Link to video in PDF opens wrong viewer

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Dogil

I am using Scribus to create PDF presentations. (If you want to know why read this: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/1477/linux-replacement-for-apple-keynote-software/93143#93143 )
I would like to embed videos in the PDF. Since this isn't possible (yet) i would like to at least link to them in the PDF.
However if i create such a link to a local video file it is opened in the document viewer which can't handle video files.
Any suggestions how to approach this?

a.l.e

hi dogil,

there is a link in the main toolbar

just draw the link frame on top of the image with a screenshot of the movie... or draw a button or put a text below it...

ciao
a.l.e

Dogil

#2
hi a.l.e.
please read my question before answering. The issue is that the wrong viewer application is being opened. the evince "Document viewer" can't play videos. How to make sure VLC is launched for the video playback?

a.l.e

hi dogil,

sorry for missing the core of your question.

as far as i know, there is now way to set the the application handling the target, at the time you're creating the link itself.

what exactly happens, depends on the application you're using to view the pdf and eventually your desktop environment.

but somebody might knows better...

ciao
a.l.e

GarryP

Even if there were a way to force a particular media application to launch, how would you know whether the person reading the document had that application installed? And would you expect them to have to install some some extra software just to view your material if they didn't already have it? (And what if they don't have authorisation to install software? etc. etc.)

How a PDF is opened by default depends on the settings on the individual machine. Everyone has their own preferences and you can't rely on them having a certain set-up with the same software. And how links are handled depends on how that software is written/set-up, which you have no control over.

The best you can do is to put some instructions in your document telling people a good way of viewing the video. And some instructions on which document viewer to use - on the page where they download the document from, for example - wouldn't go amiss too. However, whether they go along with these instructions is up to them, not you. (And you can't be sure they would understand them anyway.)

None of the above is a problem with Scribus. It's just how things are generally.

Dogil

#5
Hi GarryP,

I don't care about portability. The presentation is only supposed to run on my computer with my local files. I am not using Impress or the like, because they totally suck with video files in them. I just want to have a PDF from which I can play the movies. Your answer seems to suggest that there might be a way to configure my system to handle these links from within the PDF.
Actually I think it is rather a bug in evince that it wants to open links with itself rather then with the default file handler of the system for this particular filetype.
Or it is supposed to be a security feature.

Actually evince seems to be able to open different links with different viewers which you can define from within LaTeX, as this question here suggests:
https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/229434/specify-external-application-to-open-a-file-in-a-pdf-link-generated-by-latex
Dogil


a.l.e

hi dogil

interesting link to stackexchange.

could you try it out and tell us:

- if it indeed works
- what kind of code in the pdf is it generating?

i would not put such hints in a pdf to be distributed, but for own comsumption, well, yes it can be an interesting hack!
(personally, for a similar reason, i started to create my presentations in bash... but, then, i have an issue when i have to provide slides...)

ciao
a.l.e

a.l.e

sorry, what kind of pdf code evince or ocular are expecting...
ciao
a.l.e

GarryP

Dogil, the instructions below won't do exactly what you want, but...

If you can get your web browser to play the video - either natively, via a plug-in, or by converting the format - you can use an "External Web-Link" PDF Annotation and enter the location of the local file instead of a web address, e.g. file:///Users/Me/<etc. etc.>

Most modern browsers can display most common video formats nowadays without much - or any - modification.

Like I said, it's not exactly what you asked for - it doesn't use VLC - but it should work without much hassle if all you want to do is get the video to run.

I've tested it on OSX with Firefox and Adobe Reader and it works just fine. Whether it will work with other OS/application combinations is something you'll need to check for yourself.