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Idea #2686: SMIL Player

bug This entry was marked as not being an idea the 13 July 11. If this is a bug report, please use the Ubuntu bug tracker.
Written by nosselrahc the 3 Mar 08 at 10:24. Category: Multimedia. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: Not an idea
Rationale
Hello,

Create and add an 'Ambulant' package in Ubuntu. Ambulant is a SMIL player.
The SMIL standard is defined by the W3C. It's a XLM format allowing to make presentations, slideshows, to mix image, video, audio, text, it is encapsulable in the html or xhtml (for example, it's used for the MMS).

28
votes
closed
Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #2686
Written by nosselrahc the 3 Mar 08 at 10:24.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #2686 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!
10
votes
closed
Solution #2: Support SMIL players and authoring tools as alternatives to Flash and Silverligh
Written by lorenzosu the 11 Mar 09 at 13:51.
Ubuntu is still too much dependednt on closed formats esepcially for web (i.e. flash and soon MS Silverlight).

Open alternatives exist: SMIL is an open XML-based rich-media format developed by W3C
http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/
It could potentially replace flash in 90% of its applications; yet if no major effort is put in its spread to content creators, web developers and communities, no one will use it.
An open source, cross-platform player and firefox plug-in for SMIL 3.0 already exists: the Ambulant player and firefox plug-in ( http://www.ambulantplayer.org/ ) is an example.

Propose your solution

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Comments
jsymmetric wrote on the 30 Dec 08 at 19:20

I second this proposal.
SMIL 3.0 just became a W3C recommendation this month and
for the first time there is a text standard.

The W3C has done their job creating the languages, SMIL and smilText, xiph.org are doing their job by creating free audio and video formats.

We just need the software to take advantage of
these new multimedia advances.

Windows Ambulant will work on Wine on Ubuntu but Ambulant
needs to be in the repositories and supported.

Using SMIL 3.0 and xiph media, schools and
small businesses can use multimedia to improve the quality of
education and the quality of their products.

I think this is another selling point for Ubuntu.

http://www.ambulantplayer.org/

Take Care,


lorenzosu wrote on the 8 Jan 09 at 14:58
SMIL is a very promising alternative to (closed source, proprietary) flash. Having the Ambulant player and Ambulant Firefox plug-in included in Ubuntu would improve its use and visibility.

Kind regards,
Lorenzo.

jsymmetric wrote on the 14 Jan 09 at 19:44

This is an example of a simple training SMIL file. It's pretty straight forward. Create your areas and fill those areas with media.

Easy to write and easy to edit. When implemented, SMIL 3.0 with xiph.org's media can become essential technology to businesses, IMO.

seq = sequence containers
par = parallel containers

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






























Step one...















Step two...















Step three...
















jsymmetric wrote on the 14 Jan 09 at 19:56

Okay I can't post actual SMIL code, as the previous comment shows. This is the code without angle brackets and usually
the elements are nested to make it easier to read.

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

smil xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/SMIL"


head

meta name="title" content="training_example" /

layout

root-layout xml:id="root_main" title="training_example" backgroundColor="white" width="1000" height="600" /

region xml:id="region_img" title="training_example" top="150" left="50" width="400" height="400" z-index="1" /

region xml:id="region_vid" title="training_example" top="150" left="550" width="400" height="300" z-index="1" /

region xml:id="region_text" title="training_example" top="30" left="50" width="900" height="120" z-index="2"
textAlign="center" textFontSize="44px" textColor="black" /

/layout

transition xml:id="fade_1" dur="1s" type="fade" /

/head


body

seq

par begin="1s" dur="33s"

audio xml:id="audio_1" src="media/audio_1.ogg" /

smilText xml:id="text_1" region="region_text" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1"

Step one...

/smilText

img xml:id="image_1" src="media/pic_1.jpg" region="region_img" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1" fit="fill" /

video xml:id="video_1" src="media/video_1.ogg" region="region_vid" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1"fit="fill" /

/par


par begin="1s" dur="33s"

audio xml:id="audio_2" src="media/audio_2.ogg" /

smilText xml:id="text_2" region="region_text" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1"

Step two...

/smilText

img xml:id="image_2" src="media/pic_2.jpg" region="region_img" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1" fit="fill" /

video xml:id="video_2" src="media/video_2.ogg" region="region_vid" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1"fit="fill" /

/par

par begin="1s" dur="33s"

audio xml:id="audio_3" src="media/audio_3.ogg" /

smilText xml:id="text_3" region="region_text" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1"

Step three...

/smilText

img xml:id="image_3" src="media/pic_3.jpg" region="region_img" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1" fit="fill" /

video xml:id="video_3" src="media/video_3.ogg" region="region_vid" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1"fit="fill" /

/par
/seq
/body
/smil







jsymmetric wrote on the 14 Jan 09 at 20:03

Schools can use SMIL and Xiph multimedia to teach and make it fun.

This is an example of Lincoln's Gettysburg address. The instructor can
have students record the audio, make an image that goes along with the text. At the end of the project the students will end up remembering a famous speech.

Plus the students become use to expressing their ideas with text, images, audio... this is the new ink and paper.

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


smil xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/SMIL"

head

meta name="title" content="school_example" /

layout

root-layout xml:id="root_main" title="school_example" backgroundColor="black" width="988" height="680" /

region xml:id="region_img" title="school_example" top="0" left="0" width="988" height="680" z-index="1" /

region xml:id="region_text" title="school_example" top="180" left="70" width="420" height="300" z-index="2"
textAlign="left" textColor="blue" textFontSize="37px" /

/layout

transition xml:id="fade_1" dur="1s" type="fade" /

/head


body

seq

par begin="1s" dur="12s"

img id="img_1" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1" region="region_img" src="media/lincoln_1.jpg" /

audio xml:id="audio1" src="media/audio_1.ogg" /

smilText xml:id="t_1" region="region_text" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1"

"Fourscore and seven years ago
our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation

/smilText
/par

par dur="12s"

img id="img_2" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1" region="region_img" src="media/lincoln_2.jpg" /

audio xml:id="audio2" src="media/audio_2.ogg" /

smilText xml:id="t_2" region="region_text" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1"

conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.

/smilText
/par

par dur="12s"

img id="img_3" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1" region="region_img" src="media/lincoln_3.jpg" /

audio xml:id="audio3" src="media/audio_3.ogg" /

smilText xml:id="t_3" region="region_text" transIn="fade_1" transOut="fade_1"

Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
testing whether that nation or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

/smilText
/par


/seq
/body
/smil









jsymmetric wrote on the 14 Jan 09 at 20:06

From small screens MMS to large digital signage, SMIL is making inroads.
On the Internet it hasn't, now with smilText and xiph media it's time.

But in the other profiles Mobile and Daisy SMIL files are in containers MMS has mime-multipart and Daisy uses IDPF's ePub format.

With the disparate speeds in Internet connections, all of the separate SMIL files may not download in time, making the SMIL presentation ineffective. If Ubuntu adds Ambulant and supports it, the next step would be to standardize a container, such as the Daisy profile.

A zip file that Ambulant would open automatically and then SMIL content could be offered online or an ePub zip or maybe a combination of both. That's the next step in taking over the Web :)

IDPF's Digital Book Standards FAQs:
idpf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22

gnurag wrote on the 26 Feb 09 at 14:45
Great idea!
I hope it's going to be implemented soon...despite the few votes so far ;-)

I really look forward to a flash alternative.

Also, I'd like to find a player capable of playing easily SMIL files. I often have trouble with Helix and RealPlayer..

But I have to say that sometimes the SMIL code was not well written and that's the reason why the player can't load it.
Sometimes it seems to be a problem of connection speed, but I can't really understand it..

I'm a newbie in this technology, but I'm curious to learn and see it have success.

Vote!

Ahyle wrote on the 3 Jan 11 at 12:38
Anyone succeed to play with Ambulant Player on Ubuntu SMIL and flash files?
I can play swf file but not flv file.
Please help me.

cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 13 Jul 11 at 03:49
Closing in Brainstorm. This is a packaging request. See the FAQ: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/faq/#question12

nealmcb wrote on the 2 Jan 12 at 07:31
I think this should be reopened, with clear separation of rationale and solution as is now the practice in Brainstorm.

The rationale is "Support SMIL Player in Ubuntu". This rationale makes all kinds of sense since SMIL is a W3C standard, regardless of what solution is. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronized_Multimedia_Integration_Language and W3C Synchronized Multimedia Home page -
http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/

A likely solution may well be to package Ambulant Player, and that should also be requested thru normal channels. But even if that doesn't make sense, Ubuntu should have a standards-compliant way to play synchronized multimedia content that people now have to develop using Flash and other proprietary and dangerous and buggy approaches.

See also: http://askubuntu.com/questions/92088/how-to-play-realmedia-smil-rtsp-audio-refe rences-with-start-end-points

nealmcb wrote on the 2 Jan 12 at 22:30
Hmmm - is it really not possible to change the status back to "yes this is an idea?" See http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/11822/ - perhaps we can get that feature implemented....


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