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What's wrong with my Real Player NOW?
You've successfully downloaded and installed your Real Player and logged back on and come back here to enjoy the goods that 'video online' has to offer. You go the the MAI page and click the appropriate link. Your Real Player automatically kicks up... and nothing happens!
This is the place to find out about all those little quirks that come bundled with an emerging technology. Here you you can find out what to expect, and what not to expect. You'll find some tips on how to fix some of these inherent problems and how to minimize problems. But there are going to be problems, even when your player is properly configured. So relax and see if you can find some help over here. This section will be regularly updated as we learn more about Real Player ourselves.
Why am I waiting?
In order to help things run as smoothly as possible, Real Player uses a 'buffer system'. This means that the player does not start playing the clip as soon as it begins receiving the information from the server but rather buffers a certain amount of the clip in memory before beginning to play. This guarantees a certain amount of smooth playback, even if the stream slows down due to heavy network traffic. You can set the buffer size yourself and depending on how you have your Real Player set up will affect how much of the clip will be buffered before playback begins. This buffering is of particular use to people with a slow internet connection as it is possible to view clips that have been encoded at a faster rate than your connection.
There is a down side to buffering, especially if you have a large buffer. You have to wait for the buffer to fill before playback begins and sometimes this can be quite a wait, especially in during peak hours. The player will constantly display the progress of the buffering so you will have an idea of how long the wait will be. However, like the Windows95 copy time estimator, it is usually highly inaccurate:) The good news is that you may continue browsing while waiting for the clip to begin playing. If the buffering process is simply taking too long, try logging back in at a time of lower internet traffic.
Why is the playback so Jerky
Sometimes, when traffic is high or you have a slow processor or only a small amount of RAM, playback will become jerky after a while. This can either be manifested as the audio continuing to play but the video freezing up, or the other way around. Here at 'workingTV's' video online we have placed our quality emphasis on audio as the message is of most importance to us, so what may happen is that the pictures continue, but the audio keeps dropping out.
There are a number of ways of dealing with this problem depending on the cause (traffic, processor, RAM etc.). If you have a reasonable buffer size (the default is to buffer as much as memory will allow) simply press the pause button on the Real Player when you notice the jerking begin. This will give the buffer a chance to fill back up. After a while (5 to 10 seconds is often enough) press the play/pause button again and playback should resume, smoothly.
Another thing to try is to set your buffer size to zero. This will allow slightly faster playback as processor speed is not affected by any buffering operations. To chance your buffer size go to the menu VIEW - PREFERENCES-GENERAL-BUFFERED PLAY and change the setting to 'Buffer at least 0 seconds'.
Where's the Motion?
Well you got it working! And it's not even jerking. In fact, as far as you can tell it's all set up just fine and you're all ready for your Real Player experience, but when it begins you see that there is only one frame every 10 seconds. I've been robbed! - you think. This isn't video - it's a slide show.
You'd be right. Streaming media has one major drawback. Even if you have a state of the art computer and even if the clip has been encoded for a vary fast connection, we are all limited by the speed that the signals travel through the telephone lines. It is possible to encode really good quality clips - up to 15 frames per second. However the phone lines simply do not support this kind of speed. Add to that the fact that most of the users on the internet only have 28.8K modems and there is a problem. When Real media is encoded into the format that your Real Player supports decisions have to be made as to where to emphasize the quality. Video, audio or a mix of the two. Do you want sharp images and slow motion or do you want smooth motion with a loss of clarity.
We feel that our message is the most important part of who we are and consequently we have placed 80% of our resources into the audio. This comes at a price and that price is video. We have chosen to have only one frame every ten seconds in order to deliver high quality audio. Although this may vary from clip to clip, audio will remain our primary focus.
At present we are catering to the 28.8K market so as to make our message as widely accessible as possible. However, for those of you with faster connections, we will be delivering faster clips in the near future, at which point you can expect to see more motion in the message.
Please keep checking into this site for more news as we grow.
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