More Recording Problems V.6.2
Wed, 03/12/2008 - 7:48am — Yvonne Clark
A couple of weeks ago we applied a patch we received from Adobe that was supposed to fix the current recording problem (see previous post http://meeting.psu.edu/node/347). Although it may have fixed that problem, it seems to have created additional problems. These new issues include:
--Audio and video are out of sync (again) -- speakers talk over each other, even though they spoke separately during the meeting.
--Paused video isn't recorded during the meeting -- or it records for just a few minutes, and then drops out. The missing video doesn't affect the audio though. The audio records just fine.
Our server admin has seen some very unusual error reports since applying the patch Adobe sent out and suspects the patch, recording problems, and server errors are all related. Once again, we are working with Adobe to get the problems corrected. In the meantime, we can't guarantee that recordings will work well at any given moment -- some are fine, others aren't -- for no apparent reason.
Posts at other forums suggest that the recording problems are related to the video broadcast. Recommendations at those forums are to NOT pause your video. I know, that causes bandwidth problems so you are caught between a rock and a hard place! Sacrifice the quality of the live meeting for the quality of the recording, or vice versa. Tests we ran yesterday seemed to indicate that if you start the recording and then pause the video, your recording might turn out OK. However, we only ran this test one time -- when a problem is intermittent, one test isn't enough to provide a definite solution.
We will post additional information as we get it. In the meantime, don't count on your recording working correctly.
Adobe's Response to the Out-of-sync Recording Problem
As for the out of sync issue, that is a known bug that is being fixed for the next release, Connect7. However, that fix will not be able to do anything about current sync issues. It has to do with the inability of Flash to discern between paused cameras.
To deal with this, you should tell your meeting presenters not to pause their cameras when recording sessions.
Basically, Flash is unable to tell that a camera is paused and it reads the “un-pausing” of their camera as the start of the audio file. Trouble is, there is already an audio file that is set as the beginning, so they both start at the same time in a recording, thus the doubling of the audio. There will be additional audio streams if other users are pausing and unpausing during the meeting, as well.
Best practices would be to only have users on camera if necessary, and when doing so, do not use the pause option if the meeting is being recorded.