Audio appears to record - but produces 0KB file

Audio appears to record - but produces 0KB file

por Lee Cujes -
Número de respostas: 8

Hi guys

I'm configuring PoodLL for the first time, and have run into some problems with audio recordings. (Video as well but one thing at a time).

Regarding audio recordings, I'm able to hit record, see the green bar flash, and hit stop. We then see converting & uploading dialogs. Seems fine. But then in the current submission area, FlowPlayer says the submission is 00:00 in length. Cannot play it back. When I download the file, it is zero KB. So it appears that a valid file has not been created.

Any ideas what might be wrong or what I might check? All settings for PoodLL are on their defaults.

Thanks in advance

Lee

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Em resposta à Lee Cujes

Re: Audio appears to record - but produces 0KB file

por Justin Hunt -
Imagem de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imagem de Plugin developers

Hi Lee

Numerous things can go wrong, so its hard to say straight up. Which version of the Poodll filter are you using? Knowing that helps.

One obvious thing that can cause this, is when your microphone does not capture any audio. This can be because you don't have a mic, or because you have not granted permission to the browser (or Flash) to use the mic. 

It can also sometimes be because your browser refuses to allow access to the mic . This can happen if your site is not on HTTPS, with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. You can try recording at https://demo.poodll.com because this is all set up ok. If you need to test Flash, try using Internet Explorer. That should default to Flash,

 

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Em resposta à Justin Hunt

Re: Audio appears to record - but produces 0KB file

por Lee Cujes -

Hi Justin

Thanks for getting back to me. Just FYI, our Moodle version is Moodle 2.8.3 (Build: 20150202)

In the Plugins area, the two relating to PoodLL are these:

  • The PoodLL Filter is 2.7.6 (Build 2015070401)
  • The Online PoodLL submissions is 1.5.8 (Build 2014062000)

I note that in your demo site there appear to be many more references to PoodLL settings in the admin area.

I've also screen-dumped out our PoodLL Filter settings into this document if you'd like to take a look?

I'm not having any issue with the recording aspect - the green bars flash. Also, I jumped on your demo site as a student and was able to successfully record. In saying that, I noticed that the recorder and player on your site looked different to mine. Mine look like this:

pic


Old versions of the Flowplayer perhaps?

Justin, where are the audio and video submissions stored? If they are supposed to live on our webserver, are there certain directories that need to be established by our web host - or will the Plugin do this on first save?

Any assistance greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Lee

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Em resposta à Lee Cujes

Re: Audio appears to record - but produces 0KB file

por Lee Cujes -

Hi again

I am continuing to test and am narrowing down the issue to the recorder/player plugin, and flash/browser settings.

Basically, I found the following:

  • I could not record on Chrome. It could not find the camera or mic, and would not prompt, despite settings saying it is to prompt (see below).
  • I could play back on Chrome.
  • I could record and play back on Firefox.
  • I could not record on iOS using either Chrome or Safari browsers - see below error.

pic

At the end of the day, we need a solution that simply "works" for students with minimal intervention.

So is there some issue with this old version of the recorder/player? What is the best solution to get things working nicely on all/most devices? If the answer is upgrading PoodLL Filter to the latest version, would that version operate on our older version of Moodle?

Any help very appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Lee.

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Re: Audio appears to record - but produces 0KB file

por Lee Cujes -

I have discovered the above issue is caused by Chrome blocking the use of the camera and microphone on sites using HTTP rather than HTTPS. Furthermore there is no way to alter this setting. You can read more here.

Chrome settings

I see no alternative other than to have our entire Moodle instance migrated to HTTPS.

If anyone has any other comments I'd love to hear them.

Hopefully this thread may help others in a similar situation.

Regards

Lee

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Em resposta à Lee Cujes

Re: Audio appears to record - but produces 0KB file

por Justin Hunt -
Imagem de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imagem de Plugin developers

Hi Lee

Yes that is correct. Chrome and Firefox (often) block access to the cam and mic on http sites. It does not seem to be universal, though I think it will be soon.

The best solution really is to move to HTTPS. There is no real reason to stay on HTTP and plenty of reasons to go to HTTPS. Many of the Cpanel based hosting providers provide free SSL now, and you can also get good free ssl from : https://letsencrypt.org/


The recorders that you see on https://demo.poodll.com are HTML5 recorders. They have skins and special purpose variants. A lot of development has gone into them, and its ongoing. But they only work on Poodll3 which is only available for Moodle 3.1 and above. 

 

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Re: Audio appears to record - but produces 0KB file

por Lee Cujes -

Thanks Justin, appreciate the response.

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Re: Audio appears to record - but produces 0KB file

por Lee Cujes -

Just to close out this discussion, I had our whole Moodle instance converted to HTTPS, and everything started working.

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