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margheritam19631245
Participant
September 17, 2015
Answered

Placing vimeo or youtube video in interactive PDF InDesign CC

  • September 17, 2015
  • 1 reply
  • 43493 views

Hello!

I have read several articles on this but can't find a way to solve this:

I am creating an interactive PDF using InDesign CC and would like to embed vimeo and youtube videos to play directly from the file. When I insert the URL it does not work because it starts with https://  (not http://) . Obviously erasing the "s" doe not solve the problem because it says it is not compatible with Flash Player.

Is there anyway I can solve this??

I decided to create an interactive PDF only because I wanted to be able to embed online videos!

    Correct answer Dave Merchant

    You can't. Many years ago YouTube had a Flash-based API which allowed direct playback of an embedded video inside a parent SWF file (the only way to do it in a PDF), but it also allowed people to bypass the advertising, so they closed it down. The current API only supports HTML embedding for web pages.

    The 'embed' URL for sites like YouTube and Vimeo is a link to their web page, not to the video file itself (legally you cannot link directly to the video stream so we're not going to explain how it might be done). Acrobat's video player will only accept a URL that points to the video file or to an RTMP stream connector, which is why the URL must end in a valid extension such as ".mp4"

    The only options are:

    1. Embed the entire video file into the PDF - assuming you have a copy and have the rights to publish it. Easiest to do but the file size may be a problem.
    2. Host the video file on your own website and put the HTTP link into the annotation dialog (simple but anyone can download a copy, so it's not secure).
    3. Stream the file using Adobe Media Server (secure but very expensive).

    1 reply

    D
    Dave MerchantCorrect answer
    Legend
    September 18, 2015

    You can't. Many years ago YouTube had a Flash-based API which allowed direct playback of an embedded video inside a parent SWF file (the only way to do it in a PDF), but it also allowed people to bypass the advertising, so they closed it down. The current API only supports HTML embedding for web pages.

    The 'embed' URL for sites like YouTube and Vimeo is a link to their web page, not to the video file itself (legally you cannot link directly to the video stream so we're not going to explain how it might be done). Acrobat's video player will only accept a URL that points to the video file or to an RTMP stream connector, which is why the URL must end in a valid extension such as ".mp4"

    The only options are:

    1. Embed the entire video file into the PDF - assuming you have a copy and have the rights to publish it. Easiest to do but the file size may be a problem.
    2. Host the video file on your own website and put the HTTP link into the annotation dialog (simple but anyone can download a copy, so it's not secure).
    3. Stream the file using Adobe Media Server (secure but very expensive).
      M
      margheritam19631245Author
      Participant
      September 18, 2015

      Argh!

      Thank you very much for your detailed response!

      JoelGeraci_Datalogics
      JoelGeraci_Datalogics
      Participating Frequently
      September 18, 2015

      Dave, as usual, is correct on all counts, however I might add, if you own the rights to the video you can post it on your own site in a directory that blocks search engines from finding it. When a user attempts to play it, the hosting domain will be visible in the permissions dialog but not the full path to the video. Additionally, the full path doesn't show up in the edit window of the Video annotation so the path is fairly obfuscated.

      The user will really want to download the video to discover it's path.

      J-

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