Videos dont progress after playing (case 5526)

[polysemyboy]

Please see the questionnaire file that I am attaching. I have tried two different movie clips in two different formats (.avi and .wmv). Althought both of them played just fine in full screen size, when both of them finish, the screen just goes to the regular medialab background with a blank, black rectangle in the center of the screen. Please tell me what I am doing wrong and what I can do to correct this problem. Thank you.

[Stephanie Goodwin]

We are having the same problem presenting videos on an new HP (core i5) running Win 7 and MediaLab 2008. We have also tried various versions of the video format (.avi, .wmv) and treating the video as an event vs. an item in a questionnaire with no success. The videos run completely, but at the end the screen is gray with empty black box and no way to proceed to the next item in the study.

Any solutions? We don't want to revert to XP.

[jarvis24]

I need to preface this with an admission that I don't know why this would be happening unless Microsoft changed the communications from Windows MediaPlayer. MediaLab counts on specific event messages from the WMP in order to react accordingly--like proceeding to the next item.

Until we find a solid fix for this, I can suggest a few work-arounds.

1. Place a duration on the item that is approximately equal to the length of your video so that MediaLab can advance when the duration has lapsed, e.g., a parameter value of (d60) for 60 second video.

2. Embed the video within a PowerPoint file that is set to end when the clip ends. And then present the PowerPoint instead of the movie itself.

3. Call the Windows MediaPlayer (mplayer.exe) as an Executable item from MediaLab and pass it the name of the video file as a parameter. When it ends the user could continue on via the continue button in MediaLab. If this option interests you I can elaborate if need be.

4. Embed the video with an HTML item that would allow the subject to click continue at the end of the video.

Just some initial thoughts, but like I said, we'll also look into why this might be happening with Windows 7. Would be curious to hear if anyone finds the same thing on Vista or XP (loaded with a newer version of WMP perhaps?)

[jarvis24]

We were able to replicate the problem and I think we found the problem. It should now work on Windows 7 as it always has on XP and Vista (i.e., automatic continuation). Try uninstalling your version of 2008 and installing this newer (Nov 3, 2010) release:

www.empirisoft.com/download/ml2008/ml2008.1.33e.exe

Please let me know if it helps!
Blair

[jarvis24]

Update: Issue resolved as of January, 2011 in MediaLab v2010. As of today, Feb 25, 2011, v2010.2.19 is available on the main download page.

[MattH]

I experience exactly the same problem here on a Windows 7 system, using the MOVIE item type. I even tried the duration parameter (I have a 30 second video, so I used "(d3)&quot, but MediaLab just won't progress. Any chance that this can be solved?

[sanne]

I experience the same problem as well. The movie plays just fine but when the movie is finished the screen just goes to the regular medialab background with a blank, black rectangle in the center of the screen. I use windows vista and medialab 2010.3. I have tried the duration parameter but Medialab does not continue either. I am playing an avi file, in the 'movie' selection type.