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According to the media9 documentation, the media9 package comes with

...an enhanced version of ‘StrobeMediaPlayback.swf’. In addition, two simple player for video and audio, ‘VPlayer.swf’ and ‘APlayer.swf’ are included, which can be used instead.

My first impression is that Aplayer.swf is for audio files only (?), whereas Vplayer.swf is for video (although I have used it for videos with audio).

I was wondering what's the difference between the three of them, and what could be the advantages of using one over the other.

Mario S. E.
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1 Answers1

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APlayer is for playing audio files in the MP3 format.

VPlayer is for playing sound films in the MP4 and FLV formats.

APlayer and VPlayer are both written by the author of media9. They are simple, but provide everything needed for video and audio playback: Play/Pause/Resume via mouse-button press/release or pressing the keyboard space bar, forwards and backwards seeking and volume control via arrow keys on the keyboard, rewind and seek-to-end with the Home and End keys on the keyboard. Moreover, they have a JavaScript interface that can be used with buttons embedded into the PDF (\mediabutton macro). One use of such a button might be changing the media file to be played (by re-setting the source property), another one to seek to a given time in the media file.

StrobeMediaPlayback is a third party, open-source media (MP4, FLV, MP3) player with control buttons, but without JavaScript API and without keyboard controls. On the net, there is a number of other media players available (e. g. FlowPlayer) adding more or less eye-candy. Some of them also have a JavaScript API, but again no keyboard controls in general.

To summarize: If clickable buttons and sliders are desired, use Strobe or another third-party player. APlayer and VPlayer will usually do well, especially in a lecture situation where precise manipulations with the mouse are difficult.

AlexG
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  • Hello I downloaded the StrobeMediaPlayback, how can I install it so that I can use it in Latex and PDF readers? Does the other computers opening the document need to have it installed? – Vesnog Aug 08 '18 at 21:26
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    You don't need to download StrobeMediaPlayback separately. A modified version is already installed as part of the media9 package. It gets embedded into the final PDF. Thus, it is not required to be present on the target PC. – AlexG Aug 09 '18 at 06:38
  • Thanks I managed to make it work. I had to specify the resource as src instead of source. – Vesnog Aug 09 '18 at 09:24
  • Yes, as the documentation says ;-) – AlexG Aug 09 '18 at 10:43