Video created as Storyline output has blank start screen when used in Rise multimedia block

I'm not sure if this is the same issue or not, but I'm trying to create 'video' objects for Rise blocks that are basically photo(s) with audio under. I would prefer to use Storyline over Replay as I can do more on top of the video. However, when I export from Replay, the video starts on frame 1 with the picture. When I export from Storyline it starts with black, which just doesn't look as good in Rise to have all these black blocks before the user selects play. I have tried exporting from a single screen with the photo and audio, and also adding a screen before the video with just the photo and a automatic forward to screen 2, exporting to video as a course. No matter what I do the Storyline video export always makes a video that starts on black. I have a lot of these to do, so would really prefer not to have to edit every video after the export. Anyone figure this out? Or am I missing a setting in Storylline?

That's a great tip, Alexis! Thanks for sharing that with the community! 

Sorry, then I did it again with the same settings and it had black at the start. Argh.

What worked for me was to insert a first slide with relevant picture and NO actions, on a short time-line. Check to ensure that there are no transitions or animations and no sound.  In the 'publish to video' section there is also an opportunity to see what the opening will look like - make sure that it shows the inanimate slide. Note that doing this alone is not sufficient to avoid the black opening. Then publish to SL as video, When I did this, the video came out correctly.  Good luck.

I've been using the same technique as Errol just mentioned, and it works consistently. Since I posted 2 months ago, I've applied this technique to both Storyline Story blocks and mp4 videos. Most times, I'll take a screen shot of the first slide, insert it as an image on its own slide, making it the first in the Scene. Then, like Errol, I make sure there is no action or animation and shorten the timeline to ~1 second. Then I can publish and insert. Works every time.

Thanks Errol and Danielle for responding. Somehow it's still not working for me. I think I did you what you suggested. I added a still of the actual screen on an initial frame without anything else. I have a trigger to jump to the next screen when the timeline reaches 0.2 seconds. No audio, nothing else. Then I export the scene to a video with only these two screens. I also looked at the opening slide in the publish (three dots next to title) and it's correct. I'm not using a player as it's just a single short screen of a picture with audio, exported as a video. I think I might lose my mind, because I probably have a hundred of these to do...

Try removing the trigger.  It is unnecessary if you are publishing to video.  My start slide is absolutely inanimate except for the timeline which runs for a couple of seconds.  Cheers.

Same as Errol. I  just insert a blank slide in the first position of the new Scene — no animation on the slide, no Transition between this slide and the next, no Audio, and no Video. Like Errol, and depending on the project, I'll either insert a relevant photo from the Content Library, or I'll take a full-size screen shot of the beginning of the video, save it as a .jpg or .png and insert it (so it gives the illusion it is the beginning of the video). I then drag the Timeline on that first slide to something very short, like 0.5-1 second, and apply the Slide Triger "Jump to next slide | When the timeline ends on this slide." Then publish and add to Rise. This works for me.

I wish I could report good news after all your great advice Errol and Danielle. However it just won't remove that black frame consistently using either way (except intermittently it will do one without out, like 1 out of 50). I tried both with an ending trigger and without anything. I've attached the .story for one of videos just because it's making me bonkers :) Right now I've invested more time trying to get it to work than just clipping them all in another program (for this project anyway), but I just hate it when something isn't working. It would be wonderful if Articulate could fix the issue, or see what is not working with the workaround. Thanks again. Lex

Although im not 100% sure if this is the same issue... but it seems like it, and i solved it here.
https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/remove-play-button-on-html5-opening-screen-in-storyline-360?page=3