Required player to view Video Press files
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I searched the forums and support pages but could not find a simple answer about what player a viewer has to have installed on their computer to view Video Press files. What players are required?
Also, do the Video Press files automatically convert for smart phones, tablets and other smart devices so that users with these devices can see the videos as well?
Thanks,
Joy Sikorski
Blog url: http://singingmastermind.wordpress.com/ -
Your viewers don’t have to have a special player to view the VideoPress files. If they have Adobe Flash installed, VideoPress will use that, otherwise it uses the HTML5 video player. VideoPress does do some conversions so that viewers with iPhones or iPads can play the uploaded videos.
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Thanks CoffeeManMatt!
My next question has to do with people using old OS, either for Mac or Windows.
Any troubles they might incur? Especially Internet Explorer browser users?
Thanks again,
Joy -
Older browsers may not be able to natively play the HTML5 embeds, so they’ll need to have the Flash plugin installed. The actual player of the embedded video will switch accordingly.
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Thanks MacManX,
I appreciate your answer, even though it took me a little longer to get back to you. That’s because my Mac has had terrible problems.
But, that’s another story.
My next questions are these:
1) From what you are telling me I take it that smart phone or smart tablet users will not need a separate app to view video content because I am using Video Press, is that right?
2) What about audio? At the moment I do not have the upgrade that allows audio files, etc. but may get that in the future if my Amazon S3 account proves to be more expensive than getting the upgrade. Meanwhile, does it matter in terms of the need for an app? I assume that there is no special code or something that smart phones or tablets need to interpret the audio data? An mp3 file works easily without an app?You can tell I do not yet have a smart phone or tablet. That day will come though, I am almost certain!
Thanks again,
Joy -
1. They should not.
2. Audio here is streamed through a Flash player, and we do not yet have an HTML 5 alternative. Smart phones and Table that can support Flash will be able to play the audio embeds, but not those which cannot support Flash, like iOS devices.
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Thanks for that answer about the audio, MacManx.
I just ran a test with a person who has an iPhone (3g) and she was not able to play the videos on a page on my membership site that I am getting ready to launch. The videos were uploaded through Video Press.
She got an error indicating that she had to have a Flash player installed, and of course, iPhones don’t play flash movies.
This confuses me because of what was posted above in response to my first question.
Do you have any ideas that might help solve this problem. I am hoping to launch the member site on Thursday (Sept. 29th) but do not feel that I can unless this important issue is resolved.
Thanking you in advance for your help,
Joy -
The iPhone 3G unfortunately does not support a high enough version of iOS to allow native playback, but the 3GS and iPhone 4 do.
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Ah, I see. Since I do not know that much about the IOS technology or html5 or smart devices, what would suggest that I tell people when they have problems viewing the videos on these devices? Are there workarounds? Do they need a special app? What can they do or what can I do at my end to ensure that my users (customers) will be able to utilize what they pay for?
Thanks in advance.
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They don’t need a special app, just Flash or a browser that can handle native HTML5 video embeds.
If they can’t view the videos, I suggest asking them to use a normal computer.
Statistically, only about 5% of your viewers will be on smart phones or tablets, and far less than half of those won’t have Flash or native HTML5 embed support.
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Thank you so much for your explanations. I have provided a video troubleshooting page for users in case they have difficulties viewing the videos and will include the suggestion you gave for them to use a regular computer if their smart devices have a problem with the videos. I suspect that the 5% statistic will be changing rapidly in the future and I will make my site more mobile friendly in the future, but only after the product launch (online singing lessons at Singing Mastermind ) is successful and mostly tech-headache-free. lol :)
Thanks again for your prompt answers. Your kind of support attitude and answers is invaluable to those of us who are not techies.
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Hi again. I found out that the person who could not see the videos at all (they only appeared as 1 image with no moving parts) has an iPhone 3GS.
Above, you mentioned that the video should play just fine with 3GS.
Is there anything else that person needs to be able to play the videos? A particular app, for instance? Or perhaps a preferences setting?
Thanks again in advance.
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Thanks. I have sent them an email to find out and given them a link to the Apple page where it shows them how to check and to update the IOS version, if necessary.
Your question is a big help and I will be sure to include it on my video troubleshooting page.
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Hello again.
Please let me thank you again for your help. It is invaluable and I appreciate it greatly.
Is there a way to find out what version of Videopress I have? I have checked my dashboard under subscriptions but cannot find anything that will help me know the version I purchased. And is there a way to upgrade the version? I don’t mean upgrade in the sense of adding on extra space, etc. I simply mean making sure I have the latest version of Videopress that may have technical updates that have fixed any bugs or changed the backend code etc.?
I searched the forum and also did a Google search but could find no answer.
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Will Videopress work for people to see the videos if they have iPad 1 that uses only a wireless connection?
Thanks again.
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The person who tested this for me has IOS version4.3.5 on his iPad #1 but he cannot view the videos with his wireless connection. Any suggestions?
Also, what about other smart phones and tablets besides Apple products? Is there anything I need to know about them in regards to versions, etc.? I know there are a lot of variables out there but how does Video Press deal with the fast pace of the changes in the smart devices world?
Is there a page I can send people to that gives the information about all of this?
So far, the 2 people I have had test this for me (the 3GS iPhone person and the iPad #1 person) have not been able to view the videos.
This tells me there are going to be other problems so I am trying to mitigate the frustrations of my clients (and myself) by having a troubleshooting page for them to utilize.
I launch tomorrow (Sept. 28, 2011) so please help before the tech questions start coming in from my users and I have no answers for them!
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iPad 1 cannot run a high enough version of iOS to support native HTML5 video playback, and despite what I said earlier, neither can an iPhone 3GS. I’m sorry for the wrong info.
For iOS devices, it would need to be and iPhone 4 or iPad 2.
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Ouch. So is there an app or something that the devices 3GS and below can use in order to see the videos through Videopress?
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