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View Full Version : Do you inform content providers?

macewan
December 21st, 2005, 07:02 PM
I sent the following message to: feedback@feedroom.com, salesinquiries@thefeedroom.com, info@feedroom.com. Evidently, feedroom.com provides the Flash video player for companies like the NYTimes, USAToday & Better Homes and Gardens. Linux is being flagged as not being able to handle their content which is incorrect. How often do you take the time to inform content providers of mistakes? (Like the damn Gap.com site - grrrr)

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I'm assuming from your site and the links to the major media companys that you provide the streaming Flash video player. The reason I'm contacting your company is to let you know that the Firefox browser on Linux is incorrectly flagged as not being able to handle the streaming Flash video.

If for example I click the Bloomberg calls strikers 'selfish' link, as seen on www.feedroom.com. My browser will be directed to a NotEnabled.jsp (http://usatoday.feedroom.com/notenabled.jsp?miss=b&fr=122105_054245_6c5c37c2x1084f43b3faxw416b&nsid=b6c5c37c2:1084f43b3fa:-416c) page where I read that:
To view USATODAY.com Video, you must have Macromedia Flash Player (7.0.25 or higher) installed on your computer, and use Internet Explorer 6, Safari or a Mozilla-based browser.


As you can see from this screenshot (http://www.macewan.org/wp-content/images/FlashVideoLinux.png), the statement
is wrong. My browser is quite capable of handling the Flash video.

Example of Linux viewing streaming flash video: http://www.youtube.com/index?v1mqSfY1CE6E

Advertisers are missing out on the Linux crowd.
prizrak
December 21st, 2005, 07:08 PM
Hmm I never informed them, however I haven't ran into a site that doesn't support me other than the Gap but since I hate them anyway they can go to hell :)
BWF89
December 21st, 2005, 07:21 PM
I usually try to inform sites if something isn't working correctly.
GreyFox503
December 21st, 2005, 11:10 PM
I hate it when web pages have streaming Windows Media files playing. It's bad enough when they only distribute .WMVs anyway, but at least I can still play those if they let me download them. But if it requires you to have the Windows Media Browser plugin, I'm SOL.

If anyone has found a way to view these, I'd like to hear about it.
prizrak
December 21st, 2005, 11:57 PM
I hate it when web pages have streaming Windows Media files playing. It's bad enough when they only distribute .WMVs anyway, but at least I can still play those if they let me download them. But if it requires you to have the Windows Media Browser plugin, I'm SOL.

If anyone has found a way to view these, I'd like to hear about it.
The mplayer plugin for FF with w32codes runs it w/o a problem. Otherwise you can open up source find the file and copy it's URL into the address bar. That will let you download it.
macewan
December 22nd, 2005, 07:47 AM
Well, I found out via the labs that we'll have to wait until Flash 8.5 before we get the next version of Flash from Adobe/Macromedia.
GreyFox503
December 22nd, 2005, 05:39 PM
The mplayer plugin for FF with w32codes runs it w/o a problem. Otherwise you can open up source find the file and copy it's URL into the address bar. That will let you download it.

That makes sense. I use xine, and I have never tried mplayer. Maybe I'll give it a shot.

I've tried looking at some pages' source code, and sometimes you can't tell where the video file is located. Sometimes its a flash page, and there is no reference to *.avi or *.wmv in the code.
BSDFreak
December 22nd, 2005, 05:42 PM
The mplayer plugin for FF with w32codes runs it w/o a problem. Otherwise you can open up source find the file and copy it's URL into the address bar. That will let you download it.

1 time out of ten maybe, often the url is a redirect.

VLC with the plugin will play it all, it's also the ONLY thing i use vlc for, i prefer mplayer otherwise.