If you're not using SlideShowPro Director and are creating your own XML data for the SlideShowPro Player, these instructions are for you.
If you haven't already created a video, we provide an overview of acceptable video formats and basic encoding instructions here. Return here after you have a video that's ready to load.
With your new video(s) exported, it's time to load them in the SlideShowPro Player. If you are using SlideShowPro Director, go ahead and upload the H.264 video(s) you created. If your server supports FFMpeg, video thumbnails and preview graphics will be automatically generated. Go ahead and try loading the album you uploaded the video(s) to by copying and assigning the album's XML File Path to SlideShowPro. If all went well, you should be done!
If you are not using SlideShowPro Director, you will need to handle the video and thumbnail image generation yourself. We'll explain how next.
Move the video to the directory you're building your slideshow content in. Open the XML file that the SlideShowPro Player is loading and enter the path to your video as an img element. (See the "Creating an XML file" chapter for more information about XML). For example:
<img src="video.mp4" />
If you plan on using the "Thumbnails" style of Navigation Appearance and/or have Navigation Link Preview Appearance set to "Visible" (more on both here), then your video will need images for those areas.
To create images from your video, we recommend using the free video player VLC. Open your video in VLC, then pause the scrubber on the frame you'd like to use. Select Video > Snapshot, and VLC will save a PNG of that frame to your Desktop (OS X) or your Pictures folder (XP / Vista). You can either use this PNG as-is, or open in a photo editing app to resize, crop, or save in a different file format.
When you have your image ready, we recommend saving it to the "tn" folder for your album with the same file name as the video file it's associated with. For example, if your video were named "myvideo123.mp4", you'd save your thumb as "myvideo123.jpg."
When complete, edit your XML file to include the video thumbnail. For example:
<gallery>
<album title="My videos" description="My vacation videos"
lgpath="gallery/album1/lg/" tnpath="gallery/album1/tn/">
<img src="tree.mp4" tn="tree.jpg" />
</album>
</gallery>
...or if using absolute links...
<gallery>
<album title="My videos" description="My vacation videos">
<img src="http://mydomain.com/gallery/album1/lg/tree.mp4"
tn="http://mydomain.com/gallery/album1/tn/tree.jpg" />
</album>
</gallery>
As outlined in the Media Player chapter, your video will load and auto-start when viewed. If you would rather not auto-start, you have the option of displaying a preview graphic for your video that appears in front of the video when loaded. You don't have to create a preview, but if you'd like to using a keyframe of your video, here's how.
First, set the SlideShowPro Player's Video Auto Start parameter to "Off."
Second, follow the instructions in Step Four above to create a bitmap from a keyframe in your video. When your bitmap file is complete, move the image to the same directory your video is in, and edit the XML file with either a relative or absolute URL in a vidpreview attribute. If you are using relative links with an lgpath attribute in your album element, copy that value to vidpreview, plus the file name of your image. Like so:
<gallery>
<album title="My videos" description="My vacation videos"
lgpath="gallery/album1/lg/" tnpath="gallery/album1/tn/">
<img src="tree.mp4" tn="tree.jpg" vidpreview="gallery/album1/lg/myvideo123_preview.jpg" />
</album>
</gallery>
...or if using absolute links...
<gallery>
<album title="My videos" description="My vacation videos">
<img src="http://mydomain.com/slideshow/gallery/album1/lg/tree.mp4"
tn="http://mydomain.com/slideshow/gallery/album1/tn/tree.jpg"
vidpreview="http://mydomain.com/slideshow/gallery/album1/lg/myvideo123_preview.jpg" />
</album>
</gallery>
Load the SlideShowPro Player. You should now see your video.