Media9 and non youtube videos

Question

I've been already in:

1) Embedding videos using media9 Talks about how to embed a file that is already saved in your computer)

2) Can we use media9 to show a video on a PDF but the video is not embedded to the PDF? Gets closer to the solution I'm loking for ---as it uses a local web server---, but when I try to run the "answer" I get an error in the pdf file that says:

Unable to play 'http://www.ted.com/talks/todd_kuiken_a_prosthetic_arm_that_feels.html'

3) How to include a movie in a PDF? Step by step instructions Is more of a discussion about the old and obsolete movie15 vs the new media9 package.

4) And, of course, the media9 documentation (If you copy-paste the examples you still get errors during compilation)

This is my MWE:

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\usepackage{media9}

\usepackage{url}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}

\begin{document}
 \includemedia[
    width=0.9\linewidth,height=0.6\linewidth,
    activate=onclick,
    flashvars={
       source=http://www.ted.com/talks/todd_kuiken_a_prosthetic_arm_that_feels.html
      &loop=true
    }
  ]{}{VPlayer.swf}

\end{document}

How do I make this non youtube video available in my pdf without embedding it and without using a local web server?

The url you try to pass is not the url of the movie file but the of the page where it resides. — Peter Jansson, Apr 21 '13 at 21:44
@PeterJansson I'm sorry, I'm not following. Could you please write an example of how it should be? — Mario S. E., Apr 21 '13 at 21:56
@MarioS.E. The movie is available at http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2011G/None/ToddKuiken_2011G.mp4 — , Apr 21 '13 at 22:03
@Papiro now it's working. I was missing the "http://" part. Thanks! I feel like this question could be closed as being too localized, but at the same time I'm quite aware there is no question regarding how to point to non-youtube videos for medi9 — Mario S. E., Apr 21 '13 at 22:18
Of which kind were the compilation errors you are referring to in your question? Can you post them? — AlexG, Apr 25 '13 at 13:30

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

A non-youtube video, as you may call it, is a URL pointing to an MP4 file on the internet. To be played back, some media player is needed, such as VPlayer.swf, and the player source FlashVar must be set to the URL of the MP4, such as flashvars={source=http://download.ted.com/talks/ToddKuiken_2011G-320k.mp4&loop=true}. In the original post, source is set to some html file which will not work.

Youtube videos, on the other hand, are self-contained media players (in SWF format) which know by themselves where to download the actual MP4 content. There is no source FlashVar to be set. (For completeness, here is the link to media9 usage with youtube videos.)

Media9 and non youtube videos

1 Answers1