Great stuff, Dave. I’m also a big fan of your blog. Quick question: What app do you recommend to download You Tube videos so that you can insert them as FLV’s via the Media Player?

Hi Sheldon,

To be honest, I have never grabbed any videos off of Youtube, but I know there are a wealth of tools out there that enable you to do it.

Thanks for the kind words.

Sheldon – I would suggest using vixy.net or zamzar.com.

Dave – Is there a way to add player controls (like pause, play, etc) inside the Flash Video in Engage ?

Hello Amit,

Yes there is. In Engage there is an option to “Include Playbar” for Media Tour Interactions. Make sure that is selected.

[...] earlier post by Dave Mozealous showed how easy it is to add FLVs to your slides using Engage. He also noted later on that you can embed FLVs directly into your slides using a SWF shell, but [...]

[...] Use Engage to Add FLV Video to Your Slide [...]

Thanks much for this great tute, Dave!

1) If using a slide-level Engage Media Tour interaction to display the FLV, what are the ideal FLV pixel height and width dimensions I should use in order to achieve optimal video quality?

2) Should I specify certain dimensions for the overall Articulate Player to prevent the User from resizing it to a larger size that might compromise video quality? If so, what dimensions should I specify for the Articulate Player?

3) When using the Media Tour interaction, how can I completely prevent the Backwards and Forwards arrows from appearing next the interaction’s volume control, as seen in this example?

http://www.articulate.com/community/showcase/Ignite/player.html

Thanks much!

Regards,
Marc Zoerb

I have found that using Engage with FLV that are more then 5 min in length, is not a very good option. It seems slow and bulky, when there is only one slide in the powerpoint. I can’t imagine what it would do when you have 5 slides showing video that is 5min or longer in length, plus additional content slides. Anyone have other suggestions?

Anyone looking to download FLV files from youtube.. I highly recommend Tooble.

Simply favorite the video in youtube, then download in one click. Nice and painless.

This blog gave me the idea for a solution to the times when you’d like to be able to show more than one photograph in an Engage interaction (e.g. a Process step, or a Tab, etc).

Simply create a new Media Tour and load your photos, one into each item. In the Interaction Properties section set the playback to have the interaction to advance by itself.

Open a program like SnagIt and play your Medi Tour. Capture just the photos portion of the Media Tour as it plays through as a screen movie. Save it or convert it to a swf movie file. Video2SWF is a good cheap program for this.

Your new video will, in effect, be a slideshow to use in any interaction where you once were only able to show one photo.

Steve Lyne
Tamworth
Australia

This info is great, but I’ve yet to see an explanation on how to bring in a .flv and sync with the slides. That is, advance to the next slide at “x” point in the video. (cue points, etc).

thanks.jim

I am using engage to play a 1 minute flv file. When the video is finished the user must click on the advance button to continue. I would like the presentation to continue to next slide after interaction automatically. Is this posible?

Martin

I am using flv videos in Engage, and have selected ‘include playbar’ on the slide, but no playbar is included. Is this referring to a unique playbar specific to the flv, or the Articualte master controls playbar? Any reason why nothing shows up?

Hi Dave,

Have you in anything in the works for how to buffer an FLV?

Articulate works super but the 3-5 second pause with a blank screen before each video is a killer

http://www.knowledgescreen.com/rapidvideo

Cheers
Mark

Is there anyway to force the user to view the whole FLV video the first time and then allow FF/RW in subsequent viewings?

Hi Mark Dorosz,

One thing that you can consider doing is inserting a “faux” loading animation in PowerPoint. When the FLV starts, it will be “on top” of the loading animation and will be hidden. This will give your users the impression that the video is loading and will make the presentation appear seamless.

Hi Doug Swenson,

If you want to force a user to view an FLV video and then allow FF/RW in subsequent viewings, then you can do the following:

1. Create 2 slides that each contain your FLV file
2. Go into slide properties
3. For the first slide, select the LOCK option and then right click and select Hide in navigation
4. Adjust the branching so that the first slide will jump the second slide (so that the user doesn’t see the video again)
5. Adjust the branching for the second slide so that it doesn’t “go back” to the locked slide
6. Publish your presentation

By using the method above, here’s what your user will experience:

1. The user will hit the first FLV slide that will be locked (no rewind or FF)
2. When the user is done, they will advance to the next slide (skipping the FLV that can be FF and RW)
3. With the branching set up properly, the user will never be able to get back to the slide that contains the locked FLV…rather, they will only be able to get back to the slide that has FF and RW enabled.

I hope this helps!

Brian,

I have tried what you suggested but with just straight FLV files inserted into a slide. Is there a way to allow the user to use the seek bar at the bottom of the player on one slide and not be able to use it on others?

Or am I stuck using Engage to do the trick?

Doug

Hi Doug,

“I have tried what you suggested but with just straight FLV files inserted into a slide. Is there a way to allow the user to use the seek bar at the bottom of the player on one slide and not be able to use it on others?”

If you insert the FLV file by using the “Insert Flash Movie” and then choose to sync the video with the slide, the play and pause control will work for the user.

However, in order to prevent the play and pause control from being used, go to Slide Properties and lock the slide. Locking the slide will prevent the user from advancing the slide, pausing the video, rewinding the video or anything else.

I hope that helps. For your reference, I created a video screencast regarding your original request the other day. Here’s the link:

http://screenr.com/9J2

Have a good one!

Brian,

I feel like an idiot. That was so obvious in retrospect. “Forest for the trees” syndrome.

Thanks for all the help and patience. It works like a charm!

Doug

Brian,

Is there any way to just reference the FLV file once? I ask because with the FLV file included twice, it doubles the size of the presentation. Any way around that?

Thanks,

Doug

Hi Doug,

Can you tell me why you’re using the same FLV file twice in the same presentation? If you could give me a breakdown as far as what slides they’re used on, I’ll see what I can come up with.

Further up this thread you mentioned to create two slides and lock one in order to force the user to view the entire video the first time through.

http://www.articulate.com/blog/articulate-101-use-engage-to-add-flv-video-to-your-slide/#comment-3716

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Doug,

If you insert the same exactly FLV file twice and it has the same name, then it will only show up once in your published output (look in the data / swf folder). So, it shouldn’t be a problem as far as bloating the size of your published files.

Please let me know if you continue to have problems.