[tygger281]

I work at a major medical university in Texas. We are working with faculty to use more MM development on iPad Pro. Pages has an amazing feature where you can now produce EPUB3 files with embedded media, page turning animation, and interactive features - such as test and survey questions.

Here is the problem: You can play these files through the Apple Books reader. You can play them at full functionality with free viewer apps on Android devices. However, after weeks of searching, calls to Apple support, calls to Microsoft, and trying about 20 different apps - NOTHING plays EPUB3 files at full interactive functionality with media embedded.

I need to find an EPUB3 viewer that:
- Is free
- works in W10
- has the animated page turning
- plays embedded media (videos, gifs, sound files, etc)
- has the interactive question response capability

Both Adobe DE and EPUB3 reader claim to do this, but they basically turn the epub file into a glorified click through pdf with no interactivity. Bibliovore meets the first three criteria, but all embedded media and interactive elements gets translated as code.

Any help is appreciated. We cannot recommend this method to faculty until we find a way to play this in W10.

[InfoJunkie4Life]

I would think Adobe DE would achieve what you need. However, have you tested out Calibre (with companion app) or Freda (not sure about ios)?

Maybe supporting 2 platforms with a shared cloud world be feasible?

[tygger281]

I would have thought so as well, regarding ADE. However, I went on their forums and started reading - they basically convert to layered pdf, and all over the forums there are posts about layering issues regarding media, with no answers from Adobe reps. I was frankly surprised.

Calibre is a no. I will try Freda; not sure I saw that one before.

Sadly, it's simply the fact that the majority of students are W10 for sure. While I agree - you and I may assume everyone has a cell phone that is either iOS or Android - however, the university is not allowed to assume or require that. :/

[tygger281]

Here is a great example of what I mean:
Thanks for the referral to Freda. It does solve one of the issues regarding flow layout. However, here is the embedded media issue - when I download this book:

A Christmas Carol ePub3 AUDIO BOOK
Focus: ePub3 SMIL Audio overlays
The complete book has been processed with SMIL audio overlays. The IGP introduction has word highlighting. Stave1 has sentence highlighting, Staves 2, 3, 4 have paragraph highlighting and Stave 5 has phrase based highlighting. This is a dramatic reading sourced from www.libriVox.org. The Dramatis Personae page also has line highlighting as the audio is read. The file contains mp3 audio with ogg audio fallback in the manifest.
Size: 81.2MB
Download: http://files.infogridpacific.com/epu...AudioBook.epub

No audio plays or even shows up as code. So, interactive and embedded media is out, which is the advantage of EPUB3. (there is not an emoji sad enough to express my sadness)

[InfoJunkie4Life]

Maybe it would be possible to create an applet using the epub.js library? A web based reader would be compatible across devices. There are also several APIs online for epub.

Firefox has several extensions/addpns for epub, maybe one of those has the features you desire, device compatibility all but assured.

I'll look into it further this evening.

[tygger281]

Sadly, my app creation skill is non existent. But I will try what you suggested regarding Firefox!

Also found out today that Bookviser has flow issues with some multimedia books. So disappointing!

[talaniman]

https://www.epubor.com/how-to-read-epub-on-pc.html

Are you saying the school in question cannot access epub3 properly from there own devices and networks?