Q: iBook video playback problem in ePub exported from Pages 09

Hi guys,

Update for you from my experience, though it's not a solution, unfortunately!

I finally heard back from support:

Please be sure that the video files you are using match the requirements, which can be found in "iBookstore Asset Guide 5.0" (which can be found in the Deliver Your Content module of iTunes Connect).

If you find that your video still does not play properly after you verified that everything was embedded correctly and that the file size is not too large, please provide us with information such as what program you are using, how large the file is, etc.

So I wrote back confirming that my video files did indeed match the requirements, etc., and that I, and my new friends here on this thread , seem to feel it is related to the recent update of Pages.  They responded with:

Please try the following steps:

1.) Open the movie in QuickTime Player 10.1 or later.

2.) From the File menu, choose Export.

3.) Choose one of the following:

       - "iPod touch & iPhone 3GS." This creates up to a 420p movie.

       - "iPad, iPhone 4 & Apple TV." This creates up to a 720p movie.

4.) Click Export.

Which got my hopes up.  Even though as I looked at the instructions, I didn't see how this would be much different than my videos.  Alas, this did not work, the same exact issue that we have all been suffering from on this thread occurred, where all videos played the content from the first video. 

So, in related news, I decided a week ago to bite the bullet and have since hired a freelancer to convert my Pages document into an iBooks Publisher document and he has been doing a nice job.  It won't set me back too much, either (about $100 for the conversion), and at least now I have the feeling that I can keep my project moving forward.  (for anyone interested, I used the site elance.com where you can find many independent providers who work on various ebook conversions). 

Testing out the drafts this guy has sent me, I can attest that this video issue is not occuring with the versions he is sending me, again this all but confirms that the issue is specifically related to Pages. 

Sorry I didn't have better news, but I do feel good about deciding to move forward via this other route.

best of luck guys!

Eliasjohn,

Did you feedback to Apple that changing the export options did not solve the problems?

I have just been speaking to Apple support and they have said that there is no way to roll back Pages 4.2 to 4.1

The problem with pages has been logged with the support team reference 359468321.

I've got to stick with it as I've got a book,which was ready for publishing and after the final edit I found that the videos did not work. I will give careful thought about when to implement updates in future.

Has anyone found a resolution to this problem?

I have not heard anything. Feel free to ask for an update using the problem report reference I gave above. I will try to chase it up too.

I think that I may have found a solution after countless hours of trying. First do not use or duplicate the template that Apple makes available on their epub site. Simply download and import styles into another pages document and build your ebook. Then insert your video (making sure that the video is a .mov file) and then export as an epub file. The three videos worked once and then I went in to edit a line of text and I am back to the same problem of one video playing three times.

This is frustrating. I will let everyone how it works out.

It works finally. It seems if you duplicate the file once you have put it together and not save the pages document as a pages document and you export before saving the file it exports without a problem. Once you save the file and then export it just plays the same video in my case three times. There is definitely a glitch in Pages.

What a shame, I could not reproduce you result. I took my original file, duplicated it and exported immediateily to an ePub without saving the pages file. Again the first video plays when you select any video in the book.

Has anyone else had any luck trying the 'fix'?

Did you export your video using Quicktime? Make sure that the video is H.264 when you export it. I have done it twice and it works.

Has anyone else's successfully duplicated this fix?