Video in slide. What's going on?

May 09, 2012

I'm trying to find the best way to sychronize video and slide (aprox 5 min lenght). I know that it is impossible for video in presenter panel. So, I decided to put video to the slide and of course use "synchronize the slide and movie". But when I published and put into the Internet amazing things are happening.

The video starts, and slide not! After a few seconds appears slide animation. Why? Why video plays idependantely? When all content is downloaded to browser temporaty folders everything is ok. Please help me.

Here You have a sample:

http://microskills.pl/amrest2/videoinslide/player.html

Slide 2.

12 Replies
konrad k

I decrease my Video to 112 kbps - its very, very low (all file has 9 MB). The problem is still.  Video starts play firstly and after a same seconds slide starts play, so synchronization is loosing. You have a solution this problem. It doesn't matter for me were video will be - presenter panel or inside slide (but.. I prefer presenter panel).

Here You can see my problem (second slide):
http://microskills.pl/amrest2/VeryLow_Video_in_Slide/player.html

http://microskills.pl/amrest2/presenter_panel_verylow_video/player.html

Please help

Justin Wilcox

Hi Konrad.

If syncing your animations is really important to you, I would not use a video as you cannot get a true sync with video and a slide. So if you extract the audio from the video and insert that into your slide, you can sync it perfectly. Then you could simply create a Presenter with a photo and bio of the guy. He's not really doing anything in that video that makes having him there really necessary.

konrad k

Justin, video should be in this content. This is one of more reasons why I would like to buy an Articulate to my company and I recommend to my bosses. This video is very, very importent for us. I don't  understand why so basic functionality in Artiuclete doesn,t work. Why option "synchronize video and slide" doesn't work? Video is extremaly light. Could You ask an Articulate engineers how to solve this problem? Please help me. It is very importent for me.

Thank You

Justin Wilcox

Hi Konrad.

As I have mentioned before, there isn't a way to sync animations exactly to a video. The only way you could come close would be to:

  1. Slow down the animations. They are very quick in your slide.
  2. Split that video up into more than one slide. Because you have so many animations, it's not likely that the sync is going to be perfect. So you could create smaller sequences with less animations.

When you insert a video it does not sync exactly with a slide. If you create a complex animation sequence, it is not likely to work. You need to work within the limitations of what Presenter can actually do. Audio syncs perfectly with animations as they are produced in the same SWF file. A separate movie file will not sync perfectly with the SWF file that is the slide with the animations. That's a fact of life. You need to figure out how to make what you are trying to do work within the limitations of what Presenter can do which are:

  • Inserted movies don't sync exactly with slides
  • Really complex and quick animations will not sync with an inserted movie because of this.
konrad k

Thank You Justin. I'm sorry that I'm so annoying for You.  I understand what You are writting but lets see once again this projects - the main problem is that at the beggining video starts first - doesn't wait for a slide. Video starts and slide is not loaded - so this problem and it is not connected with fast animation (I think). Video is extremaly light. So is any solution to force that video and slide starts at the same time? Lets talk only about starting video and slide on the same time (in presenter panel or inside the slide).

I apologize You once again for annoying.

Justin Wilcox

Hi Konrad.This is what I would do with this particular slide that you are having an issue with;

  1. I would use the video with the intro up until he says "whatever brand we operate" and sync that.
  2. New slide begins with "operational excellence begins with consistency"  until he says "this is what DOS + does for us"
  3. New slide begins at "In 2003" and so on.

That's how I would approach this. I would even suggest that you not use the video for every single segment. Like how I see many people approach video is this

  1. Intro with video.
  2. Audio only so user can focus on slides.
  3. Conclusion of idea with Video.
  4. New intro with video.
  5. Audio only so user can focus on the slides
  6. Conclusion with video.

I would also make sure that each slide only contains one idea. In the videos I am looking at you  have a really long video with what I imagine is a lot of layered objects on one slide. Those really should be broken up into their individual bite size pieces and spread out over slides.

This will make for a much more interesting presentation for your end-user than how it is currently set up and you will probably find that the mix of audio and video resonates better with the folks viewing the presentation.

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