CP4: Error Publishing to AVI Format

[Richards_Daddy]

Whenever I try to publish my project as an .avi file, the window opens, "Initializing" appears in the lower left corner, then I get a tiny dialog that reads, "Error occurred." Any ideas are appreciated. I need to publish so that:

• There is only one file created by the publishing process; and
• Users will not need Cp to view the presentation (obviously, this should be easy).
• I would prefer not to create .exe files; this file extension will create lots of questions, assumptions, and heartburn.

Thanks in advance!

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

Did you try to produce a pdf? This requires that the users have Adobe Reader 9 installed,

Lilybiri

[Richards_Daddy]

Yes, the .pdf output works. Of course, I can't deliver this project in document form; has to be electronic.

A little background I probably should have included: my users don't have access to SharePoint or anything like that (and an LMS is completely out of the question). The finished product has to be deployed to a shared drive. So, users will be getting to these presentations by clicking through folders, and then finally clicking the presentations to open them.

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

PDF is electronic! I do not understand your remark perhaps because I'm not a native English speaker. The advantage of the pdf is that you can play the SWF without needing a browser, because Adobe Reader from version 9 on has the Flash player build in. For students (I'm a teacher) that do not have access to our LMS I'm always preparing a PDF-portfolio that I will put on a server so they can have access to it.

Lilybiri

[sumishra · Accepted solution]

Hi Richards,

The issue might be due different  reasons. You can try  the following suggestion to  effectively publishing the project to .avi format.

Option 1 - There is a possibility of proper driver is  not present in your PC for the selected  encoders. In this case select a different “Video Format” from the available drop down menu and try to republish the video.

Option 2 - You can try using the encoders, such as XviD. It is freely available and can be downloaded and installed easily. Klite Mega Codec pack contains XviD, and some other encoders like DivX which can also be used. After installing the codec, you might need to restart your system. Now while publishing to avi, in output options->Video format, select Xvid.

Option 3 - Most of the encoders do not accept odd numbers as project width or height in terms of resolution. This means that if your project resolution is something like 455×450 or 640×479 or 425×315 etc, you’ll get an error message as ‘Error Occurred’ and the publish will abort. A quick solution would be to resize your project to have even numbers as the project dimensions.

If you are still facing the issue then please share the project with us so that we can investigate the same from our end.

Thanks,

Subhransu

[Richards_Daddy]

I'll look into all of these, Subhransu. Unfortunately, if I hit a brick wall, I can't share the project with anyone. It's TS/SCI. But I'm thinking your Option 3 is what I need to look at, should I decide to try publishing in .avi format. I was able to generate an .exe without issue (but like I said, a lot of people understandably think .exe = virus). Thanks so much for your help!

[Guest]

Richard,

You could provide a finished product as PDF as Lilybiri states.  Only Adobe Acrobat reader 9 would be required.  if you only published to AVI it is just a dumb movie file, but as a PDF not only could you include video, but also make it somewhat interactive.  if you had any hyperlinks in the presentation those would be active in the PDF.   everything would be embedded into the single PDF file.  I see that you have more options if you used PDF for standalone content, then just an AVI file.

my 2.5cents

[Richards_Daddy]

Thanks, JimmyDotMac; I'm looking at either publishing .pdf or *gulp* .exe now. AVI format is pretty much not an option anymore; my project size isn't congruent to AVI anyway. I tried .pdf and it looks pretty good, as does .exe.

Thanks again, and, btw, I'm Richard's daddy, not Richard

[Richards_Daddy]

Bad choice of words, I guess... .pdf is indeed electronic, I use it all the time. I tend to put .pdfs in the "document" group, so that's really what I meant. I didn't realize Reader 9+ had Flash capability. That's awesome! My users have browsers, they just don't have access to a shared, intranet-ish location, like SharePoint, where I could upload these presentations. I might go ahead and propose we deploy these things as .exe files (with our own in-house .ico files, as opposed to the stock application icon that makes people think something legitimate is actually a virus). Most of my users aren't on Reader 9 or above, and I don't want to have to ask people to upgrade their software in order to consume these presentations. I want them to be able to find the presentation and watch it, even if they're using a real old dog of a computer. Thanks for the help and information, Lilybiri!