Flash Video Added to Retouching course

[jgilbert]

We have added a Flash Video option to Dave's Retouching course.

This is a test of the emergency Flash Video System. (insert annoying sound here)

THIS IS ONLY A TEST. Had this been an actual emergency - Flash Video broadcaster in your area would have would have alerted us all to something really important. (But I'm 36 years old and have never actually seen this happen)

Enough of my bad humor attempt. :roll:

Please give it a try and let me know what you think. The reason we are trying it is that way too many people are having trouble accessing our Widnows Media and Quicktime Videos.

Research shows that 90+ percent of people have a fairly new Flash player. This streaming Flash video is coming from a brand new Flash Communication Server with a big fast connection to the internet. (Sorry - no you can't save it to your hard drive.)

Please be kind,
Jim
"One of the PET Web Guys"

[RonH]

The video ran and did not hang. But I could only seee part of the movie image the screen was to small and I had to keep moving the sliders to see all of it.

I have plent of monitor 17" but could not enlarge the movie window????

[whaycock]

Please at least keep the Window Player as an option! It is important to many of us that we be able to download the video for future use and refreshing a particular technique!

Bill

[MikeH]

I've tried a few of the videos... all downloaded fast and started quickly. I have a 17" monitor but didn't have any problems with the screen size... it opened in the same full size as the QT version...

Mike

[Pauline]

It worked fine for me. No problems, BUT I really like the ability to be able to save the video after watching it. I like to be able to stop the movie and do some work and then play it again. I never have a problem with quicktime so I hope you will always use them also.

[MikeH]

I can see a number of reasons for switching to Flash... if the other formats are replaced maybe the 60 day expiry could be extended.. or even lifted..?

Mike

[Wendy]

Well I don't know what you did but there were no pauses and I was able to watch it ....

However, I am with Pauline I like being able to stop the Video do a little work on my image and then wind it back when I get stuck :) ... so on that basis I much prefer Quicktime ...

Wendy

[whaycock]

for some reason I do not have the ability to pause when using the flash player! This is not good! One should be able to watch the video - pause and follow along within their Editor - then re start the video.

I hope the "powers to be" consider keeping windows player available for the majority of us who use windows - and the player.

Bill

[Carbone]

I don't have access to the classes, but then I'd probably agree with the others, no pause is NOT a good thing. I often stop, research (or try) something, then get back.

Ray

[Dorrie H.]

While the Flash movie played without a hitch, and I was able to pause it and back up and go forward, the fact that it cannot be saved to one's hard disk is a real downfall. I personally would not want to have that as the only source for online classes.

I, like other people, rely on being able to have a copy on my hard disk so I can refer to it many times and serval months later.

My vote is for still having either QT or W/Media. I don't believe I would sign up for any future class that only had the flash video.

Dorrie

[GaryK]

Flash played fine for me... in IE.. still nothing in Firefox.

The mouse movement in the video were jerky, I guess this would be an easy enough subject to use flash for .. no REAL video ..mostly just voice.

No download is a definate turn off for me as well. I can usnderstand to a point. I find it hard enough to get the "proper" amount of time to watch the videos as it is, let alone trying the technique.
Its usually, get home, check the forums, start supper, watch the video, answer the phone, start another supper (first one burned), restart video (too much smoke) , eat supper (burned or good) or watch video while eating supper (kids eat on their own), do "taxi duty" etc. etc...go to bed. :lol: :lol:

[Carbone]

And add to that...

- Watch Alias,
- Play with the Cat
- Watch Stargate (both series)
- Play with the Cat (she's restless)
- Get some things done on the 'net
- Play with the Cat (if she asks again, I'm going to find her a foster dady)
- Prep tomorrow's coffee
- Find a foster home for the Cat (she asked for it)

;-)

[Mary]

Until I changed my screen resolution to 1152 X 864 I could not see the pause or rewind buttons. Pretty tough on the eyes at that resolution.

[cosmojoseph]

I think it's good.

It has a slider bar at the bottom with play and pause that works fine for me.

The audio is way too low. I have my speakers all the way up and can hardly hear some of the lessons.

The person who can't fit it on their 17 inch montor needs to change their screen resolution. I bet it does look funky at 800x600!

The video loaded very fast. I enjoyed not having to wait like 10 seconds for it to start.

If I were them I would not allow downloads either because then one person could buy it and share it with all their friends. It is a business that needs to make money and each lesson is less than a buck. At that price I bet they hardly make any money.

[whaycock]

Hmmmmmmm! Lots of "what ifs" in this world! I don't recall any statement in the course overview or FAQs stating it was not OK to download the videos. Matter of fact, from what i have read on this forum over the last few weeks, the download capability is the major draw for the course! Lets be reasonable here - we are students who pay a fee to take instruction - should we not be able to keep the materials that are part of the class?

BTW, my resolution is set to the proper screen size as recommended in the FAQ on the classes - I still can't see the bottom of the FLASH video to pause and start the slider bar - if I go to a higher resolution then it becomes difficult to see the details.

Again, if it is necessary to use FLASH for some, at least keep Windows Media and Quick time for the majority of the rest of us.


I think it's good.


If I were them I would not allow downloads either because then one person could buy it and share it with all their friends. It is a business that needs to make money and each lesson is less than a buck. At that price I bet they hardly make any money.

[DaHen]

Flash worked great in both Internet Explorer and Firefox. :)

However, I would have to refer back to the Windows Media Player or QuickTime to view previous lessons that I had downloaded when working with my photos.
My memory, yes, my memory, not this computers memory, but my memory isn't as good as it use to be. :lol:

[GaryK]

I'm ticked about Firefox. :lol:

It all started when I was trying to view the sample links from the other sites.
The flash movies were so jerky I figured I should check to make sure I was up to date. I wasn't, so I downloaded the newest version and since then Firefox won't load them. :roll: I don't even get the play button or anything..just a blank screen.

[Pauline]

my screen resolution is on the right setting and I can't get the play/pause botton either. I guess if I hid my task bar I would see it.

As for downloading movies and sharing them.......well I think if anyone is really interested in ps, they would want to have their own copy and be part of the forum etc. I keep them for personal reference only. For that matter, if you were really so inclined to share, there are the pfd files, but for the price is it really worth bothering? I don't think it's an issue.

[RonH]

Cosmo Joseph wrote:
"The person who can't fit it on their 17 inch montor needs to change their screen resolution. I bet it does look funky at 800x600!

If I were them I would not allow downloads either because then one person could buy it and share it with all their friends. It is a business that needs to make money and each lesson is less than a buck. At that price I bet they hardly make any money."


My screen resolution was set properly!!!

Regarding downloads this community is pretty tight and most have indicated that they prefer to download to review and work through the movies until they get it right and can do it on their own.

Flash will not stop someone who wants to capture and share the video it is way to easy.

My vote is obviously for Quicktime and Windows Media.

[Carbone]

There are other options, even under Windows Media Player. Host can make of a digital certificate to make sure the video only plays on one computer and / or for a limited time.

It works with Windows Media Player 10 (or whatever version they're at now for Windows) and Windows Media Player 9 for Mac.

The only restrictions is that the certificate is good only for one computer. You can't view the downloaded files onto a laptop, for example, if you got them on your desktop.

I think this would be a fair compromise. Restricting playback while maintaining the ability for users to go over and over any given lesson as long as they want.

As for counter-measures... well, they'll always be ways around ways around ways... As soon as someone makes a new lock, someone else will find a way to break it.

Ray

[lindajay]

The Flash played just fine on my computer -- cable modem, using Safari -- but I have to voice my strong desire, along with many others, to not do away with the other options. I just recently purchased QuickTime Pro for the sole reason of being able to download the video lessons easily. I go back to review lessons from the first (work flow) series all the time. They are sooo valuable to me. I'd hate to have to depend only on the written pdf's . . . my 2 cents :)

--Linda

[richs]

Haven't had a chance to view the Flash video as I'm at work. BUT !!!, I still want the ability to save the video to my hard drive so that the next time I want to do that project I have a reference to fall back on. In addition, when we buy a book or DVD by Scott or Dave or whomever and pay $29 to $49 we have a hard copy for future reference. The online lessons are just a video classroom book that at $20 saves the price of printing a hard cover version. Granted there are costs to producing the videos, but we the consumers should get tangible text material not just a "Flash in the Pan" (couldn't pass that up) for our bucks. If the almighty dollar is a problem I think most of us would be willing to go a couple dollars more as long you keep up your good track record of quality instruction.
I will now step off my soap box. :P

[mrdonb]

Well

Screen capture software,from 20.00 to 60.00 so much for so called
golly molly cant save video to harddrive.

But go old school take contol of all contents. ô¿ô
Hardware rules.

Maybe to many Cheif's not enuff indians to get the job done....hum well i have waisted more time on this then I cared to.

[cosmojoseph]

:wink:

It must take a fairly big monitor to see the play and pause at the bottom.

Maybe you could reduce the height of the flash player???

Cosmo

[jgilbert]

Thanks for all the feedback.

On day one I moved the slider bar up a bit. Can you see it now?

It was never more that 700 pix tall - so if you could not see it, either your screen resolution was set too small or you have a bunch of tools open at the top of your browser that are taking up screen real estate.

GaryK - If you are using Firefox, you may have to reinstall your Quicktime. It sounds like you Firefox is not seeing quicktime. I use Firefox and can see quicktime movies.

Regards,
Jim
"The web guy posting the videos"

[whaycock]

Amen! I believe this sums it up pretty well for most of us - The issue is not money - it is the ability to down load lessons for review and guidance at a later date - Many of us print out the PDFs and keep them in a binder - I down load the PDFs and the practice image and the video - I go over pasted lessons many times - the only way to learn these techniques is by repetition and use.

Keep the down loadable players! It is important to us and i for one would have to think a while before signing up for any more courses that did not have the down load ability for the videos.

I suggest we get off the line of thought about "selling videos" or making money, etc! That is not the issue at hand - If the producers of these courses feel the need they will adjust the price (already a bargain)!

The input needed is for we, the students (consumers) to voice our opinion on the need for down loadable videos.

Bill


when we buy a book or DVD by Scott or Dave or whomever and pay $29 to $49 we have a hard copy for future reference. The online lessons are just a video classroom book that at $20 saves the price of printing a hard cover version. Granted there are costs to producing the videos, but we the consumers should get tangible text material not just a "Flash in the Pan" (couldn't pass that up) for our bucks.

[Mary]

In Windows XP - without changing screen resolution to see the control buttons for pause rewind etc. I used F11 to hide my top tool bars.

I have 5 bars in IE : 1. Menu Bar 2. Tool Bar 3. Address Bar 4. Links Bar and 5. Google tool bar.

:)

[cathy]

I agree on not being able to save the videos. I have taken two courses and saved some of the videos. But will reconsider before taking another course.
Also willing to pay a little more for a course.

[GaryK]

Jim

Quicktime works fine.. it was tha Flash I can't view in Firefox.
I'm still trying a few things to get it to work. As per my previous post it was working with an older version (just not well) then I upgraded :lol: :lol: oops.

[CarolLHB]

Linda-
You were able to download the movies with QT Pro? Was it the "save as a QT movie" choice? Is the upgrade to Pro $29.99? May be very worth the price-I'm a doofus-need to look at the videos again and again!! :lol:
Thanks :)

[lindajay]

Hi Carol,
Yes, easy as pie to download the Quick Time ones with Quick Time Pro. And yes, I think that is what I paid. I guess, though, if you (like me) are thinking of purchasing it solely for the purpose of downloading the training videos, you might want to wait to see what the final verdict is on how the future ones will be posted.

--Linda

[CarolLHB]

Thanks, Linda :D , good advice!

[Bayla]

Just wanted to add my two pennyworth (two cents worth?) Yes, it loaded quickly, no problems seeing the whole screen even on my small monitor & with the taskbars showing. BUT, and it is a very big but, I need to have the facility to save the videos and go back over them once access time to the course is up. This is for me personally, It would never enter my head to pass them on to a friend (anyway none of my friends are into this stuff which is why I come on this forum for support and ideas :D )

So by all means have Flash videos but still leave us the option of Windows Player or Quicktime.

Bayla

[jazzfisher]

Just tried Flash for day 10 & 11 Portrait classes. Both had long stops/pauses especially day 10---went to Windows option to finish watching. Day 11 started with bad sound quality & had 3 stop/starts.
Controls out of site unless I move screen around (19in monitor).

[Childsplay904]

Flash works fine here. Would like to have at least another option though...just in case...thx...

[ExpertNovice]

I'm currently taking the course and using Windows Media for the playback. I didn't know it could be downloaded, but I did download the PDF and am taking notes. I probably won't download the video, but if I did it would never be stolen, er, shared is probably a more politically correct statement.

The ability to pause and backup must be there. Well, at least for people like me! It is probably not as important to those who don't need the course. Wait... let me think about that a minute. :)

Please don't go to Windows Media Player 10 unless absolutely forced to! It will not install on a Windows 2000 computer and there are many who will not upgrade to Windows XP. Primarily for the data gathering that Microsoft promises if you use any XP product.



I will check out the Flash version tonight and give my feedback.

Good course!

[ExpertNovice]

I tried to download the windows media player using player 9.0 and could not do it. However, I didn't try real hard.


My impression of Flash and why the lesson was stopped and restarted with media player.

The sound, picture, and resolution were fine. If there is a solution to my pickiness, without ME having to change. ;), I would like to know it.

However, with Media player I could pause and restart fairly quickly. With flash the restart took between 13 and 15 seconds. Granted, my 768k download using DSL is not the fastest around but 13 seconds seems an eternity when it is repeatedly used because I'm taking notes. The same effect was noted when rewinding.

It took a little longer to get back to the end of the recording.

With Media Player it seems to continue to download so that jumping around is fairly quick. With Flash it is streaming and if you jump ahead (there is no jump to "end of what has already been played" button) then it determines that you jumped too far and pauses to get to the last played selection.