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A
ap0110
Participant
March 3, 2008
Question

Multiple flv videos causing sync problems/lockup

  • March 3, 2008
  • 2 replies
  • 664 views
I'm in a bit of a panic - the project is already behind schedule. I'm hoping someone can offer some tips on this.

I didn't think this project was very complicated but I might be wrong. I'm trying to create an interactive video, in which an actress poses a series of Yes or No questions. All correct answers continue to the next question, until a Success ending is reached. All wrong answers branch directly to the Fail ending.

- I've converted all videos to flv using Flash Video Encoder.
- I've created all branching logic in Captivate using Question slides with flv embedded behind the questions. These seem to work well. Branching is working correctly in my workspace, as well.
- Individual flv files average 300k except for the Intro (6M) and endings (1.3M each).
- The entire project consists of 31 slides, 29 of which have flv embedded.

The result:
- videos drag and stutter, usually getting out of sync with audio if they play at all
- on occasion, the whole thing just crashes (I had to hardboot last time I tried to play the result)

What am I doing wrong? Does it have to do with file size? Am I cramming too much in here?

Thank you
    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    A
    Anonymous
    April 4, 2008
    Just an FYI, here's a previous post from 1/07:
    Just wanted to keep anybody interested in this updated. Adobe Tier 2 support was able to replicate the issue I was having. It has now been sent to engineering to investigate it as a bug and possibly get it fixed. In the meantime, I've been advised to keep the number of FLVs in my courses to 9 or less.
    A
    Anonymous
    April 6, 2008
    Are you using a preloader? The preloader option in captivate is a checkmary and a selected preloader in the settings. Try the same thing with NO Preloader. When preloaders are enabled, the movie must load into memory by about 60% or so before starting the Captivate presentation.

    Can you break this doen into several projects where each project closes and then calls the next project? This has been the ongoing workaround for this kind of issue for many years. It is very good that you isolated this and reported it to Adobe because bugs are much easier to fix with broken examples.

    Unfortunately, Adobe seems to not patch anything and many of the reported bugs are still broken, going all the way back to Robo Demo from e-Help. Newer versions of Captivate seem to have more features and few repairs, an odd combination. Patches are basically never issued, except for a recent Captivate 2 patch for audio driver problems.

    The weird thing is that patching things now would make more sense because Adobe would get real-world testing and validation of the repairs and it would quiet down this message board for certain problem areas. Even the nearly "perfect" Microsoft Corporation patches everything, despite very good reliability.

    You are to be commended for getting Adobe to see your issue and more people need to complain. Anyone taking bets on this one not getting fixed?

    Joe C.
    josh_cavalier
    josh_cavalier
    Inspiring
    March 4, 2008
    ap0110-

    I'm going to take a stab at this one-

    First, your right - you do have a simple project. Less than 35 slides, some branching, and some questions - easy enough.

    I think the problem is with the number of .FLV files in the movie. Specifically with the way the .FLV files are loading/unloading in RAM. Now typically progressively loaded .FLV videos play well with the RAM buffer, but I have a feeling that Captivate is loading all of these videos in RAM at the same time. (At least the .FLV player.) I tried a little test with 6 slides with a .FLV file on each slide. Each time a new slide with an .FLV file reference was added - it tacked on about 5MB RAM usage. So your looking at 150 MB of RAM usage with about 30 videos.

    Try closing out of all other applications while you are testing his file, and try it again. See what happens. By giving Captivate as much RAM as possible - you may have better results.

    Also, you could try using a little less video by using a still of the actress, and just place the audio track on the timeline.

    I honestly have never created a Captivate file with 29 different videos in the same .CP file - so let me know if you get anything to work.

    Happy Captivating!
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