MP4 video in a skin example

[erik leeman]

Here's an example of an external video movie inside a Pano2VR skin.
The movie itself is an .mp4 of 793kB (shot by a friend in Tokyo with a mobile phone), and it is 'transported' into the Pano2VR panorama by a separate .swf (made in Flash CS4) that itself is shown as 'Text'.

http://tinyurl.com/external-video-TEST01

Not only .flv's can be used as video source files, also .mp4's, .mov's and other video formats.
The only drawback is that the video cannot (as far as I know) be directly controlled by the Pano2VR skin.
So skin buttons cannot start or stop the video, only buttons on the video itself can.
But you can show and hide the video window using skin elements.
So a 'Mouse Enter' on a hotspot can toggle its visibility too, as I have done in this testversion.
If only the skin could control the video.....that would give a wealth of possibilities!

Cheers!

Erik

[erik leeman]

Here's our first 'Talking Head' test.
This probably is the first world-wide on-screen appearance by my friend Roger D. Williams announcing his new website.
Of course the message itself is not very appropriate on my website, but remember, this is just a test.
Next step will be to make the video background transparent by 'green-screening' it, so it blends nicely into the pano.
http://tinyurl.com/external-video-TEST02

In this one I used an .flv again, because that's the video format the still widely used Flash9 plugin can display.
Cheers!

Erik

[360Texas]

Ok that's cool. So embedding a .flv and a .mp4 will work The ON/OFF click screen seems to function well. And SHOW/Hide HS is working too

OK.. guess we should be looking to create a list of hardware devices that take MP4's video format.
I know you are using Flash CS4 so be kind and be sure to separate comments using FLASH and those we use directly with the skin editor.

".flv's can be used as video source files, also .mp4's, .mov's and other video formats."

I just looked at my 8330 Blackberry user manual for movie format type. User manual says it can take movies but "conveniently" omits the output file type.

Blackberry website 'Media types supported on the blackberry smartphone' for all the phone supported. I am using Blackberry Media Center version 4.7.

Blackberry creates movie files as a generic .3gp file format. Most cell phone with movie capability use .3gp format. So on the computer I clicked the VID_0000.3GP and behold !!!!! the Quicktime player shows the movie.

Movies taken with our point and shoot Canon PowerShot A640 create an

.AVI +/- 60 second video 640 x 480 = about 106 mb. So 1 minute = 100 mb
.3gp +/- 60 second video 240 x 176 = 1041 kb . So 1 minute = 100kb (I think)

[erik leeman]

Heya Dave, I see you've found some data, great.

I've fabricated a .swf based on the mobile phone movies I received from Roger that should enable others to experiment with their own mobile phone videos too.

Rogers' mobile phone videos characteristics are like this:
file format = .3G2
window size = 320x240 pixels
frame rate = 15 fps
compression = MPEG-4 AMR-smallband
sound = mono 8.000 kHz

I converted them using Quick Time (Pro) to this:
file format = QuickTime movie .mov
window size = 320x240 pixels
frame rate = 15 fps
compression = H.264 AAC

and then made a FlashPlayer10 .swf that loads any 15 fps 320x240 video file named 'video-320x240-15fps-H264.mov'
Note that these H.264 encoded videos can only be played by the latest Flash 10 plugins!

Just place my 'video-320x240-15fps-H264.swf' and your own re-encoded 'video-320x240-15fps-H264.mov' in the same directory as your Pano2VR Flash10 VR-panorama, and import the .swf as text in the Pano2VR Skin Editor, just like you would with an external .jpeg or .png.
Of course you need to specify the text window size as 320 x 240 pixels etc.

Have fun!

Erik

[erik leeman]

.3gp +/- 60 second video 240 x 176 = 1041 kb . So 1 minute = 100kb

These are the specs of your Blackberry right?
Can you also tell me the frame rate?
I could make you a .swf that loads 240 x 176 .mov's with the same frame rate as your Blackberry's.
You will have to convert your original .3GP's to H.264 encoded .mov's using your own copy of QuickTime of course.
It takes some fumbling around in the QuickTime export to... menus, but hey, even I could do it : )

Cheers!

Erik

[360Texas]

My blackberry is BlackBerry® Curve™ 8300 Look down near the bottom on this page. Frame rate is 24 fps. Supports H.263

Also I am using BBDevice Software 4.5 and Desktop Manager 4.7 on PC

Video Format is Normal 240 x 176 or MMS mode 176 x 144

http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.d ... 2010566928

[erik leeman]

Hi Dave,
Did you already try to convert your original .3GP's to H.264 encoded .mov's with QuickTime?
I found a compression quality of about 58 to give almost the same filesizes as the originals, but you may have to play around a little with the settings.
What size do you want the videos to be, 240 x 176 or 176 x 144?

Erik

[360Texas]

Lets wait a day or so for the conversion. I need to figure out how to get to H.264. I only have the Quicktime viewer.. not the authoring software

[erik leeman]

Okay.
I don't know exactly what the limitations of the standard QuickTime player are since I've had the Pro version for quite some time.
It's actually very cheap compared to normal video editing software, so price shouldn't be a major obstacle for most if they want to incorporate videos in their VR's.

Here are two .swf's for your Blackberry videos.
Please note that I couldn't test these myself as I don't have access to a Blackberry or video samples made by one.

Again, rename your converted video to 'video-176x144-24fps-H264.mov' or 'video-240x176-24fps-H264.mov',
and place it in the same directory as your Pano2VR Flash10 panorama and 'video-176x144-24fps-H264.swf' or 'video-240x176-24fps-H264.swf'. If all goes well this should give you a small video window inside your panorama like the ones in my examples.

Cheers!

Erik

[erik leeman]

And here is the other one

[360Texas]

I agree... Ill take a look at the PC version of QT Pro.

I am still trying to get my head around video content.

Restated for other forum tech history.

8330 Blackberry uses .3gp h.263 normal 240 x 176 and MMS Mode 176 x 144 @ 24fps

Canon Powershot A640 records
Output :
.AVI (Image data Motion jpeg M-JPEG)
.WAV (audio monaural)

standard 640 x 480 30 fps
320 x240 __ 30 or 15 fps
160 x 120 @ 15 fps

More after we return from shopping

Thanks

[360Texas]

Knowing the destination embedded into a panorama using Pano2vr skin editor is a file format type like a .swf or .mov

So I guess our next step is ? Where do we go from here

.AVI ->> convert to what using ?software? --->> .mov or .swf
.3GP ->> same question

[erik leeman]

To quote myself (again):

Here's an example of an external video movie inside a Pano2VR skin.
The movie itself is an .mp4 of 793kB (shot by a friend in Tokyo with a mobile phone), and it is 'transported' into the Pano2VR panorama by a separate .swf (made in Flash CS4) that itself is shown as 'Text'.

Not completely accurate, for completeness I should have written:
"The movie itself is a .3G2 (or .3GPP2) converted by QuickTime Pro into a H.264 encoded .mp4 of 793kB".
But it could also have been converted into a H.264 encoded .mov, as both can be read by Flash10 as long as they are encoded H.264.

Why the extra .swf?
The .swf is needed to hoist the movie into the Flash panorama, it will read the movie bit by bit and display it on the screen.
So the .swf itself does NOT contain any image or sound material, only code.
It is the .swf that must be inserted into the skin by using the same 'Text' method we already used for external images before, NOT the .mov!

Once more, in order to be able to use the .swf's I made, you will need to convert your .3GPs into H.264 encoded .movs using QuickTime (Pro). You'll have to prod around in QuickTime a bit to find the right menu options and settings, it doesn't conveniently offer them on a plate, but hey, that's why it is so cheap! However, once you've found out how it works it all becomes remarkably easy to do.
Once you have succeeded in making your conversion, you have to rename your new .mov to either 'video-176x144-24fps-H264.mov' or 'video-240x176-24fps-H264.mov', whichever is appropriate for the pixel dimensions of your movie, because that is the filename my .swf will be looking for to read.

If you want to use your Canon Powershot A640 .avis now, you will also have to resize them in QuickTime to make them either 240x176 or 176x144 besides converting them to the H.264 .mov format.
If necessary I can also make a special .swf for your Powershot movies, but perhaps you should first try to convert one of your Blackberry movies, just to see if you can get that working at all.

Erik

[erik leeman]

One or two things you might not have thought of yet:

The external movie does not have to contain images, it can just as well only be sound!
This way you can play an enormous sound file while viewing the panorama!

Also, because the movie files are stored outside your panoramas, you can (dynamically) switch movies or sound files without touching your panorama files! So you can insert different language versions, or update movies and/or commentaries to reflect changes in pricing or conditions or whatever.

Think about the possibilities!

Cheers!

Erik

[erik leeman]

From Adobe Labs: Flash Player:9:Update:H.264
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Fl ... pdate_3.3F

Hey, this is strange:

Q: Will Flash Player 9 Update 3 support non-FLV files?

A: Yes, with this update, Flash Player will also support files derived from the standard MPEG-4 container format such as MP4, M4A, MOV, MP4V, 3GP, 3G2 if they contain H.264 video and/or HE-AAC encoded audio.

I couldn't get any of these working in Stand Alone Player 9 inside a Pano2VR panorama.
Must have been doing something wrong then.
OR my version of Stand Alone Player 9 is too old for these formats.
Then again, I also tried to load a .3G2 'straight out of the box', and it didn't work in Flash Player 10.
Hmmm... (*scratches head*)

Erik