link delay

[randy vild]

I just did a project for a non profit organization and the total CD size was 55mb. When you put it in the CDtray, app pops up and then hit, "WHO WE ARE" button there seems to be about 3 second delay and this is when the disc is moving. The delay if for every link.

However, I just tried an auto launch flash CD from friend and his buttons trigger as fast as lightning.

Anyone having this problem? And is ther a solution?

Thank you,
Randy

[yosik]

What type of actions do you have under this button?
Are you launching an outside file? Doyou have a virus scan programm running in the background? Are you launching an external website and have a firewall?
All these factors can influence the time response.

Yossi

[Roboblue]

also, if you are linking to an internet site, if you have internet connection checking coded in, there will be a 1-2 second delay while it checks for internet connectivity. He may not have checking in his flash code.

[randy vild]

No gentlemen, I'm talkin about simple button links within the card that lead to just text like who we are, contact us ect...

For instance if upload Video CD file to the web and someone downloads the button links work very fast. However, if they have actual disc the button links have about 2-3 second delay and this is when the CD is spinning.

Thank you,
Randy

[Derek]

Sounds like a combination of CD access time (?) and something else running [or not running!] in the background. It's possible that something else on the system is interfering with CD access time.

How many PC's have you tried this on? Is it the very same on all PC's?

[eric_darling]

I've seen similar situations across different machines. Some like to keep the disc spinning in the tray longer than others - probably a factor of firmware and drivers more than anything else. Fact is, because the Windows hardware and software world is so spread out over a myriad manufacturer combinations, there's just no accounting for it. Beyond the optical disc reader, there's the considerations of RAM, operating system, BIOS settings, everything that makes up the computer, just about. Trying to develop for a singular user experience regarding every nuance of a project is an exercise in futility.

[randy vild]

Thank you for some answers. I have only tried this CD on two computers.
I really love this program but if you had choice for auto launch wouldnt it be better in entire FLASH program? Then it would be compatible for PC and MAC?

-Randy

[Corey]

Flash on it's own has none of the Windows scripting abilities which AutoPlay Media Studio has. In Flash you can't do things like manipulate files/folders, integrate web sites, etc. AutoPlay CD/DVDs made with AutoPlay Media Studio will play on any Windows system without any need for additional software whereas Flash requires that the end user have Flash installed in order to run. :yes

A good rule of thumb is that whichever technology is capable of embedding the other is usually the more powerful of the two. You can embed Flash in AutoPlay Media Studio but not vice-versa. As someone who uses both quite a bit I would say that my personal choice for making autorun CDs would be AMS, hands down. Purely based upon capability. :)

As for the speed of the CD, what is the size of the Flash .swf movie? Typically flash movies are small, i.e. "less than 1 MB" to "2-3 MB max.". That probably accounts for the difference between the Flash and a 55MB CD. :yes

[eric_darling]

Flash can do a lot, yes. But there is a lot that Flash can't do when compared to AMS. They serve two separate purposes, in my mind. It's also hard to get an exceptionally large FLA to output to a self-contained self-executable. That proves error-prone. Further, development speed is an issue. A very proficient Flash artist will still proceed more slowly than a novice AMS developer in most cases. Flash doesn't "talk" to the Windows OS in the same way that AMS does, either. So if your project needs to do anything with the system registry (nearly all of my AMS projects do), or any of a multitude of other tasks, you're better off developing in AMS. Besides, you can take your SWF output and wrap it in AMS for flawless autorun - something which can't really be said for publishing self-executables directly out of Flash. If anything, the two products are symbiotic, not adversarial.

I'm the first to want to see AMS projects run on a Mac - just do a search in the forums to prove that. But I see the pitfalls to it as well. AMS is a uniquely powerful Windows-only solution. It is wonderful, but it has its limits.