View videos on iphone!

[vinayakk]

Hello all, I was just into doing some research about working HTML content on iphones. Everything worked fine until I started using videos. When I publish the videos (source - mp4) they are converted to FLV files and since they require flash object they never work on iphone browser. Can some body give me a solution to do so!

 

[animedwayne]

 In the publish options, turn off the video compression, that shoule prevent the videos from getting converted to FLV and keep them in their native format.

Same with audio, turning off compression will keep them in the format they were imported as.

vinayakk said:

Hello all, I was just into doing some research about working HTML content on iphones. Everything worked fine until I started using videos. When I publish the videos (source - mp4) they are converted to FLV files and since they require flash object they never work on iphone browser. Can some body give me a solution to do so!

 

[tomteh]

I tried mp4 and h.264 and Iphone doesn't seems to work from the web safari access (non-compressed). IE browser works for both, and YouTube works for me as well if compressed. In QuickTime, iPhone format is m4v, but Lectora won't accept that. I think .MOV will work in iPAD but I don't have iPad to test. Anyone has any success yet for video on iPhone? I hate to go to xcode route.....

[sconnell]

I suggest speaking with Trivantis about this.

When I purchased Lectora X, I was assured that version 10 supported mobile phones, including iPhone. I know there is an iPhone template. Surely .mov and m4v should also be supported by Lectora.

This wouldn't be such a problem if it were not for Apple's refusal to support Flash. What a pain! Their excuse of focusing on HTML5 support is lame. :-(

I plan on converting many of my courses to mobile before the end of the year so I am interested in the outcome of this.

[tomteh]

I did asked Trivantis support, and the answer I got was disable the compression for both audio and video when published. That I already knew. But that's not the answer I wanted.
Now, IE works but not iPhone. Those that are interested can see my test on:
Welcome
The top row is youtube and the second row (marjorie) is mov.
I also tested ToolBook and some results. SumTotal claimed they are also compatible with iPhone.

The code I wrote without using any rapid tool worked though. You can see it on:
Untitled Document
It works on IE and iPhone. You might need to install quicktime player on PC or Mac machine though since it's mov format unless you have the codec installed.

I have to call my webserver to install MIME for video though before they are fully working:
.mov video/quicktime
.mp4 video/mp4
.m4v video/x-m4v
.3gp video/3gpp

I also heard that server needs to be byte-range.

I hope I can still solve the problem of rapid learning software without writing my own code. I'm only half way there. Any help would be appreciated.

[spuleo]

Hi, I just did a test, and yes for some reason if you choose insert-> youtube, Lectora creates a flash wrapper which of course does not work on the iphone platform.

If you insert custom code -- and insert the embed tags included at youtube, this will work perfectly. Just a few notes. It will not play in the page --- but when the video is finished it returns to safari.

See:
home

This is pretty cool stuff!

Simon

[sconnell]

I suggest speaking with Trivantis about this.
This wouldn't be such a problem if it were not for Apple's refusal to support Flash. What a pain! Their excuse of focusing on HTML5 support is lame. :-(

Although it is tempting to blame Steve Jobs for his stubborn refusal to back down from his anti-Flash campaign, but the man has a point, and I agree with what he is trying to accomplish. Ultimately, he (and I) want to see developers and organizations abandon Flash bloat-ware for HTML5. If Steve Jobs supports Flash, there is less incentive to adopt HTML5. Apparently, it is working... for example: Virgin America Drops Flash Over Lack of iPhone Support |

There are many technical problems inherent in Flash that do not translate well to the mobile phone... for example: Flash Developer Explains Why Touchscreen Devices Cannot Use Flash |

Oddly, all this fuss about iPhone's lack of support for Flash is rather silly. FYI, the few Android phones that have Flash support (such as my HTC Magic) only have a limited version of Flash support, called Flash Lite; and it's not that good!

I guess we should just wait for Trivantis to add HTML 5 support. It is possible that one of the next versions of Lectora will have HTML5 support. Yeah... not very helpful now.

[jkunrein]

sconnell is right; NO mobile device fully supports Flash yet.

I'm hopeful that Trivantis will see that the push toward HTML5 could be a huge opportunity for them; I've been researching HTML5 for elearning/mlearning and named Lectora specifically in an article I wrote on the topic recently because as far as I can tell, it's the largest learning development tool that actually publishes to HTML. I posted a link to the article a few days but it appears it was removed... Maybe it was seen as too self-promoting or something.

But with all of the learning developers I see out there saying, "We need an alternative to Flash, because our customers are buying iPads", I would love to see some of the rapid development tools step up to the plate and create great tools for publishing to HTML5. Lectora seems by far to be the closest contender. Okay, off my soapbox now.

vinayakk -- please let us know when you get your issue resolved! I would love to know the solution.

[sconnell]

BTW, Judy I greatly enjoyed your article on HTML5. I have found myself repeating the benefits of HTML5 for quite some time now... now I just need to send people to what you wrote.

I don't mean to appear pessimistic, however, I am often dismayed by the apparent lack of forward thinking in the eLearning community (in particular, the authoring vendors). In a recent conversation with Trivantis, I was surprised to learn that Trivantis was waiting to see if IE 9 would support HTML 5. Huh? I had to explain that IE9 was in beta for months and already supports HTML5; Microsoft even has a demonstration HTML 5 web page.

To be fair (and perhaps a little contradictory), HTML5 is still very new and not fully developed but even in its current state, it can effectively replace much of Flash and SilverLight. Having said that, I would still like to see a lot of improvements in Lectora 11 (and please drop the antiquated Roman numerals), especially adding HTML5 compatibility so that we may deliver rich content to the iPAD.

FYI, here is a good summary that compares Flash 10.1 to HTML5: Ludamix : Flash 10 versus JS/HTML5: The Tour Guide

[jkunrein]

Great resource! Thank you very much.

Yeah, I wrote the article because (as I implied in the beginning) I was seeing this huge controversy in the larger web dev community and HTML5 seemed virtually unknown in the elearning community. Time we ALL got up to speed -- vendors, developers, and designers alike!