[Swftools-common] Slide delay on linux flash player

[tmw]

This could be a bug in the pdf2swf tool or a problem with the linux flash 
player.

I'm using flash movies created by exporting a powerpoint or odf 
presentation as a PDF and then converting it with a command like this :

pdf2swf -s insertstop -s filloverlap --zlib my.pdf -o my.swf

and then inserting those files into a page with an <object tag> and 
controlling the slide shown using javascript methods, eg :

  var s=window.document.flashSlides;
  s.GotoFrame(slideNum);

This works fine on most OS/Browser combinations that i've tried. However, 
on linux there is a 3-5 second delay between the execution of the 
javascript call and the slide change. I'm not seeing this delay under 
windows and have demonstrated the problem on 3 different linux computers 
with both Flash 9 and Flash 10 beta.

I can't see that there is anything in my javascript code that would cause 
this. I can use the same original source document and use the swf export 
in OpenOffice to convert it to swf and this works fine on linux and 
windows. However, pdf2swf gives much more reliable output, so I would 
prefer to use this for my presentations.

I've tried both the most recent stable build and the latest developer 
snapshot, but the result is the same.

I suspect for a lot of uses the delay would be inconsequential, however 
i'm synchronising the converted slides with videos and it's important for 
the slides to trigger at the right video time index without delay.

Has anybody got any ideas ? Is this a bug in flash or swftools ?

Thanks for you're help.

Tim W

--
Tim Williams BSc MSc MBCS
Euromotor Autotrain LLP
148 Clydesdale Tower
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Birmingham B1 1UH
United Kingdom

Web : http://www.autotrain.org
Tel : +44 (0)121 414 2214

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number: OC317070.