My client requires that I include videos as an Articulate web link in their courses. It links to an internal company website. Videos look fine if you just click the link and watch the video from their Intranet. However, once I embed the web link into presenter and view the course thru their LMS, the video appears a little blurry. What, if anything, can i do to mitigate the blurriness?
It sounds like your presentation is set to fill the browser window instead of locking to the optimal size. This can impact the quality of your embedded videos. To resolve this, use the method below:
1. Open your presentation
2. Click on Articulate > Player Templates
3. Select the Other tab
4. In Presentation Size, choose "Lock presentation at optimal size"
5. Click the Close button and save your player template
6. Republish your presentation with the newly saved player template
If you have any other questions, please let me know.
I have a problem with blurry videos also. We shoot our own videos, which results in ACHVD files that I download from the SD card to my computer. I then use Pinnacle (v. 14) software to edit and videos and format them as .flv to use in Presenter '09. The videos look crisp and sharp when I view them in Windows Media Player, but when I insert them into Presenter, they appear fuzzy and pixelated. I use the Player settings mentioned above, so that's not the problem.
I've tried formatting the videos in Pinnacle to MP4, hoping the quality will be better. However, when try to insert the MP4 video into Presenter, I get an "Unsupported Codec" message. In doing some research here on the forums, I saw where Avid software products (Pinnacle is an Avid product) may have propietary codec.
So my question is, does anyone know a workaround to this? I've posted on Pinnacle's forums, but no answer yet. (The Articulate community has spoiled me...ha!) Does anyone else use Pinnace software to edit videos and can offer any suggestions?
I haven't worked with Pinnacle, personally, maybe some of the community Heroes will be able to provide some suggestions. In the mean time, have you tried converting the file with Articulate's Video Encoder? If you don't currently have access to it yet, there is a 30 day free trial. That should give you enough time to test the video in the software and see if it fixes the issue with inserting the video into Presenter.
Exporting to such a lossy format as .flv and then inserting them to Storyline (where they get converted to MP4) is probably the reason you get such fuzziness and pixelation. If you have no other choice but to use Pinnacle, try exporting to AVI instead, with a very high bitrate.
Optimally you should export to RAW AVI (if your software supports it and you have the disk space for it) before inserting to Storyline.
Christine, thanks for your reply. I do have the Articulate Video Encoder, and I thought if I ran the MP4 version through it, that it might code it correctly. Unfortunately, I got another error message: "The selected video could not be loaded. Please ensure you have the latest version of Windows Media Player." (Which I do have.)
Alex, I'm using Presenter, not Storyline, so I don't think the AVI format is an option. Only .flv and .mp4 are supported in Presenter, correct? Thanks anyway!
Hopefully, there's another Pinnacle user in the community that can help me. I'm also trying to find out if I upgrade to the lastest verion of Pinnacle (v. 16) that it may work.
It sounds to me like the culprit is double compression. When you export out of Pinnacle or any other NL editor (mine is Avid) you want to export out same as source, make a nice big fat QuickTime movie or uncompressed AVI ,then bring it into Articulate's encoder and make your flv or better yet mp4.
Thanks, Gregory. I'm fairly new to video editing. Your explanation makes a lot of sense. I'll give that a try and see if it works. Thanks so much. As always, this community rocks!
Gregory, you are awesome! I just tried what you suggested, and it worked like a charm. I exported the video from Pinnacle as an uncompressed AVI, then opened it in the Articulae Encoder and published it as a FLV movie. The result, when inserted into Presenter, is much clearer and crisper. Thanks for much for your help!
9 Replies
Hi Terri and welcome to Heroes,
It sounds like your presentation is set to fill the browser window instead of locking to the optimal size. This can impact the quality of your embedded videos. To resolve this, use the method below:
1. Open your presentation
2. Click on Articulate > Player Templates
3. Select the Other tab
4. In Presentation Size, choose "Lock presentation at optimal size"
5. Click the Close button and save your player template
6. Republish your presentation with the newly saved player template
If you have any other questions, please let me know.
I have a problem with blurry videos also. We shoot our own videos, which results in ACHVD files that I download from the SD card to my computer. I then use Pinnacle (v. 14) software to edit and videos and format them as .flv to use in Presenter '09. The videos look crisp and sharp when I view them in Windows Media Player, but when I insert them into Presenter, they appear fuzzy and pixelated. I use the Player settings mentioned above, so that's not the problem.
I've tried formatting the videos in Pinnacle to MP4, hoping the quality will be better. However, when try to insert the MP4 video into Presenter, I get an "Unsupported Codec" message. In doing some research here on the forums, I saw where Avid software products (Pinnacle is an Avid product) may have propietary codec.
So my question is, does anyone know a workaround to this? I've posted on Pinnacle's forums, but no answer yet. (The Articulate community has spoiled me...ha!) Does anyone else use Pinnace software to edit videos and can offer any suggestions?
Thanks for any help anyone can provide.
Hi Beverly,
I haven't worked with Pinnacle, personally, maybe some of the community Heroes will be able to provide some suggestions. In the mean time, have you tried converting the file with Articulate's Video Encoder? If you don't currently have access to it yet, there is a 30 day free trial. That should give you enough time to test the video in the software and see if it fixes the issue with inserting the video into Presenter.
Thanks!
Christine
Hi Beverly,
Exporting to such a lossy format as .flv and then inserting them to Storyline (where they get converted to MP4) is probably the reason you get such fuzziness and pixelation. If you have no other choice but to use Pinnacle, try exporting to AVI instead, with a very high bitrate.
Optimally you should export to RAW AVI (if your software supports it and you have the disk space for it) before inserting to Storyline.
Hope this helps,
Alex
Christine, thanks for your reply. I do have the Articulate Video Encoder, and I thought if I ran the MP4 version through it, that it might code it correctly. Unfortunately, I got another error message: "The selected video could not be loaded. Please ensure you have the latest version of Windows Media Player." (Which I do have.)
Alex, I'm using Presenter, not Storyline, so I don't think the AVI format is an option. Only .flv and .mp4 are supported in Presenter, correct? Thanks anyway!
Hopefully, there's another Pinnacle user in the community that can help me. I'm also trying to find out if I upgrade to the lastest verion of Pinnacle (v. 16) that it may work.
It sounds to me like the culprit is double compression. When you export out of Pinnacle or any other NL editor (mine is Avid) you want to export out same as source, make a nice big fat QuickTime movie or uncompressed AVI ,then bring it into Articulate's encoder and make your flv or better yet mp4.
Greg
Thanks, Gregory. I'm fairly new to video editing. Your explanation makes a lot of sense. I'll give that a try and see if it works. Thanks so much. As always, this community rocks!
Gregory, you are awesome! I just tried what you suggested, and it worked like a charm. I exported the video from Pinnacle as an uncompressed AVI, then opened it in the Articulae Encoder and published it as a FLV movie. The result, when inserted into Presenter, is much clearer and crisper. Thanks for much for your help!
You are welcome. I'm glad it worked. Greg
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