Video playing without audio

Here is a loom video to demonstrate the issue I’m facing

Although you can’t hear the audio on this recording (all you can hear is my 2 year old in the background) I assure you it’s there when played in the media folder!

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by processstories.

Hello there, @processstories ! Thank you for your topic and for sharing the details above. It looks like the videos in the medial panel are marked as having no audio and the plugin has detected the video does not have any sound. For whatever reason, the audio has been lost when uploading it to the editor. For example, https://videos.files.wordpress.com/CpbKPTuF/michelle-design-isabel-reduced-size_mp4_hd.mp4 and https://videos.files.wordpress.com/zcBBFsYx/dean-brian-delivery-reduced-size_mp4_hd.mp4 have no sound.

Since it appears you are using VideoPress, it may be best to reach out to VideoPress to ask why some of your uploaded videos don’t have sound.

OK thank you – this has now been sorted by clearing the Video Cache in the plugin serving videos from the Google cache. I will mark as resolved.

This has been resolved now.

Luckyna San / @luckynasan – please can you re-open this, as I have new stories playing without audio and the wordpress team can’t yet find the issue with videopress.

Here’s an example: https://process-stories.app/web-stories/process-stories/puk-the-right-to-choose

I have tried adjusting the video cache settings but without success
https://snipboard.io/AIGnQ6.jpg

Just as a note – I have now checked this issue on multiple devices / platforms and it still persists.

You can try uploading the videos with sound again without VideoPress.

@swissspidy, I assumed because @luckynasan mentioned the issue was related to videopress (and that I should therefore contact wordpress) that videopress worked in the background and was therefore not something I could bypass without being a developer – is that incorrect?

I’m uploading the files using the upload function within the web story editor itself. I’ve tried to upload the video files from within the media folder also but the same issues persist, so I assume this route uses the same methods.

Either way the videos all play audio within the media folder but none of them play audio within the story. Incidentally, When you click the play button found within the upload window for the web story editor itself the same files also play video without audio.

I’m assuming from the above that this issue relates therefore not to the uploading of the videos to WordPress but from the use of these videos by the plugin. Please let me know what further info might help us diagnose this issue.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by processstories.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by processstories.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by processstories.

I don’t know how VideoPress is configured on your site, maybe it’s possible for you to disable it somehow somewhere in WordPress admin.

The issue is that some versions of the video files generated by VideoPress do not have sound, which is why the editor thinks they don’t have sound.

That’s why this is something that needs to be resolved with VideoPress.

@swissspidy Thank you for this – will pass onto the team at WordPress who I believe manage the videopress side of things. Can I pls ask how you know this to be the case?

I’ve now tested the link provided by WordPress for bypassing videopress entirely and although this is not a decent workaround for users of our site as users do not have access to this method it fixes the audio issues 100%. I hope this info helps.

Glad to hear you found a workaround in the meantime.

The suggestion that we seem to be using the wrong files is misleading because there’s clearly a bug on the VideoPress side, and also a bit confusing since the two URLs mentioned by Blake seem to be for two completely irrelevant videos.

Let me give you an example to explain what’s going on:

When you upload a 1920×1080 video to your WordPress media library on WordPress.com, VideoPress will generate multiple versions of that video:

• original: the original 1920×1080 video (with sound)
• std MP4: a shrinked 398×224 version of the video (with sound)
• avc_240p MP4: a shrinked 426×240 version of the video (no sound!)
• avc_240p HLS: also 426×240 but with sound
• dvd MP4: a shrinked 854×480 version of the video (no sound!)
• dvd HLS: also 426×240 but with sound
• hd MP4: a 1280×720 version of the video (no sound!)
• hd HLS: also 426×240 but with sound

Now the recommended and ideal video dimensions for Web Stories are 720×1280, so the original size is too big. And the std, abc_240p, dvd versions are way too small. So the hd version is just right.

Then, HLS only works in Safari, whereas MP4 works in all browsers.

That’s why the Web Stories plugin has always been using the hd MP4 version.

Now why half of these videos do not have sound is something the VideoPress team has to figure out…

We’ll try to reach out to VideoPress folks directly too to let them know about this bug

@processstories I have archived your replies. Please do not post emails from any one again, the forum moderation team does not permit that when found.

If you want to summarize then feel free. Wholesale copy and paste of emails with names and emails is not cool here.

Okay apologies I will summarise

Reference note 5367851-ZD issue reported that videos uploaded do not play sound in every format videopress converts the MP4 file into.

A workaround has been supplied but it cannot be implemented by users of the plugin, only the administrators so we cannot go live yet.

We understand that the format that fits the web stories is without audio. If the correct format plays audio maybe we will have a fix.

Please mark this conversation as unresolved as for some reason it states resolved.