Need some help with TPR streaming video

[CoasterCrazy]

Quicktime streaming works for me on most websites.

 

I think downloading is the best way to go since it works for everyone.

[jamesdillaman]

I never have a problem with streaming video on quicktime, only wmp causes crashes on my system at times...

[Carnage]

I've always despised quick time streaming.

 

Most of the time the window is so small that you can't even make out what is going on in the video.

[Casper]

Robb, you've put an closing tag instead of an closing tag in the Tatsu testing video page, that's why it doesn't work in FireFox.

[yesac519]

I have broadband and i have no issues with Firefox and streaming videos. It streamed with Quicktime (make sure quicktime is up to date!) and for the streaming videos in the TR themselfs were awesome. It fit in great. I say keep with the Streaming.

 

I do agree its nice to download some videos, but some of the videos you want to watch once and for me, some reason, my files always get all messed up...

 

So i say STREAM AND download's.....but my pref. is streamming....

 

 

Yesac | caseY

[robbalvey]

Robb, you've put an closing tag instead of an closing tag in the Tatsu testing video page, that's why it doesn't work in FireFox.

Fixed! Thanks for that. Can you FireFox users tell me if it works now?

 

--Robb

[robbalvey]

And as for streaming .mov files. I've tried and tried this before, but I just cannot seem to get an QT file down to the same size as an .mpg with the same level of quality. I compressed down the Tatsu Testing video as much as I could as the smallest I could get was 50mb. Is it that I'm trying to use Premiere Pro to do the compression? Is there a better way?

 

I've just always used .mpg because they seem to work for everyone. Some users have problems with .wmv files and some with .mov, even when they are zipped. But I rarely ever have someone tell me they couldn't play a .mpg file.

 

I don't mind doing both the streaming and download of the .mpg if it worked for enough people. But if there is still a high percentage chance that it will crash, I just won't do it.

 

I strongly believe that most people will only give it one try, and if crashes on them straight off, you're going to lose a large share of people who won't bother to come back and try the 2nd time.

 

It's probably my "quality assurance" mindset from doing video games that makes me think this way, especially when working on a PS2 or Nintendo game where it *HAS* to work flawlessly every time, that I just wouldn't want to put something on the site that had even a moderately low percentage chance of failure.

 

--Robb "I want as close to 100% success rate as possible, even if it means zipping up all the files." Alvey

[Casper]

Fixed! Thanks for that. Can you FireFox users tell me if it works now?

 

--Robb

 

I thought that would fix it, but it didn't. I did some research and you need to add this somewhere between the tags:

 

 

<embed type="application/x-mplayer2" src="http://www.themeparkreview.com/sfmmnew06/tatsutesting.mpg" name="MediaPlayer"></embed>

 

Apparently, this is the correct way to do it for IE too, but it seems it's not as picky as FireFox is.

 

I downloaded the page to my computer and tested this and it seems to work.

[robbalvey]

^ Done! Here's the new version:

http://www.themeparkreview.com/sfmmnew06/tatsuvideo.htm

 

Does that fix some of the FireFox problems people were having?

 

And does it still work for everyone?

 

Thanks for the help.

 

--Robb

[Louise]

Yay, works for me in Safari now! A little slower than normal to load, but I've been having a few problems lately so that might be at this end.

 

Anyway, yup, much better.

[Meteornotes]

I strongly believe that most people will only give it one try, and if crashes on them straight off, you're going to lose a large share of people who won't bother to come back and try the 2nd time.

 

100% true. I always think you should stick with the easiest solution that works for everyone, or at least the majority.

 

And the new version does indeed work in Firefox. And that was a funny video!

 

dt

[CoasterCrazy]

I use Fire Fox and the video works great for me!

[Wes]

Works for me now.

[TheStig]

I prefer downloading for two reasons:

 

1.) You can view the video in your media player in full screne as opposed to a small box in a window.

 

and

 

2.) you can watch the downloaded video whenever you want, and waiting for it to stream doesnt happen.

 

Yeah both of those reasons sound crappy, but I like watching a video file that I downloaded in whole over watching a video that isnt even done yet! I do, however, think that the Streaming video is good as you can watch the file without filling up space on your hard drive, andyou can watch it as many times as you want after its done streaming!

 

So all in all, streaming video is a good idea, but Im sticking to downloading. Maybe if both versions of the video were posted, that would be nice to see!

 

Colin C

[The Ayatollah]

I prefer the streaming video, but only because I'm on broadband, and I have easier access to the videos. Plus, the video worked fine on Firefox.

 

However, people may enjoy downloading them, and I have no problem either way. Personally, I like that on-ride POV's are offered as streams, but I think downloading them makes it more accessible.

 

I'm not sure you want more work, or if you have time, but you can offer both!

[robbalvey]

Thanks again for all the feedback.

 

So it looks like this version would be the "final implementation" at least as far as anything technical I need to support:

http://www.themeparkreview.com/sfmmnew06/tatsuvideo.htm

 

Even if you're already clicked on it, can you please just try once again and let me know if it works or not.

 

Thanks!

 

--Robb

[CoasterCrazy]

I just watched the video again and it works great!

[CoasterJunkie]

I have been able to stream without issues here since the Spain videos.

[Carnage]

The video works fine for me now in firefox. Though it's just too small for me to really watch. I prefer to download and see the larger size video.

 

One suggestion Robb if you do keep this option is to include the direct link to the video on the same page as the streaming video. That way if the video doesn't work the user doesn't have to go anywhere else to find the link.

 

I see alot of sites do this when they have streaming. Underneath the video they will have a "click here to download" or "click here if the video doesn't load" link.

[robbalvey]

I'm looking at the video in FireFox now. Why does it appear so small? The settings are for the video to play at 320x240 and it works fine in IE, Netscape, and AOL.

 

I'm kind of confused by this. I really don't understand why things in Fire Fox don't just "work." I think they would find that a lot more sites would support them if you didn't have to do things specifically for their browser.

 

Last year less than 10% of the people who came to TPR used Fire Fox to browse the site and until that number goes up significantly, I just can't justify having to create Fire Fox specific versions of the page.

 

Then again, if that browser was more compatible, maybe that number would be higher than 10%.

 

--Robb

[Carnage]

Sorry Robb I should be more clear.

 

I'm using a 21" monitor at 1600x1200, so just about everything looks small. It's not a "it looks small on firefox" comment.

 

That being said I would prefer to watch a video at full resolution instead of 320x240. But that's just my preference.

[robbalvey]

^ but it does appear much smaller in Fire Fox. Not sure why this is....

 

--Robb

[-Zingo-]

The video worked fine for me yesterday but I just tried it again twice and it caused my browser (Internet Explorer) to crash both times. It went to the video page and then just froze up and finally gave a pop up that said IE has encountered a problem and needs to shut down.

 

Personally I prefer downloads rather then streaming because I watch the videos often and it's easier when it's on my drive, plus it only uses your bandwidth once. Now that work has picked up again hopefully I can buy a few of the dvd's and watch them in full quality. Maybe even make it to a few parks this year and upload some of my own videos.

[pete4winds]

For some reason I can't stream the "final implementation" version from the above link. I have IE, and normally I can stream, but this particular vid crashed me (shrug). I'm more of a fan of downloading anyway.

[dougr]

I'm looking at the video in FireFox now. Why does it appear so small? The settings are for the video to play at 320x240 and it works fine in IE, Netscape, and AOL.

 

I'm kind of confused by this. I really don't understand why things in Fire Fox don't just "work." I think they would find that a lot more sites would support them if you didn't have to do things specifically for their browser.

 

Last year less than 10% of the people who came to TPR used Fire Fox to browse the site and until that number goes up significantly, I just can't justify having to create Fire Fox specific versions of the page.

 

Then again, if that browser was more compatible, maybe that number would be higher than 10%.

 

--Robb

 

The whole philosophy of Mozilla is standards compliance. Rather than have a browser take most of a market and get sloppy, having web pages built to a standard that ALL good browsers will present equally is what they are working toward.

 

There's a few reasons to use Firefox rather than IE anyway:

 

# It is not integrated with Windows, which helps prevent viruses and hackers from causing damage if they somehow manage to compromise Firefox.

# There is no support for VBScript and ActiveX, two technologies which are the reasons for many IE security holes.

# No spyware/adware software can automatically install in Firefox just by visiting a web site.

# Firefox doesn't use Microsoft's Java VM, which has a history of more flaws than other Java VMs.

# You have complete control over cookies.

(From Mozilla site)