Site Video Suggestion

2005-08-28 06:49:31 am

Strategy Guide Writer

Quote from njahnke:

there was a discussion about this very recently somewhere ... maybe yoshi remembers where it happened. anyway, the consensus was that quicktime is still the best way to do this. it's not that it rules or anything, it's just there by default. until someone comes up with a better way to do it, it will remain quicktime. (and imagine redoing all those videos ...)

edit: grenola found it.

Actually, re-encoding all those videos would be dead simple. Using TMPGEnc Express 3.0 you can batch re-encode all .movs into any other file format you wish (.avi, .mpg etc) meaning you drag and drop them in, set the bit-rate and audio settings, and let it do it's thing. :P

I'm personally not a big fan of quicktime to be honest, but I told Nate that at the start anyways. I prefer to give people the option to download the clips to their PC to view as often as they wish, instead of making them come back to possibly have to A). redownload the clip if it's not in their PC cache anymore and B). constantly then use up more site bandwidth because the movies are embedded.

To me, that seems like an unnessacery waste of bandwidth. Maybe if Nate offered direct links (below the clips) to allow people to EITHER download the file to directly to their PC or stream it from the site would be a good idea. I prefer .mpg encoding because it really DOES seem to work for the vast majority of visitors, but i'm not adverse to other codecs. I just prefer simplicity and bandwidth saving over forcing browsers, internet connections and bandwidth usage to work harder with embedded clips...

[quote="njahnke"]there was a discussion about this very recently somewhere ... maybe yoshi remembers where it happened. anyway, the consensus was that quicktime is still the best way to do this. it's not that it rules or anything, it's just there by default. until someone comes up with a better way to do it, it will remain quicktime. (and imagine redoing all those videos ...)

edit: [url=http://www.metroid2002.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3015&start=100]grenola found it.[/url][/quote]
Actually, re-encoding all those videos would be dead simple. Using TMPGEnc Express 3.0 you can batch re-encode all .movs into any other file format you wish (.avi, .mpg etc) meaning you drag and drop them in, set the bit-rate and audio settings, and let it do it's thing. :P

I'm personally not a big fan of quicktime to be honest, but I told Nate that at the start anyways. I prefer to give people the option to download the clips to their PC to view as often as they wish, instead of making them come back to possibly have to A). redownload the clip if it's not in their PC cache anymore and B). constantly then use up more site bandwidth because the movies are embedded.

To me, that seems like an unnessacery waste of bandwidth. Maybe if Nate offered direct links (below the clips) to allow people to EITHER download the file to directly to their PC or stream it from the site would be a good idea. I prefer .mpg encoding because it really DOES seem to work for the vast majority of visitors, but i'm not adverse to other codecs. I just prefer simplicity and bandwidth saving over forcing browsers, internet connections and bandwidth usage to work harder with embedded clips...

trh

2005-08-28 06:57:32 am

I personally love that you don't have to download them. I have enough small movie clips on my desktop as it is. Having to download them before watching is as annoying as having to sign up for something before using it. I <3 the quicktime-in-browser system.

nate

2005-08-28 11:00:18 am

if you have quicktime pro, you can click on the arrow at the lower right of each video and choose "save to disk," otherwise just look at the source code and get it that way. i agree it uses a lot of bandwidth, though.

Razorflame

2005-08-28 07:46:01 pm

Just kidding about what I said earlier.

spineshark

2005-08-28 07:49:09 pm

in the name of justice!

i knew you couldn't stay away! i get withdrawl symptoms after sixteen hours...

arkarian

2005-08-28 07:50:32 pm

red chamber dream

Quote from Spine Shark:

i knew you couldn't stay away! i get withdrawl symptoms after sixteen hours...

Wow, that's...unhealthy.

spineshark

2005-08-28 07:59:06 pm

in the name of justice!

heh, i spent last weekend in the car, like 10 hours of driving so we could be someplace for one night. by the end i was dying to do anything besides play zero mission and watch the road roll by.

the last thing i did before we left was visit the forum. the first thing when we got back...i really like this place. it is probably unhealthy. but without my daily (or even constant at times) dose of foolishness and humor, i am a bad person in real life. not murderer bad, but not fun to be with.

arkarian

2005-08-28 08:05:35 pm

red chamber dream

What did you do for comic relief before you joined this forum?

spineshark

2005-08-28 08:27:34 pm

in the name of justice!

read a couple blogs, which were updated totally randomly. and i posted a bit at a diablo ii forum for a little over a year. then i got bored with that game and ended up here, where i lurked for about a month.

if i had to back down off of hanging out around here i'd probably have to do it the same way backwards.

carlmmii

2005-08-30 08:03:31 pm

Nate, you really should consider adding a download link underneath each video since for most, the only way to save them is to look through the source code and pick out the .mov/.mp4 file, then figure out how to download it instead of playing in-browser.

It's a huge convenience if you can just click a few buttons and have it on your hard drive for future use.

... and Mills... .mpg? Are you stuck in '96 or something? That's got more macro-blocking than a sidewalk mosaic.

nate

2005-08-30 09:16:18 pm

added a download link underneath each video.

edit: just for shits and giggles, there are 735 embedded videos on m2k2 atm.

arkarian

2005-08-30 09:18:46 pm

red chamber dream

Awesome, had no idea you were gonna do this. Will definitely be useful.

nate

2005-08-30 09:24:27 pm

Quote from Arkarian:

Awesome, had no idea you were gonna do this.

i didn't, either.

SAL

2005-08-31 03:44:52 pm

There is a M2K2 ATM? Where?

Izo

2005-08-31 03:47:37 pm

soaking through

I hope to god that that's sarcasm. I hope to god.

Zeke

2005-08-31 08:23:36 pm

Time bomb set get out fast!

Don't hope to him, he respects free will. Hope to Q or somebody.

SABERinBLUE

2005-08-31 09:54:06 pm

Cook of the Sea

Well, Q doesn't respect free will, but he disrespects it in very ironic ways. Probably a bad move to hope to him. Try G.O.D. Over Djinn.

Zeke

2005-09-01 03:50:47 am

Time bomb set get out fast!

Nah, that's a recipe for a paddlin'.

Okay, enough referencing. SamusAranLuver, ATM in this context stands for "At The Moment." You were thinking of bank terminals, right?

SAL

2005-09-01 10:33:59 am

Erm.....................no......hehe. Run Away!! *dies*

carlmmii

2005-09-02 12:05:46 am

awesome, thanks nate! very easy to save now, appreciate the effort.

Andrew Mills

2005-09-02 05:56:40 am

Strategy Guide Writer

Quote from carlmmii:

... and Mills... .mpg? Are you stuck in '96 or something? That's got more macro-blocking than a sidewalk mosaic.

*shrugs* It works for practically everyone (regardless of their PC) because it's quite old and thus, runs on virtually all pc's and the quality is still more than sufficient to achieve it's goal. I don't get people moaning about not being able to watch the clips like I've seen numerous times with the likes of DivX/XviD or QT.

I prefer that simplicty of use and guaranteed access over the compression of DivX and the like anyday.

Quote from njahnke:

*Uses Millzy's quality idea and added a download link underneath each video.*

;) Thanks for doing that. To be honest, I can't believe you suggested getting the visitors to hunt through the source code for the direct links! Shocked

I know there's a lot of videos to create links for, but we (as webmasters) can't expect the visitors to do such semi-lengthy legwork for what is a basic website function (save-target as).

But thanks for adding the links. That's something I'll be making use of myself (instead of using the embedded clips). :D

[quote="carlmmii"]... and Mills... .mpg? Are you stuck in '96 or something? That's got more macro-blocking than a sidewalk mosaic.[/quote]
*shrugs* It [b]works[/b] for practically everyone (regardless of their PC) because it's quite old and thus, runs on virtually all pc's and the quality is still more than sufficient to achieve it's goal. I don't get people moaning about not being able to watch the clips like I've seen numerous times with the likes of DivX/XviD or QT.

I prefer that simplicty of use and guaranteed access over the compression of DivX and the like anyday.

[quote="njahnke"]*Uses Millzy's quality idea and added a download link underneath each video.*[/quote]
 ;) Thanks for doing that. To be honest, I can't believe you suggested getting the visitors to hunt through the source code for the direct links!  :shock:  :shock: I know there's a lot of videos to create links for, but we (as webmasters) can't expect the visitors to do such semi-lengthy legwork for what is a basic website function (save-target as).

But thanks for adding the links. That's something I'll be making use of myself (instead of using the embedded clips). :D

nate

2005-09-02 08:22:07 am

it's not that i was expecting them to go the source code route, it's that i wasn't sure how many people actually wanted to do that. i mean, it's never come up before, not once, iirc.

Yoshi348

2005-09-26 03:04:58 pm

PAGE BREAKER

Ready and willing.

Apparently the change you did there slightly messed with how it was parsed, so now the videos appear right next to each other even if there's not enough room, causing the evil Horizontal Scroll Bar of Doom.

Okay, so I guess 800x600 is starting to go by the wayside... but gosh darnit, web people still won't make their text size bigger to account for it, so I'm not gonna change unless I really really have to.

USBCD36

2005-09-26 03:37:47 pm

Quote from Andrew Mills:

;) Thanks for doing that. To be honest, I can't believe you suggested getting the visitors to hunt through the source code for the direct links! Shocked

I know there's a lot of videos to create links for, but we (as webmasters) can't expect the visitors to do such semi-lengthy legwork for what is a basic website function (save-target as).

I did that through a special feature of my browser, the activity window. It made it possible for me to see all images and movies and open them in new windows, copy the URL and download them. If it weren't for M2k2, I wouldn't even have learned about that (when I was on dialup), and most other websites don't allow you to download their videos (but this hack works around that!).

@Yoshi: they don't do that for me…
Also, text size is adjustable via a menu in almost all browsers, if you're text is too small, consider setting it at 120% or something.

SABERinBLUE

2005-09-26 03:38:39 pm

Cook of the Sea

Hm, I've noticed that pages with two video streams have a tendency to break FireFox. It has to close, and then I reopen it (I have Session Saver) and then they work. My FireFox is heavily Extension'd, so this might just be me. Anyone?