SWF to AVI or .MOV

I have a presentation that I just created in Captivate ready to upload to a Blackboard site. The 4 files generated from the Publish function were 1) a Firefox Document (2KB), 2) a Shockwave Flash Object (14251 KB), 3) a Shockwave Flash Object -- the skin (11 KB), and 4) a JScript Script File (1 KB).

I'm not sure how to upload these files so that they will open as a flash file in Blackboard. I thought I would get a single swf file that I could link on a site. Help?

Using Captivate is a PDF version of the contents of Captivate Help, ... using Captivate commands and features. The PDF file is available on the Macromedia

> The suggestion by a moderator herein encouraging me to use the Wish Form
> certainly has merit and I have done that.

I just wanted to clarify - there are no moderators on this or any other
Adobe forum. There are Community Experts who volunteer their time to try to
offer help and guidance, but they are not formally 'moderators'. Of course,
that doesn't stop some making efforts to guide the conversations and
attitudes of those posting here.



Steve


--
Adobe Community Expert: eLearning, Mobile and Devices
European eLearning Summit - EeLS
Adobe-sponsored eLearning conference.
http://www.elearningsummit.eu

The suggestion by a moderator herein encouraging me to use the Wish Form certainly has merit and I have done that. However, I took some crit, and I noticed others have too, for what is characterized as "venting". Is it not true that sharing product frustrations often leads to solutions from among the subscribers? I doubt that readers of Wish Forms at Adobe, while they maybe taking notes about future product enhancements, are going to be quick to suggest alternative solutions such as those that come from this Forum. In fact, no one would expect to hear anything from Adobe. When a Forum user brings a problem to the table, it is usually because the issue requires an immediate solution -- not one that can not wait for a future release. And while I have a complete suite of Adobe products, my first allegiance is to my clients and to implementing the right software.
I applaude Ruth3rf0rd and others like him that take the time to clearly articulate their issues even if it carries an element of venting. And I find it interesting that of all the Forums we belong to, the Captivate moderators seem to have a lower tolerance for this kind of communication. But that's OK because I probably will not have reason to visit this forum again and run the risk of being criticized. I have found a better solution on this Forum to solve my problem: the new Camtasia 5.0. Not only does it have all of the output options that we need, its Smart Focus feature and its highly intuitive design, eats Captivate's lunch. For those who were helpful on this Forum, I wanted to pass this word about Camtasia along to the other "ventors" at large.

FWIW I tried using Super (C) to convert a Captivate SWF to WMV, FLV, MOV etc. Super (C) is a great prgram (free too!). Keep getting an error message that a codec is missing either FLV1 or VP6. Perhaps this will solve our problem. But how (where) do we insert this codec for Captivate to recognize?

> Nor are suggestions to leave a
> message in Adobe's Suggestion Box for help... when, exactly, would that
> be?

I know it seems like bug reports and suggestions are ignored, because we all
want our OWN pet issues dealt with, but Adobe does read every submission via
the bug/suggestion form. Unless it is a showstopper, the standard practice
is to weigh up the relative value of each item, and the report count of an
issue, and create a list of priorities for action through the next official
release. Usually the release cycle is 18 months to two years.

> And
> the idea that Adobe's developers and marketers flat out ignore these User
> forums is simply appalling-- you could hardly ask for a more concise
> definition
> of "bad vendor" than that!

This is untrue. Adobe does pay attention to the traffic on user forums.
Depending on the product, you may even see Adobe engineers monitoring *and
posting* to the user forums, but as each product team has its own methods
and preferences, then you don't see that across the board. Each product has
Community Experts who are volunteers with numerous responsibilities, one of
which is to watch for issues and bring them to Adobe's attention.


>
> Using Captivate as the container within which to publish a MOVIE just
> because
> some part of the movie's content includes a short screen capture demo is
> absurd.

That, of course, depends upon your exact needs.

> But that appears to be the Captivate paradigm, given that there are no
> viable export options to video formats and Adobe's own video editing
> software--PremierPro--refuses to accept SWF (and FLV too, i.e. Flash
> VIDEO,
> there's another great definition of what it means to be a bad vendor).

Captivate is intended to create interactive output. Sure I can see why
sometimes you might want a flat, non-interactive presentation, so I agree
that export to AVI or similar is an omission, but I think it is a reasonable
one when you consider that the typical user of Captivate is non-technical in
nature and may be particularly purturbed to discover that the vast majority
of Captivate's features (all of the interactive ones) will not export to
AVI. I guess Adobe's choice up to now has been that AVI export is a nice to
have for a minority of users.

By the way, if you already have a swf, you can export this from Flash to
QuickTime. Then you can import that to Premier.


> ? I tried capturing the Captivate show off of two separate presentation
> platforms: Internet Explorer, and also directly in Adobe Flash Player 9
> (which
> of course is the application that runs inside IE when you play the show in
> IE,
> but what the heck). The direct-Flash Player 9 effort was interesting--
> when I
> set the screen capture software (ZD Soft) to capture just the FP9 window
> it
> reports that the window is empty(?), although the show plays. Oh, Adobe,
> how
> clever thou art.

Did you, by any chance, try using Captivate's own full motion recording?

Steve


--
Adobe Community Expert: eLearning, Mobile and Devices
European eLearning Summit - EeLS
Adobe-sponsored eLearning conference.
http://www.elearningsummit.eu

I would like to second edwardcurley's remarks. Also, comments which imply that SWF is the universal language of communication and that a desire to convert to other formats is perverse, are not helpful. Nor are suggestions to leave a message in Adobe's Suggestion Box for help... when, exactly, would that be? And the idea that Adobe's developers and marketers flat out ignore these User forums is simply appalling-- you could hardly ask for a more concise definition of "bad vendor" than that!

Using Captivate as the container within which to publish a MOVIE just because some part of the movie's content includes a short screen capture demo is absurd. But that appears to be the Captivate paradigm, given that there are no viable export options to video formats and Adobe's own video editing software--PremierPro--refuses to accept SWF (and FLV too, i.e. Flash VIDEO, there's another great definition of what it means to be a bad vendor).

The "John Daigle workaround" is no workaround at all, it still relies on generating SWF output. We--Googling around the 'net there appear to hundreds of people searching for an answer to this--are looking for NON-SWF output. Get it? Not SWF. No, no, no SWF. Something else. Not S---W---F. Is that clear enough? (and not FLV either, which also doesn't play well with others.)

The 3rd party transcoders out there mostly look pretty squirrley, and their demo versions at least don't appear to work. Like edwardcurley I've tried a bunch. I'm not alergic to paying for one but by this time I won't pay anybody until they prove to me that they can handle the load. By the way, in case anyone is actually reading this, there is one product claiming to be an SWF transcoder calling itself SUPER (C) (a copyright symbol follows the "super") that looks radioactive, acts suspicious as heck, and there is much discussion on the 'net about whether or not it is nasty malware. If anyone has more insight about this product please post your experiences.

I did come across an interresting suggestion to simply run the captive show in real time while using a screen capture program to generate AVI or other output. Sounded like a possible winner, but results were not very successful:
• Screen captures using DivX or XviD or other codecs to generate AVI files played beautifully in Windows Media Player and Winamp video, but Premier Pro would not import them, claiming an "unsupported audio rate" whether or not screen capture was set to record audio. QuickTime Pro wouldn't play the files either, claiming an unsupported codec, and referred me to an Apple web page where I could find the DivX and XviD codecs!

• WMV screen capture files actually did import successfully into Premier Pro, but with much degraded image quality over the way show looked in WMP or Winamp. Image quality in fact was too low to actually use.

• I tried capturing the Captivate show off of two separate presentation platforms: Internet Explorer, and also directly in Adobe Flash Player 9 (which of course is the application that runs inside IE when you play the show in IE, but what the heck). The direct-Flash Player 9 effort was interesting-- when I set the screen capture software (ZD Soft) to capture just the FP9 window it reports that the window is empty(?), although the show plays. Oh, Adobe, how clever thou art.

And so on and so forth... Many, many, many efforts, sweat and late nights trying to convert my Captivate show into something importable into Adobe's own Premier movie software. Nada. I must be working off some truly bad karma from a previous life.

Frankly, with zero format interoperability I feel robbed by Adobe for Captivate. Makes me wonder when we'll see the introduction of the Adobe Standalone Transcoder, only $699, download your copy today.

Color me a captive, but hardly captivated.

By the way, this forum lists "1131" topics but I count fewer than 100. Where are the other topics.

We have had major problems with the conversion of Captivate's SWF files in an effort to create an AVI from which to edit within Premiere Pro. We tried three differnet conversion software packages including SoThink. When we load the Flash file, these converters only see the first 150-180 (6 seconds) or so frames -- in our case the videos are thousand of frames in duration. Captivates playback is fine but there is something about their Flash creation or their instructions about how to export it that is lacking. You will note that there are several associated SWF files created. If you use the largest of the created SWF files, it plays back as expected within a web browser with full duration, but when you load that same file in a converter, only the first several seconds are recognized.
What is unbelievable to us is why there is only a Flash output option. After all, Adobe is a video editing player ---don't these development groups consult among each other. Captivate is a powerful application. But not having multiple output formats is a MAJOR, and unforgivable design omission.
By the way, don't try Flashants's SWF2 Video Plug in for Premiere that is supposed to allow you to import SWF files. It will crash Premiere. We tried several times.
We have been tearing our hair out with this problem and will welcome any advice. Let's all appeal to Captivate to get output options!!!!!!

Hi Todd and welcome to our community

Wow, it seems very odd to me that whatever this "Ning" site is/does, it doesn't accept .SWF as a valid format? Wazzup widdat? What is "Ning" anyway?

Anyhoo...

What you are seeing is how Captivate handles full motion clips that have been recorded. Normally they are all external and loaded when their point is reached on the timeline. One method of coaxing those beasties into slides was developed by fellow Adobe Community Expert and fellow Adobe Certified Instructor John Daigle. John discovered that if you take your Captivate and publish to an intermediate folder (make sure you use the Flash 7 target if you do this) that you can then insert blank slides immediately either before or after each of your full motion slides. Then configure the slide timing for those blank slides to match the slide with the full motion clip. Then insert the full motion clips from the intermediate folder on each respective slide. Then delete the original slides with the full motion clips. After doing all this, publish your file and you should have a single .SWF to distribute.

I will say that I've seen this suggestion offered and for some, they can't seem to make it work. I'm not sure if they weren't doing things exactly as suggested or why. But it's worth trying.

Happy Saturday to you... Rick