When publishing a storyline 2 file that was created in storyline 1 the SCORM output zip file is about 3 times larger. Storyline 1 78 mg... storyline 2 222 mg. There were no changes made to the file other than it was opened in storyline 2. There are limits to the size of SCORM assets that I can use in my LMS so this is creating an issue.
That's a lot of inflation. Can you check the published output to see if the SL1 output generated a mobile version? This is the most common thing I've seen that will double output size.
If mobile wasn't selected, you may want to open a support ticket so Articulate can have a look.
The publish settings are identical and neither had mobile version selected. I tried creating a new project in sl2 and imported all the slides (as was suggested in another discussion on the same issue)... made no difference. I've attached 2 vids from the story_content folder, one from the sl1 output and one from sl2. Same vid, very different sizes.
Are you changing the compression settings for the SL2 video - in the sense of leaving it without compression? Storyline will automatically compress your videos as described here, but SL2 gives the option for "no compression".
I also saw another issue reported to our QA team recently where if you've included the same video on more than one slide in your course, SL2 is included a copy of the video in the published output for every slide/location it is throughout the course which was different behavior than SL1, and could be contributing to the overall size.
I haven't changed any compression settings. When I looked at the compression tab it's greyed out and won't allow me to change it anyway. I've done some testing and it seems every project I've ever done in sl1 that has videos does the same thing.
If the tab is greyed out it may be that the video does not fit within the compression guidelines as detailed here. So the SL1 files are behaving the same as your SL2 files, in which way? In regards to adding duplicate videos? This isn't a behavior we've seen until recently with SL2 if you were copying in a video that previously existed in your file - but only would create a duplicate if you inserted the video again.
There must be an issue with my video files then. I've always used the best quality that I have which are flv files and sometimes use a wmv version.
Just created two identical storyline projects. One in sl1 and one in sl2. Both contain 2 slides. The first is an flv video. The second slide is the same video but in a wmv format.
When published the sl2 mp4 videos are about 3 times larger than the sl1 mp4's
I am not sure if this helps you, however, I have found a way to compress the files after the project has been published. It reduces the size of the file by 8 to 10 MB and this makes it easier for us to upload in the LMS. We compress the audio and swf files and we have never had an issue with the quality. You can compress the files in the story content folder.
So I guess there is no solution to this problem. It's basically a deal breaker for me as the file sizes exceed the maximum that I can host on my LMS. My only solution is to continue using Storyline 1. Does anybody know how to go about getting a refund for the SL2 upgrade that I purchased?
From everything I've read SL2 is supposed to be better at compressing videos and keeping the Storyline files at reasonable sizes. Clearly it is far worse.
My apologies, I missed your post from a little over a week ago. Even just looking at the .story files you shared it seems there is a difference in file size, and that may be a part of the overall file size issue you're experiencing. I do see that when publishing those for LMS, and zipping the contents the file size difference remains (11.8 mb vs. 3.9 mb). It may be best to continue to investigate this in a support case, and that way if the size issue continues to be a problem for you they can connect you with our Sales team regarding a refund.
I think SL2 gives you more headroom on the compression. Folks complained (myself included) that SL1 compressed too much even at level 9. The scales are 1-9 in both versions. So "9" in SL1 was still pretty heavy compression while 9 in SL2 is light compression. You might attempt to adjust your SL2 publish settings lower than SL1 to compare size and quality. A "5" in SL1 to a "3" in SL2. I'm guessing this will make things a bit better.
Additional data. The bitrates are a LOT higher in the SL2 version. Adjusting your quality slider downwards really should more closely match the SL1 version. SL2 does provide a lot more quality per setting on the scale to provide more headroom at the upper end of the setting.
Will run a couple of quick tests with some video to see which settings in SL2 match up with SL1.
Wow. It's a TON higher. Using the Windows shipped wildlife.wmv file, here are my results:
Setting of 1:
SL1 - 284kbps
SL2 - 1070kbps
Setting of 5:
SL1 - 497kbps
SL2 - 1900kbps
Setting of 9:
SL1 - 989kbps
SL2 - 3848kbps
So SL1 on the highest setting is still more compressed than SL2 on the lowest. Hold on a sec, will see if I can hack the config settings to change the range. It REALLY should be closer to SL1 in the bottom end and SL2 at the top end for max flexibility. This is a bug in my opinion.
No joy so far. Will need to monkey with the configs when I'm not on a locked machine.
Ashley, can you pass this on to the team? Would be great to see an update to provide more low end in video compression in the next point release. It's really not satisfactory as it is.
Sorry I missed your post last week, I was off for the holiday.
I don't see a case associated with your name - did you receive an email confirmation after submitting here? If so, what's the case number so that I can look it up by that?
Thanks Brian for the case number and sorry that it didn't seem to go through the first time. I'll follow along with your case as our support engineers investigate.
I'm just following up as I see that Cleo responded to your case on December 4th, but we haven't heard back from you yet? You should have seen the email come in from Support@articulate.com. If not, please check your junk/spam folder and I can also ask Cleo to reach back out to you.
The only email I've received from support@articulate.com was from Justin Wilcox on Dec 2. I checked all my spam folders and there's nothing there. It's possible that I missed it though. I was out of the office all of last week and may have accidentally deleted it when I was clearing out my inbox.
37 Replies
Hey Brian,
That's a lot of inflation. Can you check the published output to see if the SL1 output generated a mobile version? This is the most common thing I've seen that will double output size.
If mobile wasn't selected, you may want to open a support ticket so Articulate can have a look.
The publish settings are identical and neither had mobile version selected. I tried creating a new project in sl2 and imported all the slides (as was suggested in another discussion on the same issue)... made no difference. I've attached 2 vids from the story_content folder, one from the sl1 output and one from sl2. Same vid, very different sizes.
Hi Brian,
Are you changing the compression settings for the SL2 video - in the sense of leaving it without compression? Storyline will automatically compress your videos as described here, but SL2 gives the option for "no compression".
I also saw another issue reported to our QA team recently where if you've included the same video on more than one slide in your course, SL2 is included a copy of the video in the published output for every slide/location it is throughout the course which was different behavior than SL1, and could be contributing to the overall size.
Hi Ashley
I haven't changed any compression settings. When I looked at the compression tab it's greyed out and won't allow me to change it anyway. I've done some testing and it seems every project I've ever done in sl1 that has videos does the same thing.
Hi Brian,
If the tab is greyed out it may be that the video does not fit within the compression guidelines as detailed here. So the SL1 files are behaving the same as your SL2 files, in which way? In regards to adding duplicate videos? This isn't a behavior we've seen until recently with SL2 if you were copying in a video that previously existed in your file - but only would create a duplicate if you inserted the video again.
Hi Ashley
There must be an issue with my video files then. I've always used the best quality that I have which are flv files and sometimes use a wmv version.
Just created two identical storyline projects. One in sl1 and one in sl2. Both contain 2 slides. The first is an flv video. The second slide is the same video but in a wmv format.
When published the sl2 mp4 videos are about 3 times larger than the sl1 mp4's
Hi,
I am not sure if this helps you, however, I have found a way to compress the files after the project has been published. It reduces the size of the file by 8 to 10 MB and this makes it easier for us to upload in the LMS. We compress the audio and swf files and we have never had an issue with the quality. You can compress the files in the story content folder.
So I guess there is no solution to this problem. It's basically a deal breaker for me as the file sizes exceed the maximum that I can host on my LMS. My only solution is to continue using Storyline 1. Does anybody know how to go about getting a refund for the SL2 upgrade that I purchased?
From everything I've read SL2 is supposed to be better at compressing videos and keeping the Storyline files at reasonable sizes. Clearly it is far worse.
Hi Brian,
My apologies, I missed your post from a little over a week ago. Even just looking at the .story files you shared it seems there is a difference in file size, and that may be a part of the overall file size issue you're experiencing. I do see that when publishing those for LMS, and zipping the contents the file size difference remains (11.8 mb vs. 3.9 mb). It may be best to continue to investigate this in a support case, and that way if the size issue continues to be a problem for you they can connect you with our Sales team regarding a refund.
Hey Brian,
I think SL2 gives you more headroom on the compression. Folks complained (myself included) that SL1 compressed too much even at level 9. The scales are 1-9 in both versions. So "9" in SL1 was still pretty heavy compression while 9 in SL2 is light compression. You might attempt to adjust your SL2 publish settings lower than SL1 to compare size and quality. A "5" in SL1 to a "3" in SL2. I'm guessing this will make things a bit better.
Steve
Hi Steve
I did try that but even at the highest compression setting (1) in SL2 it was still creating much larger files
Hey Brian -
Additional data. The bitrates are a LOT higher in the SL2 version. Adjusting your quality slider downwards really should more closely match the SL1 version. SL2 does provide a lot more quality per setting on the scale to provide more headroom at the upper end of the setting.
Will run a couple of quick tests with some video to see which settings in SL2 match up with SL1.
What are your settings set to in SL1?
I had always used the recommended settings
Wow. It's a TON higher. Using the Windows shipped wildlife.wmv file, here are my results:
Setting of 1:
Setting of 5:
Setting of 9:
So SL1 on the highest setting is still more compressed than SL2 on the lowest. Hold on a sec, will see if I can hack the config settings to change the range. It REALLY should be closer to SL1 in the bottom end and SL2 at the top end for max flexibility. This is a bug in my opinion.
No joy so far. Will need to monkey with the configs when I'm not on a locked machine.
Ashley, can you pass this on to the team? Would be great to see an update to provide more low end in video compression in the next point release. It's really not satisfactory as it is.
Thanks Steve
I have submitted a support case as Ashley had suggested.
Thanks Brian for submitting a case. Can you share the case number here so that I can follow along as well when our team investigates further?
It's been a week now and I've had no contact from support. Should I just resubmit?
Hi Brian,
Sorry I missed your post last week, I was off for the holiday.
I don't see a case associated with your name - did you receive an email confirmation after submitting here? If so, what's the case number so that I can look it up by that?
I got a confirmation when I clicked the submit button but never received any emails... I'll try and submit again
I received a reply right away this time. This is the case number 00442289
Thanks Brian for the case number and sorry that it didn't seem to go through the first time. I'll follow along with your case as our support engineers investigate.
Hi Brian,
I'm just following up as I see that Cleo responded to your case on December 4th, but we haven't heard back from you yet? You should have seen the email come in from Support@articulate.com. If not, please check your junk/spam folder and I can also ask Cleo to reach back out to you.
Hi Ashley
The only email I've received from support@articulate.com was from Justin Wilcox on Dec 2. I checked all my spam folders and there's nothing there. It's possible that I missed it though. I was out of the office all of last week and may have accidentally deleted it when I was clearing out my inbox.
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