HELP - Video Content for Interactive PDFs

[ajrichardson]

Dear Adobe Users,

I'm very simply trying to place a .mp4 file into an InDesign template to export as an Interactive PDF so that the video is available for viewing (package attached). 

When I got "Click to active" the content using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC - a banner comes up saying "3D content has been disabeld. Enable this feature if you trust this document" and once enabled another banner appears saying "This PDF's content requires Flash Player, which will no longer be supported after December 2020".

If I try to use the Rich Media tool provided with Adobe Acrobat and try incorporate the video material that way, the PDF just eventually crashes.

Am I missing something? How are people getting around this Flash Player issue? Are there any niche .mp4 settings I am missing? I've tested with media exported from AfterEffects as well as downloading samoke .mp4's online and the outcome is the same.

Many thanks in advance.

Anthony

[BobLevine]

My advice hasn't changed. The use of multimedia in PDFs is a horrible idea.

Even if you can get it to work in Acrobat or Reader the likelihood of it working anywhere else is miniscule.

[Dave Merchant]

You are doing everything correctly, but Adobe is hell-bent on breaking rich media in PDF. They messed up by insisting that Flash Player be involved whenever someone wants to play video or audio in a PDF (despite there being no reason why the embedded MP3 or MP4 can't be played natively, just like your Web browser does), and now they're trying to force people off the bus by messing with the user interfaces in Acrobat and InDesign.

FXL EPUB-3 is the way to go in the medium term, but it's a more complicated user experience at the moment (with the default EPUB apps like Apple Books you can't just "open" a random file or email attachment, you have to import it to your library, which puts a copy into some hidden folder you've never heard of and syncs it to your phone, etc. etc.)

For info on all those warnings see here.

[BobLevine]

I hate pointing people to FXL EPUB because of the reader situation. Beyond the Books app, there's not much out there and even Adobe's reader app, Adobe Digital Editions is really bad.

[ajrichardson]

Thanks for the help everyone, I think I will just publish online as an alternative in the meantime!

[Dave Merchant]

Agreed - aside from the faff with actually opening something, everyday user actions like "take me to page 3" are often impossible, because the UI was built to expect flowable content where pages are meaningless. ADE has always been an unwanted child, it started life as the "eBook Reader" plugin in Acrobat and in the decade or so since it was kicked out as a standalone application it's hardly changed.

Maybe, just maybe, the likes of ERDlab will up their game when they see people fleeing from PDF. We can but hope!

[Derek Cross]

Have a look at in5 https://ajarproductions.com

[ajrichardson]

Thanks for your suggestion Derek_Cross!

[Diane Burns · Accepted solution]

Agree with BobLevine, mutlimedia PDFs are not very practical. Recommend instead you try Publish Online, built right in to InDesign, and available with one click.

Here are some examples, including many with video: http://bit.ly/PubOnCollection

[ajrichardson]

Thanks Diane_Burns - I've tested it and it works perfectly that way!

[Andee NG]

Thank you SO much! I've been looking for a solution like this for ages (I've got ePubs to display video, but only on Desktops and iDevices - not Android) -- didn't realise this was right under my nose 🙂