Black screen displaying on Replay videos in Rise

Hi Laszlo! We're happy to help you here in the forum, and you're always welcome to open a case with our Support Team by clicking here. 

Let's dive into what is expected behavior when viewing Storyline Blocks in Rise:

On Chrome for Desktop:

• If the slide has audio or video on the first slide, you may see a black screen with a play button if you have never viewed this lesson before. 
• If the slide does not have audio or video, you will see the thumbnail of the first slide.

On Chrome for Android:

• You will see a black screen with a play button for all Storyline blocks. You will not see the thumbnail of the first slide. This is normal behavior when viewing a Storyline block on a mobile device.

Let me know if that helps to answer your question!

Hi there Liz!

Rise will display the first frame of a MP4 video as the thumbnail, so it's likely that the first frame of your video is black. Have you tried trimming the first second of the video to remove that black poster frame?

Let me know if that works! 

Hi Alyssa. My first frame is not black, still I get a black thumbnail!

Hi, Laszlo. So sorry you're running into this. We can help!

• Could you share more detail on where the video was created – Replay, Peek, or somewhere else?
• Would you be able to share the video file with us? We'll try to replicate the black thumbnail on our side and let you know what we find! You can either attach the file to this discussion or send it privately via this link.

We're standing by!

Thanks, Laszlo. Appreciate your follow-up and very kind words!

Yikes, it looks like your signature came through instead of the attachments. This Peek video will show you how to edit out your contact information if you'd like!

Could you click this link to open our conversation and use the Add Attachment button to include those screenshots in your reply? Additionally, could you share the Rise course's Share link? 

I don't see a black thumbnail on the first two videos in that Review URL, so I'm curious to see what happens in the Rise URL. Looking forward to digging in!

Good morning, Laszlo!

Oh no, it looks like the Review URL instead of the Rise Share link came through. So sorry for the trouble! 

Here's how to grab your Rise course's Share link: Open the course from your Rise dashboard > click Share in the upper right corner of the screen and copy the shareable link.

The URL should start with https://rise.articulate.com/ instead of https://360.articulate.com/review/ – be sure to copy all the way to the end!

Really appreciate your time, and I'm standing by! 😊

Hi Laszlo,

The Storyline Block will appear with a black screen on mobile devices by design, but we are tracking this request to display a custom poster frame. I'll add your voice to our report. If we modify this feature in the future, we'll let you know!

Oh yeah!

Glad that Alyssa was able to help you out here Laszlo :)

It looks like your email signature came through when you replied via email. You can remove that if needed by clicking ‘Edit’ beneath your response. Here’s a quick Peek video if you need help.

Hello - just want to follow-up on this thread. I am having the same issue (black thumbnail showing instead of first frame). The comment that Alyssa Gomez made that "If the slide has audio or video on the first slide, you may see a black screen with a play button if you have never viewed this lesson before," is not accurate on my end.

I have two videos in my Rise course (created in Vyond). One shows the black screen and one doesn't. They both have audio. They are NOT Storyline blocks. I imported them using the video block directly in Rise.

Previously, I had to import the videos to YouTube, set the thumbnail there, and then use the Embed block. Is there a way to ensure the thumbnail shows in Rise without having to use a third-party like YouTube?

Great investigative skills, Tonya. I appreciate you popping in to share an update with others that may run into a similar issue.