Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs

To play the video or sound file, use the Hand tool or Select tool. When you hover over the play area, the pointer changes to the play mode icon . 

Save multimedia from PDFs (Windows)

Right-click on the multimedia file in the PDF, and then select Save Audio As, or Save Video As to save the file.

Supported multimedia files

Following are the types of multimedia supported in PDFs created using Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader or earlier:

MP3, MP4, MOV, M4V, 3GP, and 3G2 video files that use H.264 compression. You must have H.264 codecs installed on your computer to play files that use H.264 compression.

MP3 and MP4

You can play multimedia files on a page or activate them from a link, bookmark, form field, or page action. Each file has a play area that you can use to activate the media. The play area is usually displayed as an image or a rectangle on the PDF page, but it can also be invisible. 

Acrobat and Reader allow you to play legacy multimedia files, like QuickTime, MPEG, ASF, RAM, and Windows® Media files, that were created with an older version of Acrobat. However, you can't create legacy multimedia files using Acrobat and Reader X.

Set multimedia preferences

You need to set multimedia preferences for the following two types of PDF files:

• PDF files created in Acrobat 8 and earlier.

• PDF files containing multimedia content that needs a plug-in or external player to play, rather than the built-in media player.

You need to specify a media player to play these files.

To do this, press Ctrl + K (Windows) or Command + K (macOS) to open Preferences. Select Multimedia (legacy) > Player Options.

Select the format in which you want to run legacy media content: QuickTime, Windows Media, or Windows built-in player.

Specify whether to display available special features, such as subtitles and dubbed audio, when playing media. You can also specify your preferred language for the media in case multiple languages are available.

Manage external players

Acrobat and Reader have a built-in media player that can play most multimedia files, such as audio, video, or legacy multimedia content that requires external resources such as a player or plug-in. 

You can check the supported multimedia files in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader 

Multimedia Trust (legacy)

In Acrobat and Reader 10.1.1 or earlier, you can control how embedded multimedia files in PDF documents are played using the Multimedia Trust preferences. By choosing to play multimedia only in trusted documents, which are approved by you or an author you trust, you can reduce the risk of damage to your computer from programs, macros, or viruses.

The list of trusted documents and authors is not visible and is stored internally. If you add a certified document to the list, both the document and the author's certificate are added to the list of trusted documents. All documents certified by the author are considered trusted. Note that, Trusted documents also include PDFs from authors in your list of trusted identities.

Press Ctrl + K (Windows) or Command + K (macOS) to open Preferences. Select Multimedia Trust (legacy) option from the right panel.

Select to set permissions for either trusted documents or other (non-trusted) documents.

Trust Options

Select this option to allow media clips to be played. When selected, you can change the permission settings for a particular player and enable options that determine the appearance of the media during playback.

Select the player from the list, and then select one of the following options from the menu:

• Always: Allows the player to be used without prompting.
• Never: Prevents the player from being used.
  
• Prompt: Asks the user whether the player can be used. If you select this option and allow the player to play the media in a particular document, that document becomes trusted.
  

Select this option to run the video without a title bar. The result is that no title or close buttons are displayed.

Select this option to display a title bar when the video plays back in a floating window.

It automatically plays the video in full-screen mode when it is played back. Full-screen display can conflict with end-user security settings.

Deletes the current list of trusted documents and authors. Use this option to prevent media from playing in documents that were previously trusted documents or created by trusted authors. This option is available only when a PDF that contains multimedia is open.