WebEx recording playback for Mobile Devices?

[lushanthan]

How can the user playback a recorded webex clip (server recording) on the mobile devices? If that feature doesn't exits, please explain about whether they are in the future road map.

[david31]

Hi Jim,

I also thought if I turned the .arf files into .mp4 files, uploaded them to my WebEx recordings archive, and created links to them on the WebEx network that they would play on mobile devices. Nope.

They won't play.

David B.

Sent from my iPhone

[jalvis]

Hi David and Karen,

I've been researching the MP4 problem and thought it worthwhile to post my findings.  I wanted to be certain that the mobile devices I used for testing (iphone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S7), could actually play an MP4.  I visited the following website to confirm. This one-minute video clip is a standard MP4 (H.264  HTML5).

Video For Everybody” Test Page - Camen Design

http://camendesign.com/code/video_for_everybody/test.html

I had no problems playing back the file on either of the two devices. This same file, when placed on my WebEx site, will not play on the two aforementioned devices (link below). The only conclusion that I can draw from this research is that the problem stems from the WebEx site.

Webex - My Event Recordings

https://atglegaleducation.webex.com/atglegaleducation/lsr.php?RCID=80bfa208d8bcbbe9d3846d56694c975e

Desktop P.C. - Please note that when playing the original file in Google Chrome, the recording slider bar is able to be moved forward and back of the current position (first link). However, when the same file is played from Webex, the ability to advance and "rewind" are not available (second link). Any attempt restarts the video from the beginning.

Thanks!

jim

[david31]

Hi Jim,

I had the same experience. Apparently, an mp4 file will only play from the WebEx site when it has been manually converted from the proprietary .arf file to mp4 by the WebEx conversion tool (Windows only). I'm not 100% sure of this, but this is what WebEx tech people have implied.

David B.

Sent from my iPhone

[david31]

Long story short: Webex recordings will currently NOT play on mobile devices for all Centers.

And the whole CMR thing is mixed up and very unclear, as I was told by multiple WebEx tech

support reps that I would have to have my WebEx acct. CMR entitled in order to play recordings on

mobile devices. They assured me of this even though I told them I am a TC client. I saw in a recent posting by

one of the product managers that even if you become CMR entitled it doesn’t apply to TC.

So, my conclusion has been that there is a massive disconnect in the flow of reliable information from the

top down within the various Webex departments. On numerous occasions I even had to instruct the online tech

support people. I knew more than they did.

I do have to say though that I very much appreciated a private response I received from Maureen.

Best Wishes,

David B.

[david31]

Long story short: Webex recordings will currently NOT play on mobile devices for all Centers.

And the whole CMR thing is mixed up and very unclear, as I was told by multiple WebEx tech

support reps that I would have to have my WebEx acct. CMR entitled in order to play recordings on

mobile devices. They assured me of this even though I told them I am a TC client. I saw in a recent posting by

one of the product managers that even if you become CMR entitled it doesn’t apply to TC.

So, my conclusion has been that there is a massive disconnect in the flow of reliable information from the

top down within the various Webex departments. On numerous occasions I even had to instruct the online tech

support people. I knew more than they did.

I do have to say though that I very much appreciated a private response I received from Maureen.

Best Wishes,

David B.

[jalvis]

Hi Karen,

I have spent a great deal of time researching why my WebEx MP4 recordings will not play on mobile devices, but to no avail. I'm using the same video and audio codecs (H.264 and AAC) as the WebEx conversion tool, but nothing has worked so far.

Could you please investigate the problem and let us know the solution.  As I stated earlier, my MP4 recordings played correctly on all mobile devices, when I was using Adobe Connect.  Before I switched to WebEx, I asked about mobile support and was assured that my MP4 recording where supported. 

Regards,

Jim Alvis

[david31]

My conclusion is that for mp4 files to be played on mobile devices from the WebEx site, they must be converted / encoded in some proprietary way by WebEx's own arf to mp4 conversion tool, either via the CMR entitled process or the conversion tool (Windows only). If you have pre-existing mp4 files that you have brought with you to WebEx, they will not play on mobile devices, even if you upload them to the recordings archive on WebEx and link to them.

Since I do online classes, I found a workaround for uploading mp4 files of my WebEx recordings to my LMS

and now my students can nicely playback the recordings on their mobile devices. It is a time-consuming workaround but it works!

David B.

Sent from my iPhone

[jalvis]

Hey David,

I'm investing options to accomplish the same and would be very interested to hear your solution, if you have time to share.  If I can determine a solution, I'll be sure to post it.

Thanks!

jim

[david31]

Jim, is there a way to email you outside of the forum?

David B.

david@macroamerica.com

Sent from my iPhone

[kahuang]

Hi David, you are right. The uploaded MP4 files playback on mobile is a feature on the roadmap.

[skilambi]

Maureen

But even with CMR entitlement can that function on TC/EC meetings? CMR is a MC only feature so wouldn't TC/EC be still limited by ARF format?

[kahuang]

Hi Srinivasan,

You are right that, CMR Cloud is a MC only feature at the moment. Even with CMR entitlement, MP4 recordings are not available for TC and EC meetings.

Best,

Karen Huang

Product Manager @Cisco WebEx

[skilambi]

Karen

Thanks for the confirmation. I concur that we need this fixed asap and move to native MP4 recordings on all centers regardless of it being a CMR meeting since if I am not mistaken even if it's a CMR meeting I still need a standards based video end point to join to make it MP4. So if I have a CMR meeting and everyone uses webcam I am back to ARF correct?

Thanks

Srini

[skilambi]

Karen

Also another follow up, my understanding is that even if it's a CMR MEETING today, you can;t really play that on mobile because it uses flash technology, I am referring to the UI which slows slide previews, speech energy bar et. So one has to convert to MP4 file and lose that native UI streamed from the cloud. Is that planned to be fixed in 9.5 client version since I see this statement in 9.5 and curious what that even means..

• MP4 NBR Playback Support on Mobile

[skilambi]

Thanks for the confirmation. I concur that we need this fixed asap and move to native MP4 recordings on all centers regardless of it being a CMR meeting since if I am not mistaken even if it's a CMR meeting I still need a standards based video end point to join to make it MP4. So if I have a CMR meeting and everyone uses webcam I am back to ARF correct

Thanks

Srini