Video does not play in MOODLE

Re: Video does not play in MOODLE

by AL Rachels -
Number of replies: 8
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I've struggled with this over the past few years because no matter what format I use, at least one of my students would always complain that they couldn't watch the video. And then of course someone would always try to use that as an excuse for needing more time, another chance to do the assignment, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

Recently, thanks to Justin's Generico filter, I make a video in mp4, convert it to ogg and webm, and add all three videos using one Generico filter. The files are all stored in a video-on-demand folder on my server. The filter points to that folder and loads the videos named when inserting the filter in the location I want it to appear in a course. Students only see one video on the page and it is whichever is the first one their device will play, in the order they are listed in the filter. So far, this has worked with every OS, smart phone, computer, tablet, and any other device my students and I have tried it with.

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In reply to AL Rachels

Re: Video does not play in MOODLE

by Justin Hunt -
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Al's is probably the ultimate self hosted solution. If you automate via a script the creation of the ogg and webm files, it would be pretty efficient. I just fear its beyond the non techie teacher. 

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In reply to Justin Hunt

Re: Video does not play in MOODLE

by AL Rachels -
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I don't even bother with a script as I am usually working only on one video at a time. I installed the firefogg add-on for Firefox and do the video conversions with my web browser. Since I am usually in Moodle when working with the videos, it really simplifies the work flow.

If I have a bunch to do, like now at the end of term when my students have created a bunch of music videos, I do batch converts with Any Video Converter, especially if we created closed caption files that need to be added in to the video.

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In reply to AL Rachels

Re: Video does not play in MOODLE

by Ken Task -
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+20,000!!!   Thanks for sharing this tip, Al!   Feel like 'duh, coulda had ...' kinda thing like in V-8 commercials on TV (USA).   Have installed the Firefox addon and successfully converted MP4's to wbm's on the fly - as advertised.   Will probably still end up using but recently purchased a commercial product to do video conversions ... Faasoft Video Converter.   Naturally, I'd like a way to convert without spending a lot of $'s to do so.

Next step is to work with those in a Moodle.

Another adventure. ;)

Again ... thanks!

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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Re: Video does not play in MOODLE

by AL Rachels -
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Ken, you just gave me a 'duh, coulda had ...' moment myself!

Since the last time I used firefogg, they have blocked the site here at school, but Teamviewer to the rescue. In your Moodle, make a URL resource and set it to be embeded. Set the url to http;//firefogg.org/make/index.html.

While in Moodle on my home computer from here at school, I have just converted an flv video to webm and played it via remote control over teamviewer. It was even "watchable" this way.

Thanks for the idea! Of course this will only work if firefogg is installed in the web browser being used when clicking on the URL link in Moodle.

Thanks,

AL

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Re: Video does not play in MOODLE

by Derek Chirnside -

And while we are philosophizing about tools:

I've been using Handbrake recently.  Huge improvements in thje last 18 months in useability.

They have a neat option to do the encoding to all videos in a folder or just one file:

Conversion has been a dream for some of my recent mpg>mp4 projects.

Cheers

-Derek

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Video does not play in MOODLE

by Usman Asar -
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Only minus to Handbrake is output in MP4 only, else the best application I used so far in terms of resizing the videos without loss of quality.

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Re: Video does not play in MOODLE

by AL Rachels -
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For the past three years I have been using the free version of Any Video Converter. It will take in any type of video I have ever come across and output anything you might want. It comes with a whole bunch of predefined outputs but it will let you change any of the video and or audio settings you might want to change. It will also let you include a closed caption file and then add the words into the rendered output. My students and I used this a lot this year. We used another very nice free program, Agesub, to create the closed caption files.

So far as I know, AVC doesn't let you specify a folder and then convert anything it finds in there, but it does let you drag and drop multiple files into it's gui and then it will batch convert them one after another. It will even let you play videos in the gui and take snapshots and it will let you flip video horizontally or vertically as well as crop it. Comes in handy for fixing phone videos when the phone was held the wrong way. big grin

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In reply to AL Rachels

Re: Video does not play in MOODLE

by Justin Hunt -
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Oh man when the students hold the ipad/phone the wrong way its such a hassle to edit out. 

Many of those video conversion tools are front ends with FFMPEG doing all the heavy lifting on the back. I think thats fine, because it certainly takes the complexity out of it. It just means you have to put on your goggles and sit at the controls when the time comes. 

It is possible to script to look for new uploads to a directory and run FFMPEG to create different versions of new files. This is good when its for the drama dept or somewhere where you aren't , or when you just want a hands off solution. 

PoodLL in the latest versions uses the new adhoc task api to convert new recordings to MP4 / MP3. This works pretty well, albeit with a delay of a minute or two before the video/audio is viewable. I think most people are not using this feature yet, and I am not sure what will happen if 40 students all record 1 minute videos at the same time.  

One of the changes coming this year is to expand that adhoc task to just convert anything that comes in, PoodLL or not.

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