Video in interactive PDF not working

[alicem77844638]

Hi, has anyone had any luck playing a video in a PDF? I've tried adding it through InDesign, PowerPoint and in Acrobat itself but no luck. I've looked at changing settings in Acrobat as well but that hasn't worked either... help!

[JR Boulay]

It's more reliable to do it with Acrobat Pro.

Be sure to use a supported video format (H.264): https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/rich-media.html

[BobLevine]

Luck? Is that really what you want to depend on?

Unless you accept the fact that you'll need Acrobat to do this AND that you cannot control the default user settings that will likely prevent it from working for anyone else, the use of multimedia (and to a slightly lesser extent any interactivity beyond simple hyperlinks and bookmarks) in PDF should be avoided.

In short, even if you get it to work on your computer, the likelihood of it working anywhere else is close to zero. I suggest that unless you're the only one looking at this PDF, give this up right now.

[JR Boulay]

The days of SWF and other proprietary formats are over.

H.264 is part of the PDF 1.7 specifications, aka ISO 32000 standard, supported by most serious PDF readers (Acrobat, Foxit, PDFStudio…).

It's also part of the PDF 2.0 specifications, aka ISO 32000-2.

[BobLevine]

I'm aware, but again, how many PDF Reader applications strictly adhere to those standards? Even Acrobat (last time I tried it) threw up a permissions alert with a video. Try it in a browser, a mobile device or a third party reader and what's going to happen?

In theory, interactive PDF should be a great format, but like fixed layout EPUB, its way too dependent on substandard applications to make it practical.