Please help write user guide info on sound and video

[Hagar Delest]

Can anyone assist me in writing a specific section of the OOo3 Impress Guide? Neither my co-author nor I use sound or video in presentations, so we don't know from experience what the issues may be (nor how to solve them).

For example, I'm totally unclear on the difference between Insert > Movie and Sound versus Insert > Object > Sound (or Insert > Object > Video). I can get the first to work (on WinXP), but not the second (an "object" icon appears on the slide, but doesn't do anything).

If there is info in the Help, I've been unable to find it, and some of what I have found doesn't seem to correspond with what I see in WinXP. I've read several threads in this forum that point to issues on the topic.

I've been searching this forum and the Web, but it's slow going and I suspect I don't know the right search terms. Pointers to specific topics, threads, or pages, or some help from an experienced user, would greatly speed this up. Not just regarding those menu items, but generally what should be covered in the Impress user guide regarding sound and video in presentations.

Thank you for helping improve OOo documentation!

[micha137]

Hi,
I am using video and sound a lot in presentations under linux ubuntu.
I have the feeling that in OO3.x there is not a problem of writing a guide, there is a problem of having it run at all. I have spent hours and hours trying to get it work, sometimes it does -a little bit(like playing newly inserted videos once and only once and crashing on videos inserted in older versions of OO)- only to crash on the next developer snapshot again. The "stable versions" 3.x were the worst and often freeze altogether in some circumstances.
Upon filing bugs I got sort of "foggy" replies up to marking the bugs as not reproducible and giving prescriptions on how to install the jmf that plainly do not function under ubuntu.
Contrary to some comments I am convinced that there is a media Problem in OpenOffice right now: The JMF-Diagnostics Page clearly finds the JMF in my systems and OpenOffice does not(mostly..). And the developers seem to tamper around with the critical code sections, otherwise there should not be these slight differences in behaviour from snapshot to snapshot (usually it oscillates between freezes, partial functioning and plain ignoring the media inserts). Nevertheless some bug reports, which were marked as reproducible have been set for a fix to targets in the far future....Since the procedure requires it, I filed numerous bugs but am seriously convinced, that it is basically one root to all these problems.
So after letting out some frustration here (I may be a bit unjust here and there...) my feeling is this has to be straightened out before writing a guide about that makes sense not to make it a compilation of workarounds.
As to the question of differing methods of inserting media. In my experience the two methods differ. The old method which had been functional in earlier versions of OO2.x is handled worst in OO3.x and often leads to crashes and freezes. The new method which worked only since the latest versions of 2.x sometimes functions partially and sometimes not, but rarely crashed on me. If you look into the xml representation of the presentation, you can seen the different coding for the inserted media-objects(older ones as "draw"-objects - you problably know that) but I have no clue, what the difference in OO-internal treatment may be.

Sad to say - where I depend on media( I have to give an acoustics lecture series each fall e.g. which relies heavily on embedded sounds) there is no choice for me yet but to use Openoffice 2 which works reliably.

regards
micha137

[mark_orion]

I can confirm Michas experience and the fact that there is something wrong with OOo 3.x. I have installed JMF plus the mp3 plugin, it shows up in the jmfregistry and the "jmstudio" application that comes with JMF plays mp3s without any problems. But OOo refuses to use the plugin, regardless if it is in the "official" Java classpath or a classpath set via OOos preferences.
A proper multimedia guide for OOo would be great, but the first thing we need is a proper multimedia implementation, specially on Linux.

[chubble10]

Video works fine for me when embedding .avi files in OO3.1x.

[Caracalla]

I see no attachment.

[chubble10]

I see no attachment.

it was too big to attach. sorry...
u can download it from herehttp://rapidshare.com/files/234037433/video_demo.zip.html

[TheGurkha]

Yes that works nicely.

(As an aside, a nicer free file hosting site (nicer for other users that is - no delays etc) is MediaFire.)

[chubble10]

(As an aside, a nicer free file hosting site (nicer for other users that is - no delays etc) is MediaFire.)

I tried that, but it makes FireFox / Flock crash every time i try & upload something...

[TheGurkha]

I use FF exclusively and I've never had a problem with MediaFire.

[chubble10]

Maybe it's my version of flash or an addon in FF that does it then. Anyway, i'm using FileFactory now (http://www.filefactory.com).

[melciorLT]

I agree with the previous comments. Put video at work in a stable and easy way and after that a guide can be done. In the meantime put only : "Ooo doen't work on video " that's all

[mgriffin]

I have just spent a few hours today trying to figure this out, here is my experience

- ooo would not recognize the quick time video I wanted to insert, even though it is listed as one of the formats
- I then used HandBrake to convert the video in to MPEG-4 (FFmpeg)
- I could then easily import it into impress and it worked without a hitch.
- both the audio and video came through exactly as they should

I hope that is helpful

[Rezo]

Here's a quick tutorial that I wrote for Windows Users: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36162

It is my FIX for Video.

-Rezo

[gmasters2]

I have had some difficulty getting sound to work consistently in Impress. I normally use Audacity to record the sound for each slide. I produce e-learning modules and ultimately want to produce a slide show with navigation that a student can interact and have the associated audio for each slide play.

Using the Insert Movie and Video feature allows me to insert the sound (I use MP3s since the idea is to flash everything down and post to the web). I can get the presentation to work properly on my Windows machine. When I export the presentation to Macromedia Flash, there is no audio and I don't get any of the interaction. The only way I have been able to produce this type of material is to use Captivate to pull in the slides as JPGs and then manually insert the audio on each slide from within Captivate. Captivate does flash the material properly and does play under flash on the web properly. I would really like to do this using Impress and Audacity exclusively since that would be a no-cost open-source solution I can have fellow instructors and student-teachers use to create teaching materials for e-learning.

I am willing to help write a section on this. In fact, a section on how to create e-learning modules within the Impress manual may actually become a hit with educators worldwide.