360 Issues: Issue #2 Blurry Screen Recordings

Same here - updated, optimized, and tired. I looked bad with the client :( 

I now have to use a different tool. Wasted 3 days on fixing and redoing the screen recordings.

Mine is also not browser specific. I use a Mac and even increased the graphics assigned to windows. I am in a bind because I can't even output to flash because the environment will require updates across the board for this huge organization.

Should I also open a case? It seems to be not fixing this fast enough. Ta!

Hi Alison and Kai,

I'm really sorry this is affecting your projects. I know your goal is to produce high quality work for your clients, and this bug is getting in the way of that! I promise to keep you updated to let you know as soon as the fix is on the way. 

Hey Bryan!

Thanks for sharing your file with our team! I see Chino is testing to see if there are any tweaks we can recommend when adjusting the slide size to match the dimensions of the recording area. You'll hear back from him shortly!

Has there been any update on this issue? I'm using SL360 v3.20.16814.0 and am seeing the same blurry issues that have been mentioned in this thread.

What solutions were implemented in William's support case? Thanks.

Welcome, James! I'm so sorry you've come across this problem. I'm happy to lend a hand!

While I don't have an ETA on a fix for the blurry step-by-step screen recording slides issue as of yet, I promise we'll keep everyone in this discussion posted on any new information.

It looks like setting the image and video quality to the maximum did the trick for William.

Let us know if that helps your work! If it doesn't, check out these other pro-tips:

• A Useful Technique for Recording High-Resolution Screencasts in Storyline.
• When screen recording, try to use preset sizes from the drop-down of the screen recorder.
• Resizing of the published screen recording might cause blur. Err on the side of caution when inserting published files into an LMS or Website.
• We're also happy to take a look at your project for any custom recommendations. Click here to share it with our team!

Hey James - a few things I have learned:

-Make certain that the story resolution and aspect ratio and the setting you choose to record your screen with match exactly.  Then shrink the window you want to record to fit within that.

-Use the older, "Classic player" it integrates with flash on Internet Explorer best... apparently there is a glitch with the new modern player

-Just because your preview looks blurry does not mean it won't look great when loaded onto your LMS... my screen grabs are blurry in the preview but crisp when the user sees them.

Cheers!

Having the same issue. I have used both IE and Chrome and matched the story size to the recording size. Always get blurry videos/images as well as the flickering when going to the next slide.

Our company will no longer allow us to develop anything in flash going forward, so that is not an option, we must use HTML5. I will just keep an eye on this thread for updates. Fortunately, I have Captivate and can use that in the meantime.

Thanks Bryan.

• Matching the story resolution and aspect ratio...check!
• Using the classic player and IE...nope, can't force users to IE. All data points to Chrome being the most popular. Must work on Chrome. Luckily, this doesn't have an impact in my case.
• The 3rd point you made was important...very true! My preview and published files looked blurry locally, but they did turn out crisp when in LMS.

Hi Bryan,

Thanks for sharing your insight on this issue. I did want to ask about what glitch you were running into with the Modern player? Keep in mind, it's HTML5 only, and it should work on IE11 without Flash. 

Let me know if you need help on something specific, and I can always connect you with our Support Team to work one on one. 

Mine glitches too. I noticed since an upgrade. It appears to have to do with timing. Example: if I have 3 slides the end of slide one will show information that begins on slide 2. The end of slide 2 shows information that starts on slide 3. It is a huge pain in the rear. The transition from one slide to the other is junky and not smooth at all. The only way to fix it is to fine tune each slide and even then it may not work. It is horrible!

Melissa McKinney, Curriculum Specialist
eMDs | Health Solutions for Health Patients and Healthy Practices
T: 512.767.6190
E: mmckinney@emds.com
W: www.emds.com

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Hi Ashley - it seems (Melissa echoes below) that the modern player, while beautiful, does not yield clean screen recordings.  In working with Chino in your support department it seems that there are lots of issues with the modern player.  Too bad it was released without proper testing - I would prefer to use it, but not at the expense of screen resolution quality.

I am glad the tips helped, I wish I could get our company to chrome, but we are stuck in IE due to other software glitches...

Hi Melissa,

I wanted to confirm, are you using Storyline 3 or Storyline 360? Do you know what update you're on? Also, it sounds like you're only seeing this in the HTML5 output but is it the same across browsers too? I know we have some similar reports, but I want to confirm your setup to update my team on this and the continued struggles authors are having. 

Lastly, it looks like your email signature came through when you replied via email. You can remove that if needed by clicking ‘Edit’ beneath your response. Here’s a quick Peek video if you need help.

Hello!

I am on 360 an on the latest update. Yes we are only creating in HTML at this point because of the whole flash player thing. It happens to every screen recording I create. Browser makes no difference. It happens when I just review the scene. It doesn't have to be published to see the issues. Very frustrating and time consuming. It makes our work look like junk. We get a lot of complaints about the blurriness from our customers. The other issue, no one has complained about but it makes our work look awful.

Melissa McKinney

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Thanks, Melissa for confirming and again I'm sorry it's continuing to cause so many complaints and unneeded stress. I'll update the team and will keep you posted here as soon as I have more info to share. 

Okay thank you so much!

Melissa McKinney

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I'm seeing this blurry video issue as well, but only when I insert as a video on a single slide. The clips that are added in the view/try/test slides look fine.

I noticed that if I export the video from the Action Fine Tuning window, then insert that exported video to a new slide and turn off the automatic compression, that video looks great. If I leave the auto compression on, it looks like garbage.

Unfortunately, it looks like I'm unable to turn off the auto compression feature when the screen record feature adds the video on a single slide. The compression drop down is grayed out.

Is there a reason this drop down is grayed out on the video that the screen capture inserts? I would love to not have to add the extra step of exporting that video, then bringing it back in just so I can turn off the auto compression.

I'm using the latest Storyline 360 update and latest version of Chrome. We can't ask our customers to use another browser.

Hey Danielle,

Thanks for reaching out to our support team as well and I see that Cleo is assisting you.

You're in great hands :)

Can anyone provide an update to this fix? I'm having the same issues.

Hi there, Sarah.  Tell me a little more about what's happening on your end:

• What dimensions are you using for your screen recording?  Also, what is your .story size?
• Are you inserting your recording as view mode on a single slide, or step-by-step slides?
• If you've inserted as step-by-step slides, does the initial shot look blurry, and then the recording becomes clear once it plays?

Thanks for the extra detail.  I'll be ready to give you a better update with those answers!

Crystal,

• I'm using 16:9 (but have tried every scale) and I am then shrinking it inside the app to fit inside a shape (refer attachment) 

My story size is 16:9 but I don't want it to fill the entire screen (refer attachment)

• View mode on a single slide

Hi Sarah.  Thanks for the context.  When you shrink or scale video, you run the risk of losing the crispness of the picture.  

Check out this article for tips on keeping the quality of your video in slides.

If your videos are too big to fit in your slides without scaling, consider re-encoding them at a lower resolution before adding them to your course.

If possible, try to find the exact resolution you need for the video to fit in the computer image, and re-encode the video to that size.

Does anyone in the community have any favorite video editing tools that can help with resolution reworking? 

Thanks Crystal,

I'll await some recommendations for video editing !

Sarah