Exporting projects to Flash format

You can export your Encore project either for local use (all files present locally) or to a webserver (video files present on streaming server).

In both cases, you specify the folder in which the output is stored. Encore creates the following files and a folder that contains the generated output:

flashdvd.swf

The SWF file enables the browsers or Flash players to play the video content that you upload to a server. The flashdvd.swf file does not contain the actual video—it is, instead, a front end for the generated video output. The flashdvd.swf file reads the AuthoredContent.xml file and plays the Flash output accordingly and remains static even when your video has changed.

AuthoredContent.xml

This XML file contains the information about the video output files such as filenames, association of videos with menus, and navigation. You update this XML file when your video files or the menu structure change. If you choose to upload your Flash output to a server, the URLs of the videos are updated in this file.

index.html

The HTML file that hosts the flashdvd.swf file. This file gathers the required information about the first play setting and menu structure from the AuthoredContent.xml file.

Sources folder

This folder contains the Flash videos and the menu images and icons. The Flash video files are either FLV or F4V format, based on your choice.

If you are publishing the video directly to the web server, Encore updates the AuthoredContent.xml file with the URLs for the assets received from the server. In this process, all video files (FLV and F4V) are uploaded to the server.

If you do not have access to a server, choose the Keep With Flash SWF option in Encore’s Build panel. The FlashDVD content is saved in the specified destination folder. Because your video now resides in the local or a shared network folder, the AuthoredContent.xml file contains the relative path to the Sources folder.

Typically, you host the video files on a Streaming server and host the other output files (Sources,AuthoredContent.xml,Theme.xml, index.html) on a web server.

You can choose one from the fifteen export quality presets that provide you five frame sizes, each with three quality presets: Low, Medium, and High quality. Of the five frame sizes, two are standard size and the remaining are widescreen formats. In Addition to system presets, now you can create custom presets of different frame sizes with different quality settings from Edit Quality Presets from Build panel. For a video tutorial on exporting your project to Flash, see http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-evangelists-jason-levine/authoring-a-flash-based-dvd-for-the-web/.

Keep in mind the following tips as you plan your projects for interactive viewing on the web:

1. You can create web links to other areas in your website when a viewer clicks a button in the Flash output, or when a timeline or motion menu reaches the end of playing.

2. You can use high-definition and standard-definition assets in your Flash projects.

3. Flash does not support playing from multiple audio tracks in a timeline. Flash output does not support user operations.

You can use a menu element to create a link from Flash output to an external URL on the web. When viewers click a button that goes to that menu element, instead of seeing a menu display, they see the web page of the specified URL.

1. Double-click the index.html file that is generated in the project folder when you build a Flash project. The file opens in your default web browser.

   Playback for slideshows in Flash DVD is seamless.

   Note: You should use Flash Player 11 or higher to play Encore web DVDs.

   The toolbar has various controls using which you can perform various actions on the movie.

   
   Controls in the Encore Flash DVD player

   A. Previous chapter B.Step backward C. Play/Pause D. Step forward E. Next chapter F. Progress bar G. Elapsed time/Total time H. Search I. Title J. Last menu K. Pop-up menu L. Subtitle M. Mute N. Volume O. Full screen

Previous Chapter/Next Chapter

Enables you to move among chapter points in the movie.

Step Forward and Step Backwards

Enables you to have a quick preview of the video. With each click, the video skips 5 seconds, and resumes playback from the new location.

Play/Pause

Toggle this button to play or pause the movie.

Progress bar

Lets you “seek” through the length of the video. You can drag the seek bar to move across the frames in the video. When a movie is searched, red bars appear in the progress bar corresponding to scenes containing the search terms.

Elapsed time/Total time

Displays the duration for which the video has played, and the total time.

Search

Helps you search the contents of the movie being played.

Title

Displays the title of the movie.

Last menu

Displays the menu that you visited previously.

Pop Up Menu

Displays the menu of the movie. Clicking the button again stops the menu display. Creating pop-up menus for Flash DVD is the same as that for blu-ray discs.

Subtitles

Displays subtitles on the screen. Click Subtitles, and select from the languages available in the menu. Click Off to turn stop subtitle display.

Note:  The options last set for subtitles are used when you play the movie again. When you play a movie for the first time, the subtitles in the first track are used.

Mute

Toggle this button to mute/unmute a phone.

Volume

Use this control to increase or decrease the volume of audio in the movie being played.

Full Screen

Displays the movie in the full screen mode. Users must press Escape to exit this mode. All controls are available in the full screen mode, and fade away when the screen is left inactive for some time.

When you build an Encore project in Flash, a Theme.XML file is created at the location of the build. Configure the contents of the file to customize the appearance of playback controls in the Flash DVD display. The process for customizing the controls is available within the file itself. For example, you can customize the properties of the search bar using the SearchBar tag.

You can search for the following types of content when playing a movie in the Flash DVD player:

Subtitles

You can search subtitles in timelines, slideshows, playlists, and chapter playlists.

Note:  Only subtitles containing text are searched. FAB image subtitles do not generate a text output, and so, cannot be searched.

Speech transcripts

Search text in speech transcript metadata of clips in a Timeline.

Note:  Speech Transcript for a clip can be generated from Premiere Pro using its Speech- to- Text metadata feature.

Names of menu buttons as set in the property panel

The search generates a list of scenes and menus containing the search terms. When you click a scene or menu in the list, the movie starts playing from that scene or menu.

 
Red and blue lines appear in the progress bar at places corresponding to the search results in the list when the movie plays. Red lines indicate search results from speech transcripts, and blue lines, from subtitles. Click a line in the progress bar to start playing a movie from that scene or menu.

1. Build an Encore project in Flash. The project can contain menus with buttons, timelines containing clips with transcript metadata, subtitles, or slide shows.

2. Open the generated HTML file in a browser.

3. Click the Search button in the SWF movie player controls.

4. In the Search field, enter the text that you want to search.

5. Press Enter. A list of scenes and menus containing content matching the search terms is displayed.

6. Do one of the following:

   • Click a scene in the list. The movie starts playing from that scene.

   • Click a red or blue line in the progress bar to play the movie from that scene. The lines in the progress bar appear only when the movie plays in the browser.

   • To play successive scenes in the list, click Next. To play previous scenes in the movie, click Previous.

7. To clear the search list and the red lines in the progress bar, click the Clear (X) button in the search field.

When you build an Encore project in Flash format, the subtitles in the project are also exported. The Flash DVD player searches Subtitles that are in the text format. Image subtitles are not searched.

You can add backgrounds to Flash export using templates. For example, rather than playing against a standard black background, your project plays in a frame or against a background image that reflects the motif of menus or chapter icons. You can create HTML templates and then import them to your project.

You can create your own templates and import them into Encore. A template consists of a folder containing an index.html file as well as other content referenced by index.html. Your index.html can contain HTML tags in addition to tags supported by Encore. When you export your project to Flash format, these tags are replaced with SWF content, and the video is placed at the location of the tag in the HTML file. Encore looks for the following supported tags in the template index.html file and replaces them with the appropriate value or code:

• <encoreswftitle>

• <encoreswfobject>

• <encoreswfwidth>

• <encoreswfheight>

You can set up a local Flash Media Server by modifying the script for local FMS server or writing a new script for adding a new CDN. When you set up a local Flash Media Server, ensure that you have the latest version of the Flash Media Server (3.0.2 or later).

1. Edit the script Sample Script.jsx at \Adobe Encore CS6\Required\FlashExportScripts with the following details:

   • streamingSiteURL—Enter the FMS server name.

   • ftpURL—Enter the FTP server name that you use to connect to the FMS server.

   • username—Enter your user name.

   • password—Enter your password.