Captivate Issues with Importing Videos

Report · Nov 09, 2016

Hi there. I have the Adobe Creative Cloud tools and really want to use Captivate to create my online modules to be uploaded into a LMS. However, when I started to use it I couldn't get the video to play no matter what I did. Because of that I am using a trial version of Storyline 2 but won't be able to afford it after the initial trial period. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, can you help me fix it? I am not extremely technical so please keep it simple for me!

Thanks,

Stacie

Report · Nov 09, 2016

Moved out of the Forum Lounge (not for technical support) and into the Adobe Captivate forum.

Report · Nov 09, 2016

Hi Stacy,

We need a few more details. When you say "won't play" have you uploaded it to a web-server or it just won't play in preview mode?

Important distinctions.

Cheers

Steve

Report · Nov 09, 2016

Hi Steve,

It has both audio and video and only the audio plays in preview.

Stacie

Report · Nov 09, 2016

What kind of video is it? MP4, MOV. AVI

Report · Nov 09, 2016

I started with a mov, then made it a mp4 and even tried f4v after reading some comments on a different forum.

Report · Nov 10, 2016

Hmmm... a couple of things.

1.Does the video play outside of Captivate, for example if you click on it does it play on your computer?

2. Is there anything else on your timeline? If you can hear it, it is playing, I'm wondering if maybe there is something on top of it in the timeline, hiding it.

Cheers

Steve

Report · Nov 11, 2016

Hi Steven,

The video does play outside of Captivate. It was the only thing I added to the slide so I don't believe there was anything else on the timeline. It also wouldn't play in Premier Pro so not sure if that tidbit helps any.

Stacie

Report · Nov 11, 2016

Hi Stacie,

That actually helps a lot. The problem is with your video, not Captivate. Premiere Pro can ingest pretty much anything, so if its not loading in PP then its probably corrupt. Are you getting an "error message" in PP when you try to load it? Perhaps something that relates to a "bad header"?

I would suggest you either re-render the video, if you created it or go to the place where you got it and ask them if they can re-render or re record it. You have already rerendered it in Captivate and that didn't help so I think these are probably your only options.

Cheers

Steve

Report · Nov 11, 2016

So I went back and tried seeing the video in PP and it worked. Opened Captivate to test it and because the original video with audio file is a .mov file it sent it to Media Encoder to be converted. Now I can't seem to get Media Encoder to encode it and save it to use. I have followed directions for exporting the file but I am ready to throw this software away! Frustrated! I know it isn't the video because I created a module using Articulate Storyline and I had not one issue. Just not sure where to go from here. Thanks for trying to help.

Report · Nov 11, 2016

Hi Stacie,

OK, if its not encoding in Media Encoder then there probably is an issue with the video. A couple of final suggestions is .mov is a really heavy codec and creates huge file size, so one last thing to check is see how big the video itself is in size, is it 20 mgs, 50 mgs ? If its too big it will cause playback problems, also if you can publish the course to a web server, sometimes it plays fine on a server, but has issues in preview.

That being said if it worked for you in Storyline and its a critical piece of your course, then I would just do the course in Storyline.

Cheers,

Steve

Report · Nov 11, 2016

Let me publish it to the LMS and see if it plays fine. I cannot use Storyline after the 30 day free trial due to cost. I already pay for Captivate and need a fix. The file size is huge (2.82 GB) so I can also go back to the person who created the video and have them save it as a different file type. Thanks again.

Report · Nov 11, 2016

(2.82 GB) Absolutely this is your problem! Have your video guy/girl render it to mp4, they may have to render it in multiple chunks, depending on how long it is.

As a side- what was happening is the visual file was still loading while the audio file started to play. Your video would have eventually played but it would take several minutes to load first, or it might have crashed in the attempt.

Glad you figured it out!

Cheers

Steve

Report · Nov 11, 2016

Thanks Steve. One more question - What size do you think I should keep each video file?

Report · Nov 11, 2016

Hi Stacie,

Thats actually a more complex question than it appears, it depends on how long your video is, what it aspect ratio (full captivates screen or in a box on the page), and what the bandwidth of your user base is. A general rule of thumb for me is the smaller the better. I would try to keep it around 40 to 50 mgs per clip if you are using an event video. That way they load fast and play without issues. Converting to mp4 will cut your current video size way down alone but if its really long you may have to break it out unless you have access to a media server and you can stream it via web object.

Cheers

Steve