How to use Flash content

Introduction

Flash animation files (SWF) are using Adobe proprietary format and because of that, these type of files cannot be used directly as HMP content. Nevertheless, such content can still be used through one of the solutions presented below.

SWF (Shockwave Flash) is a proprietary file format for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript. SWF files can be generated from within several Adobe products including Flash, Flash Builder (an IDE) and After Effects.

Export from Flash

The recommended method of using Flash content is to export the original Flash animation as a video - for more details, see:

• https://helpx.adobe.com/flash/using/exporting.html#id_83354
• https://helpx.adobe.com/flash/using/exporting-video-flash-professional.html

In case that's not possible, note that there are tools on the Internet that can convert swf files into videos.

Import into Elementi 3.x / HMD

This section has been kept for historical reasons; exporting the content directly from Flash should be used instead.

The support for converting Flash animations into videos has been removed starting with Elementi 2015.

Elementi 3.x versions, as well as HMD, are able to convert Flash animations into MPEG-2 / MPEG-4 videos (up to 1080p resolution) depending on the target HMP.

• A Flash SWF file can be imported only if the two rules below are met!
• An external component of the software, called ppt2svg.exe, calls the IE Flush plug-in requiring it to silently play the Flash file (.swf) in the background and records the output into a video file.
• Flash files are converted differently based on the project type (target player) - SWF files converted for an HMP100 / HMP130 will be encoded using the MPEG-4 codec and for HMP200, MPEG-2 will be used (due to differences in video optimization).
  • When changing from one type of project to another, you should re-import the original SWF file(s) to get the most suited video file for each type of player.
  • The Import Quality settings don't apply to flash file import - the output is always 480p@30pfs.
• FLV files are not supported.

Rules

1. The SWF file must run from start to finish with no user interaction required.
2. The Internet Explorer (IE) having the flash plug-in for IE, is installed on your computer.
   • To test if the plug-in is installed, open the swf file with Internet Explorer (IE) and the file should be played.
   • If it doesn't, then open the Adobe Flash Player plugin page in IE to download and install the missing plug-in. Afterwards, check again the file in IE.

Troubleshooting

Incorrect duration
SWF files might have incorrect timing which results after importing in a video file that is shorter than it should be. To resolve this situation, follow these steps:

1. Open a command prompt.
2. Navigate to the folder containing the ppt2svg.exe application that is located inside the SpinetiX installation folder from Program Files - usually this is either C:\Program Files\SpinetiX\ppt2svg\bin or C:\Program Files (x86)\SpinetiX\ppt2svg\bin .
3. Run the following command:

   ppt2svg -maxwait time_ms [-mpeg 4] [-force width height] -nosvg "filename.swf"

   • The duration of resulting video can be specified using the -maxwait time_ms option. Specify time_ms as the duration of Flash file in milliseconds.
   • The default codec used is MPEG-2, but you can specify the MPEG-4 codec by using the -mpeg 4 option. This should be used when the video is targeted for HMP100 / HMP130.
   • The dimensions of the resulting video can be modified using the -force width height option. This should be used when the resulting video is outside of the player specifications. For instance using -force 720 405 will result in a video of 720x405 pixels.
4. This will generate a video file, <filename.avi>, in the same folder as the original file.
5. Import the resulting video in your project (instead of the flash file).