Online Training Video Problems

Online Training Video Problems

We have some excellent free training videos especially on the new FamilySearch Family Tree

but you may experience problems.  

These videos can be found at https://familysearch.org/ by clicking on Help, and then looking below the search form on the left-hand side of the screen. They can also be found at https://familysearch.org/serve / https://familysearch.org/consultant or https://familysearch.org/tree-training 

Some users are finding that some videos play without a hitch, but the videos in MP4 format are impossible to use. This document should help.

Problem:

I can't play many of the FamilySearch training videos available online

Symptoms:

The link doesn't work! It brings up an error message.

The sound is muddy/it sounds like it has an echo

The picture is too large or the wrong shape for my screen

Note:

The videos that cause problems are usually in MP4 movie format, and the computer is running Microsoft Windows. (MP4 is a common Apple movie format.) The video on sourcing in the Family Tree is a typical problem case. This video can be found in the Family Tree area of the Help Center.

Solutions:

Your computer may not have a suitable player installed. If this is the case, you can install a free player that supports MP4 movies. Popular choices include Apple Quicktime http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ and VLC media player http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

If the sound seems muffled or has an echo, you probably have the file open multiple times and the copies are playing out-of-sync with each other. In that case, close the extra players, and the sound should become crisp and clear.

If you can only see part of the picture, pressing Crtl+F may resize it to fit your screen.

Download the video:

In many cases, downloading the file will give you better control of how it looks and sounds. To download it, right-click on the link and select Save target as/Save link as, then choose a location for it. The Quicktime and VLC software have a variety of settings in the View or Video menu. In Quicktime, Ctrl+3 is the shortcut to resize the image to fit the screen.

Training:

These videos provide excellent training. If you plan to use them for a class, workshop, or other group setting, try them in advance to make sure everything is working. This is especially true if you are using an unfamiliar computer that may not have an MP4 movie player installed.