Videos in Storyline - I do not understand quality/sizes etc. :(

Hi,

I have a series of courses with an opening "video" - they differ only in the contents list that flies in and out.

My video guy produces them in iPad Retina quality - they are large in size (on screen not mb).

When loaded into a SL course they look fabulous on iPad, and a bit yucky on the PC (grainy and blurred in places, especially tex).

I thought might be a problem with .mov files, but my video guy said exactly the same as .mp4.

He said - "...You can literally rename the file from .mov to .mp4 and it will be an .mp4. The compression I use is exactly the same - the codec that both these compression modules use is H.264 so the files would be no different...Also, these files are compressed for best playback on an iPad with a retina display, and will play natively on one with no rendering required..."

SL support suggest they were too large, and were being compressed down, losing some definition.

"...To avoid low quality videos in Storyline output make sure that the video is not being scaled when you insert it in the slide.

The video you sent me is so large for Storyline slide. Normally the size of a slide in Storyline is only 720 x 540 pixels. The video you sent me is 2048 x 1536 pixels, therefore it will be scaled down to the size of the Storyline slide thus causing it to get blurry in some parts..."

So - they look fine now on PC, but no longer as crisp on the iPad - look a bit blurry/grainy now :(

My video guy says - "...That makes sense, but shouldn't really be the case. Also 720x540 is the US standard definition broadcast resolution, which is smaller than an iPad and even an iPhone resolution..."

So - on the basis that I do not really understand any of the technicalities here...it seems as though I can have videos looking fabulous on one or other platform, not both!

What have I missed or misunderstood, and what are the guidelines for someone who does not really know or understand the slightest thing about videos! 

Help (please)!

Bruce