How to resize video so it's all viewable on the screen ?

Report · Apr 30, 2017

Hi everyone,

I am using Captivate 8, Version 8.0.1.242 in responsive project, FYI.

I am making a large "quilt" on a slide featuring thumbnail images. When the user clicks a thumbnail image, they jump to a slide where a video starts playing.

I made a "dummy" brief video clip (which was exported to a file from iMovie and then imported to Captivate) to test this on a thumbnail image trigger. I viewed it in the different device options/breakpoints. From what I understand, I can manipulate the video position for every device setting and it will not affect the other ones. But the issue I'm having is that the computer screen size setting (1024) makes the video very zoomed in during playback--and the video clip, which I've placed on the slide to play upon entry, goes way over the boundaries of the slide for all devices/breakpoints. There must be a way to resize the clips to fit into the slide, but I have not been able to figure that out. Does anyone know how to stop this from happening or how to adjust the size so that it all fits onto the screen?

Thanks,

Kris

Report · Apr 30, 2017

Well, I think I figured it out. It seems to be as simple as holding down the shift key and resizing it to the size of the slide (draggin from a corner). If I do that at all the breakpoints, it seems to work on all devices.

But now I have a new problem: I loaded two brief dummy video clips, and they're about15 seconds each. The navigation works well; when I click on the thumbnail to go to the video, it goes to the video (which I have on a different slide). However, even though I have it set to play right away with no delays (and there are no buttons that could be screwing anything up), sometimes it just sits there and doesn't play. I can hear audio as if it's playing, but the vid is either frozen or is just a white or black screen (with the audio playing sometimes and sometimes not).

I have never done this kind of thing before, so I'm just making guesses at what could be going on. I suppose it could be my Internet connection at home, but I wonder if the video files are too big? I selected 1080 when exporting the file from iMovie, if that makes a difference.

As I work on this project, I run into different problems along the way. If this should be and yet another thread, just let me know and I will start another discussion.

Thanks,

Kris

Report · Apr 30, 2017

P. S.: Sorry for typos. I have tendinitis and am using Mac dictation, which is not always accurate.

Report · Apr 30, 2017

Ok--so I searched the forums, and I see this is a common problem (slow loading). I adjusted the pre-loader setting to 10%, and there is no difference. I emailed the tech guy who's in charge of uploading this stuff for the organization I am making this for. I saw on a thread that progressive downloads are slower than streaming. I have no idea which they are using, so I asked him if he knows.

It seems as though some people work around this by linking it to a YouTube video. I have read that YouTube also does progressive downloading, but it's still faster than when I uploaded it to my website and tried to watch it. However, I don't know what this organization would think of having all their little videos linked to YouTube channel that I created.

I will have to wait to hear from the tech guy to see what other options there are or if the local host does streaming.

Again, if I should copy and paste this to another thread, please let me know. I don't know what the proper etiquette is— to fill the forum with a bunch of separate questions or keep it running on one thread that's somewhat related.

Thanks,

Kris

Report · May 01, 2017

Kris, must have missed this in the previous thread: you do not use the latest version of 8 (think it is 8.0.3 but don't know the rest because I do not have that version anymore).

I asked you to branch to another thread, am doing that sometimes myself (as a moderator). Reason is the search functionality for a thread. Title and tags are important, but I have not enough time to edit all the titles and tags myself, give priority to spend my free time on answering questions. Most users don't bother about the tags, understandable.

When later on users are looking for answers, it is easier to find threads where only one question has been answered, not a multitude of questions. Maybe this clarifies why I asked you to start a new thread.

Resizing videos will often lead to quality loss (as do bitmap images). Just a warning...

Indeed, for a multitude of videos in course, I would also prefer to store the videos elsewhere and link to them using the web object. Youtube is not the only possibility.

Mac is not ideal for tendinitis issues, Mac users 'tend' to do everything with the mouse. I prefer shortcut keys whenever possible but I am a die hard Win user.

Report · May 01, 2017

Ah, okay--.thanks for explaining the reason for starting new threads. Makes sense.

I see that Captivate 2017 is available for a monthly subscription at a reasonable price, but I will need to wait a couple months. It will be nice to upgrade.

Back to the resize question--besides dragging the corner to resize, how else could that be done to fit on the 3 different screen sizes?

And tendinitis--it was my final project in school that did it. And you are right; I worked on it hours per day for 3 semesters, relying heavily on the mouse. I never thought about shortcut keys. Plus I teach and perform music for a living and I have overused my hands without taking proper care of them. Foolish!

Thanks again,

Kris