BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum
Our BetterMost Community => Forum FAQs, Guidelines, and Updates => Topic started by: Phillip Dampier on June 18, 2008, 03:47:51 pm
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Some people are reporting problems with the slideshow on the news banner. If you see a white or black box instead of a slideshow, please try the following and report back if it solves or doesn't solve the problem for you. You may need to empty your temporary Internet cache (you can keep your cookies and forms, just delete the temporary web pages stored in your cache) and close and reopen your browser for the changes to become effective.
1. Please start by visiting here (http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash) and download and installing the latest Flash player. You may need to close your browser windows when the installation is complete for it to become effective.
2. If you are still seeing a blank box, can you let me know your browser and version (ex: Internet Explorer 7, etc.) and if you installed the latest version of the Flash player.
3. If you are at work, do you know if a firewall has been put in place at your job that would prevent Macromedia Flash applications from running? I can always convert the slideshow to an embedded video (assuming you can see that at work) and run that instead, but the slideshow is better for dial-up users.
I'd like to get this resolved for everyone so we can use this feature in other places as well. Thanks for your help!
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Here is the slideshow repeated here in this thread so you can see it here.
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This is the test video.
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Phillip, I installed the latest Flash version but still see the white box. My browser is Safari Version 3.1.1.
I have no idea how to empty the Internet cache on my Mac. It's not an option in Preferences.
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Phillip, I installed the latest Flash version but still see the white box. My browser is Safari Version 3.1.1.
OK... I will install that version of the browser tonight and see what I can see. Can you see the slideshow in the reply above? How about the embedded test video?
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It's blank Phillip. I saw the Twist house up there a few minutes ago, and now the box is white again. I haven't seen a black box yet. It's always been white when blank.
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Here is the slideshow repeated here in this thread so you can see it here.
This is a white box.
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This is the test video.
I can see this video.
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Phillip, I installed the latest Flash version but still see the white box. My browser is Safari Version 3.1.1.
I have no idea how to empty the Internet cache on my Mac. It's not an option in Preferences.
Everything Fran wrote applies to me exactly.
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I can see this video.
I can see the test video too... but not the slideshow (either here in this thread or on the banner).
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I can see the test video too... but not the slideshow (either here in this thread or on the banner).
Elle and Fran are both on Macs if I recall correctly. Is that your case too?
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I use a PC at work, a Mac at home, and the banner is a white box for me in both places. I can see the test video.
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Can you see the slideshow in the reply above? How about the embedded test video?
I can only see the embedded test video.
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Some people are reporting problems with the slideshow on the news banner. If you see a white or black box instead of a slideshow, please try the following and report back if it solves or doesn't solve the problem for you. You may need to empty your temporary Internet cache (you can keep your cookies and forms, just delete the temporary web pages stored in your cache) and close and reopen your browser for the changes to become effective.
1. Please start by visiting here (http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash) and download and installing the latest Flash player. You may need to close your browser windows when the installation is complete for it to become effective.
2. If you are still seeing a blank box, can you let me know your browser and version (ex: Internet Explorer 7, etc.) and if you installed the latest version of the Flash player.
3. If you are at work, do you know if a firewall has been put in place at your job that would prevent Macromedia Flash applications from running? I can always convert the slideshow to an embedded video (assuming you can see that at work) and run that instead, but the slideshow is better for dial-up users.
I'd like to get this resolved for everyone so we can use this feature in other places as well. Thanks for your help!
1) I have the current Flash Player and have cleared my cache; also rebooted after downloading the Flash
2) I have Windows Vista and IE7
I can see the video but not the slideshow.
(I also tried using Firefox and could not see the slideshow)
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OK... apparently I have something magic here that others don't. I will pull down the slideshow tonight and replace it with a video.
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blank box, using a PC
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I can see the test video too... but not the slideshow (either here in this thread or on the banner).
Ditto to all above points.
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I have been working on evaluating some software to generate movie versions of the slideshow, this time with some music attached. A proof of concept test will be up on the news banner in a few moments. I am evaluating software for its worthiness, so the test movie will be branded an "evaluation" because I have not yet registered the software. No sense paying for something if we decide not to use it.
The questions I have are:
1) Can you see and hear the movie (dial-up users see below) without troubles?
2) Do you like the concept and would you like to see more of this kind of thing on the news banner?
3) If you are a dial-up user, the code responsible to create the player will take a few moments to download. I am uncertain if it will successfully cache this code, so future returns to the forum home page don't take too long to load. Also, as this was created with broadband users in mind, playback will be very difficult for dial-up users using this format, I'm afraid.
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I can see and (sadly) hear a test movie (only two pictures and a horrible test tone) right now.
Also can see the test video on this thread without any trouble.
Using Windows XP and a newer version of IE.
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The movie is encoding at the moment and I've been struggling with the code to get the banner to display properly, but all should be fixed in a few moments.
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Works jes fine now. Music and photos. :)
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I can see it now too, and it's wonderful. I'm going to put a little explanatory note on the banner that the "Please Purchase" means for BetterMost to purchase the software you are trying out, and that it's NOT asking people to purchase the video you made. :)
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very nice!
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Looks GREAT here and makes me long for the long sight lines.. At least I do have a long sight line with Lake Michigan, but it's a different kind of thing..
Peace :)
br. p
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Hi,
yippee can see slideshow and hear the music. Love the slide show, music not completely my taste, but hey, that is a personal thing. I am liking the idea a whole lot !!!!
You must have put a lot of work into doing it all so a big thankyou !!!!
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OH no,
while I was typing the previous post It's all gone slide show and music !!!!! ???????
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And now it's all back again. Is some one trying to make me more of a basket case than I already am ????? !!!!!! If so it's working, next step men in white coats.
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much better than the blank screen. is there a way to caption the pics to let us know what locations we are looking at?
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Video is working just fine for me this a.m.! Love the music...is that John Denver?
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much better than the blank screen. is there a way to caption the pics to let us know what locations we are looking at?
They're all posted here on BetterMost, in the Roundup Forum (here:http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?board=68.0 (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?board=68.0)). Most of them with commenting text where they were taken.
If you want to know the location of only two or three specific pics, describe them here to me (or PM me) and I'll tell you. I have no idea of how to make a caption of the movie, sorry.
In general, most of the pics in the movie are from Ten Sleep Canyon, Ten Sleep area, Riverton, Dubois, approaching the Grand Tetons and at Signal Mountain Lodge at Jackson Lake in Grand Tetons National Park.
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much better than the blank screen. is there a way to caption the pics to let us know what locations we are looking at?
Today's production was supposed to be a quick proof of concept test (supposed to be except I was up until 2:45am this morning learning the best way to output the movie that didn't generate a gigabyte-sized file).
What I think we can do, assuming this initial test seems to present few problems for everyone, is put together the different parts and then allow other folks to create movies or collaborate on some joint projects. Captioning is an option with Picasa, which is the original form of the slideshow, but it was far too time consuming for me to get into.
For this test, I downloaded the individual photos from various threads, randomly assembled them into the free Picasa application, and chose (this time) to create a movie. That outputs an .AVI file with no soundtrack (Picasa doesn't offer this option yet). I then loaded that file into Video Edit Magic 4.4, which I honestly chose mostly because it came towards the top of the Google search and I just wanted to see if I could pull this off. Before I register it for $70, I'd want people to tell me if they like this kind of thing, can see the movies okay, or if they have a better option for me to consider, that would be great too. Video Edit let me import the AVI file and then I could drag and drop the soundtrack onto it (I picked two songs quickly - they don't really match all that well, but again, it's a beta test). I then exported the finished production as a Quicktime .MOV file (which created the best looking file under 150 megabytes, the limit Dailymotion has for uploads.) I then uploaded the movie to Dailymotion, which then converted it into a format we could embed on the news banner.
Here are some pros and cons to the way I did this:
PROS
Picasa allows anyone to create an album and quickly upload files to the service, and they can be accessed and shared with others.
Picasa permits project collaboration - one person's uploaded file could be captioned by someone else.
Picasa is free.
Picasa is simple and relatively easy to use.
Picasa's movie generation has the built-in "Ken Burns"-effect (the guy who does all of the PBS documentaries that show slow panning across static photos).
Video Edit Magic was so intuitive, I only had to read three help screens to answer some questions.
CONS
I had to use three different software packages/services to pull this off (not including Dailymotion).
Picasa's slideshow option, which we started with, doesn't appear to work for a large percentage of our residents.
Using Picasa and Video Edit Magic to build the movie is not efficient - one package that could produce the movie and embed a soundtrack would be easier.
The multiple format conversions degrade the video quality, although not by as much as Dailymotion itself which heavily compresses the video.
I am not sure yet what impact an embedded video player on the home page has on dial-up users.
I am certain there are others out there with more experience using these kinds of software packages than I, so hopefully we'll hear some great input on these issues.
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Video is working just fine for me this a.m.! Love the music...is that John Denver?
Yes. I had another more raucous version from Chris Ledoux, but that definitely didn't work with a moving slideshow.
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I can see and hear it just fine. I love it!