Video overlays coming in a time not specified on timeline.
Hi – I have a video inserted from youtube to captivate, and then 4 captivate slides which I have placed on it as overlays. However, each time I play the project in the Preview – Device Preview, and play on my laptop, where I’m also developing, the overlays come in at slightly different times, about a half second before or after where I placed them.
The overlay timing even recurs when I play the same captivate preview a second time without making changes to the overlay position.
Any ideas on possible causes, like:
– hardware related? (video card, laptop is 3 years old)
– captivate related?
– other???
Trying not to go crazy – thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Thank you Agile Kelly! Cool name!!
What I discovered is that in the mobile preview, is that the overlay slide appears and stops the video about .5 seconds later than the same overlay on desktop. What’s more, ALL the overlay slides on mobile appear .5 second later than they do on desktop.
If I try to move the late overlay slide to happen .5 second earlier, then they happen too early in the desktop preview.
Open to any suggestions!
Still stay by my conviction that interactive video should not be used in a responsive project. What you now tell may be due to the much lower specifications (hardware, software and use of bandwidth) of any mobile device compared with a desktop/laptop. If you need to use it, keep the video as short as possible or distribute it over multiple slides. Still, never in a fluid box. Hope you did read what I wrote before… Did you ever succeed at putting slide video in a fluid box (it should be dimmed in the timeline in that case)? I did not..
Yes, I read what you wrote before. I spent the last 11 hours trying to get the timing right. And I talked with Adobe support. They said to test it in a production environment, so I published to my LMS, and discovered there is a timing difference of about 1.5 seconds compared with device preview. Even tho I got the timing right for desktop, in mobile now the overlay is showing up 4 seconds too early.
Which may support your theory that interactive video should not be used in a responsive project, or hardware.
What are my options? My end goal is to have video overlays, and for that to work on both desktop and mobile.
I have re-read your posts at least 3 times, and I think you recommended the following (please correct me if I’m wrong):
- Make the project non responsive. But if I do that, how can I be sure that it will work for mobile as well as desktop? Should I try those little top hats/anchors to tell objects which order I want them to show in?
- I took the video out of the fluid box, but still having problems.
- Create this as a non responsive project, as Scalable. I didn’t realize this was possible, and will research this. I found the article below, but do you have other links I could read?
https://elearning.adobe.com/2019/06/building-captivate-etraining-applications-responsive-project-scalable-html/ - Distribute video over multiple slides, but not sure this would help.
Quite a while ago I wrote out a comparison between Scalable HTML5 output, Breakpoint views and Fluid Boxes. In your case, interactive video which needs to have a fixed width/height ratio I recommend indeed Scalable HTML. Only drawback is that it is best played on mobile devices in landscape mode. But I suppose the learner will ‘feel’ that necessity immediately.
Still not sure that the limitations I mentioned for mobile devices compared with desktop/laptop cannot cause delay. You now explicitly mention that the overlay slides appear TOO EARLY which confirms my suspicion that the video is not yet fully loaded on the slide but the timeline is already moving on. That is not happening for event video because it is independent from Captivate’s timeline, but also the reason why it can never become interactive.
Here is the link to that older post:
http://blog.lilybiri.com/fluid-boxes-or-breakpoint-views
Sorry to post so many links, but I started blogging to avoid having to give very long answers in forums when the Help didn’t offer enough details.
Thanks; scalable html5 is now working, except it cuts off the top of my head when I turn mobile to portrait view; suggestions?
Already mentioned in my previous answer: instruct the learner to keep in landscape mode. You must have missed that.
Don’t know if you saw my response above? Still seeking a solution. The behavior is so weird.
Had a presentation yesterday on the virtual conference, but I did answer your previous comment in between my preparation. Did you not read it? Or are you addressing someone else? Don”t think so since I am the only one who has answered in this thread.
Just saw it – didn’t realize I had to open the dropdown to see it. Thanks so much for your response, especially on a day you are busy. I hope the presentation went well. (probably I should have been there!)
Sort of an addiction, cannot leave a question unanswered if I am able to help.
Prerecorded versions are available for all sessions. I talked about Advanced and Shared actions… lot of attendees were newbies to both, which was bit astonishing.
Ha ha; I understand the addiction part and really appreciate your help. I will definitely look up the sessions online.
Should I try unlocking just the video from fluid box? Would that mess up mobile compatibility?
To answer your questions, Yes, it’s a responsive project with fluid boxes. Why do you say the interactive video needs to be slide video which is not compatible with a fluid box? Yes, it’s a slide video, if that’s what you’re asking…?
Yes, I set up the slide without fluid box, in a responsive project. And yes, I set it up as Position properties 0% for top and left, and it shows -0% for bottom and right.
The Properties panel also shows Width and Height 100%, and Smart Position is checked. In Advance, Aligned Center vertically and horizontally are unchecked.
Properties also gives the option to unlock from fluid box. Would that be a possible fix?
I’m using youtube only because the 4 minute video takes too long to load if I use a locally produced version. I plan to use vimeo once adobe fixes that known issue.
Can you clarify your question on whether I have the overlay slides as individual slides or as a sequence of slides? Basically I have the video, then 4 slides after that. One is knowledge check, two are text entries with variables and the last uses text captions to show users how they answered the questions in the text entry boxes. I inserted each of these 4 slides individually as overlay slides onto the video.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
If the video is NOT in a fluid box, that is OK. If the video is IN a fluid box, can you have a look at the Timeline? Is the video ‘dimmed’ as it should be when in a fluid box?
For the Position properties: how can the video always be 100% for both width and height? That is illogical: a video needs to keep its width/height ratio. The Position Properties was inherited from the Breakpoint views workflow for responsive projects. For an object that needs to keep the width/height ratio you choose 100% for either width or height and Auto for the other dimension.
It could be a synchronizing problem, seems the most probable cause of your issues. The timeline starts playing but video is not yet loaded. Is it possible to delay the start of the video timeline a little bit?
Some other confusing sentence, sorry: “I have the video, then 4 slides after that.” I thought they were overlay slides? It doesn’t matter where they are in the filmstrip. However since 11.5 you can insert all 4 slides on one frame of the video, in previous versions you could only insert one overlay slide. That is what I meant by a sequence of overlay slides.
Do you have other slides besides the interactive video slide? If not, why not choose a non-responsive project published as Scalable?
You mention ‘device preview’? Is this a responsive project with Fluid Boxes? Interactive video needs to be slide video which is not compatible with a fluid box. How did you set up the slide in that case? Without fluid box, just with Position properties?
Not sure that is the problem, have created some interactive videos and never experienced this problem, but I didn’t use YouTube videos. An overlay slide is like an interactive object which pauses at a specified frame. Do you have the overlay slides as individual slides or as a sequence of slides?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
