf.
Found it just by accident actually because suddenly it worked in the Standalone but not on the webpage.
Now I have to find out if that can work with the normal structure this page has. (it is not mine but I use almost the same way)

But as I said it works fine in Standalone and also in fullscreen.

Hans

[allSaints]

Hans,

I think I misunderstood what you meant by Standalone. I saw it from the plugin perspective - and that meant standalone from FPP, just as a simple .swf file.

And regarding the path to the videos. It is not relative to the pano.swf file - it is relative to the current directory from where you load the .html file. That seems pretty normal to me - all my paths are relative to this directory, also the path to pano.swf. And the plugin itself doesn't care at all where things are located. But I know there are different schools, and I guess the main point is that you do things in a consequent way.

Tommy

[HansNyberg]

No it is not from the html. I just tested.
I have the html and the xml in the folder sodring. The pano.swf is in files at the rooth where the sodring is.
In video I have the flv and moviebox.swf + the moviebox.xml

This works
<movie url="../sodring/videos/video1.flv" >

If it was referenced from the html it should have been this
<movie url="videos/video1.flv" >

To me the natural would be that the flv files was relative to the moviebox xml.

The problem in the case I am working on is that the html and the standalone will need different references.

Hans

[allSaints]

Hans,

that is not the case on my server, because I have "pano.swf" one level above the directory where I have my html, plugin and xml file. The videos are one level down in a directory named "images", and I just reference my videos:
<movie url="images/video1.flv" >

That wouldn't work if the reference was the "pano.swf" location that is two levels above the video file.


Tommy

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

I'm not the handcoder here, you are. (as it was said to me a short while back)

As such, I have absolutely NO problems with either distorted or non distorted videos playing in standalone projector files created with a single click in FFC. And because I am not a hand-coder, I really can't tell you what the problem is, but you might find the solution in the following package. There are 3 videos, one distorted and 2 non-distorted:

http://flashificator.com/1/SAP/VideoTest.zip (27.25mb)

[HansNyberg]

I'm not the handcoder here, you are. (as it was said to me a short while back)

As such, I have absolutely NO problems with either distorted or non distorted videos playing in standalone projector files created with a single click in FFC. And because I am not a hand-coder, I really can't tell you what the problem is, but you might find the solution in the following package. There are 3 videos, one distorted and 2 non-distorted:

http://flashificator.com/1/SAP/VideoTest.zip (27.25mb)

Sorry but that is a complete mess.
None of the projectors work and the whole setup is a mess.
The Mac projector is not a working projector at all. A real macprojector is 12.8mb this one is only 6.9mb.

It took me 10 minutes to clean up all the files and reorganize them so that they work together with 2 real working Projectors.
Here is a correct working one.
The videos starts all playing on Mac when you open, I assume that is not how it should be. I Have not looked at that problem.

http://www.panoramas.dk/flash/Aworkingone.zip

Hans

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Download and test again.

There was an error with a backslash coming from the windows crapper creating this.

The only real MESS is on your hands... while the only "mess" was a single backslash on this end.

I only threw in the videos with autostart enabled for all of them, so that people would get stuck on "it's not working" because they might have a problem finding the play button.

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

And as to you using a 12.8 mb projector vs. the 6.9 mb FULLY WORKING one... that's something I really don't follow you on. Why would you be using extra big projector when you can do with a much smaller one?

As I said, try downloading again (I deleted the file I had uploaded initially and uploaded the fail-free one only minutes after first posting).

[HansNyberg]

And as to you using a 12.8 mb projector vs. the 6.9 mb FULLY WORKING one... that's something I really don't follow you on. Why would you be using extra big projector when you can do with a much smaller one?

As I said, try downloading again (I deleted the file I had uploaded initially and uploaded the fail-free one only minutes after first posting).

I can tell you why now.
You are not creating full Intel/PPC projectors.
Your projector is only working on Intel not PPC Macs.

That means that 30% of the Macs can not see them,

Hans

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Ah crap!

You are right.... The PPC Mac on this end has not been employed for the most part of the past year, and was not tested for compatibility with the SAProjector. Time to dust it off and make the thing universally functional.

The backslash error "only" happens when producing the SAP with Windows... but has been fixed in the code for the next update.

During the testing of the projector, it was tested locally on the iMac, burned onto a CD on the iMac and tested on both the Mac and PC. Worked. Then I produced a SAP on the PC, and it worked locally, burned on a CD and tested again on the PC, and it worked. The last test - testing the PC output on the iMac - was not performed, simply based on the assumption that it had proven itself to work.

The PPC angle was not put in play at all. Are there really still 30% of Mac users running on PPC? Good quality macines for sure... but I would have expected the Intel based ones having 90% of the market by now.

Thanks for the info.

[HansNyberg]

Actually the 30% was not my stats. I guess they must have been a little old.
I just checked my own and it has dropped from 29% 1 year ago to 14% for the last 3 months.
I guess it is time to update to the new 27" iMac.
I have been planning to do it but I have to say the G5 is such a nice working machine and I always try to stay on the low end to keep in touch with how panoramas and websites perform for the last 15-20% visitors who does not have the last machinery.

I visited a Photographer recently who has an iMacG5 about the same age as my PowerMac G5 and was surprised on how bad his was compared to mine. Even with his lower resolution screen the flashpanos performed much worse than on mine.
And I am as low as FPS 5-10 on 1920x1200
Website Speed on these just 3-4 year old ones depends not on the connection but the loading of large files in the browser may take 3-4 times the actual download.

It makes sites like 360cities to a pain to load as they often waste the bandwidth with 25 mb of download even if the real resolution should be less than 2.5mb.

Hans

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

The 27" iMac is truly a tempting machine. After several weeks of continued PC problems and hundreds of wasted dollars in a new graphics card and a power supply... and a lot of completely wasted time and work being put on hold, the price of any kind of Mac looks really cheap. I got my programmer an iMac 24" a year ago, and it has never ever gone down with the flag. No lost working hours, no lost work, no wasted time. In the same period of time, my PC... of apprx same age... has caused me a couple of months lost time, a lot of lost work and endless problems. There isn't a day where it doesn't fail in some way. It can be a "disappearing cursor" issue (no, it's not the mouse, I have tried other mice, and it's the same thing), or it can be disappearing fonts... or it may be a freeze up, or it can be "unexpected shut down"... (what's unexpected about that? After all I AM using a PC... so everything in that category is EXPECTED).

On Monday I will be going to the main iStore here in Lima to get Snow Leopard for my programmer... and I will be looking into the specs and feel of the new 27" .... if it has entered the market here. I'm not sure it has... but hope so. Probably I will offer pano-shooting their 2 iStores, and in return get one machine... or two :) ... if I can persuade myself to be greedy.

I hope you get yours soon, and will be happy with it.

ah... is there anything new on the "flash issue" on the iMacs? Has it been confirmed to be a problem? (the processor goes way over 100% when playing flash content, considered to be a hardware issue).

[HansNyberg]

100%
I usually use 160% for a fullscreen flash, panorama or high definition Videos as we have from online TV both in Denmark and Sweden.

Hans