Help Me Understand Flowplayer

Help Me Understand Flowplayer

by Doug Moody -
Number of replies: 5

Flowplayer is an open source program - I understand that.

However, what is its relationship with Moodle?

I ask because there are many missing components that there COULD be in Flowplayer, but they are not present in the Moodle installation. Why not?

 

One big issue I have is that my FLV videos cannot be rewound or fast forwarded. All I can do is pause, and users cannot pick a spot in the video that they want to go to quickly. They have to re-watch the whole video again in order to see an important part. This is especially important for me, because many videos I show are "how to" videos, and my students are getting frustrated without the full controls most videos players offer.

So why not Flowplayer? Why the limitations? I use Moodle 2.1.3

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Doug Moody

Re: Help Me Understand Flowplayer

by Doug Moody -

Just wanted to ask this question again.

Anybody?

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Doug Moody

Re: Help Me Understand Flowplayer

by Guido Gautsch -

Hi Doug,

That sounds odd. I have no problems going to any spot in Flowplayer. It cant do much, but it should be able to do that! Have you tried several browsers? Different files? arête are you putting your files? Have you tried embedding them into a page?

Cheers,

Guido

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Guido Gautsch

Re: Help Me Understand Flowplayer

by Doug Moody -

Guido,

First, thank you! This issue has been bugging me for over a year. I must be doing something wrong, because nobody else seems to have the problem.

I start by embedding an FLV file in a page as a "resource, file" It then shows up when students click on it and streams to the student within Moodle. It does not open its own window.

However, there are no controls that allow the student to fast forward or rewind. Only play and pause.

Can you explain how your video works on your site, and how you embedded your videos? That will help me figure out what I may be doing wrong.

Again, thank yoU!

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Doug Moody

Re: Help Me Understand Flowplayer

by Guido Gautsch -

Hi Doug,

No worries! I'm no expert on the matter. I just did a quick screencast of what it looks like for me on my site. It's uploading onto YouTube as I'm typing this. You'll be able to see it here:

There is no fast-foward button per se, but you can just click anywhere in the video (or MP3-file for that matter) to get to the point in the video you want to watch.

I also haven't had any luck with getting the player to open in its own window. This is particularly frustrating if you have the video playing on the same page as your quiz. Whenever students click on 'Check' in adaptive mode, the page reloads and video has to reload. IF it were just playing in its own window, it would be a lot better.

Cesar (in this thread) seems to have the same problem.

As for how I added the file in the first place: I just clicked the 'Insert media' button in the HTML editor, uploaded the flv and that was it! It shouldn't be much harder than that. 

You can force it to open in a new window by selecting the link that's created in the WYSISYG editor, then clicking on the link icon in the editor and selecting a new target 'Open in new window'. This works, but not very well. I'd be happy to hear better alternatives.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Guido

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Guido Gautsch

Re: Help Me Understand Flowplayer

by Doug Moody -

Guido,

Well, I solved the issue of not being able to fast forward or rewind FLV files. Its kind of technical, but you can see the post here:

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=192431#p837475

Nevertheless, the issue of embedding a video file in a page or in a quiz by clicking on the "insert media" button is still a killer for me. My workaround is to place the video as a "File" type. But, this limits my creativity, as I can't insert them into an HTML formatted page.

The problem has been with me since starting with Moodle. All that I get is a link to the file that starts with "draftfile.php..." This link can be clicked on, but if you do, the user is presented only with the option to open or save the file. IN other words, the Flowplayer does not present the video inserted in this manner.

I will probably create a video showing the exact problem and post it into a new forum subject.

Average of ratings: -