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Recording Audio & Video into PDF with Webcam

Forum Index > Rich Media/Flash > Recording Audio & Video into PDF with Webcam
2010-12-01 06:32:28
melanie333
Registered: Apr 14 2010
Posts: 25
Answered

Hi All,
Is it possible to have someone reviewing a PDF and then have them record comments on the slide-show using a webcam. I would like to be able to insert some sort of a button where they can click when they are ready, record themselves with audio and video right into the PDF and then save it so it becomes a part of the PDF. I see that you can do it with Audio Comments but I have not been able to do it with video.
Thanks for any info you have,
Melanie

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.3.1, Windows
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2010-12-01 07:42:49
#1
Dimitri
Expert
Registered: Nov 1 2005
Posts: 1389
Hi melanie333,

No, I don't believe you can do that with video- you have to create the video first and then place it in the PDF.

Hope this helps,

Dimitri
WindJack Solutions
www.pdfscripting.com
www.windjack.com

Dimitri Munkirs
WindJack Solutions
pdfscripting.com

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2010-12-01 11:58:12
#2
UVSAR
Expert
Registered: Oct 29 2008
Posts: 1357
Accepted Answer
Unfortunately it's not possible via the native commenting tools, as Acrobat has no webcam interface. Using a Flash annotation as a helper widget you can't specifically save the video into the PDF, as the SWF doing the "recording" has no way to write the captured binary video data into a comment or attachment.

What you could do as a very leet workaround is push the video content your widget is collecting to a media server (the SWF can of course see the Internet just fine), handshake with that server to collect a unique ID for the video as stored on the server, then use the API's exposed multimedia_saveSettingsString() functions to permanently store that ID within the PDF for future reference - one advantage of which is that you can store that data in Reader as well as Acrobat, and your "commented" PDF won't be any appreciable amount larger. The ActionScript for the video tool you'd have to write isn't massively complex, but of course it requires a server you can upload the streams to, and the resulting management issues that carries. Unless your comment-by-video system is really important I'd go with a "possible but not practicable" response.
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2010-12-08 07:41:49
#3
melanie333
Registered: Apr 14 2010
Posts: 25
thanks everyone! i have to look into your suggestions UVSAR. it might take me a while to figure that out!
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