Embed video in epub

[djames1958]

I'm guessing this has been discussed before, but I'm new to the forum.

My understanding is that videos can be embedded (not linking) in epub, but I haven't been able to figure it out.

These aren't huge videos.

Thanks.

[DNSB]

You might have been better off asking in the E-Book Formats => ePub forum.

However, an epub3 ebook with a bit of JavaScript can play an embedded video. A non-starter for me since I most read on eInk readers. eInk displays and videos are not a good mix.

For a sample epub3 with video, check the EPUB 3 Samples Table page for the Creative Commons Shared Culture ebook. Be prepared for a mass of your reading system does not support this errors using many renderers though the calibre ebook viewer seems happy enough with it.

[issybird]

Moved from the General forum. Please request that a post be moved rather than reposting. Thanks.

[Quoth]

It's not any kind of ebook if it's got video. Even with epub3, very few apps will play it. Better to make an app. There are frameworks. Then it works on iOS, Android and can work on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

An ebook with video is hardly supported on anything and not on any eink ereader.

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's not any kind of ebook if it's got video. Even with epub3, very few apps will play it. .

Why? Apple Books, ADE and Gitden Reader, for example, are able to play videos.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

Why? Apple Books, ADE and Gitden Reader, for example, are able to play videos.

And when I am editing, Sigil and calibre's editor will play the video, etc. Otherwise, my ereaders don't play videos. I tested 3 IOS apps and 5 Android apps and none of those would play a video. Heck, none of them had even half decent support for epub3 features such as aside.

Betting that your customers will be able to play that video on their devices doesn't fit with my lowest common denominator practices when editing ebooks.

[binaryhermit]

Out of morbid curiosity, how poorly does an ereader that doesn't do video handle an ePub with video

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by DNSB

And when I am editing, Sigil and calibre's editor will play the video, etc. Otherwise, my ereaders don't play videos. I tested 3 IOS apps and 5 Android apps and none of those would play a video. Heck, none of them had even half decent support for epub3 features such as aside.

3 iOs apps not playing the video? Are you sure they had EPUB3 support? And: Apple Books did not play the video? This seems really strange to me.
On Android I could play video on e-ink, it seems strange to me you could not with a tablet...

[JSWolf]

Even if the video played on an eInk Reader, most Readers do not have sound.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

Why? Apple Books, ADE and Gitden Reader, for example, are able to play videos.

It's possible to train a dog to have cigar in its mouth and walk on its hind legs.

Just because something works on some platforms doesn't make a really bad idea good. Multimedia is video, sound and text. Interaction is optional. That's easily done in an App that runs on everything without a compatible host app. Except eink or other dedicated ereaders, which won't do video anyway in an ebook. There is a Binatone LCD ereader that separately can do plain videos. Not Multimedia. Another Binatone device with a QWERTY keyboard is actually an early Android tablet. Some Android apps can be loaded via USB (sideload), mostly older ones. It can't do video IN an ebook, only standalone videos and apps.

Just because it's possible to create a kind of epub with video doesn't mean you should. No-one should, ever. Get a simple App framework.

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even if the video played on an eInk Reader, most Readers do not have sound.

I don't think a EPUB3 with video has the ebook reader as target. Anyway different ebook readers have speakers, like my old Onyx M96 or the recent Note3 and Air.

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Just because something works on some platforms doesn't make a really bad idea good. Multimedia is video, sound and text. Interaction is optional. That's easily done in an App that runs on everything without a compatible host app.

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.

Except eink or other dedicated ereaders, which won't do video anyway in an ebook.

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

Just because it's possible to create a kind of epub with video doesn't mean you should. No-one should, ever. Get a simple App framework.

just because you have no interest in EPUB3 with video doesn't mean everybody doesn't have to do EPUB3 for ereaders, smartphone, desktop or tablet. There are a lot of cases an EPUB3 is a fast, cheap way to publish video.


love

fabrizio

[binaryhermit]

Honestly, ebooks with non-static content like that look like a solution in search for a problem to me.

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

Honestly, ebooks with non-static content like that look like a solution in search for a problem to me.

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.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

3 iOs apps not playing the video? Are you sure they had EPUB3 support? And: Apple Books did not play the video? This seems really strange to me.
On Android I could play video on e-ink, it seems strange to me you could not with a tablet...

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.

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.