Launching a video

[jmcilvaine]

Hi all. I am new here. I am working on a skin for real estate tour and I want to include a "pop out" video option. What I am wanting to do is have the user click a button in the tour navigation that launches the video. Is this possible? Or do I have to use a "splash screen" (Like a flat image of the property with a "Play" hot spot). I'd rather use the button if possible. I tried a bunch of combinations but cant get the skin to launch my .mp4 file (video.mp3). Can I embed a Vimeo video? If so, can I launch that from a button instead of a hotspot?

Here is my skin that I am building, it is a work in progress. The second white button from the left would launch the video:

http://www.inmotionrems.com/pano/Pano2V ... /Pool.html

Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

Joe

[jmcilvaine]

Quick and dirty solution:

Let Pano2VR do what it does best and forget about video inside the player. I don't need anything cute like embedded video in a panorama. I just need the viewer to be able to view a video of the property. It would be nice to have the video inside the tour player, but the more I surf these forums, the more that looks like a major hassle. I can stick a locally hosted video in one panel (or embed a vimeo video), the stills and panoramas in another, and be done with it.

[Hopki]

Hi,
If your video is in a SWF container you can use the External image/SWF loader to play the video.
There will be an option to add other formats to the skin later, but for the moment SWF works fine.
Regards,
Hopki

[jmcilvaine]

Thanks Hopki,

I am trying to build a unique tour skin the is geared towards the high-end market here in South Florida. It's a tough market as there are two national tour providers that pretty much dominate the market here. Here is what an agent or broker can get for about $130.00:

http://homesite.obeo.com/Viewer/Default ... l=obeo.com

The deal is according to the agents it's hit or miss with the photographer. Obeo employs "run and gun" free lance photographers, some are better than others but even the "bad" ones are passable given the price of the tour (the photographers are only making $50-$60 before the cost of travel). The agents get a ton of back end functions, lead capture, viewing stats, etc....all for $130.00 bucks...it does not compare to some of the work I have seen here but again for $130.....

My primary business is custom web sites for Realtors. I've added photo/video/tours to my services. I am trying to build something unique that is high end and not run-of-the-mill...the plan is to incorporate video, photos and tours into one elegant player. My advantages are:

1) My main competition does not support video. I'm sure at some point they will, but then the photographres will need to learn to shoot video...good luck with that...
2) They have mobile support, but it's mediocre at best.
3) My work is consistent, I own the company and I take a personal interest in making sure my clients are happy
4) I am just an overall great guy...

I am not looking for volume, really just to service my web clients and provide them with something unique. Realtors are very competitive and the ones I deal with are willing to pony up the extra money for quality, service and to have something unique. I have been on the fence with jumping in on this for a while now. I currently use a cloud-based tour building service which is good, but not what I really want. I was about to go with either krpano or PanoTour Pro, but I gave a quick visit here and saw the new version and thought I would give the demo a shot. I was surprised how intuitive your skin editor was. I love it.

One thing that i would like to see in the futures is an integrated thumbnail generator/viewer. I like how hotpots link one pano to another to create a "tour" (thats the point, right?), the problem is every one is used to a linear "film strip", even thought to me linked hot spots are more intuitive and immersive, most people are used to the film strip. Giving the user both will enable us tour providers to "ween" them off of what they are used to.

I'll probably purchase a V3 licence, then upgrade to a V4 pro licence once it's out of beta. Great product and compared to your competition you have a much better support system and a much friendlier forum....

[Hopki]

Hi,
You will be able to build a thumbnail slider using the skin editor.
There are actions in version 4.x skin called Change Relative Position. This then lets you set how many px each button press should move an element and how far until it stops. This will allow a film strip of images inside a masked container to move side to side without having to stack buttons.
There is a bug with it in the flash version but this will be fixed in the next beta: Issue #531

You can also use the batch processor to batch out Thumbnails, the attached project works with both version 3 and 4 of Pano2VR.

1) Open "First Node" p2vr file then from the menu select Batch Processing window. Select Save Values in Project files.
2) Add a.jpg to the list and click "Run..." When finished close the project.
3) Open the "Tour" p2vr file and as before select the batch processing window and make sure you have save values selected.
4) Add images b, c and d.jpg and click "Run..." When finished close teh p2vr projects.

You will end up with a folder called "my_tour", open it and open the index HTML page.
The First Node p2vr file adds the skin and also makes small and large thumbnail images.
The Tour p2vr file does the same for the rest of the nodes without adding a skin or html page.
I got the batch to make folder to place the small and large thumbnail images in, then the skin looks for the images in the folders.

Regards,
Hopki

[jmcilvaine]

Thanks for that info Hopki!

I got a little busy and finally determined another issue I was having was my own bad....Safari will not work with flash even on a Windows machine, I thought it was an IOS thing...I guess I need to learn that HTML5/Flash fallback method.

[Hopki]

Hi,
Make sure that Safari has the Flash Player plugin so it can not show the Flash content.
This is for computers only Mobile Safari / iPhone can not have the flash plugin.
Regards,
Hopki

[jmcilvaine]

Thanks Hopki,

I have my Safari issue resolved. Thank God I have a javascript genius that I work with on my website projects. My flash tour AND tabs now work on IE9, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. My plan is to have a Flash skin and an HTML5 skin. Using a device detection script I will serve the appropriate skin, with Flash being the preferred skin.

I have a "Virtual Tour" skin, but I will also be integrating image/video/tours into my clients websites. Here is what I am working on:

Tour: http://www.inmotionrems.com/tourdemo5.html
Web Page: http://www.inmotionrems.com/demo/details-revised-3.php

I still have the styling and what not to do, but this gives a general idea of what I am looking to accomplish. I think this is the best way to handle images and video for this type of tour. I can see where having embedded video and pop-out images within the VT would be benefical, but for a Real Estate tour, I feel this is the most efficient way to combine stills, video and panoramas.