Hi Ron,
Thanks for the heads up, I just tested the last two videos in two different browsers and they play as expected – would you mind checking again?

Hi Michael,
I haven’t done anything particularly special. I use AMAZON S3 distribution, not cloudfront.
When you say it doesn’t play, what happens? Nothing, or do you get an error?
Feel free to post a link to the page with the issues and we’ll see if we can help.
Charly.

Hi Eric,
Are you getting any sound at all?
Typically, the black screen is an encoding issue. I don’t really understand the whole ins and outs of it, and I’m sure there’s a video technoboffin who can explain it in more detail.

I use Camtasia and AnyDVD Convertor as my two main video production tools and haven’t had any issues – but I have had clients who have created videos and experienced the ‘black’ screen.

The last time we addressed this, we found this tutorial to be very helpful in resolving the issues:
http://www.miracletutorials.com/converting-video-tutorials-to-streaming-mp4-for-s3-amazon-using-avs-video-converter/

One final note – some video convertors will put the “indexing” marker right near the end of the video. This means that the video has to nearly fully download before it will start playing. If you find that your video is just downloading and not playing after a couple of seconds (or less), you need to move the index marker. I’ve used YAMB (http://yamb.unite-video.com/) quite successfully to do this. It doesn’t mess with the video encoding at all, just moves the index marker to the front of the video, so once it starts downloading, the computer gets the “start playing now” instruction sooner.

HTH
Charly.

Hi Thomas,  I thought I had responded to your question but obviously not!  In general, most video players will co-exist with each other but you do need to check it out.

I’ve used JW Player with two or three other plugins and haven’t had any issues.

Hi Jesse – glad it helped.  I know exactly waht you mean by the nudge in the right direction.

Hi Loretta!  Thank you for kudo’s.

Yeah, encoding videos is normally the issue.  I’ve spent hours reviewing issues for some of my clients.

I’m assuming that your video player shows the swirly thing that indicates that the video will start playing?  But it just shows the black screen – and if you wait long enough, it will eventually play.

I’m not familiar with Handbrake – and only use a PC.

Perhaps you could share a link to a video that isn’t working and we can take a look?
And hopefully, MAC Users who also use Handbrake will chime in too!

 Hi amediaguy,
Sorry for the delay in responding, it’s been a pretty hectic time.
I use a mix of products.  Mostly I use Camtasia and select “produce for WEB”.

I’ve had trouble with using Quicktime encoded videos if they use extensions specifically for MAC’s only…. the video just stays black.

If you can give me some details on what you’re using and the settings, I’ll do my best to help.

 Hi Bev,

M4V is the MAC version of a MP4. You could literally upload the M4V files and link to those.

If you’ve run the M4V’s through Quicktime and some people are reporting a blackscreen, I’m going to assume the following:
1. You’re using a MAC and have some QT plugins installed
2. Those that are reporting problems are likely using a PC.

I’ve had this problem a lot when I receive videos created from video production houses where they use HD plugins.  Being a PC user, I can’t use these files because they aren’t transportable.   Very, very frustrating.

When you transferred from M4V to MP4 using Quicktime, did you use Export For Web? 

When you say the playback is terrible, is that on your computer or after you upload it and display it on your site?

If it’s after putting it on your site, you’ve likely uploaded a larger size video and trying to resize it in the player.  You are best served exporting the Video to the size you want to display on your site and trying that.

HTH