Video Within a Slide?

[d.ouer]

Hey Joe - I’m a very old user - but haven’t done anything in many years. I have kept checking back hoping that someday SoundSlides would have the ability to import short video clips into a slide.

In other words - say you were telling a story about the Grand Canyon. There would be some slides as normal, but every once in a while a slide might consist of a short 10-15 second video of boats coming down the rapids - for example.

Have you ever considered that? Do you think that would even be possible? I did see one Windows based program that offered that. But it was buggy when trying to use on my Mac with BootCamp.

[joe]

Hi! Welcome back …

I remember working on a beta of this “video as a slide” feature years ago. There were a lot of technical issues to solve back then, mostly related to all the various standards required by IE and Firefox. The browser landscape has stabilized a bit more around video formats these days, so perhaps I can revisit it.

I’m not opposed to the idea at all, in fact I think it would be a wonderful tool … I just don’t know about the development timetable.

Question for everyone …

What’s the minimum video duration that would still work from a storytelling standpoint?

Would 10 seconds be enough to work with?

I ask because the buffering and file size would be a significant technical concern. Right now, most Soundslides shows load inconspicuously, even on mobile. Dropping an MP4 file in the middle of a show would drastically increase the file size.

Also, what if the video was somehow smaller than the still image? Would a “picture in picture” option make sense? I’m imagining the video playing (maybe expandable) while an image is showing fullscreen. That might work really well for a video introduction or even an interview subject.

[d.ouer]

That would be super, and open many options to extend/expand a story’s presentation.

I realize the concerns with file size, but would suggest that with the quality that phone video cameras can produce these days that a smaller size would negate that quality. And with the higher resolution displays that are in use today, that people are becoming used to high quality at larger sizes. Perhaps the option for a premium size and resolution version could be provided/offered (at an extra cost if need be?). If not needed for a particular project, it wouldn’t have to be used.

Bandwidth, storage, and hardware will continue to improve - especially with 5G, so I am one to think ahead and wish to create content that will not look dated soon after production.

As to time per slide - I think 15 secs would provide plenty of time. I think 10 secs might be a sweet spot. But 15 would make it easier to fit that in without worrying about getting a clip to fit - especially one that couldn’t really be cut off.

Thanks for resurrecting this platform. I don’t know if you are aware, but your system is the only one that I have found where I can take many photos taken on location, place them in order, then get on the phone with a professor, tour guide, etc, have him scroll through the sequence while giving narration and record the sound track. Then I can go back and EASILY customize the slide durations to accommodate the recording.

One more thought about the “video as a slide” (and another feature without concern for the technical aspects) is that a lot of videos have sound attached - so pausing any sound track and having the video’s audio play would be a major bonus.