Embedding a DVD as Flash in Blackboard

22Mar11

This post is how I approached getting a DVD into Blackboard – useful when the video has to properly secure and locked in. This applies to Blackboard 9.1.  As always ensure you have copyright before sharing DVDs in this way.

Step 1

Start by converting the DVD .vob files to Flash* – this might require you to to split the DVD video up first, but I was lucky as my DVD was already in ‘chapters’.

I used the following settings as I wanted good quality (and each video was quite short):
Video codec – FLV
Video size – 640 x 480
Video bitrate – 1000
Video framerate – 25
Audio codec – mp3
Audio bitrate – 128
Sample rate – 44100

* There are a number of software programs you can use to do this, e.g. Any Video Converter which you can get from here
http://www.any-video-converter.com/download-freeware/

Step 2

Download JW mediaplayer from Longtail:
http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/

Upload the ‘player.swf’ file to your module’s content collection area and also upload all the FLV videos which you created in step 1 above.  Set the correct permissions to the videos and swf file to allow all users in the module ‘read’ access (I put all my files in a folder and then just set permissions on the folder)

Step 3

In the content collection, make a note of the WEB FOLDER URL of each of the videos (see my example URLs below) and also of the single ‘player.swf’ file. You can find the URLs in the content collection, by clicking the drop-down arrows next to the item and choosing ‘360 view’.

Video 1 – VTS_01_1 is ‘https://learningcentral.cf.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/courses/Demonstration-Module/Training-DVD/Videos/VTS_01_1.flv’

player.swf is ‘https://learningcentral.cf.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/courses/Demonstration-Module/Training-DVD/player.swf’

Step 4

For Video 1, make an ‘Item’ within the content area of a module – give it the title ‘Introduction to DVD’ (or anything you want) and switch to HTML (<>) in the wysiwyg textbox.

Paste the following code in*, and then paste over the existing two https://….. in this code with the full URLs for your own ‘player.swf’ and your Video 1 flv video itself – you’ll be pasting in whatever you’ve noted down as the WEB FOLDER URL above.

<div class=”previewDiv” height=”512” width=”640”><embed height=”512” width=”640” flashvars=”file=https://…..VTS_01_1.flv&autostart=false” src=”https://….player.swf” /> </div>

* Remember to paste this code into Notepad first, to get rid of any formatting, otherwise it will mess up when you try to paste into the HTML area from your wysiwyg editor.

Click ‘Submit’ and you’ll see the video embedded within your Blackboard content area.  Now repeat step 4 for all the other videos you’ve converted from your DVD.

Final Note: if you want your video to be smaller or larger when you see it on the screen, change the two instances of height and width above.

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