VIdeo quality problems in Storyline

Hi Johanna! Really sorry you're having video trouble, and thanks so much for letting us know what you've already tried.

I see you shared your published Storyline files with us in a Support case. Would you also mind sharing the original (unpublished) Storyline file and the original video file so we can do some testing?

You can attach both of those files directly to your case by clicking this link. Thank you!

Hi,

Thanks for addressing my issue! I have also downloaded SL 360 to test if that makes a difference the same problem appears in the 360 version as well.

On the link a bove I have attached the original videofile and the story file.

/Johanna

Your MP4 video has to use the H.264 codec so that the compression options are available in Storyline. If you import an MP4 video using a different compression codec Storyline doesn't give you the compression options. Click on the frame of the video, select options, and see if the compression dropdown lets you select none.

Hi Brian!

My video is a wmv and is re-formated to mp4 in Storyline. I have also converted it to mp4 and inserted it to Storyline. But where do I go to "click on the frame of the video" as you write? Do you mean to cliick on the video file in my folder structure or in Storyline? I can't find the options you are suggestion in any of these places :/

/Johanna

On the attached screenshot you will see I have the video selected (the handles appear). An options tab will appear with a compression options dropdown selection.

Thanks Brian! But that option is grey for me an hence not available :/

Hi Johanna,

If the Compression property is grayed out, it means your video was created with a different profile than the three most common MP4 profiles which we support (baseline, main, and high) or it has been edited with Storyline's built-in video editor.

Hey Johanna,

I know you reached out to our support team, but I wanted to share this article with you on why you may not be seeing the compression option.

Thanks! I imported it as a MP4 and could change the video compression to "none". The quality problems dissapeared! Thanks for your help!

However, the file became much larger: 313 000kb. Is that too much or is it not a problem when posted in teh LMS?

Different LMSs might have size restrictions... I'd give it a run through the upload process and see how it plays.  If you have issues, you can revisit your quality settings during the publishing process.

Let us know how you make out, Johanna!

I am trying to export an MP4 video that I had imported into Storyline 2  and edit it with a video editing tool.  I no longer have the original MP4 file or I would just use that.  How can I export the video from Storyline 2?. 

Thanks.

Mike 

Hey, Mike. Welcome to the community!

Storyline doesn't support exporting videos that were previously imported at this time, but here's a nifty way of recovering a copy of the source file if you no longer have it:

1. Publish your course for Web.
2. When the Publish Successful window appears, click Open.
3. Open the story_content folder. This is where you can find copies of your videos for this particular project. The file name for each video will start with video_. They won't have easily recognizable file names, so you may have to play each video to identify them.

Hello,

I actually have the same issue described by the original author in this thread. Although, I do have a supported MP4 that I was able to select "none" for the compression settings. In addition to this, I have cranked the video quality publishing settings up. The video quality goes down dramatically after publishing. While previewing and the video is viewed in windows media player, the quality is dramatically different. 

Why would this be occurring? I seem to be following the Articulate guidelines for supportive videos, but there is a huge loss of quality. I've spent hours trying to troubleshoot, and media subject matter experts at my company have suggested the loss is occurring from the Articulate publishing.

Can someone please assist me?

Hi Ryan,

What version of Storyline are you using? I'd make sure you're on the latest update of your version:

• Storyline 3, build 3.5.16548.0

• Storyline 360, build 3.24.17733.0

•  Storyline 2, Update 13

• Also, I'd start by reviewing the best practices for working with media in Storyline here (although this article is for Storyline 360, a lot of the same best practices apply across versions). 

If you're still having issues with quality, I'd invite you to work directly with our Support Team to share the video and let them take a look and do some additional testing. 

Hello,

I am using Storyline 360, build 3.24.17733.0

Thank you for passing that article along. I believe I saw this earlier. I am following all of those best practices already. I have an open ticket with Articulate, but I'm not sure what is happening. Case # 01693271

Thanks, Ryan!  I see your case with Jonathan, and I'll follow along too so I can update this discussion.

Thanks, Crystal. Appreciate your guys' help!

Our pleasure, Ryan! Look out for an email from Jonathan soon. 😊

By the way, it looks like you may have replied by email where your contact information came through. This Peek recording will show you how to edit it out if you’d like!

Thanks! whoops...

Just an update for anyone following:  It looks like the issue was occurring in Internet Explorer when using a larger monitor size and the modern player, which always scales to fill the available space.  The video wasn't scaling up gracefully in that environment.

We are tracking a feature request to be able to lock the modern player at optimal size, so I'm adding this discussion to our report.  We can then update you here with any changes!

As a side note related to videos, I typically will use HandBrake to process videos before using them in any applications. I find that size can often be reduced with little to no loss of quality. I also use it to process videos that have been shot in portrait from a smartphone (so the don't rotate) and to crop videos. HandBrake

Hi Crystal,

While I appreciate Articulate tracking the feature request you described, I do think it would help if both the classic and modern players had the ability to be responsive for end users without losing quality to video content. Changing the Modern player to support a "lock at optimal player size" isn't the ideal solution. The monitor size I tested with is a standard office monitor size . Many learners are not using their laptop monitors to view training material in my opinion.

I heavily support being able to use the "fill the available space" feature.  This enables the learner to not worry about adjusting resolution settings and allowing them to toggle their browser window sizes. Locking the player size can actually cut-off the navigational controls depending on what percentage display the learner is using on their computer.

While I appreciate that you have followed-up on this, I think that the responsive player should be compatible with the default browser on all Window Professional machines (IE). Typically, Articulate is very good about keeping up to date with this kind of thing.

Thank you,
Ryan

Hi Everyone,

Good news! We fixed the issue in Storyline 360 where videos are blurry/pixelated when viewed in IE11.

Here's how to install the latest Storyline 360 update to see all the recent enhancements and fixes.

If the problem reappears, please record a Peek 360 screencast for me or connect with a support engineer, and we'll be happy to help!

I know some of these posts are a little older but hopefully people will find this tip useful. Recently, I was frustrated with the poor quality of a video I created in PowerPoint when it was imported to Storyline 360 as an MP4 and published. But.......if I first imported the PowerPoint MP4 into Replay and re-published it as an MP4,  then imported it into Storyline, the quality was great! The couple of extra steps were worth the quality improvement.

Thanks, John for that helpful tip. I'm certain it'll provide some relief to others here in the community as well.