Poor Video Quality - MP4

Feb 06, 2013

Hi,

I've read other posts in the community about video quality and tried to follow what I could with our team but we still get poor quality videos when our course is published in Storyline. 

We have some animations that have been created in Flash and then converted from SWF to MP4 using xilisoft. The original size of the animations is 900x592px. We need to use two different sizes for each animation in the course. One size is the same as the original (which we don't change after importing to SL) and the other should be smaller (which we make smaller in SL). Both animations have poor quality when published. Publish Quality window settings are set to the highest video quality (9). Animations are high quality almost uncompressed before imported into SL.

Please advise if there is anything else we can do to improve the video quality.

Thanks,

Maneli

24 Replies
cynthia Kuni

Hi guys I am experiencing the same predicament.  The original size of the video I am trying to import is  720x406px but the quality gets compromised.  I have tried to import it in the story by using a trigger that jumps to a file.  This keeps the quality, however, for some strange reason (which I hope you could explain to me) after changing the relevant settings, I still cannot get the video to play in the same browser.  It opens a new browser even if I have not set it to do so.

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Cynthia,

When you add the trigger to jump to a file, that video is not actually "part" of the course, it's actually launching the original video file. I think that's why you're seeing a difference in quality and why the video launches on its own.

Can you tell me a little more about the video? What file type is it? 

Also, have you checked the publish quality settings in Storyline? You can do this by publishing and selecting the "CD" option (note: you do not need to publish to CD to modify these settings) and by clicking on "Custom Optimization" next to "Quality". 

It'll look something like this:

After inserting the video, try adjusting the settings above. Let me know if you're able to tell a difference.

Thanks!

Christine Hendrickson

Good morning Cynthia!

I'm not quite sure. Are you using a "Jump to file" trigger, by any chance? If so, that'll actually open it in a new window. If not, would you be able to share your .STORY file here so I can check it out? 

You're also welcome to send it to us privately, if you'd like to keep the course contents confidential. You'll be able to attach the .STORY file on the second page of the following form:

Articulate Support - Submit a Support Case

cynthia Kuni

Hi, using the jump to jump to url file" trigger is not an option for our client as the video does not open in the curent broweser and the final output becomes slightly big.  the quality of the video is just so bad in any form we insert it into storyline. please help as the deadline is drawing close.

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Cynthia,

Thanks for the video file. I watched the original, just to get an idea of the quality. When previewing the video, it looks good.

I published the video with the default quality settings, which you can see using the link below:

Testing for Cynthia

I published the course with higher quality settings and it looks pretty similar to me:

Testing for Cynthia 2 

Watching the video in standalone, the quality looks pretty much the same for me. As for the video opening in a new window, since I can't see your .STORY file, I'm not sure if you have this option enabled or not. Try to make sure you have the video showing "In Slide" as shown below:

If you have already made this change, it would be a big help if you could share the .STORY file here, or with our support team.

Thanks!

cynthia Kuni

Thanks, I can see little if not any difference in both videos.  Even with the orriginal.  I have seen an option to replace the video in the output folder when published with the orriginal video.  is this possible and if so how can this be done?  I am just trying to find the best option for our client.  Thanks again!

Peter Anderson

Hi Cynthia, 

In theory, after publishing, you could choose the "Open Folder" option, then find the story_content folder and open that. That folder will contain all of the separate items that go into making your course. There should be a file for every video you've inserted, for instance an MP4 file type for an MP4 video you have inserted. You may notice that those video files have been compressed from their original size and renamed. So if you'd like to replace the compressed video with your original video, you would want to copy the name of the file we produce (for example: video_5uj0BHqmhlJ_26_32_320x240), delete that file from the story_content folder, rename your original file with our file name, and insert it into the published output folder. 

Please keep in mind, this is in no way supported by Articulate and your results may vary. If you are having trouble getting it to function properly, I'd recommend starting a new forum thread. 

Good luck, Cynthia

Franco Franco

Hello Everybody

We are creating many storilyne projects with inside many slides, each slide with a video or an animation.

We are frustated due to the fact that after publishing the quality get drammatically corrupted.

Huge work with high quality material... and at the end poor quality material....it doesn't make sense

Replacing the files is and added work to do, but sorry you get crazy in trying to recognize 50 videos in the published folder with a not file name alligned respect to the source file.

We tried other software and this is not happening. You should be allowed to decide the file compression, we know that you can but is not enough even if you set to maximum values.

Another issue is that when you preview you should see the final work, but is not like that because after publishing the compression is too high.

Sorry again, but this is a bug that shoul be fixed, otherwise we need to change software even if we love Storyline!

It is strange that this issue has not  been fixed already

Please let us know if there are some workaround or other suggestions.

Thanks a lot

Franco

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Franco and welcome to Heroes,

I certainly understand the frustration, and you can see based on this thread that you're not alone in wishing for an uncompressed version. A number of other users have submitted this as a feature request to have the option to not compress video files and you may want to share your thoughts there as well. I don't have information to share on when/if this would be included in a future version, but it has been a popular request.  

The workaround previously mentioned by Peter is the best workaround I've seen, but you may want to search through other community threads to see if there are other options that might fit your needs better. 

Ilse Hagen

Good afternoon,

 

6 years since the last post and I am running into the same issue. When I record my screen in Replay and publish it, it looks great. When I then insert that video into Storyline and publish it again, the video quality becomes so low I cannot use the output. Same goes for if I record my screen directly from Storyline and publish to video.

I tried every solution suggested in this thread above but nothing worked out so far.

Is there a solution to this?

 

Thank you,

Ilse 

Lauren Connelly

Hi Ilse!

Sorry, you're running into this issue with videos from Replay in the Storyline 360 published output! I see that you've reached out to our Support Team for help and currently working with my teammate, Lianne! You're in great hands. We'll continue the conversation in your support case to have all the information in one spot.