View videos in CHM file

[RickNoll]

I have created a CHM file in RoboHelp 2015, V 12.0.2.384, in Win7 and all MP4 files hyperlinked through a text entry on HTML pages, open and play in either Windows Media Center or Player. One of my customers just converted their laptop to Win 10 and now he cannot get the MP4 files to play in either of the players. Anybody else have experience with this? A workaround? Some tips or tricks that I may not be aware of?

Here is what it looks like on the page:

What it looks like when clicked on in Win 7

Here is a typical entry code behind the page hyperlink (maybe some one can use this code and insert their own video file for the link and see if it works in Win 10 for them):

<tr>

                <td><p style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;

                         margin-top: 6pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;

                         margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold;

                         font-size: 12pt;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Richard

                 Nelson (NRK)</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;"><a

                 href="../NRK GDT CC.mp4" style="font-size: 12pt;">Video</a></span></b></p></td>

            </tr>

        </table>

Here are the specs on the MP4 file:

My computer with a service pack 1:

[Captiv8r]

Hi Rick

Are you on Windows 10? If so, does it work for you?

One thing to try would be to perhaps create a CHM that contains only the video. Then link to it in varying ways. See if you can coax it to play. Are you adding the video file as baggage? If so, create a basic link to it, then see if you are able to right-click the link and save the video to their desktop. See if they can open the video and play it from their desktop. Who knows, maybe their Windows isn't configured to play videos?

Just some thoughts as to how I might approach it.

Cheers... Rick

[RickNoll]

I am now on Windows 10. RoboHelp 2015 works except for the video embedding in a CHM. I tried publishing as a WebHelp and as a FlashHelp but the FlashHelp is not allowed to work at my company and the WebHelp is unsecure, leaving users the ability to corrupt the file structure. My company has accreditation parameters it must follow when it comes to the systems I am supporting. 

I tried making a chm with only an mp4 on a single htm page in it. No luck. I used a text hyperlink, a Captivate local SWF, an embedded smart player attached to the mp4 by way of Camtasia. No luck. I placed it in the multimedia section, no luck. I placed it in the Baggage section, no luck. We do have an internal type of YouTube site and an external link to that did work, but...

My chm files are viewed on air-gaped portable 3D metrology systems using Win7. They do not get connected to a network of any kind. They also do not use Win10. Engineers and instructors at desktops with Win 10 wanted to also use this LPSS system. The only way I can get it to work for them is to place everything on a flash drive, exclude the video files from compilation and link them to their place on the flash drive. This is slower to use and produce.

Authoring on Win 10 now requires me to test the files out on a secondary Win 7 computer. I have yet to find any reason for me to have upgraded from RoboHelp 9 to RoboHelp 2015. I thought I was going to get rid of the crashing I experienced in RoboHelp 9, that was not really improved either.

I got around the video issues in RoboHelp 9 and 2015 by changing the default viewer to Windows Media Center. Player is dumb and Center can actually call up compiled linked video files. Microsoft got rid of Center in Win10. Yes, MS offers a workaround to install it back in but at my company that is a chore to get approved in itself. Woho is Me...

[RickNoll]

Forgot to mention one interesting thing. A Ctrl+W or View Item on a page with these video links does work... they stop after compiling into a chm.

[Captiv8r]

What if you embed the video on an HTML page, then in whatever link you create to the page, coax it to open in a new window. That way the new window would be outside of the CHM.

[RickNoll]

I opened an HTML page in the Robohelp project that contained a video link and then selected the hyperlinked video control but all the hyperlink options are deactivated so I can't get it to display in a new window. I don't see where to change this in HTML either:

</table>

<table style="border: Solid 2px #ff0000; left: 479px; top: 697px;" cellspacing="0"

         width="304" align="center">

    <col style="width: 100%;" />

    <tr>

        <td><p style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18pt;"><a

         href="../Enter Points.mp4" style="font-size: 18pt;">Manual Data

         Entry Demo</a></p></td>

    </tr>

</table>

If I install and link to VLC, everything works, but VLC is not an approved software at my work site so I can't use it. I tried a wmv format and that didn't work either.

I don't understand why it works in preview but then after publishing it doesn't.

[Captiv8r]

Unfortunately that wasn't exactly what I had suggested. Sound like you are trying to make the link to the video open in the new window.

My thought was to create a separate HTML page. Insert an embed of the video on that page. If you did that, your video would simply appear directly on that page.

Then, from another page, create a hyperlink to the page with the embedded video. And from THAT hyperlink, make that page with the embedded video open in a new window.

Cheers... Rick

[RickNoll · Accepted solution]

I tried it and it didn't work either.

I cannot upload the videos and have it accessible anywhere useful for the intended systems. That is the only way to embed a video into an HTML page that I know of. Win 10 wants to use the src command.

I decided to try and make a pdf file out of the video and hyperlink the pdf file inside the chm. This worked! The video file and pdf are the same file size and the pdf gets uploaded as a baggage file.