Mp4/Mpeg videos not playing in Robohelp 9 preview

[Guest]

I have RH 9.02 installed on Windows 7 32bit. I'm able to embed captivate files without any problems. However, mp4 and mpeg files that I've inserted  in preview won't play. They play perfectly fine outside of RH. When I try to play the mp4 file, it recognizes it as an audio file rather than a movie but still doesn't produce a sound nor an image.

One time, I got it to start playing but then it just stopped all of a sudden. It shows the quicktime logo so I thought there was a problem with quicktime. I updated quicktime but that still didn't help. I then converted the mp4 file to mpeg and it did recognize it as a movie but it only shows a black screen. Here's the code for mp4 file:

<p><a class="dropspot" href="javascript:TextPopup(this)" id="a2">test</a></p>

<div class="droptext" id="POPUP444337617" style="display: none;">

    <p><object data="../Export2MP3.mp4" classid="CLSID:02bf25d5-8c17-4b23-bc80-d3488abddc6b"

                 codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"

                 type="video/quicktime" style="border: none;" width="203"

                 height="38">

    <param name="src" value="../Export2MP3.mp4"  />

    <param name="autoplay" value="false"  />

    <param name="autostart" value="false"  />

    <param name="ShowControls" value="1"  />

    <param name="controller" value="true"  />

    </object></p>

Here's the code for the mpeg file:

<p><a class="dropspot" href="javascript:TextPopup(this)" id="a2">test</a></p>

<div class="droptext" id="POPUP444337617" style="display: none;">

    <p><object data="../0001.mpg" classid="CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95"

                 codebase="http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=6,4,7,1112"

                 type="application/x-oleobject" style="border: none;" width="640"

                 height="568">

    <param name="filename" value="../0001.mpg"  />

    <param name="autoplay" value="false"  />

    <param name="autostart" value="false"  />

    <param name="ShowControls" value="1"  />

    <param name="controller" value="true"  />

    <param name="WindowlessVideo" value="0"  />

    </object></p>

Here's how it looks in the preview:

Can anyone tell me why I can't play this demo in the preview? The same thing happens even if I insert the file directly on the topic page.

Judy

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

For eons I've referred to RoboHelp's Preview as being "RoboHelp's *BEST GUESS* at t what the content will look like in the live help system.

The question here is to ask if the videos play once generated or compiled? If so, it sounds like some hiccup with RoboHelp that needs to be reported as a possible bug. But if not, the problems are a bit deeper and require more detective work.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[Guest]

Hi Rick,

I just generated the flashhelp layout and it still doesn't work. The quick time logo flashes real quick and then I get a blank area where the video should be for the mp4 file.  Here's how it looks:

Thanks,

Judy

[johndaigle]

Hi, Judy.

All MP4s are not created equal.What application was the .MP4 created in? What was the codec encoding used?

Maybe that will give us a clue. Also, I agree with Rick that the Previewer may not be up to the task of showing .MP4s.

Thanks

John

[Guest]

Hi John,

I use Captivate 5.5 to create the mp4 files. The preset is set to "Custom" and I keep all the default settings. I've set the FMR to 32bit and the Flash(SWF) size and quality is set to high. I looked at the knowledgebase and it shows that the encoder is H.264. Not sure if that means anything. I've played around with the presets, the custom settings, the size and quality and the same thing happens. I also mentioned in my previous message that the problem still occured even after publishing the Robohelp files.

Has anyone used Captivate to create mp4 files and then tried to embed in Robohelp file with success? If so, please let me know the steps you take so I can see if I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks,

Judy

[Captiv8r]

Hi Judy

Unless I'm horribly mistaken, the MP4 format from Captivate is intended so that you can take the output and push it up to YouTube, Vimeo or other video sharing sites. If your goal is to use Captivate output with RoboHelp, I believe you should stick with using Flash SWF format. You will have much better luck and less hair tearing.

Out of curiosity, why or how did you settle on using this particular output?

If you insist that MP4 must be used, I think you will find you need to also factor in some form of a video player such as FlowPlayer.

Click here to visit the FlowPlayer site

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[Guest]

Hi Rick,

I was thinking that might be the case but hoping it wasn't. We've been using swf movies for a long time but decided to switch to mp4 because a lot of our users are using iOS devices to view our course content. So, we needed a format that works on all platforms. Thanks for the information on the flowplayer site. I'll bring that up to the developers.

[Tech_Research]

Hi Judy,

I had this issue with embedding .mp4 video files into my RH projects as well.  Luckily, after I figured this out, I was able to play my .mp4 on our iOS devices.  I had to expand the size of the object within RoboHelp from the default size that RoboHelp gives all of my mp4 objects.  I had to double click on my .mp4 object and click "size" button.  This allows me to set a size so I can view in preview mode - I would start with 1024 x 810 as a starting point...you have to play around with it until you get an accurate size for your file.  I displayed the "Default HMTL Code" that RoboHelp assigns and compared it to the code AFTER changing the size so you can see the difference (see below).

Default HMTL Code =

<object data="Test_QualityHigh.mp4" classid="CLSID:02bf25d5-8c17-4b23-bc80-d3488abddc6b"
         codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"
         type="video/quicktime" style="border: none;">
<param name="src" value="Test_QualityHigh.mp4"  />
<param name="autoplay" value="false"  />
<param name="autostart" value="false"  />
<param name="ShowControls" value="1"  />
<param name="controller" value="true"  />
Loading multimedia control...</object>

New HTML code after making the object larger on my RH page:

<object data="Test_QualityHigh.mp4" classid="CLSID:02bf25d5-8c17-4b23-bc80-d3488abddc6b"
         codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"
         type="video/quicktime" style="border: none;"
         width="1024" height="810">
<param name="src" value="Test_QualityHigh.mp4"  />
<param name="autoplay" value="false"  />
<param name="autostart" value="false"  />
<param name="ShowControls" value="1"  />
<param name="controller" value="true"  />
Loading multimedia control...</object>

I hope this works for you!