Audio in EPUB

[sgirsberger]

Here's the situation. I have a nice, fixed-layout EPUB. Art and text display perfectly. Audio is beautiful. Standard slider control at the bottom left of the landscape pages, with opacity lowered a little so they won't be too obtrusive.

The author has seen the book as a PDF and as an EPUB. In the PDF, which was laid out in InDesign in standard book pages, and exported as spreads, the audio is set to autoplay and will turn off when a page is turned. Technically, it's the spread that is turned, but Acrobat sees it as a single page. Perfect. Would rather not do autoplay, but that's not my call.

In the EPUB, though, the individual pages, which are individual HTML files that contain the backgrounds of each spread (see the lynda.com Fixed Layout EPUB course) with all elements positioned absolutely by CSS, there does not seem to be a way to get reader software (tried iBooks and Readium) to see these as anything other than pages of a spread. I have the orientation-lock set to landscape and open-to-spread set to false. Doesn't make any difference. What I get are landscape pages that display properly but BEHAVE as if they are one-half of a spread. Consequently, the audio for BOTH pages will autoplay if I leave that setting on. With manual controls, the sound will play on the verso when turned on, but continues playing when I "turn" to the recto, which of course is the other side of the spread I didn't want. When I turn the recto, both sounds turn off.

You can see both of these files here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...r_pajamas.epub

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...s_r7_audio.pdf

I hope someone can tell me how to deliver up individual sheet EPUBs. I know a page implies a front and a back, but if HTML pages don't behave this way, I'm guessing it has to do with the reader software.

[mzmm]

you should consult apple's ibooks asset guide to see if there's an easy way of resolving the issue with the spreads.

otherwise, i think you'll have to split each background image in half, and treat each HTML page as one half of the spread.

so, instead of

+---------------++---------------+
+               +                +
+               +                +
+               +                +
+            page1.xhtml         +
+               +                +
+               +                +
+               +                +
+               +                +
+---------------++---------------+

it should be laid out like

+---------------++---------------+
+               +                +
+               +                +
+               +                +
+   page1.xhtml +   page2.xhtml  +
+               +                +
+               +                +
+               +                +
+               +                +
+---------------++---------------+

at that point i believe there would also be a way of addressing the autoplay depending on which page is being viewed.

hope that helps, and post back if you do find a quick-fix.

incidentally, some of your (apple proprietary) markup is a bit outdated. you should be using

<meta property="rendition:orientation">auto</meta>
<meta property="rendition:layout">pre-paginated</meta>
...

in the opf instead of using options tags in the ibooks.display.options.etc..

also don't forget to include a landmarks section in your toc.xhtml. it's a common error that sets you back while uploading.

good luck!

[sgirsberger]

Thanks for this info, mzmm. I had things this way originally, but the author does not like the skeuomorphic binding visual that results when you prep the files as you've described. I suspect that would be the solution to the sound issue, but then the controller that displays (and, like the binding visual, cannot be suppressed) is too small to access if you want to turn off the sound before turning a page. It's wildly frustrating.

I tried the code for suppressing the binding visual in iBooks, and it did not work. Maybe there's updated code, but you can only chase after these things for so long, and then look for the solution I tried. I'm guessing this is why more people who want lights-camera-action in books are making apps instead.

Thanks for the tip about the meta markup, although if I were to allow the orientation to be auto for a book that HAS to display as individual sheets, landscape, would that mean that portrait orientation would be possible? The sheets would be so tiny.

[mzmm]

the meta tags i included in my first reply were just a sample of how Apple currently requires listing some options. to get these tags to work i think you also need to include an Apple namespace in the header of the content.opf. in previous books, i've successfully used a meta tag in the opf to suppress the skeuomorphic bindings in ibooks.

if you're looking for fuller control over how the media player appears and functions, you may want to write your own trigger/controls in javascript. you could also probably find something that may meet your needs online, and you'd just drop it in there.

it will save you a lot of headache to read through the iBookstore Asset Guide. it'll give you a better sense of how to achieve your desired results, or how to work around reader limitations.

[sgirsberger]

Thanks, mzmm. I have been reading the iBookstore Asset Guide. Javascript is not in my skill set yet. I did try the meta tag for the bindings, and it still didn't work. Of course, it must be me. By the time I get to circle back around to this project, I'm sure everything will have changed again. Maybe I should be a skeuomorph myself and just stick with the 20+ years of experience I already have with print.

[PoP]

Very nice publication. Thanks for sharing.

Can't help you with your problem but I thought I would report a minor misbehaviour : On page#28 I noticed that (in Readium) I cannot start playing the sound, the controls are overlayed by text:

[sgirsberger]

Thank you, PoP. The author's illustration and performance are so beautiful. I am aware of the issue on page 28, and will be fixing that!