Re: [Swftools-common] adding sound with Flash > 6

[Pablo Rodríguez]

Thanks for the reply, Chris,

Chris Pugh wrote:
> > 2008/12/10 Pablo Rodríguez <address@hidden>:
> > > Chris Pugh wrote:
> > > You're not kidding!!    Not only is your script huge, but the
> > > resulting SWF is to boot!
> > Thanks for your reply and sorry for the delayed answer.
> >
> > The presentation is big, since is a real presentation, but it was my fault
> > to show this SWF and script, since the issue is much simpler.
>
> Just cause it is 'real',  doesn't make it necessarily have to be big .. ;o)

No doubt that this was the wrong presentation to show as example for 
what I think is at least an issue with sound. But having a presentation 
with 242 slides (two of them short movies) and over 30 minutes of voice 
recording in 6.5MB is not that big for me (presentations in video form 
take usually ten times more space).

As Boo wrote in a previous message, the presentation itself is 
interesting  and it might be worth watching it (the right version is 
http://ousia.justfree.com/frees-as6.swf ;-))

> > > Are you really sure that,
> > >  -  using all those 'times[xx]=yyyyy' statements is the right way to go?
> > I think that is the best way I have to advance slides at a certain
> > miliseconds. Actually I don't know a better way to do it (I'm afraid I'm not
> > a programmer). If you had a better way to do it, I would be pleased if you
> > can share it with me.
>
> For someone who doesn't consider himself to be a programmer, I'd say
> you're not doing too badly with your scripting ( what's a programmer
> anyway? ) .

I'm afraid I haven't developed that part of the scripting.

> > > -  embedding such a massive .wav file is sensible?
> > I embedded the wav file instead of the mp3 file, because swfc compresses wav
> > audio with a better compression rate and a smaller output. Otherwise I
> > couldn't upload the SWF outputs to my website, since my hosting provider
> > only allows files >8000KB and the files with the mp3 embedded were 8.5MB in
> > size.
>
> Using loadSound, does not *embed* the mp3 audio file in the swf.  It
> simply creates a reference to an external file, streamed or otherwise.

Sorry, I need to have the whole presentation (slides, sound and sync) in 
one file.

> > Here is a small script that shows the issue.
> >
> > .flash bbox=800x600 filename="audio-embed.swf" version=7 fps=1
> >
> > .sound audio "my_life_changed.mp3"
> > .stop audio
> >
> > .action:
> >    snd = new Sound();
> >    snd.attachSound("audio");
> > .end
> >
> > .frame 1
> >    .action:
> >        snd.start(snd.position/1000.0,0);
> >    .end
> >
> > .frame 2
> >
> > .end
>
> > And the bug seems to be that when Flash version is above 6 and sound is
> > embedded and stopped as above, when SWF reaches frame 2, it restarts the
> > sound or the presentation itself.
>
> No bug there.  You've stated  *1 frame per second* in the header,
> right?   The sequence only lasts
> two frames, so  after two seconds the sequence simply starts again.

If this is not a bug, this is a change in Flash (or in ActionScript, I 
don't know which one). But it seems to be a “know problem” with Flash 
versions above 6. You had a similar problem not stopping the audio 
(http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/swftools-common/2008-11/msg00152.html).

I guess it is actually the same problem. Writing a simple '.stop' after 
the sound embedding doesn't work for me, because it breaks the 
ActionScript that makes slides advance.

I have some PDF slides and audio file. I have a script that enables 
syncing both in one file (http://ousia.justfree.com/audio-embed.txt, 
this is a more schematic script).

Before frame 1, sound and an array for slide advance are defined, on 
frame 1, sound starts and in frame 6, the script for slide advance is 
defined and to make it work there is a gotoandPlay(5); (I guess this 
creates a loop between frames 5 and 6 that makes the slides advance, but 
Matthias will explain this better.)

For some strange reason (or at least unknown to me), Flash 7 files are 
played and looped when "total_frames * fps" has been reached. This does 
not happen when exactly the same file (or at least the same output from 
"swfdump -D presentation.swf") only differing "[HEADER] File version: 6" 
is played. Sorry, but I cannot understand that something is not broken 
here (or there was a deep change in Flash).

> > This happens if a frame is defined after  Sound.start, no matter whether it has 
> > contents or not. I
> > happens with both  Flash 7 and 10 for Linux,
>
> Actually, no it doesn't.  Here is an example that shows you all works
> aok, and with 'version=10'
>
>        http://www.nordberg.me.uk/swfc_samples/music/

It works because the script uses the issue that I'm describing to play 
again the music.

The difficult part here would be that your script would generate a SWF 
file that plays only once (using ".stop audio").

But even using your approach to my presentation, how many slides should 
I create to avoid the loop before sound has finished? I guess 30 minutes 
* 60 secs * 12 fps = 21600 frames (and this may well make the slide 
advance script not work).

Is there any way to implement what I'm trying in Flash 7 or should I 
stay with Flash 6?

Thanks for your help,


Pablo