Audio and Video out of sync when using Seekbar
Jul 29, 2014
By
Jeremy White
I have a number of different courses where I have recorded video using Storyline. I have then exported the video, converted it to an audio file, edited the audio with Audacity, and then inserted the audio file back into the slide. When I play the video everything works fine until I use the seekbar. If I try to use the seekbar the video jumps to the right part but the audio doesn't jump with the video. The audio just keeps on playing. I'm sure there is an easy solution to this but I'm a new user and don't know what it is. Please help Storyline experts.
Thanks.
126 Replies
Hi Jeremy,
Unfortunately I cannot help with a solution (other than putting the audio and video in the same MP4 file) however, I wanted to mention that I've encountered that issue as well. i had no choice other than to remove the seekbar from the particular slide affected.
You could try submitting a support case, if nothing else that will raise it to people's attention.
Hope you find a solution
Harri
Harri-
Thanks for the response. How does one combine the audio and video in the same MP4 file?
Hi Jeremy,
It does look like you've opened a support case (# 00413137 for my reference) and it's been assigned to Jonathan who you should hear from shortly.
I'm having the same issue. Is there a good way to find the latest on the support case?
Hello Jennifer!
Are you inserting the video and the audio as separate files? When you insert a video, and use the video control seekbar, this will only work for the video portion.
If you need a seekbar that will work for both the video and audio, enable the seekbar for the slide by going to the Slide Properties:
You will want to disable the video controls for the video itself, which is found under the Options tab when the video is selected. You can turn off the video controls. Please keep in mind that when a video is inserted, it can still be clicked on and it will pause the video, and not the audio. You can add a transparent shape on top of the image to prevent this.
Yes, that is the seekbar I am referring to and it does not work. It doesn't keep the audio and video in sync when you use it to move forward or back in the timeline when viewing the course. The audio just plays along and no longer matches the video or animation. This is in Storyline 2, I haven't checked in 1 to see if the same problem exists. And it isn't a separate video imported, it is a screen capture recorded with Storyline. Then I record the audio separately.
It is far to hard to record it all together at once and try to make it look and sound good at the same time, at least for me. Having the audio separate also makes it easier to line-up animations and mark-ups on the screen capture.
Is there a good way to find the latest on the support case that was submitted?
Hello Jennifer!
The information i shared above was what helped resolve the issue that was submitted in the support case.
I also tested this in Storyline 2, and I was able to use the player seekbar only and both a video and an audio did stay in sync when using that seekbar.
Would you be able to share the .story file here?
That sounds like it might be a different issue then.
It would be great if you could take a look . Is there some way to get you the story file without posting it here? I have it loaded to the tempshare as well, if you wanted to try it out first.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/tempshare-stage.storyline.articulate.com/stp196i7u3dq1ts5bfnj9mq021rst4/story.html
It is occurring on several slides (Try "The Action Bar") which include screen captures, audio and other graphics placed in different points in the timeline. Moving the seekbar manually gets these out of sync.
Hello Jennifer!
I opened your file and tested the The Action bar slide. It is working as designed. The seekbar at the bottom of the player does stop the video as well as the audio together, and moving the seekbar forward does move it all in sync as well.
Are you referring to clicking on the video itself? The will only stop the video and not the audio. The way around that is to add a transparent object on top of the video to prevent users from clicking on it directly.
If you want to share the file privately, you can upload it here.
Yes, stop works, and the initial advancing seems to work to. You have to go a bit beyond stop and play though. Try playing the slide for a little while, moving the seekbar back to a particular location. Then try moving it forward and then maybe back again, like you are trying to find something. As you move the seekbar around, it gets more and more out of sync. I can get it to do it every time as can my usability tester. It looks like at the end of your screenr, it is out of sync.
I've loaded the story file to the link you provided. Thank you so much!
I did notice a difference in how you were advancing and replaying- it seems you are dragging the seekbar back and forth, I am directly clicking on the seekbar to reset the play head earlier or later. I just tried to see if that made a difference (I used the Subtasks slide) but it still gets out of sync. It is a little easier to see on the Subtasks slide at the start because the yellow rectangle and audio seems ahead of the video when the subtasks panel actually appears. The rectangle should be appearing at about the same time as the subtasks panel pops up in the video.
Thank you Jennifer.
Unfortunately I am unable to get the audio and video to get out of sync.I have received the file, and will be looking into this further. Is there a particular browser you are seeing the issue with?
Various versions of IE, I can try in Chrome an Firefox too, if you would like. Also, I can send a video of it out-of-sync if you would like.
- Jennifer
That would be great, I just sent you an email, if you could reply back with that in the support case.
Thanks!
I have the same problem. Storyline does not link the video and audio together like Captivate can be set to do. It's as if when jumping to a point using the slide seekbar, the audio processes faster than the video, which then continuously lags behind the audio a second or two.
Hello Robert,
This issue has been reproted to our QA team for review. When we have any updates, I will share them here.
Has there been a response to this issue?
Hi Bernard!
At this time there is no updates to share. I will update here when there is something to share.
I have not received any updates which I find rather surprising as this seems to be a fairly major bug. It's an essential function which is just not working.
Emily, this seems to be a fairly fundamental issue and gives me quite a bit of concern about our choice to center a major educational development initiative around this software. I am sure other customers feel similarly. Can you please give us a timeline for resolution?
Hi Bernard,
Unfortunately we are not able to give a timeline for any bugs or updates. I have this posted marked to share when information becomes available.
Emily, I have been a firm evangelist for the pilot use of this software for use in a very large university. This issue has been brought to Articulate's attention for at least 8 months which is a pretty significant development window to repair a bug that hinders a critical element of functionality. Can you at least confirm that a fix is forthcoming? I am going to hope for a more substantive response.
I have to agree with Bernard, being in similar circumstances. I too was a proponent for this product and was able to buy some time as courseware is being developed. It has been an incredibly long delay in waiting for a resolution with no word as to its delivery or even its importance to Articulate.
Hello Jennifer and Bernard,
Unfortunately I do not have any information to share. I will keep an eye on the case with our QA team and see if I can get any updates.
Emily, I do not like to belabor the point in a public forum, but this is not entirely responsive. Would you please undertake to make an active query to the development team and return with a current status of this fix and a timeline for completion within a reasonable amount of time? I'm concerned that just passively keeping an eye on the issue has not yielded a result for anyone who has asked thus far for a solution. Being somewhat vague when we are asking about timelines on new features to be added to the software may be fair. But it is problematic when we are talking about a fix that we are depending on for builds to work properly. It is the kind of thing that drives customers to look for alternate solutions. I do appreciate your efforts in advance to get us a response.