RH8 and FLV

[NicPervy]

I would like to create a service video catalogue. I have created this catalogue with RH8 and have includes FLV video files. When I use the computer on which RH8 has been installed, the export WebHelp catalog plays the video files without problem. If I try to launch the catalogue on another computer, the videos are black and cannot be played.

I would like to have this catalog playable from an internet site. What I have to do ?

regards

[RoboColum_n_]

Have you added the .FLV files to your baggage files?

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The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[NicPervy]

The FLV files were not added. Once done, I have generated the project for WebHelp output but unfortunately when opened on another PC computer the videos are the same black screens.

I have also verified that the FLV files are all in the output folder.

What I have to do ?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Whether or not a FLV file will play will depend on the software installed on the computers trying to present the FLV.

Quick test would be to see if *ANY* FLV is capable of being played on these PCs. You may find that you need to convert from FLV to a different format in order to see the files. Or, you may need to use a special video player.

Is the WebHelp being copied to their computers and run from there or are they accessing from a central server? If accessing from a central server, perhaps it needs to have a MIME type configured in order to allow serving the FLV file type.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[NicPervy]

Hi,

I have added other video files .SWF, .AVI, . WMV all of them are playing fine on the secondary computer. A double-click on the .FLV file from the explorer cannot play the video. On the primary it the same scenario, When the HTML code is displayed in RH8, a mysterious rhmediaplayer is called. I have not found information about it on the web ...

[NicPervy]

What are the plug-ins, codec or program necessary to read the FLV video files included inside a RoboHelp project ?  May be FLV files in RH8 must have a specific flavor ?

On wiki:

Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player versions 6–10. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are two different video file formats known as Flash Video: FLV and F4V.  The audio and video data within FLV files are encoded in the same way  as they are within SWF files. The latter F4V file format is based on the  ISO base media file format and is supported starting with Flash Player 9 update 3.^[1][2] Both formats are supported in Adobe Flash Player and currently developed by Adobe Systems. FLV was originally developed by Macromedia.

Flash Video FLV files usually contain material encoded with codecs following the Sorenson Spark or VP6 video compression formats. The most recent public releases of Flash Player (collaboration between Adobe Systems and MainConcept) also support H.264 video and HE-AAC audio.^[4] All of these compression formats are currently restricted by patents.

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

Normally, RoboHelp doesn't do anything to external content such as FLV or SWF. When you insert that content into a topic, RoboHelp just adds the HTML code to serve the file to the browser. Hence Rick's question about FLV's being able to play at all on the other computer.

You say: "A double-click on the .FLV file from the explorer cannot play the video.". That is a sure indication that something is wrong with the other computer. A missing/corrupt flash player or something else. RoboHelp doesn't require anything for FLV, it isn't RoboHelp that runs the FLV in the output, it's the flash player.

What is the HTML created to hold the FLV? It should be an <object></object> tag.

Greet,

Willam

[johndaigle · Accepted solution]

I have not had issues with FLVs in RoboHelp 9, and I don't have RH 8 to test right now. However two things occur to me (and these are just guesses for now.)

One is that since it works on your local computer and does not on the other computer, this suggests that the path to the FLV itself cannot be found.

It sounds like the code to display the FLV is in the HTML, thus the black hole, but it cannot "find" the FLV.

Secondly, Adobe Captivate encounters problems displaying FLVs when there is no "metadata" encoded into the FLVs. I have a Captivate demo which discusses this on my site:

http://www.showmethedemo.com/tutorials/FLVMetaDataInjector.htm

So that also begs the question as to what was used to encode the FLVs in the first place. Was it Flash itself or something like Adobe Media Encoder? That might offer some clues.

Hope I'm not sending you on a wild goose chase here, but hope to offer some ideas.
Thanks

John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Evergreen, Colorado
www.showmethedemo.com

[NicPervy]

Thank you John for your ideas.

As I have the Technical Communication Suite 2 and the Creative Suite CS3 with Premiere Pro, Flash etc.. I can perform many tests ..

You have right for my encoded video FLV, I have used a free automatic encoder and I think that the resulted files are not so "official".

I think also that a bug occurs for RH8 concerning the FLV. I am working with a french Windows 7 64-bit and I have already find that RH8 does not recognize french characters (é, è) in some circumstances. I will try to start a new simple project and work on it step by step to see where it fails.

I will write the results

Regards