Auto-start of Video - Inconsistent

[Tomkirk23]

Hi -

Sometimes my videos do not automatically start once you click on them. Instead, the video window opens and you can see that the video is caching.... but the video won't play unless I click the start button.

Does this happen to others? Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks,

Tom K.
www.kirkpatrick.smugmug.com

[docwalker]

Tom, is this happening in Flash on the PC or Quicktime for the Mac? The load speed is effected by your connection speed. I have seen this happen when my connection is slow.

[Tomkirk23]

I think I have figured out this issue.... My comments...

I just realized that the SmugMug Video box will not start the video until it thinks it has (based upon connection speed, length of video, etc.) cached enough video to avoid the cache running out during the playing of the video. Is this correct?

Since the Video Box, during this initial caching, does NOT display any sort of "Wait until video loaded" message....... it is a bit confusing trying to figure out what is going on and what to do as an end-user. This is doubly confusing because the user has the ability to click the Start button almost immediately - which isn't a good idea because they will quickly run out of cache (<u>and start thinking that the Video service is lousy</u>).

Am I understanding all of this correctly? It is confusing to me what I should do as an end-user.... likely more so for a regular end-user.


(This is why I am trying to display some instructions on the screen)


I think I would prefer it if the Video Box displayed a "Video Loading" message (right within the Video Box) and did not enable you to click the Start button for some given period of time.

I would also prefer it if the Video Box displayed some sort of helpful message when the cache runs out and the Video starts getting choppy.

Thanks,

Tom Kirkpatrick

[docwalker]

Tom, That is correct. It does cache and the choppyness is often the lagging.

I will pass your suggestions on to the video sorcerer. I am not sure how hard some of these would be. But, I can ask if maybe a future release could offer some of this.

[raulpesch]

Tom just summed up what many of my users are experiencing as well. They think the video service is broken because they see a black screen until the video starts playing. This is generating a lot of questions/emails asking me why the video doesn't start. They then act precisely as Tom described: they click "play" and have a choppy video experience.

it would be great if there was a "Loading" or "Buffering" message at the start. It would also be great imo if the video files had a hover over window (as photo's do) in which you can select the resolution. I know that video resolutions can be changed using the selections at the of the page but for some reason many users seem to overlook this option.

[wellman]

:agree