Machinimatrix Website videos are MP4 :( :( :(

I just went to the Machinimatrix website and noticed that the videos are now in MP4 format. Why was the format changed? It is inconvient and time consuming to play now. They will no longer play in Windows Media Player. They now have to be downloaded entirely to a destintation on your hard drive before they can be played. Plus I don't like Quick Time.

There is a codec package to play MP4 on Windows Media Play, but the files still have to be downloaded to play and is still inconvienent.

Please, please, please change it back.

set the classic player as default for playing mp4 after you have the codecs installed (matroska-splitter + ffDshow)

I installed the codecs, but it plays in black and white

The main thing is there is no streaming play now...waiting 2-3 minutes before you can watch really sucks ...imagine someone with a slower connection.

There should at least be an option to watch either format in streaming.

Change is not always good.

Layla, Thanks for the hint !

First apologize for changing the format. It was changed due to a video rendering problem which i faced when i added the initial advertising to Domino's fund raising inititiative and i did not know, how to track down the problem. Since MP4 rendering worked at that time, i used it.

And i thought, that since SL anyways enforces the usage of .MOV and .MP4, everybody who is interested in sculpties would probably also have Quicktime installed. It seems the assumption was wrong?

Anyways the videos should always be available as streaming flash videos by default. Only if you want to use the "high definition version" you would want to download the .MP4 version. I will modify the videos again in the next days. Then i will try to recreate the .wmw versions if that helps.

cheers, Gaia

Gaia, I think I know where the confusion probably is. On some of the pages, the images under "Watch video here" look a little too good. At first glance, they appear just to be screenshots from Blender, and nothing more. It's a little hard to tell that you're supposed to click on them in order to watch the videos they reference, even though, it says "Click To Play" underneath. I'd suggest superimposing a big honkin' play button right over the top of each image, to make it clear what they're for.

Also, perhaps even more importantly, "Watch the video here" is the same color as all your links, but it is not itself a link. The fact that what looks like the first link to a video is unclickable makes it seem as if the video is unavailable. After that, for some people, it's going to take some serious scanning around the page to find that "Click To Play" link. While it might be obvious to some, it too me a good 10 minutes to notice it the first time.

I hope that helps.




Layla, just so you know, you can stream ANYTHING, as long as you have the right player software, and enough bandwidth. Alternatively, you can also very easily go straight to the source, wherever the file is hosted, and see what other options might be available. When in doubt, here's one of a great many methods you could employ:

1. Right click on the video you want to watch, and hit Properties. Take a look at where the file is hosted (the beginning of the URL). Everything I've looked at so far from Machinimatrix has been hosted at blip.tv, but it's possible there are other hosts for videos I didn't look at.

2. Assuming blip.tv is the right place for the video you want, simply go there, and search for machinimatrix. You'll find a large collection.

3. Click on the video you want to watch, and the stream will begin almost immediately, as an embedded Flash movie.

the regular wmp is bugged for mp4 playback, use the classic player that is included with it instead. (which is why I suggestted setting the classic player as the default for mp4)

Good point. and good idea I will do that later tonight.

For the publishing: Al videos are published at:

http://machinimatrix.blip.tv

There you always can find a flash version and a high quality version. And indeed blip.tv offers streaming also for the high quality versions. And probably we will offer .wmv, .mp4 and .flash in the future.

Cheers,
Gaia

Gaia, I was editing my post at the same time you were replying to it. I added one more suggestion. Take a look.

Gaia,
Thank you for attending to this. Maybe both formats would be good if it is possible.

Chosen,
I don't use that "Watch video here" link. I always used the Snap "window" link to have it open in Windows Media Player and stream right away with the WMV format.

I have not been able to get the MP4 to stream even tho is is checked in Quick Time. I don't know what else to check.

I went to http://machinimatrix.blip.tv[url]and tried playing the video there... The stream extremely slow and unwatchable. It plays about 1-2 seconds and keeps stopping for a long time to load. I am on a cable connection and streaming is usually not a problem for me, but this sure is.

I had no problem like this before from [url=]http://machinimatrix.blip.tv[/url] in wmv format.

i have replaced the mp4 videos by .wmv videos added some small corrections to the tutorials and started to rework the blog pages for better visual understanding.

Thanks again for your valuable input!

cheers,
Gaia