Possible progress bar or timer for videos?

Jun 17, 2020

Has anyone come across a solution for creating a progress bar or timer to indicate how much time is left in a video? 

All videos in my classes have their controls removed to ensure that users actually watch the video, so using the built-in articulate functions such are a no-go. 

The videos vary in length between 5-10 minutes, so I would like users to have an idea of how much time is left in the video they're watching.

For the record I am exporting the classes as a scorm file for use in Blackboard. 

6 Replies
Tracy Parish

You could create a "timeline" to display at the bottom of your slide and as the timeline reaches various cue points have the state of the timeline change to appear as if it is filling in.

Example:
attached

I have the video playing on a layer to control when the timeline of it starts.  I set 10 equal cue points throughout the length of my video (it's easier when it's only a ten-second video).


User clicks PLAY on the base layer, starts the video and the timeline on the layer.  Cue points and triggers are based on this layer's timeline.

 

Jason Levy

Tom, I have to ask: what software did you use to make your tutorial video?

I appreciate the suggestions, but I think my issue is tied with the video itself, not the slide. Our users might need to pause the videos they watch, so the timer has to be tied into the video itself, and not the timeline of the slide. I think I would need media specific triggers to accomplish this, but they do not exist at the moment. 

I has also considered having text appear that simply says "8 minutes left", "7 minutes left", "6 minutes left", etc... underneath the total running time, but again the only way I could make those appear would be to have them tied into the timeline of the media and not the player timeline. I don't think there is a way for something to trigger at the 3:00 of the video, is there?

Walt Hamilton

Any of Tom's ideas will do what you want. If you start the video when the slide timeline starts, and don't allow pausing of the video, the timeline of the slide and the video are the same.

If you need to pause the video, pause the timeline of the slide, and the video will pause, if it is on the slide.

Cover the video with a filled shape, so they can't click the video, which pauses it. Set the shape to 98 or 99% transparent so they can see the video.

Copy the normal state of the shape, and name it "Selected", so the built-in magic will work.

Create triggers for the shape:

Pause the timeline when the user clicks the shape if the state of the shape is "Selected". Pausing the timeline will also pause the video.

Resume the timeline when the user clicks the shape if the state of the shape is not equal "Selected".

Take whatever action you wish when timeline reaches 180 seconds, pausing the timeline if you want the video to stop.

 

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