Video Object

In order to play, stop or control the video, you have to place other controls on the screen with assigned «Interaction with other objects and Video» action or you have to start and control video from script via Video related functions (see VideoCommands).

The video object has two files: The Still image and the video itself.

The Still image stays on the screen when video is closed (it is not playing) and it is a normal bitmap object.

TIP: Wizard can insert video controls for you.

After you create a video object, select it and click on Wizard button (the Magic Wand on top), and select «Insert Video Controls». This will create a few bitmap buttons attached to this video object.

Check this article for a detailed VideoTutorial.

Limitation:

Even you can place a rectangular objects on top of Video object, any non-rectangular or transparent Image placed over the Video object will still appear like a rectangular object with a white or gray background. There is nothing that we can  do with that.

Basic options:

Video File

Video is an external file, it will stay outside the mbd file. Video file is loaded  into Video object via Video import dialog.

It is essential to specify a relative path to the file using < SrcDir> or < SrcDrive> commands in the path.

You can do it later for all objects with «Path Replace» in Project menu. More about relative paths in Constants topic.

Hide Still Screen

Video, if it is not playing is represented on the screen by the still image. However, you can hide this still image (with Hide option in Video Properties or by Hide scripting command (and then show it by Show).

Sound

You can disable sound if the sound channel exists in the AVI file

Note:

AVI Audio plays through the standard audio output and it cannot be played at the same time with DirectSound channels.

Be aware!,  video with sound  will shut down  DirectSound Channels and any background music will stop playing.

Shortly, the sound of video cannot be mixed with background sound.

Speed

MMB allows you to play video at any speed. The default value (normal speed) is 1000. Less than < 1000 , and the video will play slower and in reverse.

Loop

Video can play in the loop until the user triggers the STOP action.

Save Still

Maybe you would like to save the still picture for the future or to use it somewhere else. This will be handy.

Load New

Load new AVI  file or reload the old one and select different still image.

Advanced options:

Full Screen:

The video will play in full screen mode. Clicking inside the video will turns it back to normal view mode. This is fully supported by AVI. However, some MPEG drivers allows full screen some not or doesn't show the video with proper dimensions or aspect ratio.

After Video Finish events.

Run script after Video Load/Start/Stop/Finish events.

After the video Load/Start/Stop/Finish you can define script for each of the above mentioned Video events. This will allow you to react if user for example stops Video during playback.

Mask:

With the Mask, video doesn't have to play in rectangular square anymore and it can have any shape you want.

You need to prepare an image mask with size of the video. The video will be played through this mask where the black pixels will be video and white transparent. The mask could have any shape or image (for example black text on white background). You can load the mask in the Video Properties. (Two buttons were added - Load and Clear Mask) You can create very interesting effects because finally you don't have to be stuck with the boring rectangular video found in many authoring tools...

Recommended SW configuration for successful Video Playback:

LIMITATION:

Color depth of the video files (and display color depth) must be 16bpp or higher! Playback of the 8bpp video files is possible, but MMB cannot create still image for these files (or that low display color depth).

Supported Video (Audio) formats:

Note: Audio formats mentioned in the below list can be used only with VideoLoad  function. Audio CBK variables as well as AudioVisualization object will not work with Audio files played over Video object.

Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) is a file format that stores audio and video information

Advanced Stream Redirector (ASX) files are used to direct users to streaming media content, usually on multimedia Web sites

Windows Media Audio (WMA) is an audio codec that has been created by Microsoft. The codec is designed to handle all types of audio content.

A Windows Media file with Audio and/or Video (WMV) is used to download and play files or to stream content. The WMV format is similar to the ASF format.

The MPEG standards are an evolving set of standards for video and audio compression developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).

MPEG-1 was designed for coding progressive video at a transmission rate of about 1.5 million bits per second. It was designed specifically for Video-CD and CD-i media. The most common implementations of the MPEG-1 standard provide a video resolution of 352-by-240 at 30 frames per second (fps). This produces video quality slightly below the quality of conventional VCR videos.

MPEG Audio Layer-3 (MP3) has also evolved from early MPEG work.  It is an audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 specifications. Developed in Germany in 1991 by the Fraunhofer Institute, MP3 uses perceptual audio coding to compress CD-quality sound by a factor of 12, while providing almost the same fidelity.

MPEG Audio Layer-2 (.mp2, .mpv2)

A proposed MPEG-3 standard, intended for High Definition TV (high definition television), was merged with the MPEG-2 standard when it became apparent that the MPEG-2 standard met the HDTV requirements.

MPEG-4 is the latest of the Moving Pictures Experts Group standards to be approved by the International Standards Organization (ISO). Microsoft has created the first implementation of this standard in the United States in Windows Media Technologies with the release of the Microsoft MPEG-4 version 3 video codec. This standard was developed specifically for encoding multimedia content efficiently in a variety of bit rates: from low Internet rates to rates that reproduce a full-frame, television-quality presentation. The Microsoft MPEG-4 video codec intrinsically supports streaming multimedia by allowing for multiple streams within one encoded data stream. It also has an advanced motion estimation algorithm, which allows for greater compression.

Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is a standard protocol for the interchange of musical information between musical instruments, synthesizers and computers.

Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format developed by Apple Computer for storing high-quality sampled audio and musical instrument information.

Unix Audio (AU) files are UNIX-generated sound files.

A Sound (SND) file is an interchangeable sound file format used on Sun, NeXt and Silicon Graphics computers and usually consists of raw sound data followed by a text identifier.

Wave Form Audio ( WAV) is a file format in which Windows stores sounds as waveforms.

QuickTime is a file format developed by Apple for creating, editing, publishing and viewing. QuickTime supports video, animation, graphics, 3D and VR (virtual reality). While Microsoft does support the MPEG format itself, AVI files encoded with this particular codec (MPEG4v3) are not supported in AVI format. Windows Media Player supports MPEG4v3 files in .asf streaming format only. The .avi file can be converted to an .asf file using Windows Media Tools Windows Media Encoder.

Files in the QuickTime versions 2.0 and earlier .mov and .qt file formats are supported in Windows Media Player 7 if you have upgraded from a previous version of Windows Media Player. If you have not previously installed Windows Media Player, Windows Media Player 7 does not support playing QuickTime files.