Adobe reader XI no longer plays video or audio embedded in PDF created with Adobe Acrobat X Pro.

[buffy_Mcc]

Help please!

Embedded video and audio content in PDFs created using Adobe Acrobat X Pro does NOT play on some school computers after Acrobat Reader XI is installed. The media content played fine with Acrobat X. This is seen with both XP and Windows 7 machines.

Bizarrely, other machines with Windows 7 and XP play the video and audio content fine when Acrobat XI is installed.

Please help, as the PDFs are the delivery mechanism for a very effective literacy programme for children, and this bug has halted delivery for a considerable number of schools and thousands of children are in trouble!

[buffy_Mcc]

Just to add to the above:

All computers tested ran Sophos anti-virus, including those which played videos with Acrobat XI and those which did not.

Video drivers varied between computers, so there was not a common driver which played videos and another did not.

Browsers used in the computers which did not play were different (Chrome and IE), those which did play used Firefox and Chrome.

[acrordrmn]

Hi there!

               Do you have flash player installed on the machines ?

Please use this link to download Flash Player -

http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/reader-acrobat-flash-player-download.html#main_download

If the problem still persists, please help us undersrtand the problem by answering the below -

1. Are there any errors when the content does not play ?

2. What audio content type (file extension) are you trying to use ?

3. Do you access PDF files (having audio/video) from an http url  ?

4. Could you please provide one such sample file to help me replicate ?

Waiting for your reponse.

[buffy_Mcc]

Hi there,

Thanks for your response.

The latest Flash player was installed on all machines, both those which play the media content and those which don't.

I can't answer all of your questions, as I can't make the problem occur on any machines I or friends have.

1. Not sure - schools are currently closed for the week!

2. audio content is MP3

3. PDF files are not accessed via the web, but are used either direct from the hard drive or from a data DVD.

4. How do I send a large file (smallest is about 28 Mb) to you?

One more bit of info which may be relevant:

I noticed that Vlc video player was installed on the computers at the school which I visited and where the PDFs would not play when Acrobat XI readers was installed. On the identical machines, as soon as we uninstalled XI and reinstalled X, video and audio played fine.

Regards

Buffy

[acrordrmn]

Hi Buffy,

              Could you please share the file on a file sharing site like acrobat.com or 4shared.com and provide me the URL here ?

Another way out may be, if you can share your email ID and I can discuss this with you over email.

-Raman

(Adobe)

[buffy_Mcc]

Hi Raman,

Here is the link to an example file on 4shared.com

http://www.4shared.com/office/Pl54y_Mn/M4W_Week_2_days_1__2__Primary_.html

I noticed that VLC was installed on both of the computers at the school I visited where videos did not play in the PDFs with Acrobat reader XI.

VLC is not on my PCs or those of the friends which I have trialled and failed to reproduce the problem.

regards

Buffy

[acrordrmn]

Hi Buffy,

                       Thanks for sharing the file. I could replicate a part of the problem. On my win 7 32 bit machine, I could replicate the sound not playing but the video content plays well.

Could you please confirm if you are facing the same problem ?

I am investigating this and will soon get back with an update.

-Raman

[acrordrmn]

I am able to replicate on one machine while on another (new clean machine) everyhthing seems to work fine.

I confirmed, this has nothing to do VLC media player. I'll update you as soon as I have another update.

Meanwhile, please answer my question in the above post.

[buffy_Mcc]

HI Raman,

The problem involves BOTH videos and audio files not playing. Thanks for the info that the problem does not seem to be related to VLC media player.

regards

Buffy

[acrordrmn]

Hi Buffy,

                           We need to do a connect (remote screen-share) session to understand the problem and investigate the possible causes.

Will it be possible for you, we'll need to do this from a machine where the problem is replicatable.

Could you please contact me at rchhabra@adobe.com ?

-Raman

[buffy_Mcc]

Hi Raman,

I'm working away from Oxford at the moment. I'll try to set up a session

with an Oxford school where the problem occurs. Please let me know what

timezone you are on, and what times in GMT you could work at.

Please allow me some time to organise this! Schools in the UK are only open

between 8.30 am GMT and 4.30 pm GMT.

I do really appreciate your willingness to investigate this problem, and I

apologise that it is difficult to access the schools where the problems are

occuring!

with best wishes

Buffy

[acrordrmn]

My timezone is GMT+5:30. So, it won't be a problem for me.

Let me know when you are ready for this.

[buffy_Mcc]

Hi Raman,

I think we have found the source of the problem. It relates to how different browsers are detected by Adobe when updating Flash Player.

To make the videos play within PDFs either from DVD or on the hard drive, it is now essential that Adobe Flash Player 11 Plugin (now version 11.5.502.113) is installed. (Adobe Reader 10 had its own internal flash player, so an external player was not needed)

We have discovered that, when Google Chrome is the browser, automatic updates of Flash do NOT download this programme. Flash 11 ActiveX is the only programme that is downloaded, and the videos do NOT play from DVD or harddrive.

Also, it is not possible to manually download Adobe Flash Player 11 Plugin as this option is not presented to the user. Presumably Adobe have set it up this way, because the Adobe site recognises Chrome is being used, and assumes that the computer does not need the plugin flash player, as Chrome has its own internal flash player. However, other programmes may need it!

We went to FileHippo to download the non-IE version (even though we were using Chrome!) at

http://www.filehippo.com/download_flashplayer_firefox/

Then the videos played from DVD or harddrive.

I have not been able to test how this works with other browsers. I hope that Adobe can sort this problem out asap!

regards

Buffy

[acrordrmn]

Buffy,

                      That was exactly what I asked you to do in my first reply. See the link I posted in my very first reply.

You need a specific Flash player plugin (for MOZILLA FIREFOX BROWSER) to play RMA in Acrobat/Reader XI. Going forward in the near future, this behaviour may also be true for Acrobat/Reader X. So, it'll be better to install this flash player plugin on all your systems.

We have ended dependence on the captive flash player and instead now use this flash player plugin. The logic behind being- we want to keep flash updated and make it more secure. Now you won't need an Acrobat/Reader update to keep your flash player updated.

Do let me know if you need any further help.

-Raman

[buffy_Mcc]

Hi Raman,

I had no problems with the videos, and I use Firefox. The problem arises

with schools using Google Chrome. Because the Adobe website is so "smart",

it thinks that because Google Chrome already has the necessary plugin so

that it is not needed on the computer at all.

So the Adobe website algorithm does NOT even offer the person looking for

Flash the option of manually downloading this plugin, let alone

automatically updating it.

This is why we had to go to a third party website (filehippo) to find the

required plugin, and why it took us so long to realise!

This is what needs fixing!

best wishes

Buffy

[acrordrmn]

Hi Buffy,

                       I understand your inconvenience but on a machine not having the required flash player plugin, when you open a PDF having audio/video, a yellow ribbon appears at the top of the PDF and points the user to the page from where the required plugin can be downloaded.

If you are somehow not experiencing this behaviour or you see some other buggy behavior, please do let me know.

-Raman

[buffy_Mcc]

HI Raman,

None of the machines which failed to play the videos displayed the

behaviour you describe. No yellow ribbon appeared. The first image of the

video appeared as normal and then just sat there blankly.

best wishes

Buffy

[acrordrmn]

Thanks for the update Buffy.

In that case, let's plan to have a remote desktop share session wherein I can check what's going wrong and where. Would you please help me with this ?

I'll need to access the machine that shows the problematic behavior and we can do this via Adobe Connect. Suggest me a an appropriate time for this.

Thanks,

Raman

[Bhaskaran26]

Hi Raman,

I have a similar problem where my Adobe reader 11.x does not play the embedded mp3 audio file. I also have the "Flash player plugin 11.6 for other browsers" installed in my computer. It won't not resolve the issue. Your help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Bhaskar

[MichaelKazlow]

Acrobat and Reader now needs its own plug-in:

http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/reader-acrobat-flash-player-download.htmlhttp://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/reader-acrobat-flash-player-download.html

[CaitlynJohnston]

Michael, the link is very helpful, but a user should get to the link by clicking the button in the prompt that appears when the have Adobe Reader XI and attempt to open a portfolio:

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to occur. This is a serious issue for my company and our end users of Acrobat portfolios deployed with our products.

I reported this back in October, but it seems to be under the radar. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Sandy