Storyline 360 - Poor Audio Output and Crashing

Feb 03, 2018

I am using the publish to video of Storyline 360 Desktop App and having lots of trouble.

Fist, the audio quality is poor. I use high-quality audio narration (uncompressed .WAV, 44.4KhZ, 1058 bit rate). The audio sounds perfect when exported to eLearning.

However, when I export to Video (1080p, Video Quality "Very high" and Audio Quality "Very High"), the audio is severely degraded and sounds "tinny."

I wanted to produce DVDs for use in the classroom, but it sounds poor and amateurish. 

Second, when I attempt to publish a "long" video, 52-minutes, the video portion works, but the application crashes when incorporating the audio track. Storyline does output a file, but it is pure video with no sound at all.

When I output smaller snippets, the total video is published, but with the audio problems mentioned in the start of this thread.

Publishing to 720p has identical results.

Thoughts, suggestions, workarounds?

 

System Information:

Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit, Version 1709, Build 16299.192

Quad-core, i7, 3.5GHz

RAM: 32 GB

Storyline version: 3.12.14647.0

66 Replies
Alex Haddox

I uploaded a 40-minute sample to the support ticket.

Crashing on files longer than 30-minutes is a huge pain. Combined with the poor audio quality makes the feature nearly unusable.

In order to make my final video, I was forced to export small chunks of the content and then splice them together in a different application. Not great. Coupled with poor audio quality made it an extremely poor experience.

I upgraded to 360 primarily for the video output and HTML5 only export functions.

Sam Hammond

Our team is considering upgrading to 360 specifically for the video publishing feature (we're currently using 3), but we need to be sure the video and audio quality is high. We want to avoid a cumbersome conversion process, but it sounds like the solution Articulate is offering is incomplete. This is really disappointing.

Please share any updates on this thread as they develop. 

Alex Haddox

The crashing issue was resolved with the latest patch. The development team identified the problem and fixed it. Interestingly, it was tied to the audio files. If there were more than 32 audio clips in the source, it caused a crash when exporting to video.

I am still struggling with the audio quality on the video output. It is still significantly inferior to the eLearning output and raw input files.

Support has been responsive and the issue remains open and active.

Sam Hammond

Hi Leslie, 

We're currently using a trial version of 360 and are running into the same poor audio quality issue with .mp4 output. On "very high" audio quality settings, the audio output is 64kbps @ 22.05kHz.  The quality slider doesn't seem to affect the output at all; the audio quality is identical on the "Low" setting as it is on "Very High." It's 64kbps @ 22.05kHz across the board. 

The video quality slider does appear to be working, however, so the issue seems to be isolated to the audio settings. 

Katie Riggio

Thanks for reaching out here, Ruth! You're in the right place for updates ☺️ It looks like our team is still investigating this issue in Storyline 360 where the audio quality is reduced when publishing to video.

Would you be able to share your files with our support team for testing? I'd like to see if your experience is similar to what we've found.

Alyssa Erickson

Good morning,

I am experiencing the same issue with my project; the original audio is very high quality but is distant and tinny when published as a video. 

We may just have to make do with it, after I amplify the sound as much as I can. Would you like me to submit a support case at the link provided above?

Thank you in advance!

Alyssa Erickson

Allan House

Hi folks,

I'm also having an issue with poor sound quality, however, my articulate file is crashing after 30-40 minutes of use. No video involved.  I thought it was a bug in my course, but it keeps happening, after about 30 minutes of constant use, in different places. Is anyone else getting this without the use of video?

Leslie McKerchie

Oh no Allan!

Sorry to hear that you're running into a consistent issue of crashing.

You mention that you thought it was just in your course. 

Does that mean that the issue happens in any course you are working on or just this particular one?

If you cannot re-create the issue in a new course, I would advise to import the file into a new one and proceed.

If it's happening in any/all files, you should certainly conduct a repair of your software.

If you need to work with our team to dive a bit deeper, please reach out here.

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.