videos in impress

users
#1

Hi all.

I've steered clear for some years of trying to include a video in an impress presentation, as I've always had problems.

The need has re-arisen however, and I'm stuck on two points:

1. The video is always "on top" of other items, irrespective of any "send to back" setting. I need a video with superimposed text, and can't seem to manage this. What I'm trying to achieve is a video running in the background, with foreground text that changes on mouse click.

2. A video always seems to start with an icon (two frames of a film strip, in blue/white) rather than starting gracefully. It's the same icon used as placeholder when designing the slide. That gives a jarring loss of continuity when running the slide show. (Ironically, the icon obeys "send to back" where the video itself does not.)

Is there any work-round for these please?
Thanks.

LO 6.4.7.2 running on Mint 20.

#2

Menu Insert > Audio or Video

Choose the video from the selection window, deselect "Insert as Link"

The video will be placed in the middle of the slide, as a normal object (which can be aligned or arranged)

Using the handles, reside the video to the expected size

Menu Insert > Text Box

Click to position the text box over the video, and then create the animation to manage the text box (please be careful, the mouse click can advance to the next slide because of the video, so you may have to use timings to show/hide text boxes)

Anyway, this is explained in the LibreOffice Impress Manual, with lot of details

#3

(resent)

Thank you for your reply.

However, the issue is not that I cannot insert a video into a slide. The problems are (a) that the inserted video is always "on top" of other objects, whereas I want text superimposed over the video, and (b) the annoying icon that always seems to show at the start of the video (and sometimes at the end).

My possible workaround is to use OBS Studio instead, which has other issues but at least gives an easy option to have changing text superimposed onto a video without artifacts. I'd rather use LO though!

#4

Using the process I have described, the video can be sent to back as any other object, and you can superimpose the text. Also, no icon shows at the start of the video.

Done in over 200 presentations during the last 10 years.

#5

Thank you again.

Firstly, I was using drag-and-drop rather than using the menu & insert. It does seem the behaviour is unexpectedly different, and during design, d&d shows the icon, while 'insert' shows a frame from the video. As you say, the icon does not appear when playing under your conditions.

However, there's still a major problem. The slide fades in with the video at the bottom of the stack, and the text visible. However, as soon as the fade is complete, the video pops to the top and remains there.

Under some conditions there also appears a background image that looks like a static frame from the video enlarged to cover the entire screen - not reproducibly though.

As it works for you I wonder if there's an issue with video drivers. I'm using nvidia-340, on some rather old hardware. There is some obscure bug(s) that seems to affect both LO and kdenlive, causing flashing during some fades (LO/Impress) or sometimes during video playback (kdenlive).

I'll try this on my laptop, and see if it works any better.

Thanks for your patience!

#6

Thank you again.

Firstly, I was using drag-and-drop rather than using the menu & insert. It does seem the behaviour is unexpectedly different, and during design, d&d shows the icon, while 'insert' shows a frame from the video. As you say, the icon does not appear when playing under your conditions.

......

As it works for you I wonder if there's an issue with video drivers. I'm using nvidia-340, on some rather old hardware. There is some obscure bug(s) that seems to affect both LO and kdenlive, causing flashing during some fades (LO/Impress) or sometimes during video playback (kdenlive).

I'll try this on my laptop, and see if it works any better.

Sorry for following up my own post, but the laptop results were unexpected. Either drag-and-drop or using menu Insert gave the same results - both produced an object showing the blue 'film' icon, in the design mode, and at the video start when running a slide show. It's a recent low-end Dell pentium laptop, Intel integrated graphics. It's running the same version of LO/Mint as the desktop I normally use.

Weird.

#7

I have the same consistent behaviour on the Linux Mint desktop and laptop, and on the Windows 10 laptop (all based on Intel architectures). I also have the same behaviour on my Intel based MacBook. I don't think I have ever seen a different behaviour, but my memory may fail here.

Actually, I have been repeating the process - video with superimposed text - since September 2013, when I have used it for the first time at LibreOffice Conference in Milan. Since then, I have changed at least three MacBooks and three Linux PCs. So, really weird.

#8

Maybe it is worth posting a sample presentation that works for you
somewhere so that Mike could test it? And maybe Mike could do the same
so you could test his presentation to see whether it works or not for
you?

#9

[resent]

Sorry for following up my own post, but the laptop results were
unexpected. Either drag-and-drop or using menu Insert gave the same
results - both produced an object showing the blue 'film' icon, in
the design mode, and at the video start when running a slide show.
It's a recent low-end Dell pentium laptop, Intel integrated
graphics. It's running the same version of LO/Mint as the desktop I
normally use.

....

Maybe it is worth posting a sample presentation that works for you
somewhere so that Mike could test it? And maybe Mike could do the same
so you could test his presentation to see whether it works or not for
you?

Maybe. Thanks for the input.

I've now looked in content.xml. The difference between getting the video in by drag and drop, and via the Insert menu seems to be purely that D&D links, while insert (by default) embeds the video. All other parameters seem the same:

<draw:frame draw:style-name="standard" draw:layer="layout" svg:width="34cm" svg:height="19.125cm" svg:x="17.6cm" svg:y="21.4cm">
<draw:plugin xlink:href="../../fireworks%20composite.mp4" xlink:type="simple" xlink:show="embed" xlink:actuate="onLoad" draw:mime-type="application/vnd.sun.star.media">
<draw:param draw:name="Loop" draw:value="false"/>
<draw:param draw:name="Mute" draw:value="false"/>
<draw:param draw:name="VolumeDB" draw:value="0"/>
</draw:plugin>
</draw:frame>

and

<draw:frame draw:style-name="standard" draw:layer="layout" svg:width="29.085cm" svg:height="16.36cm" svg:x="2.8cm" svg:y="2.2cm">
<draw:plugin xlink:href="Media/fireworks composite.mp4" xlink:type="simple" xlink:show="embed" xlink:actuate="onLoad" draw:mime-type="application/vnd.sun.star.media">
<draw:param draw:name="Loop" draw:value="false"/>
<draw:param draw:name="Mute" draw:value="false"/>
<draw:param draw:name="VolumeDB" draw:value="0"/>
</draw:plugin>
</draw:frame>

If I do an insert, and ask for the video to be linked, I again get the poor fade-in behaviour - the dummy placeholder shows (behind the text) as the slide fades in and is replaced by the playing video (on top of the text) when fade-in is complete.

Doesn't seem affected by switching between nv and nouveau graphics drivers.

I've no idea yet where the z ordering is saved. In all cases the video plays in front of everything else. Might this be a video hardware limitation of some sort?

#10

Sorry for following up my own post, but the laptop results were
unexpected. Either drag-and-drop or using menu Insert gave the same
results - both produced an object showing the blue 'film' icon, in
the design mode, and at the video start when running a slide show.
It's a recent low-end Dell pentium laptop, Intel integrated
graphics. It's running the same version of LO/Mint as the desktop I
normally use.

....

Maybe it is worth posting a sample presentation that works for you
somewhere so that Mike could test it? And maybe Mike could do the same
so you could test his presentation to see whether it works or not for
you?

Maybe. Thanks for the input.

I've now looked in content.xml. The difference between getting the video in by drag and drop, and via the Insert menu seems to be purely that D&D links, while insert (by default) embeds the video. All other parameters seem the same:

<draw:frame draw:style-name="standard" draw:layer="layout" svg:width="34cm" svg:height="19.125cm" svg:x="17.6cm" svg:y="21.4cm">
<draw:plugin xlink:href="../../fireworks%20composite.mp4" xlink:type="simple" xlink:show="embed" xlink:actuate="onLoad" draw:mime-type="application/vnd.sun.star.media">
<draw:param draw:name="Loop" draw:value="false"/>
<draw:param draw:name="Mute" draw:value="false"/>
<draw:param draw:name="VolumeDB" draw:value="0"/>
</draw:plugin>
</draw:frame>

and

<draw:frame draw:style-name="standard" draw:layer="layout" svg:width="29.085cm" svg:height="16.36cm" svg:x="2.8cm" svg:y="2.2cm">
<draw:plugin xlink:href="Media/fireworks composite.mp4" xlink:type="simple" xlink:show="embed" xlink:actuate="onLoad" draw:mime-type="application/vnd.sun.star.media">
<draw:param draw:name="Loop" draw:value="false"/>
<draw:param draw:name="Mute" draw:value="false"/>
<draw:param draw:name="VolumeDB" draw:value="0"/>
</draw:plugin>
</draw:frame>

If I do an insert, and ask for the video to be linked, I again get the poor fade-in behaviour - the dummy placeholder shows (behind the text) as the slide fades in and is replaced by the playing video (on top of the text) when fade-in is complete.

Doesn't seem affected by switching between nv and nouveau graphics drivers.

I've no idea yet where the z ordering is saved. In all cases the video plays in front of everything else. Might this be a video hardware limitation of some sort?

#11

Maybe. Thanks for the input.

I've now looked in content.xml. The difference between getting the video in by drag and drop, and via the Insert menu seems to be purely that D&D links, while insert (by default) embeds the video. All other parameters seem the same:

Yes, insert follows the standard behaviour vs the file format, and also makes the presentation interoperable. Drag and drop works, but is not as accurate as insert. I have never used drag and drop with Impress once I have realized the advantages of using insert.

If I do an insert, and ask for the video to be linked, I again get the poor fade-in  behaviour - the dummy placeholder shows (behind the text) as the slide fades in and is replaced by the playing video (on top of the text) when fade-in is complete.

Doesn't seem affected by switching between nv and nouveau graphics drivers.

I've no idea yet where the z ordering is saved. In all cases the video plays in front of everything else. Might this be a video hardware limitation of some sort?

I will check. I can sed the video back, and have the text on top of it, maybe is just the configuration of the text animation (as the text to be on top of the video has to be managed with an animation).

#12

Thanks to all for the input.

The problem persists, but I'm guessing there's no solution. To sum up:

(1) embedding or linking produce different results: linking shows a placeholder during slide transition, embedding shows a frame of video.

(2) The playing video is always on top of anything else; the placeholder however does obey the on-top/to-back directives. This is independent of video hardware and driver AFAICS.

(3) The flickering I noted in passing is driver-related: using the nv driver, some slide transitions flicker; using nouveau they behave properly. (Same sort of thing seems to happen with kdenlive's playback FWIW)

I sorted the weekend's presentation issue using OBS Studio. This even allows a video to play continuously across scene transitions, which was perfect for the job in hand. And, looking to the future, it allows embedding of other applications' windows into the 'show', which offers a lot of flexibility.

Probably best to close this thread now; thanks again.