Forum Discussion
Can no longer turn the video compression off with new Storyline 3 update...
New user of Storyline 360 here. I just had the same problem described in this thread.
I had replaced a video on one of my slides with a new version that had been re-edited in another program (I right clicked on the video object in Storyline and selected the option to replace the video). The updated version of the video in Storyline would not allow me to leave it uncompressed as the original video had been. The issue was not caused by the type of MP4 compression as mentioned above (baseline, main, high) -- the new version of the video used the same compression type as the original -- nor was it edited inside of Storyline.
I tried deleting the video and reuploading it, but that did not work (once Storyline recognized that it was the same video as before, it automatically compressed it and would not let me uncompress it). The solution that worked, which I got from this thread, was the following:
(1) Delete the video, save the file, and close the file.
(2) Then, open a blank file and upload the re-edited video into the blank file. Select the "none" option to leave it uncompressed.
(3) Finally, open up the original file, copy the video object from the blank file, and paste it into the original file.
Hopefully this solution works for others.
I'm circling back to this thread a year later because the problem still has not been fixed in Storyline. I recently exported a course, and as I was reviewing it, I saw that all the videos were blurry. Immediately, I knew what was wrong: I had forgotten to change the default video compression setting from Automatic to None for each video in the course. When I went back to Storyline to edit the settings, I saw that the Compression drop-down menus were grayed out. Basically, once Storyline compresses the videos, it is does not allow you to restore them to their uncompressed format. I tried deleting the videos and replacing them, as mentioned in my previous post, but that work-around no longer works. Storyline recognizes the videos from before and automatically compresses them, even if you change the video file names and try to insert the renamed videos into Storyline.
I did find another work-around this time. I put the video files into Adobe Premiere Pro and re-exported them as new files. Then, Storyline allowed me to insert the new videos without compression because it didn't recognize the re-exported files. This process was a huge pain and took a lot of time, especially because I had the videos edited into a montage in Storyline, so I had to redo the timing of the videos in the timeline. But this work-around might be the best option.
So, there are two issues that Articulate should address:
1) There should be more video compression options in Storyline. The automatic compression option is essentially unusable because the videos become blurry. I imagine that Articulate makes this option the default in order to conserve their server space by reducing file size. However, because the resolution becomes so low with automatic compression, the uncompressed option is the only feasible one. If Articulate added some happy medium options between hi-res and and low-res, they would get more people to use compression and would actually save more server space. Also, automatic compression should not be the default option since it seems to be a "destructive" edit that does not allow the user to restore the unedited video.
2) The bigger issue is that Storyline locks each video into a low-res compression when a course is exported. Forcing users to find work-around solutions to fix their videos after this irreversible compression adds hours of work and rebuilding.
I hope Articulate can fix this issue soon!
Thank you.