Help in putting movies into pdf with Acrobat 8.0 Pro for a free textbook

Question

For the next version of my free 1500 page
physics text ( download at www.motionmountain.net )
I have big problems. I need to use Acrobat Distiller,
I have bought it for this reasons,
but I do not get embedded movies to work. Distiller
does not find the mpg files; the competing
freeware ps2pdf does.
This few line tex demo file works fine with ps2pdf
(using relative path to the mpg file)
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest.tex
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest.aux
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest.log
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest.dvi
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest.ps
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest.pdf
but this simple tex file for Acrobat Distiller,
with absolute paths, as Acrobat wants,
does not work:
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest2.tex
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest2.aux
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest2.out
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest2.dvi
www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest2.ps
This is the Acrobat Distiller error text:
%%[ Error: undefinedfilename; OffendingCommand: file ]%%
Stack:
(r)
(/Users/christophschiller/Desktop/aFys-tex-6/Films/gyroprec.mpg)
{fstream1}
-mark-
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%
(Found in www.motionmountain.net/testdir/filmtest2.log)
I use Mac OSX 10.4.11, Adobe Acrobat 8.1.2 Pro.
Mac OSX has no Unix "strace" command.
Somebody told me to start Distiller with the -F flag.
This might solve the problem. How is this done on MacOSX?
The OSX command structure I know of is
open -a Distiller.app filename.ps
This does not allow to add a -F flag for Distiller,
or am I wrong?
Any help is greatly appreciated !
Best regards
Christoph

Answer 1

Don't use Distiller to input the movie files, use Acrobat. Even if you
get the files into the pdf, the chances are they won't play properly in
Acrobat or Reader on the Mac.
Additionally, I don't think you can use mpg files. I think you are
restricted to .mov or Flash files on the Mac on Acrobat 8. I used to be
a .mov type of guy, but Flash player is available to more people. My
recommendation is to upgrade to Acrobat 9 for its new Flash abilities
which do not require either Flash or Quicktime. If you don't upgrade to
Acrobat 9, then go with Quicktime .mov files. Acrobat 8 and earlier will
only handle flash version 4 or earlier if my memory serves.
BTW, you avoid all these issues is you use the attachment tool, rather
than the movie tool, but then they cannot play within Acrobat, but will
launch a separate process. They you can use your mpgs.
Mike