Demo - S3Media Pro - Joomla! Extension
Last Updated on Friday, 11 February 2011 12:37
This article demonstrates the most important features of the S3Media Pro module, an exceptionally powerful and versatile media extension for Joomla 1.5 to embed video and audio. It provides video/audio protection from unauthorized use, subtitles, Closed Captions, branding options, related play lists, etc, ...
In order for a demo to work properly, you need to click on video you want to test to see its effect. You may have to be a bit patient downloading this page as it contains 5 movies. Let's start with our latest addition to this extension:
NEW: AdSolution channels from LongTail Video
On special request from customers, we added the option to place ads from the AdSolution provided by Longtail Video. You need to have an account with them and it is best to have a premium account because it gives better targetted ads. We provide other options to monetize your media too, see also S3Media Stream.
Expiring URL's with S3 Amazon
This video is set to expire in one minute for demo purposes. Go ahead, try to copy the url of this video, open a new window tab and paste it into the address bar en hit ENTER. If you are really quick, you will be able to download it, but refresh a minute later and that URL is obsolete forever! Even if you click on this video a minute later, it won't play anymore (a bit impractical in reality, best set it to at least 10 minutes).
Bottom line of this feature: Protect any of your media this way and leeching or unauthorized use is no longer an option. Very useful for paid media in your membership area or just for media you want to show on your site but nowhere else.
S3Media Pro video demo with subtitles
The videos below are a courtesy of Gazorra, www.jandrewedits.com
Subtitling shows from the start without user interaction, although viewers can turn it off if they want. This is one of the actual differences with Closed Captions for the hearing impaired. The advantages of using subtitling is clear: in many countries, subtitling is regularly used on foreign movies. Dialect speech can be made understandable with subtitling too. Think about it, how often do you miss an important phrase in native speech? Therefore, subtitles make sure everyone can follow and it proves your commitment to give a good user experience.
S3Media Pro video demo with Closed Caption
Videos with Closed Captions for the hearing impaired do not show automatically. The viewer has to click on the CC button, which in this case is placed in the control bar (button CC), but you can also show it in the dock area (right top of the video area).
Closed Captions have an additional requirement, namely they also describe sounds other then speech. Example: when a door opens, describe it in square brackets, like [Sliding doors], or [tense classical music wells up]. Note also that we selected a difference skin here: Polished Metal, by Raboo Design.
S3Media Pro video demo with Closed Captions on semi-transparent background
Sometimes, Closed Captions or subtitles may not be clear on a video, or you want to mask hard coded subtitles and impose your own for various reasons. Enforcing the Closed Captions background creates a semi-transparent bar which subdues everything behind it. Press the CC button to view the Closed Captions.
S3Media Pro video demo with play list and watermark
Play list in this module is actually a Related list. We chose this option over the regular play list for various reasons. One is that it is easier to handle, you do not need to worry about the looks. Two is that the videos do not play automatically one after the other. We believe that the viewer needs to be in the driver seat, not the module. Thus, with the related play list the viewer can select any video or(let's not forget) any audio on Pause or after end of play. You can set the media either to an internal or external URL. The best user experience is to keep the external media in modules on your own site, but in some cases, you need to be able to send viewers to an external site. The links here are all external. We will add more demos later.
SWF project (New BETA)
On special request, we added the option to play Flash SWFs, like Camtasia projects, Articulate and iSpring eLearning projects. Not fully documented yet in the tutorials, but that will follow soon.
The example above is Flash banner. You can place any Flash project eitheri in an article or place it as a module in one of the user zones, exactly like the videos and audios.
Camtasia is a bit tricky. It depends on the version of Camtasia and how you save it because in some cases the controlbar/timelime is not available. Camtasia relies for a part on extenal javascripts which are supposed to be called by an html page and not by embedding code. If in doubt, contact us and we do a test with one of your projects before you buy the extension.
Download link document (New)
This is a downloadable test pdf which has an expiring url: This is a downloadable link to a non media file. The title of the module is the name of the link and as you can see, you can add a link like this in the middle of a sentence. You can format it in any way, just like text: This is a downloadable link to a non media file
This is a great way to temporary provide documents of any kind in a membership area, for instance. Sharing the link accross the internet won't be possible anymore.
Watermarking
You probably noticed the "logo" in the bottom-left corner of the video above. This logo is not part of the video itself, but it is a branding feature imposed on top of the video. Viewers can click on the logo and it will bring them to any link you want. Very convenient to link a video to a related page. Go ahead, play that video again and click on the logo! You will be send to an useful article about the advantages and disadvantages of watermarking and burning. The logo here is quite big to make it stand out for the demonstration. Usually, you best do not make them as big as that.
