Feedback on ClipFlair Studio application need help (how to use own video)  Viewed 165590 time(s), 11 post(s), 6/20/2013 12:03:34 PM - by la_andre86

Hi, to use a video in the Clip component you have to turn it over (use the wrench button on its toolbar). Then change the media URL field there by pasting another video URL

You can use .wmv or .mp4 videos, but prefer .mp4 generated with Miro Video Converter (free) http://www.mirovideoconverter.com

Can place them at Dropbox and get a share link from it for that file, then paste that link at the media url field of Clip component in the Studio app

Also, there is a way for testing your activity with a local video file (see notes at previous reply regarding .wmv/.mp4, that is prefer .mp4*) instead of a URL. You turn over the Clip component (with the wrench button on its titlebar) and press the open-folder icon that is next to the Media URL option there. This will open a file dialog to select a local .wmv/.mp4 (for video) or .wma/mp3 (for audio) file. Then flip the component back to the front side with that wrench button again and you can play that local media file (or will start playing automatically if the autoplay option had been already checked at the back of the Clip component).

Note that to avoid people bloating activity files with huge video, we don't support embedding video inside the activity file when you save it, so if you use it with local-media you have to repeat the above process to open the media file each time you open the activity (even if you saved and reopened the activity on the same system, for security reasons and because activity files are designed for sharing, it cannot remember local file links to files on one's system). We do plan though to add a right click menu on the Clip component to have options like "Go to time", "Open local media file", "Open media from URL" etc. to avoid having to flip the component for some of the most common actions.

------------

* footnote: .wmv is a container format and can contain various formats of
encoded video in it which are not all supported in a cross-platform
solution like Silverlight that we use - even with .mp4 there are some
strange subformats, but using Miro Video Converter even on a .mp4 file you
can generate another .mp4 file that will play on ClipFlair Studio for sure

Finally, a third option (that is instead of hosting on Dropbox, your own webserver etc., or using a local media file) is to submit the clip to the "Suggest material" forum of this social platform, by attaching it to a reply under the respective topic (that is the video topic that is under that forum)

You can do this for clips that are ~3min parts of a bigger movie since they're being used for education, but best is to use videos that are using Creative Commons attribution-based or Public Domain (not even attribution needed) ones. Provide as much info you can about the video and we will consider adding it to the Clip gallery of ClipFlair (http://social.clipflair.net/gallery/clips.aspx). If added there, then you just click on the video to open it and it will show up for playback in an autogenerated ClipFlair Studio activity

You can then flip over the Clip component and copy the video clip's media URL to use in your own activity, or you can else go on and add more components at that autogenerated activity and save it locally for reuse.

Note that if you want to use a video with a lab of students the quickest way is to have a local copy of the video on each lab machine and have the students open the video manually when they start the activity.

For activities you want to post on the web etc. best is to use a clip hosted on our gallery, served via smooth streaming technology (instant playback and jump-to-time in the clip without wait for buffering most of the times). Especially if you plan to host lab or virtual sessions with students where multiple people access the same video file, note that clips hosted on Dropbox seem to have constraints on simultaneous usage (not sure if those apply if you have a paid subscription at Dropbox). If you host the clips on your own webserver, it still is not the same instantaneous experience as using Microsoft smooth streaming (that we use on our server), but depending on the server/bandwidth you have it can be quite fast. Note that you can also create/host smooth streams on your own Microsoft IIS webserver (if you have Windows Server OS), if you need more info on that let me know to post such too.

Upload clip to ClipFlair gallery for later use

Hello,

I would like to upload this clip I will be using soon with my students (English into Italian Translation), it's a short excerpt from a cooking programme. I have the file in .avi file so I zipped it as per FAQ instructions. The activity could be called "Subtitiling Jamie"/"Jamie does Venice".

Can associate members create permanent (showing on the gallery for everyone to use) activites themselves, or is this route (upload clip here and wait for approval) still the preferred one?

The idea for us is that students access the gallery online with me in class, they do the subtitling and if they have not finished translating by the end of the class they can continue at home, then save their subtitles on their pcs and send them to me via email. What is the best/easiest format supported by Clipflair they should save their subtitles in? If say, they send me their SRT files finished at home, it seems from reading the tutorials/FAQ that I should be able to open the Jamie activity at a later stage and load their subtitles from my pc onto that video, right? Also, I will have a script soon too, do I just send you another message here with it? Can you put the script in the same activity?

Many thanks!
V

This content has not been rated yet. 

{1}

##LOC[OK]##

{1}

##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

{1}

##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Attached files

Since the video is a link (to a smooth stream served from our video gallery [or to some .mp4 at your dropbox account if you're making some activity you don't want to publish at clipflair activity gallery]) inside the activity and not embedded in it, it keeps the activity file size small, so you can have your students save and send you the activity file itself instead of exporting .srt/.tts with just the captions.

Whatever suits you better

People can't directly upload to our galleries, you have to suggest the material to respective topics (activity, video, etc.) in this forum and moderators will see into uploading it. Partners also have a private URL for entering metadata for the activity, video etc. (in the future activities will be able to contain their metadata, entered in the Studio app itself when you author the activity)

Hi
I would like to try this film out we made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmpOgVMjP9I&feature=c4-overview&list=UU40q1_HhKcVIr0foHEI_iqw
Greetings
Jens
Moderator
http://machinevo.pbworks.com

Hi Jens,
nice work - have passed it on to our encoder service and should be soon available as a stream at http://gallery.clipflair.net/video