Embed video in epub

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

I wrote about this in past here. Actually most of the ebooks are not digital books but digitalized books. Sad but true. Amazon, publishers, readers put a lethal handbrake to stop a real revolution in electronic literature. The most interesting interactive novels today are not ebooks, but videogames. This a silly and absurd nonsense and - yes - I'm not in love with this kind of nonsense. So, if an EPUB3 could be created to do something interesting in electronic literature, I thing an author has to try and do the right thing.

What puts the kibosh on progress is that the reading software is not updated to handle all the features of ePub 3. There are many Readers out there running software that doesn't handle ePub 3. Even some current Readers need updated software. Then there is Android with so many reading apps that won't handle ePub 3 let alone properly handle ePub 2. iOS has a similar issue with some reading apps.

So get the programs/apps updated to correctly handle ePub 3 and you will be good to go.

[binaryhermit]

Amazon has something similar-ish to this called "Kindle in Motion" but it doesn't work on eInk kindles for obvious reasons

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by DNSB

All the apps I tested just say epub in the description. I did not test Books seeing as it had already been mentioned as working so I did not bother testing it again. As for the Android apps, again, a set of apps I already had. Perhaps newer version might have worked but they were what I had on my Nexus 7 2013.

Well, if you was testing EPUB3 with App that support only ePub2, I think it is normal video wasn't working. I assure you that there are lot of App able to handle video on Android and iOs.

As for video and eInk, Kobo does not have sound support and Amazon does not support epub3 which eliminates the rather large majority of that market.

Absolutely, I think an EPUB3 project has not Kindle or Kobo users as target.

f.

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So get the programs/apps updated to correctly handle ePub 3 and you will be good to go.

Amen. But to be honest I don't think this is gonna happen in short time. The W3C project is walking in mud, Adobe software is a mess of bug with no update by years, Apple changes the EPUB3 format how and when he wants (the linear=no support is something like a joke), and independent developers have no economic resources and professionalism to have a serious EPUB3 support (I think Calibre - for example- still does not support video and have a disastrous management of javascript variables). And, as I wrote somewhere, the EPUB3 format is something similar to the Miyazaki's God Warrior in Nausicaa: a Frankenstain monster made of different organs and lacking of basic tool for real digital publishing. When he tries to conquer the world, he collapses over himself. It is absurd that a media page-based has no statement or selectors to handle virtual pages for example.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

Uh, no. EPUB3 is a ebook format for a lot of things, like video and sound. If you have no interest on it, no problem, but a different publisher could have different users and different interests. I made EPUB3 with interactive animation, video for specific projects. Apps are another way to publish video, true, but they are more expensive to produce and above all to maintain.

You are missing the point. Epub3 for interaction and video is failed solution, because we already could do interactive Multimedia before ebooks existed. On every platform.

An ebook needs a compatible reader and compatible hardware. A simple easy to author multimedia app just needs suitable HW. Almost everything EXCEPT dedicated ereaders.

There is no point to promoting epub3 for multimedia because EVERY platform would need the users favourite ereading app updated or a new app and dedicated ereaders mostly are useless for multimedia.

We've had good solutions for multimedia without pretending it's an ebook for more than 25 years and since the beginning of iOS and Android.

Video/audio + text is not a book. It's multimedia. Epub3, even if widely supported in full, which it isn't, is poor and limited compared to ten year old multimedia authoring frameworks.

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by Quoth

You are missing the point. Epub3 for interaction and video is failed solution, because we already could do interactive Multimedia before ebooks existed. On every platform.

An ebook needs a compatible reader and compatible hardware. A simple easy to author multimedia app just needs suitable HW. Almost everything EXCEPT dedicated ereaders.

Points of view. As I wrote Apps are more expensive in middle/long term. And, yes, we have a long story of multimedia contents: how many of those contents from 10/20 years ago are still usable? Apps are hardware-relate and hardware is changing continuously. And EPUB3 uses open standard: how many flash contents are gonna die in 2020? I think EPUB3 could be used for contents that have video inside and it could be last longer than other apps or formats.
Oblivious this is a personal point of view.

f.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

Points of view. As I wrote Apps are more expensive in middle/long term. And, yes, we have a long story of multimedia contents: how many of those contents from 10/20 years ago are still usable? Apps are hardware-relate and hardware is changing continuously. And EPUB3 uses open standard: how many flash contents are gonna die in 2020? I think EPUB3 could be used for contents that have video inside and it could be last longer than other apps or formats.
Oblivious this is a personal point of view.

f.

If you make an app, there's not going to be any issue with running it. But if you make an ePub 3 with audio/video, there will be issues with it. Which do you want? An app that works or an ePub 3 that only sometimes works?

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you make an app, there's not going to be any issue with running it. But if you make an ePub 3 with audio/video, there will be issues with it. Which do you want? An app that works or an ePub 3 that only sometimes works?

It depends: when? For what? How long? To publish an App for iOs, for example, you have to register as developer, you have to pay for this, every year, you have to enter in a dungeon of certifications ad give icons for the App that have to follow Apple specs. And sometimes those rules changes and your App could stop working on new releases of the operative system. A lot of multimedia applications that were supposed to be the new way of doing digital, interactive publishing, no longer exist today. They have disappeared from every store, while the interactive ebooks I published ten years ago are still there.
If a customer pays you to produce content with which to distribute videos to a generalist and cross-platform audience, tablets, smartphones, desktops, with a textual fallback for ebook readers, an EPUB3 is a more than respectable and sustainable solution. IMHO.

f.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

It depends: when? For what? How long? To publish an App for iOs, for example, you have to register as developer, you have to pay for this, every year, you have to enter in a dungeon of certifications ad give icons for the App that have to follow Apple specs. And sometimes those rules changes and your App could stop working on new releases of the operative system. A lot of multimedia applications that were supposed to be the new way of doing digital, interactive publishing, no longer exist today. They have disappeared from every store, while the interactive ebooks I published ten years ago are still there.
If a customer pays you to produce content with which to distribute videos to a generalist and cross-platform audience, tablets, smartphones, desktops, with a textual fallback for ebook readers, an EPUB3 is a more than respectable and sustainable solution. IMHO.

f.

Epub3 is pretty much only a solution if you are embedded in the Apple ecosystem. Android, Windows and Linux systems are going to require you to hope the user has an app installed that will display your book with audio and video or is willing to dump their preferred reading application for a application that is compatible.

Having played with both dedicated applications and epub3 for displaying audio and video content on iOS/iPadOS, Mac OS, Android, Chromebooks, Windows and Linux devices, I have to say that there is no good solution where good is defined as works out of the box on all supported devices.

[pazos]

A (kind of) epub3 that works in Apple Books and Google Play Books is enough. Recommending an app for mobile devices is just nonsense.

About non-mobile OSes: thorium works in windows, mac and linux. It should be able to provide a wide range support for epub3 features that are not used elsewhere (like fixed layout epubs or multimedia).

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by pazos

About non-mobile OSes: thorium works in windows, mac and linux. It should be able to provide a wide range support for epub3 features that are not used elsewhere (like fixed layout epubs or multimedia).

Thorium looks promising and plays videos, but when I tested the Windows desktop version with the Creative Commons Shared Culture epub3 sample file, I got some JavaScript error messages.

It played the videos, though, but without subtitles.
(Calibre E-Book viewer supports VTT subtitles but not TTML subtitles.)

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by pazos

A (kind of) epub3 that works in Apple Books and Google Play Books is enough. Recommending an app for mobile devices is just nonsense.

About non-mobile OSes: thorium works in windows, mac and linux. It should be able to provide a wide range support for epub3 features that are not used elsewhere (like fixed layout epubs or multimedia).

Thorium is very interesting, thank you.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

Amazon has something similar-ish to this called "Kindle in Motion" but it doesn't work on eInk kindles for obvious reasons

Sorry to interject, but KIM (Kindle in Motion) has been d/c'ed (discontinued) as of...I think it was Fall 2019.

Hitch

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

Well, there are some e-ink readers that actually could play video and sound in EPUB3.

Which ones, please?

Hitch

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

Points of view. As I wrote Apps are more expensive in middle/long term.
f.

A multimedia app can sell at any price you want.
Production cost, the second time, will be the same as epub3.
Production cost app vs epub 3 may be similar the first time. Or lower with an app.
Distribution cost is the same.

Works for more users/customers/platforms

Unlike epub3 an app needs no host specialist reading app.

More flexibility with an app.