Forum Discussion
Pausing timeline when pausing a video
I just noticed that when a video in a slide is paused the timeline keeps moving along. It does not pause in unison with the video control pause.
I have some screencasts that I made and inserted into my project. I added some zooms onto the slide, so that there would be some good closeups on stuff in my screencasts. When the user stops the video, the zooms continue to display, which looks totally crazy.
Then, when the player resumes the video, the zooms have finished playing and the user no longer has the benefit of any video closeups.
Is there a way for me to get the whole timeline to pause whenever my user clicks pause on the video controls?
Thanks,
Gillian
Hi everyone
Thanks for your attention to this. This is something that's still being discussed internally as to how we can handle it better. In the meantime, David put together a great video demonstrating how to prevent pausing a video independently of a slide and disrupting synced annotations. See if it's something that will work for you:
The solution Peter posted from David worked for me. I am using a seekbar that cannot be dragged. I did try the layer approach but the timeline would not automatically resume for me after the pause layer was hidden. Any thoughts?
great video. I'm curious if a similar approach is available for streaming videos through vimeo. I've attempted to recreate your approach but I'm not having any luck with it.
Hi All,
I figured out a workaround. Use the player built-in seekbar. Create a "do not click" layer that has a trigger to show that layer as soon as the timeline starts. This layer should have a transparent rectangle that is exactly the size of the slide (this will keep users from clicking on the video, which would pause the video, but not the timeline). If you have buttons that need to pop up, make them additional layers and add them to a specific point on the timeline and then hide the layer again at a specific point on the timeline.
I really wasted a lot of time coming up with this workaround. I can't believe that Articulate still can't allow us the option to sync the timeline with a video. This is basic stuff. When will it happen?
I think I can help. I did it this week
You can create a layer without nothing on it an call this layer like "pause_timeline"
Than u set this layer config to pause base timeline when the layer is show.
Now, everytime u call the video player to pause, u call the layer too. :D
Here an example attached
In this example I made some buttons OUTSIDE of the stage just to call other layers and hide other layers in a specific time.
So when u reach 5 seconds of the video you will see a marker and if you click on it, it will pause the video AND the base timeline (because I call the "pause_timeline" layer)
At 10 seconds the marker desapear, at 15 seconds a new marker apear and at 20 seconds desapear again.I know it has been over a year since you posted this, but.....Bravo, Andre! Thanks so much for this, as it's the only solution that works for interactive and game-based videos where synching annotations isn't the issue, but rather overlaying interactive game elements (elements that do different things to the characters, the scene and the game scoring) are important. Hopefully in future versions there will be an intuitive, easier fix. But for now...YOU ROCK!
Check out Andre's unique solution to a common problem of pausing the video on the base layer. It is brilliant!
Thank you very much! I should have looked at that file more closely. It looks pretty challenging, but I am going to try!
I realize this thread is very old- but wondered if there were any fresh solutions? With the addition of the 4/2023 Transcript accessibility feature- my team really wants to use the video controls- but need a solution so the timeline will not keep going if the video is paused. Any help appreciated!
Hi Gillian,
Would you be abe to submit a case on this? You'll also have a chance to record a screencast of what you're describing during the case submission which would be really helpful. Thanks!
Any traction on this. I have exactly the same issue. Thinking of being creative with layers, states etc. but no clean answer discovered yet....
Not sure if this would work, but could you add a custom pause button. It could pause the timeline of the base layer (with the video) by changing the settings on the layer. Put a button on the layer to hide the layer and it will restart the base layer timeline and the video again.
This is also the case with seeking within video control. The timeline is not in sync with the video control causing issues with timing animations in the timeline....
OK, so I see this is a normal issue.
Guess it's back to layer-pause buttons :(.
Disabling video controls and enabling the seek bar will allow the user to skip throughout the video with timeline (animations, triggers) staying in sync. The downside to loosing video controls is that there is no time code.
However, even though the video controls are disabled, the video can still be paused by clicking directly on it. Solve this problem by placing a hotspot over the video; the video will stay in sync with the timeline and disable the ability to pause the video by a click.
Hopefully within the next few updates, Articulate will include an option to sync video controls and the seek bar or include a time code in the seek bar.
