Trouble with Video in a large course

Jun 07, 2013

Hey all,

I'm building a 35-slide course for a client that is based off an existing Flash course, so it must have a very similar look/feel. The screens are variable-restricted, and have a myriad of features such as quizzes, text blocks, interactive elements, etc. On slide 11, I have a rather large mp4 video that is 450x320, and 22.6 MB big - right around 7.5 minutes. When I try to go through the course on my client's LMS (Absorb), and I get to this particular video screen, the video will not load. It is coded in Storyline to load automatically, but it simply fails to do so. Now, I've broken the course into five-slide chunks and tested it that way, and the video works just fine. 

What can I do to ensure that this works correctly? Do I need to use a different codec for the video? Like I say, this is a Storyline copy of a previously existing course, so the look/feel has to match up as absolutely close as possible, so I'm not sure how much of an option breaking the course apart or cutting down the video really is. If either of those ideas are the only options, then that may just be a bridge I'll have to push my client across.

I'm at the end of my tether on this project, and any advice is greatly appreciated.

6 Replies
Eric Nalian

Hey AJ,

We had/still having a similar issue.

With the course freezing/not loading - we actually found it to be a server issue.  The course that we had strained our server too much and would bog it down.

Also try it in Internet Explorer/FireFox - I do not know if this will make that much of a difference, but it might work.

-Eric

Phil Mayor

did you put it in as an MP4?  Could be that the MOOV atom is at the end of the file instead of the beginning.  Not sure if Storyline will move this info to the beginning when it optimises the file.  Breaking the file up may cause storyline to do this, try chopping a couple of seconds of the end and beginning if you can to see if that will help

AJ Bembry

Phil Mayor said:

did you put it in as an MP4?  Could be that the MOOV atom is at the end of the file instead of the beginning.  Not sure if Storyline will move this info to the beginning when it optimises the file.  Breaking the file up may cause storyline to do this, try chopping a couple of seconds of the end and beginning if you can to see if that will help


Yes, it's an MP4 when plugged into the course. I have the ability to change video formats/codecs if needed - so is there a different encoding profile I should be using? The MP4 came straight from the client, and I haven't done anything to it. 

I'll chop a little bit off the file, and report back.

AJ Bembry

Bringing up an old thread, but I figured out a solution to this issue. There is a piece of freeware out there called MP4 - FastStart. If you run your videos through this, it will replace the necessary atoms and your videos will begin playing while they continue to load in the background.  This has been a very helpful bit of software, and really saved our bacon on this project.

Phil, thanks for the tip regarding the file atoms. I wouldn't have thought of that, and your suggestion set me on the right path.

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