Embed QT VR and other Media in PDF files (Harry Potter!)

[Karl Ottenstein]

(I posted this in a thread in another forum that went off the topic there, and thought I should copy into this forum where this topic belongs.)

Karl wrote:
(And, you know that you can embed QT VR's etc in a PDF also, right?)

David wrote:
How does this work? Can you have text in the document as well, so that what looks like a photo is really a VR? Scenes and linked panoramas or just VR objects? Would clients need some special advanced version of Acrobat to read these?
This would be like a document in a Harry Potter book....!

Open the attached PDF ... and see the next message and screenshot, too.

Create your PDF document leaving placeholder rectangles of the desired size where you want your QuickTime content to be (Panorama VR's being the most compact of course with jpeg compression - movies will increase file size accordingly).

In Acrobat Pro, Tools > Advanced Editing > Movie Tool (or use the button on the toolbar) and drag a rectangle on the page the size of the desired media viewport.

A dialog comes up. Browse to your MOV file. Check “Snap to content proportions” to avoid distortion and “Embed content in document” and click OK.

With the cursor inside the red, handled box, drag the box to the desired position. Shift-drag the handles if necessary to scale the viewport with proportions constrained. Press enter/return.

A dialog appears to let you choose when and how to play the media, as well as to give it a title, etc.

There is a sample on this page which was created in Word. I blocked out a box at the upper right using the Drawing palette tools to create a frame and then placed the VR as described above. The VR shown is generated from a Epix file in the Piranesi (Informatix) tutorials.

Obviously, you can have as much media as you want on a page. I’ve kept this one simple so that it is small for me to upload.

See next message / screenshot for Harry Potter...

Karl

[Karl Ottenstein]

Security settings in Reader 7 prevent the automatic playing of media in an "untrusted" document. Looks like a hassle to sign a document and become "trusted".

You'll probably get the dialog below when opening the PDF I just posted.

Just click the Play button.

You can navigate around the VR in the document by dragging as usual (when you see the bullseye cursor). But, for some reason, the other QT VR functionality is absent ... e.g., pressing Shift and Ctrl do not zoom in and out. Any ideas?

Karl

[Karl Ottenstein]

(In the original thread, David Collins first suggested the resemblance to books in Harry Potter:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=45869#45869 )

For true Harry Potter behavior - moving images as you open the document without the dialog in the last message, it seems you either need to do the signature/trust thing, or to disable QuickTime security for untrusted documents in the attached Preference screen.

I haven't heard of any security dangers from playing QT content...??

Karl

[Anonymous]

Wow Karl, you're true wizard. That's one impresive way to present your work to your client via email for example. Cannot wait to make such a presentation with my recent project.

Thanx

[Anonymous]

Karl,

When I open the pdf and click on the VR box I get this dialog. Although I keep updated with Acrobat Reader and QT I downloaded the QT Player again and re-started, etc. but the same thing occurs. Tigr seems to be able to make it work, would that be because he has the Pro version of Acrobat installed too?

Adobe Reader 7.0.3
QT 7.0.2 (reader & player)

Thanks,
Wally

[Anonymous]

Same Here and I'm using XP.?

[Anonymous]

Karl,

Just after I posted above I was searching for DXF viewers for Mac and up popped this reply to your QT embedded pdf from Thomas. This covers my problem. Now what is it about the Search function here?

Wally

[Karl Ottenstein]

Yes, I have the same problem on my 10.3.9 Mac with QT 7 and Reader 7.03 installed. Many thanks to Thomas for looking up the Adobe report which at least gives 10.3 users the option of downloading an earlier version of QT to make things work. There is no solution for 10.4

Frankly, I'm disgusted with both Adobe and Apple over this issue. The Adobe document 331566 is dated June 9, 2005 .. almost FOUR months ago! In that time, not only have there been 3 patches to Adobe Acrobat 7 and Reader (to 7.03), but there has been a patch to QT. How difficult can it be for them to resolve this issue involving two of the most fundamental software products used on the platform?!

I suppose just another reason I'm glad I didn't upgrade to 10.4.

Mac users with OS 10.3.8 or 10.3.9 can downgrade from QuickTime 7.0.2 back to 6.5.2 and then everything works. XP users don't have a problem. OS 10.4 users don't have an option - it just won't work.

The downgrade process is bizarre. You have to run the QuickTime 7.0.1 'reinstaller' to go from 7.0.2 to 7.0.1 (and reboot). Then you can run the 6.5.2 reinstaller (which requires 7.0.1) and reboot.

Links/details here:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime701reinstallerforquicktime702.html

The question is: how will any of us know when Adobe and Apple work out this problem and it is safe to upgrade QT? (From too much Googling, it seems to me the problem is Apple's, as people running other software have problems with QT 7.)

Karl

[stefan]

I am getting tired of Adobe Reader as well... 3 large updates, which pumps a reader enormously with plugins you often don't need.

In my humble (conservative) opinion, a viewer should always be lightweight: you open a file to view and then you close it.

For that same reason I use the free irfanview for many image tasks: opens incredibly fast, is gone with one ESC and never intrudes. And I can take screenshots and crop them. What more can I need. I do use Photoshop, but only when I need to work more on the image then the time it takes to load the whole application...

Adobe Reader (not even the full Acrobat) installs a help program to preload the libraries so the Reader loads faster... I have something similar in my startup folder for AutoCAD 2005, which I kinda understand, but I don't understand it for a Reader. Sure, maybe there are occasional uses of several complex Adobe plugins, in networked, cross-checked offices for color proofing, but these should not all be flooding the RAM by default.
Oh, and it insists to always inform me that the Atmosphere Player should be installed (anyone remember that one or ever saw any content? Oh, U3D is hot now) and the Adobe Photoshop Album Starter. The Reader is probably mean and lean, but all the other stuff is filling it way over my patience.

Oh, and did I mention that I never saw your example, Karl? Not on XP and not on OSX (yes, it's Tiger). So much for a universal format for document fidelity.

Karl, I'm not blaming you for any of this, but the way Adobe is evolving, there is not much difference for a client to install a custom viewer program or update/downgrade the "default" Adobe Reader.

And I have the feeling Quicktime is evolving in the same way. I have downloaded a complete folder of Quicktime extensions for all kinds of different content.

[Anonymous]

There's an Update for Adobe Reader: 7.0.5

With this Update, i can look at Karl Ottenstein's Harry Potter-Book "Sample QT VR in a PDF.pdf" with the QTVR-content. Looks nice.