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Opus FAQs • Manual • Commands • Objects

SWF Helper

#1

With SWF Helper you can view thumbnails of Shockwave Flash files by Macromedia Inc.

Author: Alexander Mazuruk
Link: http://www.shuriksoft.com/opus/swfh.zip

Alternative Link: http://wisefm.com/swf-helper/

Note that this plugin is just for thumbnails of SWF files. You can already displays SWF files in the Viewer Pane using the ActiveX plugin which comes with Opus.

Also note that some the plugin may take a long time (several seconds) to identify some SWF files. If you're in a folder containing SWF files then having the plugin installed could make you wait longer for the file information columns, or thumbnails, to populate. (It only seems to affect some SWF, and you can always disable the plugin if you run into the problem a lot, so still give it a try if it sounds useful. I'm just mentioning it so people know how to fix the problem if they run into it.) --Leo

Update: Seems to crash Opus with some input files and the current (May 2009) version of Flash. :frowning: --Leo

.SWF Thumbnails
#2

:stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

Genial el pluing , esto mejora bastante las posibilidades de este explorador

gracias por compartirlo

#3

is it possible to configure it that i can play flv (like it's used by google video, youtube, ...) with it?

#4

I may be wrong but I don't think the SWF Helper plugin displays anything in the viewer pane. It's just for thumbnails.

The ActiveX Document plugin displays flash files in the viewer pane but can't handle FLV.

As far as I can tell there isn't an ActiveX control for displaying FLV files since if you drop a FLV on Internet Explorer it won't display it. It seems they have to be turned into a Flash .SWF file to be playable.

I'm not an expert on Flash/FLV, though, so if anyone has information on how a program could display FLV files then please pass it on. I'd quite like to be able to display stuff saved from YouTube as well.

Edit: (Months later.) We now know how to make FLV play in the viewer pane. See the FAQ: Some movie/music formats don't play in Opus for help.

#5

Actually, to my surprise, it does, and that's why I'm here: to report a bug, not to bump an old thread. :slight_smile:

Bug: When watching an animated flash file in the plug-in window, if one clicks on the "full-screen" button, it goes full-screen and works fine, but unfortunately, there is no way to exit full-screen mode other than killing the task. :frowning: (Alt-Tabbing and then right-click-->Close on the taskbar icon works, too.)

#6

Are you sure it's the SWF Helper plugin that's viewing the flash and not the ActiveX plugin?

Alt-F4 should allow you to close the full-screen window.

#7

Well, how would I find out, or rather, how would I know what DOpus is using?

For the record, even though this is a new system with not much installed on it yet, I imagine I already have downloaded and installed the Shockwave Flash ActiveX plug-in during my brief stint with IE (before I reinstalled Firefox).

All I know is that if I have an interactive .swf selected in DOpus and then open the view pane, it plays and responds in DOpus' view pane perfectly fine. But if I click on the full-screen button in DOpus' viewer, it goes full-screen and still plays fine, but there's no way to exit full-screen mode.

#8

In retrospect, maybe this is just an Adobe Flash 9 problem in that it's expecting to only be operating inside a browser, and it's not, there's no mechanism for it to exit full-screen mode.

Come to think of it, I don't recall ever being able to go full-screen with an flash animation before (the option is not ever listed in Adobe's normal context menu), so the fact that DOpus can force it to go full-screen is actually rather cool regardless of the side-effect. :smiley:

#9

When you view the SWF in the viewer pane (the one that lives inside of its lister) the titlebar of the pane should indicate which plugin is in use.

You can also right-click the viewer pane title bar and go into the Use Plugin sub-menu to see which plugin is active.

Alt-F4 will close almost all full-screen viewers. I can't remember whether or not the ActiveX plugin also allows you to click at the top/bottom of the screen to get the menu bar and toolbar to appear. If not it's something I will add as part of the re-write I'm doing.

#10

The titlebar states that its a "Shockwave Flash Object," but sadly, it appears I that muddied this thread for no good reason. :frowning:

Looking at the "Use Plugin" sub-menu as you suggested, SWF is not even listed as being installed--"Default" is what is selected, so I guess it's just ActiveX.

Sorry about all this, but out of curiosity, since I seem to be able to view swf files without the plug-in, should I install it anyway or just leave well-enough alone?

#11

If you want thumbnails for SWF files then you should install the SWF Helper plugin; if not then there's no need to install it.

#12

I've been using all of the plugins lately for a list that I'll post soon. While checking out the SWF plugin again I noticed it can take a long time to process some SWF files which in turn can make you wait a long time for other file information to appear. I've added a note to the root post with more info.

Do still try the plugin if you want its features, but if you notice Opus slows down when populating file information columns, or when generating thumbnails, see if disabling it helps.

#13

Is there any news on *.flv and similar formats? ...that is the only thread I found about it via the search.

#14

You can play FLV (and SWF) files using the movie plugin that comes with Opus, if that's what you're interested in. But that information is linked above already so I'm not sure if it's what you're after.

#15

Hi leo, ok thanks for the clarification! I didn't know that swtf = flv and it wasn't clear to me from the post that I can successfully use the above plugin.

Now I installed it, thanks for stating the obvious for the ones of us who don't get it like me. :wink:

#16

SWF isn't FLV. Also, you don't need the plugin on this page to play either of them.

I was refering to this text above:

"Edit: (Months later.) We now know how to make FLV play in the viewer pane. See the FAQ: Some movie/music formats don't play in Opus for help."

#17

Howdy Leo,

Is there any progress on the ability of DO to generate FLV thumbnails? Conversely, is there a way to let DO designate an installed FLV player program to generate thumbnails along the lines of designating present plug-in viewers? The latest list of extensions for the Universal Graphics Viewer Plugin does not include FLV.

Tony

#18

If Opus can play FLV then it should be able to make thumbnails for it as well, so the guide I linked in my previous reply should have what you need already, as far as I know.

#19

Howdy Leo,

I appreciate your fast reply. Mine's been a bit slower. I downloaded and successfully registered the FLV splitter from Guliverkli2. I installed FFDShow. I still can't generate thumbnails in DOpus.

In your resource link to HOW TO: Enable/fix playback of various media formats in Opus you wrote —

Since registering the splitter and installing FFDShow, when I try to open an FLV file in Windows Media Player I get a pop-up disclaimer window saying that the FLV extension is not recognized by WMP and may not play properly. In the past, clicking on the "I don't care, play it anyway" button resulted in nothing happening. Now, with the splitter and FFDShow installed, when I click on the "play it anyway" button, the file opens and plays normally. Still, I have to right-click on an FLV file and select WMP from the "Open with" drop-down menu. If I try to open the file from within WMP, FLV files are not listed in the directories. Did I miss a step?

Again from your resource link —

The Movie plugin seems to be properly configured and has always had the FLV extension listed within list of "recognized filename extensions."

As the system I am trying to setup DOpus to dispaly FLV thumbnails is an XP system, I thought your instruction —

would be applicable. However, under WMP's file types list, FLV is not one of the available options.

What am I missing?

Tony

#20

I'm not sure to be honest. It's a long time since I've set up FLV playback on Windows XP.