Forum Discussion
Videos freezing randomly
Hi. I've been struggling with 2 videos built by a vendor that need to be included in our LMS. I created a Storyline 360 module with both videos added. They are each 30 min in length (I know that's not ideal for a number of reasons). The issue I'm having is with the videos freezing in random places. We decreased the size of the files to MP4s because the original MOVs were huge, but we're still having issues with random freezing.
I'm wondering if it is browser related - so far, the people seeing this behavior were using Chrome.
One thing the vendor brought up is the bitrate. Does anyone know if there is a maximum recommended bitrate?
Thanks
34 Replies
Thanks for this extra detail, Laura. Hm, this is a tough one! 🔎
To help us dig deeper:
- Next time you hear a report from another learner of this problem, could you share what version of Chrome they were using? If several folks are seeing random freezing on Chrome 74, then the source of the issue could lie there.
- Another thought is that the issue may be in how the .MP4s were encoded. I'm curious if re-encoding the video files could help – we like to a free video converting tool called HandBrake: https://handbrake.fr/
Let me know what you think!
By the way, it looks like you may have replied via email where your contact information came through. This Peek 360 video will show you how to edit it out if you'd like!
Thank you for the advice! I will try re-encoding with Handbrake.
Hi Katie,
I have a similar situation. An induction module built by a vendor in Storyline360 with approx 30min of video content within. These MP4 videos within Storyline randomly glitch and freeze. We cannot control what our 2500 contractors per year choose to use as a browser, they typically use Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari (iPhone). Regardless, on my laptop (Lenovo T470s) the video freezing/glitching is still completely random. I'm using both Chrome 83.0.4103.97 and IE 11.0 to test.
Video compression is set to automatic, video quality (in publish properties) is set to '1' (lowest quality) and the videos have been cut into different scenes/slides so they are each approx 1-3 min long. These videos would have been encoded by Adobe Premiere Pro.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Trav.
Hi Travis!
So sorry that the videos in your project are freezing! Let's get this sorted out.
It sounds like videos are freezing when viewing the course in a browser. Have you uploaded the course to an LMS or website?
We'll want to take a look at the affected file to determine a fix. If you're comfortable attaching your project to this discussion, please use the Add Attachment button. If you'd instead share the file privately, here's a secure upload link. We'll take a look and reply with our findings!
Came to this thread hoping to find a solution. I'm having the exact same issue with a video freezing when publishing to HTML5 and viewing in Chrome. Did anyone here ever figure it out?
Thanks!
Hi Claudia,
Thank you for reaching out!
I am sorry that you are hitting a snag with your project freezing on you. Is this issue happening in other browsers as well?
If you are comfortable sharing your file with us, we're always more than happy to help! You can share files using this private upload link here. We'll let you know our findings and will delete them after having a closer look!
I am also having an issue with a video freezing or cutting off towards the end. The mp4 is fine and I have replaced it a couple of times. I have also checked any trimming. Nothing. Any clues as to what is happening is greatly appreciated (this is the only slide I am having a problem with in a very large project).
Well, I found the solution (but I still am not quite sure what the issue is other than an encoding issue within the mp4 file). I went back to my raw video files and re-rendered and encoded that section. It seems to have worked. Weird. I have never had that issues before.
I downloaded your story file and it was cutting the end for me too. Then I replaced the video with your mp4 and it worked. Sometimes video is just weird that way I guess. But glad you got it fixed!
Thank you, Russell. I was getting so frustrated. I replaced it numerous times. I even redid the slide from scratch. Nothing worked.
The only thing that worked for me was going into Premiere Pro and re-encoding and re-rendering that little video. So, I am guessing that is where the issue was. Premiere always has its own gremlins to deal with. :-)
Maybe "how" you replace it matters.
I used Edit Video > Replace Video, instead of deleting and re-adding.
No. I did try it that way as well (I am too lazy to have to adjust the position of things... so that is a feature I like to use). As a last ditch effort I did try a whole new slide. But the only thing that worked for me was to redo in premiere pro. Maybe if I would have had more patience it would have eventually worked, but I am always on unrealistic deadlines.
Hi,
My organization facing similar issues with freezing learning content published with LMS. We have tried numerous ways of having it solved by analyzing from perspective of prepared videos, damaged SCORM packages and issues with LMS itself - for now still progressing with LMS vendor to find possible reasons of such situation. We have observed that actually we got 2 main kind of issues: corrupted video files (usually damaged audio paths) and "SOMETHING" with LMS. Once we are able to solve issues with video itsefl by re-rendering videos again, we have no idea what can be wrong with LMS. We are sure that there is something wrong with our LMS, because during process of investigation we have ruled out browsers factor (we mainly testing on Chrome, but have tried on other ones as well, btw. IE perfecty dealing with corrupted video files, so "the force is strong with this old one"), we have tested same content which randomly freezing published with scorm cloud (not our LMS) and observed no issues, so the only guilty one is our LMS. Hope that further investigation will give some results and finally allow to publish longer videos content. Maybe some of you struggled with similar LMS related issues?
