Forum Discussion
Video Poster Frame is incorrect
Hi Gurus
I'm currently building an interactive user guide that uses video clips to illustrate the procedures that should be followed.
Background:
The video was originally a single animation created in 3DS Max and then imported into Premiere, where it was edited to add additional captions and to cut the video into smaller sections, no frames were edited out. If you bolted all these chucks back together, you would still have one seamless continuous video.
Problem:
The issue I am having is that some, not all, of the videos I am importing into Storyline 3 are displaying the wrong poster frame. Since I have not set a poster frame (it is chosen by Storyline in import), I can not alter it to show the first frame. Where this problem occurs, it is showing the 3rd frame of the video file. None of the videos has been trimmed inside Storyline as all the appropriate editing was done (zero duration cuts only) in Premiere. Although I could generate a new one from the original video clip, which involves using a secondary application such as Premiere, since there is no facility in Storyline to accomplish this internally, I would rather the poster frame selected by Storyline just showed the first frame of video, not the third.
Question:
1. Is there a way to force Storyline to show the first frame of video, rather than the frame it chooses or will I have to generate one externally and import it?
2. How does Storyline choose what will be the frame it displays?
3. Is this a bug?
Thanx
#Stay well, stay safe.
Update....having worked on this further, I believe it happens on every video, not just a few. All appear to be set to have the poster frame as the 3rd frame not the 1st. Any ideas?
Thanx
Hi Chris,
Thanks for popping in to share all the details of what you are experiencing with your video files in Storyline 3.
I've not seen this behavior before, but it does sound like the editing process is complex.
You can set a poster frame for your video:
Use this option to assign a placeholder image to your video. When prompted, browse to the image you want to use.
This is especially useful if you've configured your video to play only when learners click it. The poster frame will be visible to learners until they click it to play the video.
If you change your mind and want to remove the poster frame, right-click the video again, and select Remove Poster Frame.
With your permission, I'd like you to share a video file with our support engineers to investigate what's happening. You can share it privately by uploading it here. It will be deleted when troubleshooting is complete. This will help us do some comparison testing and determine if this is an issue we need to further investigate.
Hi Leslie,
Whilst I understand the principle of setting poster frames and this is, in fact, the method I used to get around my current issue, the production of the poster frames has to be done using an external application and therefore creates additional extra steps when creating the instructions.
If the default poster frame was the 1st, not the 3rd frame (see image below), then this wouldn't be an issue and would make production a whole lot quicker. As you can see from the image, it displays the third frame as soon as you import it.
I have specifically generated this video using virtualdub to demonstrate the issue and have uploaded it as requested. I was unable to show you the videos I am actually using for client confidentiality reasons, however, the generated video demonstrates the same issue precisely. In this instance, the video was simply inserted onto a new slide in a new project ( to ensure there was nothing else within the project that may cause this issue). As you can see, the video is displayed at frame 3 for its poster frame (0:00:00.100 @30fps equals frame 3, as indicated by the burnt-in text at the bottom of the video). The menu display indicates that a poster frame has not been manually set by the user (me), i.e no 'Remove Poster Frame' option.
Please let me know your and the development Teams thoughts on this.
Regards
Chris
Hi there, Chris!
Thanks for those extra clues and for opening a support case. I see that my teammate, Jopney, is closely working with you to sort the cause of the incorrect poster frame.
I also see the third frame appear when I import your video into Storyline 3, Update 9. Here's a quick recording!
I'll follow the case and share your latest reply and my experience with Jopney as we try to track down the culprit. We appreciate you working with us on this!
A year on this still seems to be an issue with SL 360. Why choose the 3rd frame as the default when the most logical default choice would be the 1st frame? Or at least give the user the choice of which frame to select as the poster frame. At present, it adds an unnecessary and time-consuming step to the workflow, especially in a course which might have 60 videos.
Hi Lawrence,
I appreciate you chiming in to share that you're experiencing this issue in Storyline 360. The issue above is specific to Storyline 3.
I'd like you to share your Storyline 360 version along with your project file with our support engineers to investigate what's happening with your permission. You can share it privately by uploading it here. It will be deleted when troubleshooting is complete.
Hi Leslie - Thanks for your quick response. I have submitted a documented example with all the files under case 02907057 and hope your support engineers can address this.
I've just discovered this bug as well. Any updates from Articulate?
Hi Stephen! I apologize for the issues you are experiencing.
This is a known bug on Poster frame of an inserted video is not the first frame of the raw video.
We will be sure to post in the discussion once we have an update to share with you.
Hello,
Is there any update on this problem? I am working on an apps on iPad simulation and this bug is driving me crazy. Assuming 30 frames per second video, are we saying that I need an extra .1sec added to the the start of the video clips?
