MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Why no discussion of HTML as a book format?

philja · 08-28-2020, 12:12 PM

The evolution of reading technology will continue. We've seen broadcast media tech converge with computer tech so you can fetch your movies on a tablet and cast the picture to your large screen tv. Just the same way, convergence will occur in reading devices and the present pandemic has put pressure on teaching systems. This can only speed up the convergence.

Fiction readers will not be obliged to look at embedded media but for many non-fiction projects, audio and visual media will only make the teaching more accessible.

In any case, I am with the responder above who hates the self-starting videos on webpages. I also hit the back button. The consumer should always be in control.

After noting a reply above where pdf's were mentioned, I've been experimenting with embedded audio and video in a pdf. I used LibreOffice Writer to embed the clips, about 10 - 15 seconds long, in the document, and then exported to pdf.

In my pdf reader running in linux, both the video and audio clip could be played but there were problems particularly with the video.

First, the window for the video seems to have to be of a format used for video screens, 4:3, 16:9 or similar. The clip which I wanted to use to enhance the written description needed to display full width for clarity but didn't need more than half the vertical height of the video display box. So a large part of the page was wasted. The video display canvas must be adjustable to the author's requirements.

The second problem I encountered was that once the video displayed, there didn't seem to be any way to close the video box and when I scrolled up or down to another page, the video either stayed permanently on top or filled up with a random text from the document.

I tried my test pdf document on a Windows10 box using Adobe Acrobat Reader. An Adobe notice came up saying that a supplementary video reader was required and providing a hyperlink to Adobe's website. Unfortunately, that link just lead to a "404 not found" page.

So it doesn't look like the pdf format is the magic bullet solution required and in any case, pdfs give poor results on most reading devices because not reflowable.

I wish I understood more about video tech and its applications.

08-28-2020, 12:12 PM	#33
philja Addict Posts: 270 Karma: 516 Join Date: Nov 2015 Location: Europe EEC Device: Kindle Fire HD6 & HD8	The evolution of reading technology will continue. We've seen broadcast media tech converge with computer tech so you can fetch your movies on a tablet and cast the picture to your large screen tv. Just the same way, convergence will occur in reading devices and the present pandemic has put pressure on teaching systems. This can only speed up the convergence. Fiction readers will not be obliged to look at embedded media but for many non-fiction projects, audio and visual media will only make the teaching more accessible. In any case, I am with the responder above who hates the self-starting videos on webpages. I also hit the back button. The consumer should always be in control. After noting a reply above where pdf's were mentioned, I've been experimenting with embedded audio and video in a pdf. I used LibreOffice Writer to embed the clips, about 10 - 15 seconds long, in the document, and then exported to pdf. In my pdf reader running in linux, both the video and audio clip could be played but there were problems particularly with the video. First, the window for the video seems to have to be of a format used for video screens, 4:3, 16:9 or similar. The clip which I wanted to use to enhance the written description needed to display full width for clarity but didn't need more than half the vertical height of the video display box. So a large part of the page was wasted. The video display canvas must be adjustable to the author's requirements. The second problem I encountered was that once the video displayed, there didn't seem to be any way to close the video box and when I scrolled up or down to another page, the video either stayed permanently on top or filled up with a random text from the document. I tried my test pdf document on a Windows10 box using Adobe Acrobat Reader. An Adobe notice came up saying that a supplementary video reader was required and providing a hyperlink to Adobe's website. Unfortunately, that link just lead to a "404 not found" page. So it doesn't look like the pdf format is the magic bullet solution required and in any case, pdfs give poor results on most reading devices because not reflowable. I wish I understood more about video tech and its applications.