HTML5 Video Now Preloading with iOS 10+
Sep 26, 2017
Hi there,
We have 20+ courses that are mainly made up of one long video (on slide 1) followed by a test. I swear, when I tested all of the courses out when we released them in 2016 that they played smoothly on my iPhone and iPad with no hiccups. Fast forward to today, when I received a call that the modules are timing out when viewed on mobile devices. I test a couple of the courses, and I too am able to replicate this issue. Now, all courses are preloading the videos.
I did some research and found the following links:
https://articulate.com/support/article/how-content-is-preloaded-in-storyline
https://articulate.com/support/article/storyline-uses-progressive-streaming-for-videos
https://articulate.com/support/article/mp4-movie-doesnt-begin-playing-until-it-has-fully-downloaded
So, I check private browsing on and off and I convert the MP4 videos that I have embedded on the first slide to FLV videos -- to no avail. Then I go back to my old trusty ipad that won't update iOS versions past 9.3.5 and low and behold, the video does NOT preload.
So, my only guess here is that in one of the recent iOS updates, something has changed with video preloading? Is anyone else experiencing anything like this, or have any pointers, suggestions, etc? I checked the forums, but all I'm finding are older posts 1+ years or longer. My phone has iOS 10.3.3 -- and I'm getting word that this preloading issue is also taking place on newer Android devices.
Just to clarify, the videos in our courses ARE MP4 ( but I did do testing with FLVs). I published the course with Storyline 1 (V 10: 1509.1408) and there are no new updates. The courses are being viewed as HTML5 in Safari.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be super appreciated!
5 Replies
Hi Amber,
Sorry to hear you've run into an issue with courses that have been out for some time! As the browsers and OSs continue to update - it's harder for the older content to also keep pace.
You mentioned a really long video - have you looked at splitting that up into smaller segments to make it easier on Safari and Chrome (for Android) to load? Safari is known to have some memory issues with loading, so you could also be hitting that.
If you wanted to share a copy of your project file, I'm also happy to publish it using a newer version of Storyline and see how that version behaves!
Hi Ashley!
Thank you for your message here. I should have posted yesterday. Cleo started to help me out via email, and I think he may have solved my issue. I still need to do a little more testing, but so far, I have this working now. Cleo suggested that I republish the modules using Storyline 360 (like you!) and gave me the following suggestions (for anyone else this may help):
1) Create a new project file in Storyline 360.
2) Import the .MP4 video. Make sure that the original dimensions of the video does not exceed the size of your slide.
3) Select the video placeholder and go to the Options tab on the Storyline ribbon.
4) Click the Compression drop-down list and choose "Automatic".
5) Select Publish->Web or LMS.
6) Select the Quality options and set it to "Standard".
7) Publish and upload it to your Web Server or LMS.
8) Test to see if you will still encounter the same issue.
So far, so good. I'm going to do a little more internal testing here and I'll report back if this was an official success, but I'm thinking it will be. :)
Thank you again!!
Awesome - thanks for that update Amber!
I just wanted to give one final update. Republishing with SL 360 and the specs that Cleo gave have officially fixed all issues for both iOS and Android! Even with the MP4 videos, the modules don't preload now, so everything is smooth. Thanks so much for the help!
Thanks Amber for that update and I'm glad everything is working correctly.
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