BlogTV Tips

July 1, 2003: BlogTV's Streaming Video service has been completely overhauled and upgraded. The most common problem that prevented viewing of the streaming videos through a firewall has been solved. Every computer capable of running QuickTime 5 should now be able to see all the videos.
The upgrade required substantial rework on all the old videos in the archives. I believe all the videos were reworked correctly, but there is a possibility that some videos may not work at certain network speeds. Be sure to set your QuickTime Connection Speed preferences to the appropriate speed for your network. If you get an error message for any video, please leave a comment on that page, tell me your QT speed setting, and I will investigate.
General tips for optimizing your BlogTV viewing experience:
1. Upgrade to the latest QuickTime version. QuickTime 6 has substantial improvements in performance, especially on congested networks. BlogTV will soon be switching to QT6-only encoding.
2. Set your Connection Speed appropriately. If you have a T1 connection to the net, but you're sharing it with 100 people, you won't ever get full T1 speeds, so if you have troubles with dropouts or skipping, try a lower speed setting.
3. At times of peak demand, the server may not have enough bandwidth to serve everybody at once. If you get an error indicating insufficient bandwidth or no connections available, just try again later. The BlogTV server runs on a medium-bandwidth DSL line, which I also use for my main workstation. I have to set a limit on outbound capacity or else my DSL line is worthless for both serving and my own use. We Apologize For The Inconvenience.
4. If your Quicktime is not available for your platform, you may be able to use Quicktime for Java. Apple has released a beta version of QuickTime that will run on any machine that can run Java. This is perfect for Linux and other miscellaneous Unix systems. I don't know if QT for Java works with streaming video, but I'm sure it is in development if it isn't already working. You can download QT for Java at the Apple Developer Connection website (free registration required).