No sound available video playback

No sound available video playback

by Andy Chaplin -
Number of replies: 4

I've installed the latest Poodll plugin on Moodle 2.8.2.  It's at the top of the filter list.

The problem is that an mp4 video plays, but without sound.  The sound has been muted, but the mute button on the player is greyed out and I can't unmute it.  I tried disabling the multimedia filters to see if there was some kind of conflict, but I still don't get the option to unmute.  The file appears to be correct.  I've even downloaded it to check that the audio had not been stripped.

I guess I have missed a checkbox somewhere, but I can't find anything obvious in the settings.  Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance!

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In reply to Andy Chaplin

Re: No sound available video playback

by Justin Hunt -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Thats very odd.

I don't think the player is muting it though. There is no setting in PoodLL for that. Possibly the mp4 file is encoded with an audio codec that flash (are you on desktop?) can't play back. Mp4 is just a container and the codecs for the audio and for the video can vary a lot. If it plays back on your desktop, but not on the web, this is the most likely cause of the problem.

You will have to re encode it. If its the only one, just upload it to youtube and see if it plays there. From your Youtube account, video manager page, you should be able to then download it as mp4. Thats the mp4 that will work all over town.

If you have a mac, a good app for checking what codecs are being used in a file is  "mediainfo"

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In reply to Justin Hunt

Re: No sound available video playback

by Andy Chaplin -

Thanks for your help,  Justin!

I tried a few options and found a few things out.  The video was recorded via a Logitech webcam using the Logitech software.  When I used the same webcam on a Linux system (using the "Cheese" software, it worked perfectly, so it seems to be a setting in the Logitech software which is causing this.  Next time I'm in front of a windows machine I'll try to find the setting and post it here for reference purposes.

Thanks once again for your help.

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In reply to Andy Chaplin

Re: No sound available video playback

by Andy Chaplin -

For Reference

It appears the cause of the problem is that the Logitech software records the sound in AC-3 format.  When I converted the sound in the original video to mp3 (lame), everything worked fine.

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