Section Video Background does nothing?

Support
#1

Hi,

I’m trying to set a video as a background for a section but it doesn’t seem to be working. My settings are as follows:

The cover image is shown but the video itself doesn’t load. I have tried the following:

  • Using a youtube video URL
  • Locally stored MP4 and MOV files with both relative URL and absolute URL’s
  • Disabling every plugin except Cornerstone
  • Tested in various browsers

I can’t see any errors in Chrome’s console, nor are any PHP errors being logged. Are you able to please assist?

The site is currently on a staging server. You will need to edit hosts file with the following to reach it:

103.18.108.202 calibar.com.au
103.18.108.202 www.calibar.com.au

Thanks in advanced,
Lee.

#2

Hi @maxitwebsites,

Thanks for writing in.

I could not see any problems in your front end setup.

Please check if your theme and plugins are updated.

Latest Version:

updating guide:

If still not helping, please share us your admin credentials in a secure note.

Thanks.

#3

Hi Nico,

Theme is on 6.0.4, latest version (only purchased and downloaded a couple of days ago).

All plugins up to date too. There’s only about 8 plugins installed, which I did try disabling as a test. I also disabled the child theme temporarily and tested with only the main theme and got the same issue.

I’m actually on a different PC on a different network today and the issue is still apparent. I can load the video no worries when copy/pasting the URL into my browser directly so it doesn’t appear to be a file permissions issue either.

I’ll attach logon details as secure note. Appreciate the assistance mate.

Lee.

#4

Hi Lee,

I checked and it seems to be working fine on my end in chrome.

I guess you are using a touch screen device? Video does nt autoplay in touch screen devices.

Thanks

#5

Hi Paul,

Sorry for the slow response!

Which browser were you using? I just realised in my initial testing I forgot to test in IE! I am currently getting these results:

IE - Working OK
Chrome - Only see the poster image
Firefox - Same as Chrome
Safari - Nothing at all, that whole section is just white

The testing I’m mostly doing from my desktop PC, Windows 10, not in tablet mode, no touch screen at all and all browsers up to date.

I’ve also tested from a few machines at the office where I work which have the same results.

I noticed too that you can only supply 1 URL for the video file. If I upload an MP4 will it still be supported by all browsers?

That being said, I get the same results as above when providing a Youtube video URL too.

Thanks again,
Lee.

#6

Hi Lee,

Sorry but I can not replicate the issue on my end either, all of my browsers play your background video.

Opera
Chrome
Firefox
Edge
IE11

So this must be something on your end, do you have a browser add-ons installed on your browser? Try using the incognito/private mode of your browser where there is no cache and add-ons involve.

You can separate video URLs with Vertical bar [ | ].

Let us know how it goes,
Cheers!

#7

Well I am stumped.

I’ve now tested on various version of Windows, even a couple of Windows Server versions (I work for a managed services IT company and have access to hundreds of computers, both remote and direct). On every single one of them it works in IE/Edge but nothing else.

Are you able to tell me which version / build of Windows you’re on? And potentially which version of Chrome (I’ll use Chrome for testing)?

I really need to get this working. Most of the computers I’ve connected from are client’s computers, in their own offices on their own networks completely segregated from ours. Essentially simulating the environment that the website’s target audience would be in (it’s a cafe that does catering to businesses).

If I can just get a single computer to load the video in Chrome, I can use it to compare with any of the ones so far that haven’t worked (all of them) and hopefully get to the bottom of this. Any info you can provide on your own system would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Lee.

#8

I managed to find a single PC where the background video loads in Chrome. The only difference I’ve found so far is that PC is on Windows 7. Running latest version of Chrome in default settings, same as every other PC I’ve tested from.

I also now have the video uploaded in OGV, MP4, WEBM and MP4 formats so really, every browser should be supported. I can’t work out why only 1 PC of the 20+ I’ve tested from is able to load the video. I need to find another Windows 7 PC to test, but surely your support team aren’t running Windows 7, right?

#9

Hi @maxitwebsites,

I have both Windows 7 and Windows 10 and the video works okay, Chrome, Opera, IE, Edge. I tried it on Mac too and works okay. (latest versions of browsers)

But looks like it only starts playing when the browser is finished downloading the video (no streaming). Hence, the poster image is visible a couple of seconds depending on internet speed or connectivity. Have you tried it on different internet provider?

Thanks!

#10

This is crazy! Your team can’t reproduce the issue at all, and my team can barely find a single computer where the issue doesn’t happen!

We have about 100 mbps down, 40 mbps up at our office, and the video file is only 11mb total. I’ve tried leaving the page open for hours, the video never loads.

However we have just managed to get the video working on one more PC. So now we have a total of 2 PC’s that it works on, out of around 15-20 we’ve tested on (various client’s networks, at least 5 different internet providers).

One is Windows 7. The other is Windows 10, but fresh install. I’m wondering if the latest 1803 patch for Windows 10 has anything to do with it. It made some pretty crippling changes to SMB protocols which disabled loads of functionality including important ones like MYOB, as well as shell extensions used by FTP clients. Who knows what else it might have caused?

Are you able to tell me if you have the latest 1803 Windows patch installed?

Or can we arrange a time for me to show you the issue via TeamViewer or similar?

I can RDP into numerous client’s computers whilst one of your team is screen-sharing to show you that the issue is present for literally all of them.

We had a deadline today to show our client the website’s current progress. We really wanted to show them their videos playing in the background, but it wouldn’t load on their PC’s either. They have never loaded the site prior to today.

Let me know if you’re able to assist any further, and thanks again for your assistance so far.

Lee.

#11

Hello Lee,

Thanks for updating the thread.

Unfortunately we can’t setup a Teamviewer session as our primary mode of communication is via Apex Forum. However, while checking your website source code I see that you are not using any of our product (Cornerstone, X Theme or Pro Theme).

I see that you are using Malibu and I believe you are using the Theme page builder too. Unfortunately in this case, we can’t offer any support from our end.

Thanks.

#12

Hi Prasant,

You’re looking at the wrong site.

The site is in a staging environment and you have to set your local hosts file to be able to access it (which I provided in my first post, as well as in my hidden post that included admin credentials).

I’ve still found no way to get the video to load consistently. I’ve managed to get it to work on 2 computers so far, but 20+ others that I’ve tested only show the photo and don’t load the video.

At this point I’m thinking there may be no way to resolve this. I might have to look for an alternative solution for the video functionality, unless you have any further ideas I could try?

Cheers,
Lee.

#13

Hey Lee,

Another support staff here and upon visiting your site the first time, resources such as JS and CSS aren’t loaded. I’ve reloaded the second time and still CSS aren’t loaded but I find it weird that the video showed up and auto-played. I reloaded the third time and on succeeding reloads, I got the same result as the first load so I logged in and checked the front-end to check one last time and all resources were loaded and the video worked. I’ve recorded the logged in state (see the secure note). It looks like there’s something wrong in your server and/or WordPress setup. Would you mind cloning your site to a different server / environment like in http://poopy.life/?

Thanks.

#14

Hi Christian,

Thanks for taking the time to check it out for me.

I spun up a copy of the site in a completely different hosting environment (InMotion, who I use for personal sites). It has the exact same issue for me though, tested on 6 PC’s total tonight. It probably won’t help troubleshoot the issue, but you can test the same site with the following hosts entries:

192.249.119.131 calibar.com.au
192.249.119.131 www.calibar.com.au

So that at least ruled out the hosting provider. I then decided to completely remove the video from the background element of the row (theme functionality) and instead install Revolution Slider and setup the video using that. It works fine using Rev Slider. This change I made on the original host, which you’re able to see here:

103.18.108.202 calibar.com.au
103.18.108.202 www.calibar.com.au

I’m yet to determine what the exact issue is. There must be a conflict somewhere, but at this stage I might just have to use Revolution Slider to achieve what I need. If you’re able to find a solution though, please do let me know.

Cheers,
Lee.

#15

Hey Lee,

Thanks for testing. I see that the issue still persists in 192.249.119.131. But, it is the same with your first setup.

We have now ruled out hosting related issue so this must be something related to setup. If you can try testing in a fresh install, that would be great.

Regretfully, I have no idea what’s causing the issue as the resources are not loaded.

Thanks.

#16

Hi Christian,

I’ve setup a blank site but I’m unable to test as I require a unique license for X theme. You can see on the site I’ve been building, when I hover over X I can choose Edit Page…

When I do the same on the new default Wordpress install with X theme installed, I don’t have that option…

On calibar.com.au, when I choose X > Edit Page, the URL is:

http://www.calibar.com.au/x/#/content/9/inspector

And I have the option to add an image or video background:

On calibartest.com.au, I can choose Edit Page > Cornerstone, which gives me the following URL:

http://calibartest.com.au/?cs-launch=1&cs_route=content.builder/8

And the background option is not available:

I’ll attach hosts file entries and logon details for this site in hidden notes too if you’re able to take a look for me?

Cheers,
Lee.

#17

Hi There,

Sorry if this thread getting too long and has no real lead on what is causing the issue. But as you can see, me and my other colleagues above check the site and the background-video plays, I actually ask other two Guys to check this issue and the background video plays on their end as well. I also use your video on calibartest.com.au as section background video and that works too.

What I advise to do now is to use a sample video

If that sample video plays with no problem, then the issue is within your own video and not on the site.

It could be the video is not properly encoded, or that hosts IP pointing stuff is causing this (more likely the later), if you can, please upload your video to a server that does not require manually IP pointing on the hosts file.

At this point we have tested your site on almost all major OS and Browser, please understand that we can’t troubleshoot properly a site if we don’t see the actual issue.

Regarding those missing section options, those are part of the latest updates where the advance options are disabled by default. Please see the changelog notes on Pro 2.1.0, X 6.1.0, Cornerstone 3.1.0 to know more about those changes.

Cheers!

#18

Hi Friech,

It’s very strange that your team cannot reproduce the issue, when my team cannot find a PC which the issue doesn’t occur on.

The issue is also present on the calibartest.com.au site. I can see you’ve added the video in but again it doesn’t load into any browser other than MS Edge.

For now I’ve worked around the issue by using Revolution Slider instead. The video loads fine using that plugin, which ultimately resolves the issue for me.

Thanks for all of your support thus far. I will test your theme’s option to add a video background again after the site is taken live and DNS is updated at the nameservers. You can go ahead and close this one off now though.

Cheers,
Lee.

#19

Hello There,

I was trying to login. Regretfully it seems that the username given is invalid.
Could you please double check it?

Thanks.

#20

Hi RueNel,

Those credentials are correct, I just tested them now.

It’s a default install with no security plugins etc. Your team was able to get in the other day too, so I’m not sure what is stopping you from logging in. Are you resolving the logon screen correctly?

Cheers,
Lee.