Srila Prabhupada's Lectures/Conversations with Synchronized Text

[Pratyatosa]

The idea is to create a website with all of Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversations with synchronized text in a format similar to the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pENRxREorZM

I've been playing around with controlling audio using HTML5 and the results look very promising:

http://pratyatosa.com/t.html

So far, I've only tested it with Firefox 3.6.8 and with IE8. It doesn't work with IE8 because IE8 doesn't support HTML5, but IE9 is just around the corner.

It may also work with the latest versions of Chrome, Safari, and Opera, but so far I haven't tested it.

This could be a huge preaching project for us Prabhupadanugas, and could even include, in the not to distant future, uploading full HD video versions to YouTube.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa <http://groups.google.com/group/istagosthi, http://causelessmercy.com/ http://rtvik.com/ http://pratyatosa.com/ http://feedacow.com/ http://llbest.com/>

[Pratyatosa]

More progress on <http://pratyatosa.com/t.html>:

(Tested using Firefox 3.6.8, Internet Explorer 8.0¹ Opera 10.6, Safari 5.0.1² and Google Chrome 5.0³)

¹ Internet Explorer gives an error message and does not work at all.

² Safari does not give any error messages, but does not work either.

³ Google Chrome does not work very well if the bandwidth is low enough to cause buffering.

(Firefox and Opera seem to work just fine.)

[Pratyatosa]

Speaking of audio with synchronized text, here's a YouTube video that's gotten more than 22,000,000 views!:

Miley Cyrus-See You Again with lyrics

Why is it so popular? Because the title contains the name of a famous personality, the name of a famous song, and the word, "lyrics." If it also had "karaoke" in the title, it would probably get even more views.

The following example has the word "karaoke" in the title and it got 3,000,000+ views:

Carpenters - Yesterday Once More (Karaoke)

If it also had "lyrics" in the title, it probably would have gotten even more views.

Here's a more recent example which already has 500,000+ views:

MIKA - Kick Ass Lyrics (On Screen)

The same sort of thing could be done with My Sweet Lord  by George Harrison. Then millions of people would get to hear Krishna's Holy Names! :-)

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

"Volume" and "Position" buttons were added to <http://pratyatosa.com/t.html>. Now it's a complete audio player, created from scratch using HTML5 JavaScript, and unlike anything else that you're likely to find on the Internet. :-)

Revised comments based upon the latest testing:

(Tested using Firefox 3.6.8, Internet Explorer 8.0¹, Safari 5.0.1², Opera 10.6³ and Google Chrome 5.0)

¹ Internet Explorer gives an error message and does not work at all.

² Safari does not give any error messages, but does not work either.

³ Opera does not work very well if the bandwidth is low enough to cause buffering or if you jump ahead to a position which has not yet loaded.

(Firefox and Chrome seem to work just fine.)

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 12:50 PM, Pratyatosa <praty...@gmail.com> wrote:

Speaking of audio with synchronized text, here's a YouTube video that's gotten more than 22,000,000 views!:

Miley Cyrus-See You Again with lyrics

Why is it so popular? Because the title contains the name of a famous personality, the name of a famous song, and the word, "lyrics." If it also had "karaoke" in the title, it probably would have gotten even more views.

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Prabhus, I've added the HTML5 audio element demo to <http://llbest.com/>: <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm>. The latest version includes <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.zip>, which, when downloaded and unzipped, allows you to run the demo off-line using Google Chrome.

Here are the latest text results:

(Tested using Firefox 3.6.8, Internet Explorer 8.0¹, Safari 5.0.1¹, Opera 10.6² and Google Chrome 5.0)

¹ Internet Explorer and Safari both give an error message and do not work at all.

² Opera does not work very well if the bandwidth is low enough to cause buffering or if you jump ahead to a position which has not yet loaded.

(Firefox and Chrome seem to work just fine.)

This demo contains all of the controls needed to produce a website containing all of Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversations with synchronized text. Let's pray that it can eventually be made compatible with all of the popular web browsers, especially Internet Explorer 9, which is due for a beta release next month.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 11:29 PM, Pratyatosa <praty...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Prabhus, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

In addition to Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome, both <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm> and <http://pratyatosa.com/t.html> now work with the Apple Safari web browser. :-)

Here are the latest test results:

(Tested using Firefox 3.6.8, Internet Explorer 8.0¹, Safari 5.0.1², Opera 10.6³ and Google Chrome 5.0)

¹ Internet Explorer gives an error message and does not work at all.

² Safari seems to work just fine except that it doesn’t allow you to jump ahead to a position which has not yet loaded.

³ Opera does not work very well if the bandwidth is low enough to cause buffering or if you jump ahead to a position which has not yet loaded.

(Firefox and Chrome seem to work just fine.)

Like I said in my last email on this thread, this demo contains all of the controls needed to produce a website containing all of Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversations with synchronized text. Internet Explorer 9 is due for a beta release next month, so, hopefully, we'll soon have this technology working with all 5 of the most popular web browsers.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Gauranga Sundara Prabhu, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Have you seen the following thread?:

http://groups.google.com/group/istagosthi/browse_thread/thread/d5a74dc8f7208bd5

Very soon, all 5 of the most popular web browsers will support ATS! I'm hoping to get the exact same JavaScript code working with Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari very soon together with IE9, as soon as it becomes available (IE9 beta version due out next month).

I see that you are up to #56., Great! Please keep up the good work. :-)

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa <http://groups.google.com/group/istagosthi, http://causelessmercy.com/ http://rtvik.com/ http://pratyatosa.com/ http://feedacow.com/ http://llbest.com/>

Note to forum members: http://www.gauranga.org/ats.htm currently only works with IE6 & IE7.

On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 8:39 AM, Gauranga <gaur...@gauranga.org> wrote:

Gauranga Sundara

On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 8:39 AM, Gauranga <gaur...@gauranga.org> wrote:

 

Dear Pratyatosa Prabhu

PAMHO. AGTSP.

Just a quick note to let you know that I just finished a new class (#39) at:

http://www.gauranga.org/ats.htm

I hope this meets you well and happy

With affection and love

Your servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada

Gauranga Sundara das

 

Hare Krishna Centre for Vedic Studies
UK Registered Charity No 1107565
Indraprastha Ashram
28 Evington Road
Leicester LE2 1HG
United Kingdom
e-mail: gaur...@gauranga.org
Website: www.gauranga.org
Tel: +44 (0) 116 254 6292
Mobile: +44 (0) 7887 560 260
Publication: http://www.gauranga.org/files/newsletter_06.PDF
Internet Radio: http://www.gauranga.org/indraprastha.htm
Newsletter: http://www.gauranga.org/files/etav_03.PDF
Prayer: http://www.gauranga.org/sound/kunti.m3u

 

"May there be good fortune throughout the universe, and may all envious persons be pacified. May all living entities become calm by practicing bhakti-yoga, for by accepting devotional service they will think of each other's welfare. Therefore let us all engage in the service of the supreme transcendence, Lord Sri Krishna, and always remain absorbed in thought of Him." (Srimad Bhagavatam 5.18.9)

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Gauranga Sundara Prabhu, all glories to your Vanipedia and your ATS Project service. I'm sure that Srila Prabhupada is very pleased.

Thank you very much for speaking your mind. I agree with you 100%. These things needed to be said (See email from Gauranga Sundara Prabhu below).

The unedited versions of the MP3s will be released eventually, but the longer that the Bhaktivedanta Archives devotees delay it, the worse that they make themselves look. They seem to thinking in terms of publishing everything in one fell swoop on CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs, but why wait? Why not make them available one-by-one as free downloads on the Internet? Just like in the glory days of the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry, when we sent cassette tapes out to all of the subscribers, one-by-one, as the latest recordings of Srila Prabhupada became available! All of the subscribers loved it, and Srila Prabhupada was very pleased! :-)

In any case, please keep up the good work, and if we have to redo some of them because the unedited versions finally get published, then so be it.

I am hoping to create a totally non-controversial website, perhaps with <http://krishnarama.com/> as the domain name, containing nothing but Srila Prabhupada's recorded words with synchronized transcriptions. What could be more non-controversial than that? Especially if we can get our hands on Srila Prabhupada's unedited lectures!

I want to do the upcoming HTML5 version of the ATS Project in PHP, so that, in addition to the power of HTML5 JavaScript, PHP code can also be embedded. Then we will be able to set it up in such a way that devotees all over the world will be able to very easily synchronize the transcriptions with the audio, and then themselves save the result to the server for the instant benefit of the entire world-wide devotee congregation on the Internet!

Don't worry about the future of multimedia web pages written in HMTL5 JavaScript. This new standard is backed by Microsoft, Firefox, Google, Apple, and all of the other "big guns." As usual, Lord Sri Krishna is giving us all facility to serve Him nicely.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 4:28 PM, Gauranga Sundara Das <gauranga...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Pratyatosa Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Thank you very much Prabhu, this is good news. Yes, I have briefly read about it in the Istagosthi group. However, I am increasingly disheartened by the unnecessarily edited audio MP3s. It makes it so much more difficult. Moreover, the whole game will change again once the full and unedited audio is out. Is there any way of getting hold of the unedited audio? The last class for instance (http://www.gauranga.org/ATS_Example/t/Bg_16-07_TOK_1975-01-27_Turning_Asuras_Into_Suras.htm?cs=5&DIM=100&h=-7&vm=0) is full of edits which are completely unnecessary. Moreover, many of them are even badly done. What is the difficulty if Srila Prabhupada repeats himself. Why cut it out? I really don't see the point. It is so frustrating!

It would be so easy if the audio would match the transcript and I would just have to do the timing stamps. I don't say anything about the cleaning of the audio, great job! However, editing it for some aesthetic reason or whatever is a crime. No one has probably ever thought that the audio and transcripts would one day be put together. The audio was seen as a completely separate entity. That must have been the reasoning behind the edits. It is not only that whole sections have disappeared, perhaps because they were thought of as politically not correct according to the time and circumstances. No, little edits of single words here and there and all over the place forces me actually to re-write the original transcript, which is probably 98 percent correct as it was done before someone started editing the latest MP3 audio files.

Please, we need the unedited MP3 files! That is my plea. It would be such a pleasure to work with them without worrying that the transcript doesn't match. If there is an edited digital audio version there must also be the unedited version which was the bases for the editor. Is it not possible to get hold of these files. They will be the cleaned up latest version, just without the edits. That would be great!

I am sure in due course of time we will have these unedited MP3s, however, then all the 56 classes I have timed so far will have to be re-done. What a waste of time and energy. Maybe I should get in touch with Ekanatha Prabhu myself and ask if I can get hold of the unedited files. What do you think?

I am also working with Visnumurti Prabhu on the Vanipedia. I would love to help developing the Vanimedia petal. I always thought ATS had no real future as it was limited to IE 5 and 6, without Firefox, IE8 and probably a whole range of other browsers. However, your newest revelation  gives me new hope that this is not a dead end.

I have compared the browser display and some video displays of Prabhupada's ATS classes. There is nothing that comes even close to the browser display in terms of clarity of fonts, flexibility of background and font colours etc. Not that I use different colours all the time. I stick pretty much to the white on a purple background as it is easy on the eyes and easily readable. In short, the browser display of ATS can so far not be matched by any other method in my experience. What do you say?

I remember you said now long ago that you wanted to develop a Winamp plugin. However, Winamp is not that popular anymore. You also spoke of embedding the time stamp into the MP3 itself. Any news on that front? Perhaps we should just stick to the browser timing, especially if this can be made available for Firefox and perhaps other browsers. Firefox is such a popular browser that it would be worthwhile to go along that route just for the sake of Firefox. If people want to use the ATS then they should just download Firefox if they don't have it already. Of course the crucial question would be if any future version of Firefox would keep supporting ATS. Perhaps it is easier to lobby the open source community and Firefox developers that Microsoft.

Sorry for having gone on so much, but this needed to be said.

Your servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada,

Gauranga Sundara Das

[mario pineda]

Hare Krishna devotees. Respects. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

This note is to let you know that we are having a Prabhupadanuga organized Festival of India, Janmastami celebration and Vyasa puja offering for Srila Prabhupada on Saturday September 4th and Sunday September 5th of 2010. Saturdays program will start at 2 pm and finish after midnight. The Sundays (Vyasa puja) program will start 10 am and go until 4 pm. The festival will be held at The Center of Light 1030 L-8 Lancaster, Ca. 93536

Please try to to tell others and of course attend. We do need assistance of all kinds, like doing kirtan, puja, cooking, book distribution, serving Prasada to 1000 etc, etc. Our budget is $8,000.00 and devotee friends have only donated $2,208 so far. I hope some of you may be inclined to assist with a donation. ANY little bit helps!  So for a non profit tax exempt donation, make check or money order to., Festival of India and send to., Mario Pineda 42155 Tropez Dr Quartz Hill, Ca. 93536

Any Prabhupadanuga can stay at our home for free during the festival time. By that date, we should have a total of 9 furnished rooms for devotees to stay in. Please pray that "our" festival will be pleasing to our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada and Krishna Caitanya.

661-722-8256 718-879-0846 (cell)

Most sincerely,

Mahatma dasa and Radha Govinda devi dasi.

--
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[Pratyatosa]

Dear Prabhus, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

On this auspicious Ekadasi, I finally got a simple ATS (Audio/Text Synchronization) example to work using HTML5 JavaScript, the obvious wave of the future.

Here's proof that it's doable. Please check it out:

http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm

(Tested using Firefox 3.6.8, Internet Explorer 8.0¹, Safari 5.0.1², Opera 10.6³ and Google Chrome 5.0)

¹ Internet Explorer gives an error message and does not work at all.

² Safari seems to work just fine except that it doesn’t allow you to jump ahead to a position which has not yet loaded.

³ Opera does not work very well if the bandwidth is low enough to cause buffering or if you jump ahead to a position which has not yet loaded. Also, the format of the text is messed up. Obviously, more work is required in order to make the text Opera compatible.

(Firefox and Chrome seem to work just fine.)

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Madhudvisa Prabhu, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

After reading your email late last night, I was thinking about how, when you first started the Bhaktivedanta MP3 Ministry, it was a bit of trial and error, but it was in Los Angeles that you finally got it together. It was the same way with me when I started the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry. I started it in New York City in 1971, but it wasn't until two years later, in Los Angeles, that I finally got it together.

The most important thing is that the ATS technology work very well with the 2 most popular web browsers: Internet Explorer and Firefox. The first IE9 beta is due to be released next month. Let's hope that it works as well with ATS as Firefox does.

It would be very good if you implemented the ATS technology on your <http://www.prabhuapdabooks.com/> website ASAP. The more widely that it is implemented, the more pressure that the Opera and Safari developers are going to be under to finally get it together. Therefore, I am making the complete demo package available as a free download on <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm>.

By the way, the text problem with Opera text has been solved. :-)

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 8:56 PM, Madhudvisa dasa <madhu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Pratyatosa Prabhu

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

It is a great achievement Prabhu if you can get it working in all the browsers.

I am very interested in incorparating this or something similar in www.PrabhuapdaBooks.com in the future.

All glories to your service.

Your servant

Madhudvisa dasa

www.KrishnaStore.com

[Pratyatosa]

For some strange reason, this version of the link:

http://prabhupadabooks.com/

... seems to work better.

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Prabhus, PAMHO. AGTSP!

ATS (Audio/Text Synchronization) news:

1. When it comes to HTML5, IE9 is faster than any of the other web browsers.

2. IE9 beta is scheduled for release on September 15th.

3. The ATS demo now allows you to jump to a particular page of the text with the audio still in sync.

4. The latest version of <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.zip> is now available for downloading.

5. Either <http://llbest.com/TitleCase.htm> or <http://pratyatosa.com/SanskritDiacriticTextConversion.htm> are usually my most popular web pages, but yesterday <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm> was the most popular by far. Seems that the word is getting around. :-)

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

Good news: All Windows XP and later computers can now run the old versions of ATS (Audio/Text Synchronization)!

If you have either IE6 or IE7 installed on your computer, then the following two ATS web pages will work:

http://www.gauranga.org/ats.htm (Use the up/down arrows to adjust the volume.)

http://llbest.com/100speeches.htm (Use either the mouse wheel or the up/down arrows to adjust the volume.)

If you have upgraded to IE8, then they won't work, but there is an alternative: A portable version of IE7. "Portable" means that in doesn't have to be installed, so you can even run it, for example, from a flash drive on a computer at your local library!

1. Download "Port_IE7.rar" at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GVNJIXRI.

2. After unraring it, put the "Portable Internet Explorer v7.0.exe" file into a folder named, for example, "C:\Portable Software" and put a shortcut to it on your desktop.

3. If you are using Windows 7, then right-click on the desktop icon, and select "Troubleshoot compatibility."

4. Click "Try recommended settings."

5. Click "Start the program..."

6. Click "Yes."

7. Copy/paste one of the above URLs into the address bar, and away you go! :-)

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Shyamasundara Prabhu, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Glad to hear that you got the portable version of IE7 to work. However, I'm disappointed to hear that your IE8 no longer works. :-(

I am using the 64-bit version of IE8 under Windows 7 Professional, and, after running Portable IE7 several times, it still seems to be working just fine.

Which version of Windows are you using?

If you are using Windows 7, then try the following:

1. Click "Start/Computer."

2. Click "Uninstall or change a program."

3. On the left, click "Turn Windows features on or off."

4. Uncheck "Windows Explorer 8."

5. Click "Yes."

6. Click "OK."

7. Click "Restart Now."

8. After rebooting your computer, "Internet Explorer 8" will no longer be on the list when you click "Start/All Programs." In other words, it's been uninstalled.

9. Click "Start/Computer."

10. Click "Uninstall or change a program."

11. On the left, click "Turn Windows features on or off."

12. Check "Windows Explorer 8."

13. Click "OK."

14. Click "Restart Now."

15. After the reboot, "Internet Explorer 8" should again be included on the "Start/All Programs" list. If you are running 64-bit Windows 7, then there should also be a 64-bit version of IE8 listed.

Please let me know whether or not this fixes your problem.

By the way, the next enhancement that I'm planning for <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm> is to try to get it to work with IE8 and older web browsers by using Adobe Flash as an automatic backup technology when the HTML5 "<audio> tag" support is lacking. This may take awhile because I've never programmed in Flash before, and I don't even know whether or not it's possible.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 11:02 AM, Shyamasundara dasa <Shyama...@disciples.com> wrote:

Dear Pratyatosa prabhu

 

Please accept my humble obeisances.  All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Thanks for the synchronized text classes.  I have IE8 on my computer so I set up portable IE7 as per your advice.  Works great.  Only snag is that IE8 no longer opens, even when IE7 is not open.  I'm sure it's only something simple.  Please if you could let me know what should I do. 

 

I also have Opera & Chrome; they both still work fine.  I'm using Vista.

 

Your servant
Shyamasundara Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

Sorry about the oversight, Prabhu. However, that makes it even easier because Microsoft has already created step-by-step, illustrated instructions on how to fix IE8 under Vista:

How to reinstall or repair Internet Explorer in Windows Vista and Windows XP

Ys, Ptd

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 5:55 PM, Shyamasundara dasa <Shyama...@disciples.com> wrote:

Thanks very much prabhu ...

 

You're a busy man and you likely overlooked that I had mentioned I'm using Vista (Yuk).  Specifically it's Home Premium 32-bit.  And unfortunately BROWSERS are not an option under "Turn Windows features on or off". (what to speak of IE8)

 

So!  Any further suggestions?

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Narasimha Prabhu, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Glad to hear that you have seen one of the original ATS video tapes that I created. It was in 1997 at Kapindra Swami's asrama in the Lower East Side of New York City that I first got the idea for ATS. It was also in New York City 26 years earlier that I got the idea for ISKCON's first cassette subscription service. In 1997, my idea was to do the work on a computer and then transfer the result to a video tape to show to the Sunday feast guests. It was a big success. The guests loved it! Now Gauranga Sundara Prabhu is doing the same thing in England.

Before moving to NYC in 1997, I had been helping out with the programming for the ISKCON Interactive DVD-ROM project in Denmark the previous year. Thus I already had some experience with multimedia computer programming, so I knew what could be accomplished using a computer program such as Macromedia Director.

Now my idea is to create a website similar to <http://www.gauranga.org/ats.htm> which will eventually have all of Srila Prabhupada's published MP3 files with synchronized text. Today I purchased the <http://BhaktivedantaATSministry.com/> domain. <http://KrishnaRama.com/> is also available.

Once the ATS web pages are created, they may then be converted into video files by doing a screen/audio capture. This could even be done in HD (720p or 1080p). Once the video files have been created, they could be uploaded to video sharing websites such as YouTube, made available as free downloads on iTunes, distributed on DVDs, etc.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 2:08 AM, narasimha stewart <gokul...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hare Krishna Pratyatosa Prabhu,

Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Thank you for your service in providing these media services, such as
istagosthi. I forwarded my letter regarding book changes to  "The
Prabhupadanuga Forum."

 

Also, I wanted to ask you about the videos with
Prabhupada you did, with audio and sychronized subtitles. Can these be
ordered on DVD or downloaded as DVDs? I am trying to put together some
spiritual ammo for a preaching program. I saw one of these years ago
that Kapindra Swami had, and he told me you had done it. Never forgot
it. Very excellent and important service for helping devotees learn to
hear Srila Prabhupada's lectures with rapt attention.

Hope you are well.

You servant,

Narasimha das

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Prabhus, we are making progress! For the first time, we have an ATS (audio/text synchronization) demo that works with Internet Explorer:

http://llbest.com/FlashAudioDemo.htm

... as long as Adobe Flash is installed.

It also works with the latest versions of Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera. Since it uses Flash, it should also work with other/older web browsers, but, so far, I haven't tested it.

It doesn't work quite as well as the HTML5 version (<http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm>) because the Flash software doesn't seem to know when enough of the audio has loaded to begin playing it, but maybe I'm missing something. More testing/research needs to be done.

In any case, I'm curious to know how well this version works with older web browsers. Please let us know what your experience is.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

Sorry about that. I should have said "works with Internet Explorer 8." <http://www.gauranga.org/ats.htm> works just fine with IE6 & IE7.

[Pratyatosa]

More positive feedback: ATS works on the iPhone 4! :-)


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gauranga <gauranga...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 5:31 AM
Subject: ATS
To: "hbe...@gmail.com" <hbe...@gmail.com>

Haribol Prabhu

Just tested the http://llbest.com/FlashAudioDemo.htm clip on iPhone 4. And it works! Great work. Thank you! The timing comes over a spit second late though. Yes, we need a cross browser platform. Then ATS will really take off. Pls keep experimenting.

Gauranga



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gauranga <gauranga...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 5:37 AM
Subject: ATS
To: "hbe...@gmail.com" <hbe...@gmail.com>

Yes, the HTML 5 version also works on iPhone 4.

Gauranga



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gauranga <gauranga...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 8:49 AM
Subject: Re: ATS
To: Pratyatosa <praty...@gmail.com>

Yes, the timing seems to be slightly more accurate with HTML5.

Gauranga

On 27 Aug 2010, at 13:31, Pratyatosa <praty...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Great news! Is the timing OK for the HTML5 version?

[Pratyatosa]

A few minutes ago, I stopped by the local AT&T store and tried <http://llbest.com/FlashAudioDemo.htm> on the iPhone that they had on display. It worked perfectly, and the timings were all perfect, the same as they are on my high-powered Toshiba X505-Q890 laptops.

Internet Explorer 9 Beta is due to be released one week from today. Hopefully, <http://llbest.com/FlashAudioDemo.htm> will also work with it. :-)

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

Last night, I finally got around to updating my 3G iPod touch to iOS 4.1. With my relatively slow Internet connection, it took almost 3 hours!

The good news is that now <http://llbest.com/FlashAudioDemo.htm> works perfectly on my iPod touch! :-)

I also modified the page layout of <http://llbest.com/FlashAudioDemo.htm> slightly so that it is no longer messed up on the iPhone/iPod touch.

Does <http://llbest.com/FlashAudioDemo.htm> work on the iPad? No, because iOS 4.1 wasn't designed to work on the iPad. But the good news is that iOS 4.2, which is designed to work with all 3, is due to be released in November. Then the iPad should also work! :-)

Countdown: IE9 is due to be released in only 4 days!

[Ron Conroy]

how did you put iOS4.1 on your 3G ipod touch. i have one ,

ys sd

--

[Pratyatosa]

Plug your iPod touch into your PCV, and run iTunes. It's a free download.

[Ron Conroy]

we have a PC & a macbook

[Ron Conroy]

itunes is already on the ipad touch?

[Pratyatosa]

I meant PC, not PCV.

You have to download and install iTunes on your PC or your Mac.

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Prabhus, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I'm very much disappointed. I downloaded and installed Internet Explorer 9 Beta, but, so far, I haven't been able to get <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm> to work with it.

Also, in 2 previous emails, I should have said that <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm> works perfectly with the iPhone/iPod touch (provided iOS 4.1 has been installed), not <http://llbest.com/FlashAudioDemo.htm>. I hadn't noticed the typo until just now. Sorry about that.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Pratyatosa <praty...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Prabhus, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Good news! It wasn't easy, but I finally got <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm> to work with Internet Explorer 9 Beta (which was released yesterday). And it still works in exactly the same way with the latest versions of the other 4 of the world's most popular web browsers (FireFox, Chrome, Safari and Opera). Plus it still works with the latest version of the iPhone/iPod touch operating system (iOS 4.1)!  :-)

The Microsoft IE9 Beta was released on Srimati Radharani's appearance day, and Apple iOS 4.1 was released on Lord Sri Krishna's appearance day! Hmmm!

Now I have to decide whether to use this new technology to try to start a multi-billion dollar dot-com business like YouTube, or to keep things simple and just use it for teaching Krishna conscious philosophy. :-)

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Gauranga Prabhu, <http://llbest.com/HTML5audioDemo.htm> was written 100% according to the new HTML5 JavaScript standard. The only reason that IE9 Beta didn't work at first is because Microsoft decided to be a little more finicky about web pages following the standard "to the letter." So far, all indications are that anything that works with IE9 Beta automatically works with the other 4 web browsers because the other 4 are less finicky.

The HTML5 standard has been agreed upon by all of the world's top rung web browser producing companies. Therefore, the technology, unlike the SMIL standard that we've been using up until now, is 100% future proof.

Have you heard anything from the Archives yet?

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa


On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 6:35 PM, Gauranga <gauranga...@gmail.com> wrote:

    That is great news Prabhu. All what we need now are the unedited MP3's of Srila Prabhupada's audio in order to take things to the next level. I am impatiently waiting for that to happen. I would love to see a full screen ATS class on my iPhone. Do you think future versions of iOS and IE and others will work as well? How future proof is it in your opinion?

    Gauranga

[Pratyatosa]

On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Gauranga <gauranga...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Pratyatosa Prabhu

Thanks for your reply. All this sounds incredibly good. When will you make the scripts available? Is there any point yet to start the timing with the new script or does it need more time for testing? When do you think the new script is ready to be used for ATS?

The next step is to create a website or a portion of a website dedicated to ATS. This time I'm going to do it in PHP with complete separation of form and content. I plan to set it up in such a way that devotees all over the world will be able log-in to do the timings and instantly save them on the server so that the whole world can immediately benefit.

I plan to make it as easy as possible to do the timings. Once a particular timing is pinned down, it will never have to be done again, even if the text after that particular timing is modified.

Initially, the software will automatically create all of the timings based upon the length of the text and the length of the audio. Then it's just a matter of doing the fine tuning. We could, for example, have a pair of keyboard keys which, when pressed, make a particular timing 10 seconds sooner/later, another pair which makes it one second sooner/later, and another pair which makes it one tenth of a second sooner/later. The result of pressing one of these keys will be heard immediately, so that each particular timing can be individually adjusted in a few seconds. This means that If, for example, the audio is 30 minutes long, all of the timings could be adjusted with tenth of a second accuracy in much less than 30 minutes!

Once a particular timing, the timing for when to go from page 1 to page 2, for example, is accurate, it could be made read-only, so as to prevent accidentally messing it up.

The website could be set up similar to Google Groups in that there could be 3 different levels of membership, namely members, managers, and owners. If a member saves the timings, then no other member is allowed to change them, but a manager is allowed. If a manager saves the timings, then no other manager is allowed to change them, but an owner is allowed.

I am looking forward to see all the classes timed so far working in Firefox.

Whenever changes are made to the software, everything will again be tested with all 6 web browsers (including iPhone/iPod touch), to make sure everything is still working.

Can the already timed lectures easily be converted to the new script or do we need to start from scratch again?

The existing timings can be used. I plan to write a script which will convert them all to the new format in one fell swoop.

It all sounds like this opens an avenue for the media petal of Vanipedia. What do you think? I asked Visnu Murti Prabhu some time ago if he has been in touch with you in this connection. He said yes, but it seems nothing concrete has emerged yet. I would love to see ATS on the Vanipedia. What do you think in this regard?

Maybe Vanipedia is the best place to do the timings. Is there a system of members/managers/owners, or something similar, already in place?

Regarding the Archives I have not heard anything new. Maybe I can speak with Visnu Murti. He has more leverage with Ekanath Prabhu than I have.

If they could at least give us a list of which of the already published lectures have not been edited, then we could start on those. But the best thing would be for the Archives to make the unedited versions of the lectures available to us a few at a time, preferably in a lossless format such as FLAC, starting immediately.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

Hope this meets you well

Your servant

Gauranga

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Gauranga Sundara Prabhu, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

The prospect of Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversations with synchronized text being a part of <http://www.vanipedia.org> sounds very exciting to me. I pray that we can all work together nicely in the service of Srila Prabhupada.

The next step is to make it easy to create the timings for additional lectures/conversations on-line. I created another demo, this time using PHP, so that I will be able to give the web page the ability for anyone in the world to add new audio files and to save newlt created sets of timings on the server, including automatically updating playlist(s), etc.:

http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php

Please bookmark the above so that you can check it periodically for newly added features.

There are no audio files on <http://pratyatosa.com/>. The above demo actually uses an audio file located on <http://causelessmercy.com/_PrabhupadasMP3Links.htm>. These audio files contain tags designed to work well with the iPhone/iPod touch. Because they have "album art" added, these versions of Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversatioins no longer work with the technology that you are using on <http://www.gauranga.org/ats.htm>. This is because Microsoft never bothered to update the SMIL code in IE6 or even in IE7 to work properly with the new ID3v2 MP3 tag standards. Therefore, the fact that they work with the above ATS demo on all of the new web browsers, including IE9 Beta, is very good news. :-)

Please contact Visnu Murti Prabhu and see what he thinks of the idea of adding Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversations with synchronized text to the Vanipedia project.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

NOTE: This entire thread my be viewed at <http://groups.google.com/group/istagosthi/browse_thread/thread/d5a74dc8f7208bd5>.

On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 4:29 AM, Gauranga Sundara Das <gauranga...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hare Krishna Prabhu

What you are saying sounds just too good. Yes, the Vanipedia platform is very suitable. There is already a fully functional system of members, administrators etc. in place and the Wiki format can easily be used by people from all over the world. I would really like to see you involved with the Vanipedia as you have such skills and knowledge which are most valuable and not so easy to be found. For myself I am just happy to do the timings for our weekly discussions and at the same time make it available to the world. I believe the Vanipedia could well be the platform to do just that.

The Vanipedia's Media Petal has not been developed at all so far. Why don't we get in on this. Visnu Murti will be more than happy and I am sure he will give you full freedom to develop it. We must get Srila Prabhupada's vani out there to the world. Time is running out and who knows how long we will be here and do some service in this regard. There is already an ever increasing group of volunteers on the Vani project who have compiled hundred of thousands of quotes of Srila Prabhupada and created an amazing number of Wiki pages. I myself do some compiling too and also get some of our devotees involved. It is a great service for them and it is wonderful to see how through this service they develop their relationship with Srila Prabhupada.

However, I feel even more inspired to work with the media aspect of Vanipedia. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a pool of volunteers from all over the world who, just like with the Vaniquotes at the moment, would do the timings to Srila Prabhupada's audio. Then, in just a short time we will have a whole series of classes to chose from for a Sunday lecture etc. What to speak of the many possibilities of linking Srila Prabhupada's audio with the written word in the Vaniquotes or Vanisource material. It would be so great and it has so many possibilities. This ATS has helped us so much. It has developed our congregation to more and more competent preachers and a closely knit community of devotees. All credit goes to you for this. Thank you very much!

Yes, it would be great if we could at least have a list of classes from the Archives which have not been edited so we could concentrate on those. I believe Visnu Murti has some leverage on Ekanatha, perhaps more than any of us and he wants this unedited release of the MP3s as much as we do. I feel, as we move more into establishing Srila Prabhupada's audio with a future proof method working with all browsers the pressure on the Archives will just increase to get their act together and get the audio sorted.

If you want to get in touch with Visnu Murti here is his email: [deleted].

Hoping this meets you well

Your servant

Gauranga Sundara Das

[Pratyatosa]

One very important advantage of ATS (Audio/Text Synchronization) for Srila Prabhupada's audio recordings is listed as #15 in answer to the very first question, "What is audio with synchronized text good for?" on:

http://llbest.com/100speeches.htm?PLFN=Frequently_Asked_Questions

"15. ATS helps one understand a poor quality recording."

(Some of the 19 points listed apply specifically to the unique features built into <http://www.gauranga.org/ats.htm> and <http://llbest.com/100speeches.htm>.)

Thus, ATS will make it practical, for the first time, to release audio recordings of Srila Prabhupada which are of such poor quality that they are very difficult to understand. They could even be released as video files with a video track which is nothing but a blank screen, plus the difficult-to-understand audio, plus a subtitle track in SRT format containing the synchronized transcriptions. SRT subtitles have the advantage of being able to customize the size, the color, the position, and, the font style. Sanskrit diacritics are no problem because all media players allow the SRT files to be in UTF-8 (Unicode) format.

In fact, I've already tried creating an MKV "video" file with no video track at all: just an audio track plus an SRT subtitle track. I was able to play it with the subtitles centered both horizontally and vertically using the world's best multimedia player: KMPlayer. But, for the sake of compatibility, it would be best to also include a 100% blank screen video track.

Ys, Ptd

On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 1:36 PM, Pratyatosa <praty...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Gauranga Sundara Prabhu, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

The prospect of Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversations with synchronized text being a part of <http://www.vanipedia.org> sounds very exciting to me. I pray that we can all work together nicely in the service of Srila Prabhupada.

The next step is to make it easy to create the timings for additional lectures/conversations on-line. I created another demo, this time using PHP, so that I will be able to give the web page the ability for anyone in the world to add new audio files and to save newly created sets of timings on the server, including automatically updating playlist(s), etc.:

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Prabhus, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Yesterday, <http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php> was switched over to the world-wide SRT movie subtitle standard. This means that a maximum of 3 lines per page (subtitle) is allowed, although special players could be created which display any multiple of 3.

Today, the web page has been updated to allow multiple lectures/conversations to be played through the use of a link list. (So far, there is only one item on the list.)

By the way, switching to the SRT subtitle standard yesterday caused the "Page" button (Jump to a particular page number) to no longer work. That has been fixed.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Prabhus, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

The exact same SRT subtitle file which was used on <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohdua5aR6oo> is also used on <http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php>. It's from this file that the web page gets both the text and the timings.

Today, the ability to play any number of Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversations/music MP3s with synchronized transcriptions (subtitles) was made even more convenient through the use of an external playlist.

If you have an HTML5 compliant web browser such as Internet Explorer 9 beta or the latest version of Firefox, Safari, Chrome or Opera, please check it out. The audio is only about 2 minutes long, and, because it's a smaller file, it should load even faster than the YouTube version.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[rainer hahn]

video was removed

On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 9:38 PM, Pratyatosa <praty...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Prabhus, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

The exact same SRT subtitle file which was used on <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohdua5aR6oo> is also used on <http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php>. It's from this file that the web page gets both the text and the timings.

Today, the ability to play any number of Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversations/music MP3s with synchronized transcriptions (subtitles) was made even more convenient through the use of an external playlist.

If you have an HTML5 compliant web browser such as Internet Explorer 9 beta or the latest version of Firefox, Safari, Chrome or Opera, please check it out. The audio is only about 2 minutes long, and, because it's a smaller file, it should load even faster than the YouTube version.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 1:42 AM, Pratyatosa <praty...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Prabhus, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Yesterday, <http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php> was switched over to the world-wide SRT movie subtitle standard. This means that a maximum of 3 lines per page (subtitle) is allowed, although special players could be created which display any multiple of 3.

Today, the web page has been updated to allow multiple lectures/conversations to be played through the use of a link list. (So far, there is only one item on the list.)

By the way, switching to the SRT subtitle standard yesterday caused the "Page" button (Jump to a particular page number) to no longer work. That has been fixed.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

Here's the new URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ErGWRfqEmQ

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 3:11 AM, rainer hahn <raine...@gmail.com> wrote:

video was removed

[Pratyatosa]

Dear Prabhus, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

<http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php> now has 2 menu items. The following 31:38 minute lecture by Srila Prabhupada was added just now:

Bg 02-03 LON 1973-08-04 Special Senses Are Required

This is one that Gauranga Sundara Prabhu created for his Saturday Feast guests last Saturday. It's #62 on <http://www.gauranga.org/ats.htm>.

I used <http://localhost/MWS/pratyatosa.com/ScriptTextEditor3.htm> to automatically convert it from 6 lines per page HTML to 3 lines per subtitle SRT format. It does this by simply calculating the even numbered subtitles to be half way between the odd numbered ones.

Then, on a computer at the local university library, I used <http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php?a=Bg_02-03_LON_1973-08-04_Special_Senses_Are_Required> to fine-tune the even numbered subtitles. In order to accomplish this, I mostly used the 5 "Sync" buttons, the "Next Page" button, the "Jump to a page" button, and, of course, the "Show SRT" button.

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Pratyatosa <praty...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here's the new URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ErGWRfqEmQ

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 1:36 PM, Michael Zaniboni <za...@gmx.de> wrote:

Haribol dear Pratyatosa Prabhu,

all glories to Srila Prabhupada.

This player looks very promising.
But the "German" button is missing...

Prabhu, it's there now:

http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php

(Now it has the ability for any of the audio files to have subtitles in any number of languages.)

Here's what the updated playlist looks like:

http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo_Playlist.txt

Simple, huh? :-)

Haribol
Michael

 

PS: Here are some new <http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php> features which are just around the corner:

1. An option to make any of Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversations listed on <http://causelessmercy.com/_PrabhupadasMP3Links.htm> "The audio file."

2. The ability to copy/paste the corresponding transcription from <http://causelessmercy.com/t/> and automatically turn it into an SRT subtitle file. This will allow anyone in the world to create synchronized text (subtitles) for any of Srila Prabhupada's lectures/conversations!

3. A "Submit" button to automatically email the resultant subtitle file to me for possible inclusion in the <http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php> web page!

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

[Pratyatosa]

You are very welcome, Bhakta Michael Prabhu.

Speaking of automatic resume, it's been added to:

http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php

It works as long as you have cookies enabled.

Not only that, but if you are in the middle of listening to a lecture and you press the "S" key, you get a new URL which includes the page number. Then, if you are going to be using a different computer the next time, you can copy/paste this URL into an email message and send it to yourself!

This feature is also handy for quoting something that Srila Prabhupada said. For example:

... so we shall not talk anything of sense gratification.” This is controlling the tongue. “I cannot eat
anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa.” This is controlling the tongue. So these are small
techniques, but it has got great, great value ... <http://pratyatosa.com/HTML5audioDemo.php?a=Bg_02-03_LON_1973-08-04_Special_Senses_Are_Required&p=105>

If you go to the above link, you can then click "Play" and instantly hear Srila Prabhupada actually speak the quote!

Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 12:14 PM, Michael Zaniboni <za...@gmx.de> wrote:

Haribol dear Pratyatosa Prabhu,

please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

It looks good, thank you.

Hare Krishna
Michael