Videos play on hard drive but not on web

[Guest]

Hello,

I am trying to play a short video on a slide with Presenter 8. While it plays fine when i view the published slide on my C drive, it won't play after uploading it to the server. I have the video set to start after 15 seconds and the slide itself plays but then buffers endlessly once it gets to the video. I have tried to using both FLV and MP4 formats and disabled the pre-loading for Flash content (SWF, FLV, MP4) but still having this problem.

Can you assist? Any suggestions would be much appreciated...

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

Are you inserting the video via Presenter or using the Insert Media function of PPT?

I haven't had much luck with MP4 video and Connect or Presenter, so I would say that FLV is your safer bet. What settings are you using when you encode the FLV? How large is the file?

I tend to insert FLV content with settings around the following:

FLV

H.263

720X480

800 Kbps

And once I have a working version, I'll change the settings to better fit my goals, if needed.

[Guest]

Hello,

I am using Presenter to import the file. I am using Premiere Elements 11 to publish the files with the following settings:

368x208, 29.97 fps, De-interlaced

MP3, 96 kbps, Stereo

VBR, 1 Pass, Target 600.00 kbps

The file is 9277 kb.

Thanks for the quick response!

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

OK,

File size doesn't look to be an issue, so we'll cross that off the list. The setting that could be a small issue would be the frame rate, as I should have added that to my list. Presenter runs at 30 FPS, so you should set your video to that. Since you are close, you may not notice a difference, but it may appear to play slightly fast (once we get it working), since Presenter will force the 30 FPS setting. Change that and see if it plays better.

FLV video can be encoded to H.264 or H.263. To keep things from getting too nerdy, the H.264 codec is the same codec that MP4 uses, and can show playback issues, so if you could verify that Premiere is using the H.263 codec to create the FLV, we can see if that solves the problem.

When you mention that it plays fine as a published file on your hard drive, but not on the server, are you publishing the version on the server directly from the tool within Presenter, or uploading a zipped version of the working presentation from your hard drive?

[Guest]

I can change the FPS setting to 30 pretty easily. But Premiere says its using the On2 VP6 Codec. Is there a way for me to change this to the H.263?

I am publishing the file to my hard drive and then uploading the published folder to my web server via FTP. Its not zipped and no SCORM files.

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

The VP6 codec should be fine. I don't use Premiere Elements, so I can't say off the top of my head if you can change it to H.263.

Teach me to assume about using Connect. Being zipped and having SCORM files are mutually exclusive from one another. Most web servers can unpack a zip file, so to ensure that all the contents of the published presentation are included, I always try using the zip files option when publishing a production version. However, so long as you are getting everthing up to the server, I would think you are ok on that front. The big thing to verify is that the resources folder is included with the rest of the files/folders that Presenter outputs (in the data folder). This is where your videos will reside. 

[Guest]

I checked the folder and the files are in the right place. I tried publishing with both FLV, MP4 and now an MP4 video published using the H.264 codec. None of which worked. However, the one with the H.264 codec would allow the slide audio to continue rather than buffering endlessly. The video still did not appear though. Also, when I switched back to the FLV video it now plays the audio instead of buffering too. Not sure what changed.

Any other ideas or assistance would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Mstpierre112]

I am having this exact same issue.  I am using Presenter 9 to import an MP4 file that I created.  The videos play back fine on my local drive as well as on a shared network drive after publishing, but they do not play back at all from the web.  Are there settings I can use when I save my MP4?  The options I have are to set the Width, Height, Bit rate, and Frame Rate, as well as the audio format. 

From reading thru earlier responses to this thread I see a recommended Frame Rate of less than 30 fps.  The file that I am using unsuccessfully is 29 fps, so it must be one of the other settings that I need to change.  Is there a suggested bit rate?

Thanks,

Michelle

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

FWIW, Presenter runs at 30 FPS. So if you have a video asset in Presenter that has a lower frame rate, you may see the playback being sped up. I know this can be an issue with SWF assets in Presenter, I've not experimented much with video. Most video runs at 30 FPS (or close to it). I doubt you would see much difference at 29 FPS, but I don't think that is an issue either.

There is likely something else going on. What type of server are you deploying this presentation on?

[Mstpierre112]

Thanks for the quick reply.  I'm not really sure - it's an internal server, behind our company's firewall.  I'm not sure that the issue is server based, because there are 5 videos -- one is directly exported from the Mac version of Presenter Video Express, and that one plays fine.  The other 4 do not play at all.  They do seem to be larger in file size compared to the one from Presenter Video Express.  Any thoughts/ideas on what the file save/export specifications are for Presenter Video Express videos?

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

I don't use the Video Express tool for Mac, so my info may not be 100% accurate, but I suspect it is close, if nothing else.

The Adobe Presenter Video Creator (PC version of Video Express) outputs MP4 videos with the following settings (resolution and bit rate may vary based on the capture):

H.264

1280 X 720

4918 kbps

15 FPS

MPEG 2/4 Audio

44100 Hz 16 bit

125 kbps

2 channels

Looks like the frame rate doesn't matter with video. Hope that helps.