Storyline - Videos only play on some computers

Dec 04, 2012

I have created a storyline module that contains imported videos (.wmv and .mp4).  After publication (CD, LMS, and Web) they all play perfectly for me on IE9 and Chrome.  When the link is sent to others on IE8, IE9, and IE10 they do not play.  The slide is just blank, but the progress bar is moving (no sound or visual).  The link does work when played in Chrome on various computers.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

23 Replies
Christine Hendrickson

Good morning Dana,

Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you. There's a couple of things we can try with the file, so I can take a look. One option is to "single out" the slides that are not displaying properly in the other browsers and put them in a new course. If you have one video in particular you know isn't functioning for others, just create a slide with that video and I can take a look at the .story file that contains it. 

Alternatively, our case system may support a larger file than the forums. You're welcome to submit a support case and include the original .story file. If you do choose to submit a case, please share the case number with me so I can follow the case progress, as well as view the file attached. This might be the easiest option and this way we'll also have the complete course on file for testing. The file will also remain confidential this way. 

Thanks, Dana!

Dana Collins

We have been working on this throughout the night and we found that after loading to our LMS it seems to be playing the videos.  Not sure why it wouldn't play correctly when published to CD.  I would like to figure out why it doesn't work on when published to CD, but I will have to look into it at a later time.  Thank you so much for your prompt response and I will follow up with you at a later time if we can't figure it out.

Thanks again!

Kenji Ishikawa

Any further news on this thread? I am having a similar problem.  I think we have isolated to a flash issue.  The minimum spec for the computers in my company is Flash 10.1.2.  In testing thus far with two separate story files, neither videos work in flash 10.0.1, one will work on 10.1.2, and both work on Flash 10.3.  Unfortunately, we have to cater to the lowest common denominator.  Any ideas on how to make both videos work Flash 10.1.2?

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Kenji,

For the courses that aren't working, how are you viewing them? Are you able to see the videos while previewing? Are you uploading them to a web server, LMS, or are you publishing for CD?

If you're publishing for the web and uploading the content, what web browser are you using?

I won't be able to test with those specific versions of Flash, but if I can get some additional details, maybe we can help resolve this for you.

Thanks!

Kenji Ishikawa

Hi Christine, thanks for the reply.  

  • We are currently publishing for LMS using SCORM 2004, 2nd Ed.  
  • The original video file was a wmv at about 12 minutes in length.
  • We use IE8 as a corporate standard
  • When the user clicks to the slide with the video media on it, it just hangs, though you can see the controls for the video.
Gerry Wasiluk

For kicks, and you have the time, try this. 

Using something like Format Factory, convert the video to another WMV or a AVI.  Insert into SL and see if that works.

If my old memory recalls, a few times I've run into issues with a WMV like this and converting seemed to fix things.  Not sure why--it just worked and I moved on.

Kenji Ishikawa

Hi Gerry, thanks for the suggestion.  We tried converting the original video  file from .wmv to .mov and it still didn't work on our test computer.  

It did work when hosted from a different web server, so for some reason, this module does not want to cooperate with our LMS.  What I ultimately do not understand is why other modules, with video components are working on our LMS when accessed from the test PC,and this one will not?

Kenji Ishikawa

I know.  Unfortunately, I can't share the file for exactly those reasons. 

At this point, it really has me scratching my head.  I just don't understand why one module with shorter videos will work, but the one with a longer (12 mins) video won't on the same test PC running flash 10.1

However, both work flawlessly on any computer running  a later version of flash.  

Unfortunately, our publishing standards dictate we cater to the lowest common denominator in the company's fleet of PCs... :(

Kenji Ishikawa

Ok, tried another avenue and it has added to the pulzzlement.  I hosted the same file on SCORM cloud and the module played fine all the way through on the test PC.  So, to summarize:

  1. external server + test PC = works w/ all modules
  2. SCORM cloud + test PC = works w/ all modules
  3. internal LMS + test PC = works with other modules containing video
  4. internal LMS + test PC = does not work with one particular module

I appreciate any more thoughts on the subject...

Stephen Cone

Kenji,

My first thought is that you're encountering the Flash Player's security sandbox settings.  I know that Flash Player will prevent some content from being played back locally unless you've specifically authorized the drive or folder.  The issue most often occurs when you're locally testing content that is meant to be delivered over a server.

From what I recall from the publish settings, publishing for a CD-ROM should create an executeable Flash Player launcher that resolves the sandbox issue.

if you need to test HTML5/LMS generated content, I'd suggest you read-up on Adobe's knowledge base [macromedia.com].

I hope this helps,

Stephen

Kenji Ishikawa

Stephen Cone said:

Kenji,

My first thought is that you're encountering the Flash Player's security sandbox settings.  I know that Flash Player will prevent some content from being played back locally unless you've specifically authorized the drive or folder.  The issue most often occurs when you're locally testing content that is meant to be delivered over a server.

From what I recall from the publish settings, publishing for a CD-ROM should create an executeable Flash Player launcher that resolves the sandbox issue.

if you need to test HTML5/LMS generated content, I'd suggest you read-up on Adobe's knowledge base [macromedia.com].

I hope this helps,

Stephen


Stephen, thanks for the tip and the link.  

If I am understanding you correctly, your solution would be used for testing a locally executed story.html file (e.g. from the test computer's hard drive).  However, the testing scenarios that we are undertaking are actually on web servers and test LMS'.  We are not testing an LMS or web published file from a local drive.  Yet, for some unknown reason, our LMS is rejecting the ability to play this simple video in the published story package on the test computer running flash 10.1.  It works with Flash 10.3 on our internal LMS, but we are being held to the IT standard to ensure the training works company-wide.  The weirdest fact about all of this is that the video plays on the test PC when loaded into the SCORM cloud LMS.  The second weirdest fact is that other story files published with video clips in them seem to work fine on our internal LMS using the test PC.  

Susie So

I've encountered some similar issues with IE10...

Here are all my founding of the course... I can't really share the course... but here are the list of items that are doing some weird stuff on IE 10 below:

  • Navigation list menu shows up on the Notes panel
  • Video content plays fine on firefox and IE11 but doesn't play on IE10... It's using mixture of MOV and mp4 format.
  • The lightbox doesn't show as lightbox. The content fills the whole content area without a close "x" button. Therefore, when the course is restricted from advancing to the next page... there is no way to continue with the course...

According to my research... it seems to have all the same types of bugs as if I am launching the course in html5.... I don't expect to have the course play well in html5 at this time but I do expect to have the flash version of the course to play well on all browsers...

Has anyone experienced this and have any good solution for this?

Advice is much appreciate... This course is a compliance course that requires 2 hours of sit time and it is heavy with video content..... Any GREAT solution is very appreciated!!!

Thanks in advance!

Susie

Tezra McGuirk

We are having difficulty getting our modules to work in Chrome through our lms also. We have no issues in IE. The modules will open and work perfectly fine until the end user completes the module. It will not complete and record in the lms. When the module is completed and tries to return to the lms screen, the screen goes blank and will not close or really do anything. We've worked with our lms vendor and they're able to complete and record the module in their environment. Is there anyone experiencing this issue? thanks

Christie Pollick

Hi, Tezra -- Thanks for reaching out, and sorry to hear of your difficulties! Typically, when a course is behaving unusually in an LMS, we will ask if you are seeing the same behavior when you test your course in the SCORM Cloud as well, as that is the recommended environment for testing LMS content. As such, have you had a chance to do any testing in the SCORM Cloud yet?

You may also want to check out this article on How to Troubleshoot Your LMS with SCORM Cloud

Kat Cripe

Hello,

I am having some problems getting the videos in my presenter modules to play.  I have published them and uploaded them through our web server and everything plays except for the videos.  I have read a few posts and there is mention of a problem with the new flash plug in, but I am not sure I understand how to fix that problem.  Any help would be appreciated.

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Kat! Are you utilizing Presenter or Storyline? You mention Presenter, but this is the Storyline forum.

No worries as the documentation is about the same for both as to what you can check:

Test your published content in its intended environment.

You may need to update Adobe Flash Player on your computer to a version that supports FLV and MP4 movies. 

The recommended solution is to install the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. (Note: Storyline requires Flash Player 10 or later.)

Be sure that you do not use special characters, accents, or spaces in your video file names. Use only letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens.

If FLV or MP4 videos still won't play after uploading your published content to a server, it's likely that you need to add these MIME types to the server. Here's how:

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