Captivate 5 will NOT play streaming video from my Flash Media Server

[Mitch_Wallace]

Recently I have begun attempting to convert older projects to captivate 5. However, once I started loading the videos I quickly realized that they are not playing in captivate 5! I know that these videos stream from the server just fine as I have been running them with other products and I know that the paths are correct because I've been using a web player to test the paths of the videos that will not play. How do I get around the bugs in Captivate and get the video working?

[Mitch_Wallace]

It's been 4 days doesn't anyone have a solution for this?!

[Captiv8r]

Hi Mitch

Likely you will need to be a bit patient. Sure, it's been four days. BUT, you have to consider that your timing is a bit unusual in that there are many things that would appear to be conspiring against you.

For example:

• Adobe personnel are on a hiatus. As such, our normal Adobe developers that seem to have frequented our fair forums are absent.
• Your post was made on Christmas Eve. As such, it is likely that a great many of your fellow Captivate developers that might have a clue what to do were busy.
• Christmas occurred on a weekend. Because of this, many folks are on extended holidays.

If an answer is to be found, I'm sure it will bubble up. We just have to be a bit patitent.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Begin learning Captivate 5 moments from now! $29.95 Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcererStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[RodWard]

What file format are your videos?

[Mitch_Wallace]

The videos are flv format. I've even tried using the sample videos that adobe provides with the server software just to make sure that it wasn't a quirky flv formating issue.

[BaseballBirch]

Mitch how are you attaching the videos?  I have recently been working with videos although these were F4V file types but what I found is that I needed to attach them using Insert --> FLV or F4V file...

Then selecting the Already deployed to web server radio button I typed the full path into the URL box leaving off the .F4V extension.

Example Video file name on the streaming server is video1.f4v

URL box entry      rtmp://my.videoserver.com/videofolder/video1

As a side note, I could not use the properties panel to modify path or file name, I kept getting a rtmp server name error.  If I needed to change something with the video's path I deleted it from the slide and used the method above to attach the video again.

Hope this helps.

Steve

[Mitch_Wallace]

BaseballBirch, that got me a little further down the road. If I delete the video and do a new insert as you mentioned some of the videos play. (Also, just as you pointed out if I edit anything after the insert then the video stops playing.)

A further note on the videos that still don't play: If I move the videos that still won't play into the root folder of the streaming media area they will play. For example if I do an insert flv and give it the path rtmp://flashserver/vod/nursing/flu, it might play and it might not. But if I move the video to the root, rtmp://flashserver/vod/flu then it does play. I don't have this problem when I load the video into my web player, it will play using either path.

[BaseballBirch]

Mike, it so happens that all of my videos reside in the root folder of the

streaming server.  Not sure why an additional folder path would be an issue

however this additional folder may have some tie to the inability to edit

a video's property.

[RodWard]

Have you tried putting the FLV files in the same folder as the SWF that calls them?

That way all you need to do in the settings is specify the filename of the video file.  No pathway info required.

[Mitch_Wallace]

Unfortunately I can't do that for two reasons. First, the cap5 projects are going on an LMS server while the videos need to reside on a Streaming Media server and secondly the cap5 projects are not the only thing accessing the videos so re-arranging all of the videos just to suit captivate isn't terribly practical.

[RodWard]

Your mention of an LMS makes me think you're probably intending your course to be SCORM compliant.  Am I correct?

If so you need to be aware that the SCORM standard states all components of a SCO should be contained within the package file.  That would include your video in this case.  I realise that some people routinely break the standard.  But I've also seen those same people end up in all kinds of problems getting their LMS to correctly play with the SCOs because they're calling files that are not resident within the LMS content management system.

If I were you, I'd be testing that your LMS will be happy with the file arrangement you're proposing here.

[Mitch_Wallace]

Yep, I've been doomed to the death of 1,000 cuts that is SCORM.

Luckily, streaming video shouldn't be an issue in that regard as I have spoken with the LMS technical staff and they assure me that there are no issues with accessing remote video streams. We've also just run a test video that streamed fine as well. (as long as the video is in the root folder )

[RodWard]

Yeah that's all well and good but what your LMS dudes probably aren't considering is the way the SCORM JavaScript API reacts when it detects that a link from OUTSIDE the SCO has been called.  Sometimes this won't have any adverse effect, but I've seen cases where it broke the connection that the SCO has with the LMS, meaning that the SCO was unable to continue communicating scoring and interaction data to the LMS.

I'm only sounding a warning here.  When you DO get some videos to play with your Captivate lesson, make sure you test one of them in your LMS to ensure that it is scoring correctly.  The last thing you want is to roll out your course to the masses before you find out that some people are completing the lessons but not getting accurate scoring for some reason.

Playing a video from a link that the LMS admin sets up in the LMS is NOT the same as playing the same video from a link within a Captivate SCO making calls via  a sensitive JavaScript API.

Your death of a thousand cuts might be closer than you think.

[Mitch_Wallace]

Thanks for the warning. When I ran the test it was actually done with a Captivate module that recorded data to the LMS. (We moved one of the videos to the root of the streaming directory to get it to play in Captivate.) The test run, at least, went fine but I will keep an eye on the user scoring to make sure everything records accurately. I know how things can jump up and bite you in the butt.

We really don't have a choice on how to configure the video though as you can't stream video through the LMS system. The best we could do is a progressive download setup and that isn't very bandwidth efficient. Not to mention that we would then need multiple instances of the same videos in multiple areas, which isn't very hard drive efficient.

[Guest]

Hi RodWard,

I'm also facing the same issue with my Videos here. I'm using progressive download for all the videos so that it complies to SCORM but the problem is sometimes the videos in other slides are still loading and there is no preloader to show user about the status so it will look like it's broken or something. Some videos are playing and pausing due to the slower internet connection and this is not looking very good.

Streaming is out of question as in order to comply to SCORM, we need to store all the videos in the same package so I'm just wondering how to fix the progressive videos by having a preloader?

cheers.

[Mark_Holcombe]

I can't help you with SCORM issues. I avoid SCORM and course

management software such as any version of Blackboard like the plague.

(After trying 4 different versions I've concluded anything named

"Blackboard" is garbage.) In terms of a preloader, you need to use a

skin in Captivate. I've had the best success with coronaSkin3.

Including a skin allows the user to see whether or not and how much of

the video is downloading. You can use a skin for the video even if

you're not using a skin for the project itself. (See my streaming

project here as an example: http://www.uab.edu/ethicscenter/educational-materials/rcr-materials/intellectual-property)

. The toolbar of the skin will auto-hide revealing itself when rolled-

over. It auto-shows at first and then fades out. Make sure "Auto Play"

is checked and "Auto Rewind" is unchecked.

In your preferences you need to have the skin as part of the project.

Under "Preferences" (I use the Mac version) and then "Project" then

"Start and End" make sure "Preloader" is checked. You can set the

percentage which has a default of 100%. I don't know exactly what this

does as I use streaming only. Also under "Project" then "Publish

Settings" make sure "Externalize Resources: Skin" is NOT checked along

with any other features you may be using such as Widgets or Animations.

You also need to select a buffer time for the video with a minimum of

an 8 second buffer. The buffer setting determines how much of the

video needs to load (whether streaming or progressively downloading)

before the video will begin to play. Slow internet connection speeds

will require a longer buffer time. This highlights an issue of "know

your target audience". Related to buffering and playback is file size

and video quality. Don't use HD video quality for internet videos; its

a waste of bandwidth and requires faster connection speeds. I mention

this because I've seen many others use 720p video quality for internet

progressive downloading (I'm not talking Netflix or Hulu here). The

issue of videos playing and pausing is directly related to file size,

which is determined in part by video quality, as well as user's

connection speed and bandwidth usage at time of play. Other users on

the same network may cause bandwidth choking. There's not much you can

do about that. Encourage users not to be doing other things like

YouTube or file downloading while using the SCROM modules with video

in them. Even Pandora can cause bandwidth choking for the local user.

In your project you need to manually set the Timing for the videos.

For some reason when I do Detect Size it doesn't correctly determine

runtime. I suspect that is because I'm streaming. In my experience,

and again this may be a streaming issue, the videos sometimes stop

playing before they are really finished. I solved this issue by

extending the Timing by 5 seconds more than the actual runtime.

Related to this is slide timing. Make sure the slide timing is

slightly longer than the video timing. Also under "Timing" for the

video make sure "Loop" is NOT checked; otherwise, you'll get in the

published file all your videos playing over one another. I'm not that

familiar with the "Synchronize with Project" setting. For streaming it

is not checked.

Under "Transition" for the video, its probably best to have the Effect

set to "No Transition". The same applies to slide transition. You

don't want the slide to fade out before the video is finished playing.

A problem I had with progressive downloading without even using SCORM

is that the final project output (the published swf file) would want

to play all the internal video clips simultaneously. I never really

figured out why that was happening. Once I went to streaming the issue

simply went away.

Mark

[merobertsjr]

I am facing a similar problem.  Can anyone get this to work?

The plan was to host video content on Screencast.com and then place the SCORM course on our LMS.  Actually I was planning to use AWS but I figured it was broken because it would not play nice with Captivate.  We want to host video on an appropriate streaming server for space and performance reasons.  No luck getting any video to play with captivate using the insert FLV and the supplying a URL to the screencast.com file.  I can get it to recognize the size, but it doesnt show the video in preview or publish to SCORM Cloud.

I was able to create a widget that will play video hosted remote (kind of), but it doesnt show the whole playbar wrapper so doesnt have functional controls.  I tested a SCORM package containing my widget on SCORM cloud and voila it plays the video...  but now I have to code the rest of the video controls for the widget... Not pretty.  Also it only seems to like Flash 10.

Is there anyone that has gotten the streaming media <=> captivate project(s) to work out of the box?

I would love to hear some success stories and find a functional work around for this issue.

[Sony]

Please see whether this helps:

Connection Error in Slide Video « The Adobe Captivate Blog

-Sony

[merobertsjr]

Nope, not really the issue.  We can get video to post on the LMS, but that is not what we need.  The LMS is not suitable for hosting  longer/large video.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

It would be nice if folks would request Adobe to create an ability for Captivate to easily present video content hosted on assorted sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon S3 or other.

One should use the Wish Form to make such a request. (link to the Wish Form is in my sig)

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Begin learning Captivate 5 moments from now! $29.95 Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcererStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[merobertsjr]

Hi Rick,

I agree that Captivate is a rapid authoring tool and should have an easy way to include these options, but I'm also confused, shouldn't thes ability to stream already exist?  Therefore this is more of a bug report...  I don't really understand why there appears to be an option to import Flash Video Streaming Service and Streaming Video and neither work...  Strange thing is that Adobe and Amazon seem to have recently partnered to create a Flash Streaming Media Server on AWS.  I paid $10 and I spent a couple of hours setting it up and can not get it to work with Captivate 5.  I am really disappointed that there is not an easy way to setup these tools and get on to the business of creating great content.  After all, again these are supposed to be rapid development tools.

Does anyone have a success story with AWS/Flash Media Server that can be modeled?

For the time being I will submit a bug report.

[Mark_Holcombe]

I too cannot get Captivate 5 (Mac) to stream any video whatsoever. I'm using a Wowza streaming server for hosting the video files. The final Captivate swf file will be embedded on a public website, not behind a LMS. I get the "Timed out loading the video file...." error message.

[Guest]

Hi Mark,

After you click 'Ok' on the error message, do you see the video on the slide? If yes, preview the project and check if the video plays properly here.

Thanks,

Sagarika

[Mark_Holcombe]

Thank you for your response. The answer is No; I do not see the video

and in previewing the project I receive a "Connection Error" message.

This seems to be a very common issue.

Mark Holcombe, Philosophy Adjunct Faculty

Center for Ethics and Values in the Sciences, Research Assistant

HB 414A, 900 13th Street South

Birmingham, AL 35294-1260

(205) 996-7484

(205) 975-6610 Fax

[Guest]

Hi Mark,

We have published a blog post detailing the formats to be used for streaming video.

I would suggest you to have a look at the blog post : http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2011/03/workaround-for-video-streaming-issues-in-captivate.html and try out the streaming formats mentioned there.

Please incorporate the URI changes in your project and let me know if streaming video works for you.

Thanks

Ashwin Bharghav B

Adobe Captivate Team