| Q:
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What are the minimum system requirements for watching
the live and archived video?
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| |
| A: |
System Information
If you have a Macintosh, be sure that you are running Mac OS 8.1 or later, have
a PowerPC 603e 180MHz or better with 32MB RAM, virtual memory turned on, and
10MB of free disk space.
Player Information
In order to view the video streams you must have
Windows Media Player version
6.4 or better.
Browser Information
Be sure that you are using Internet Explorer 5.0 or Netscape 4.7 or better
browser.
Connection Information
As with all Internet video, the more bandwidth available the better. Our
video is configured to stream at 8kbps for audio only, 100 kbps for low-end
video & audio, and 500 kbps for high-end video plus audio. Your Media
Player detects the connection speed and requests the highest quality stream
possible from our server. If you are trying to view the webcast with a
dial-up connection, you will find the best performance is achieved by manually
selecting an audio-only version of the webcast.
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| |
| Q
|
I have a slow dialup connection and the audio
keeps stopping and re-buffering. What's wrong?
|
| |
| A: |
Dialup connections between 28K and
56K are not fast enough for the 100K video stream, but I should be adequate for
the 8K audio stream. The Microsoft Windows Media Player auto detects your
connection speed by default and tries to play a stream it can handle.
However, if you have an Internet connection accelerator program that claims to
double, triple, quadruple, etc. the speed of your connection it will deceive
your programs (i.e. Media Player) into thinking they have a faster connection
than they do. The accelerators work by reducing the size and quality of
the graphic images your browser downloads (i.e., jpg, gif, bmp). This
will do nothing for a video or audio stream though. To get around this,
either turn off your Internet accelerator software, or
manually set the connection speed of the Media Player to match
your true dialup speed. |
| |
| Q
|
How do I manually set the connection speed?
|
| |
| A: |
Select "Tools", "Options", then "Performance" in your stand
alone Media Player, or by right-clicking on the embedded media player in the
web page and selecting "Options". Once the change is made, you will have
to close and re-open the media player or web page for it to take effect. |
| |
| Q
|
How do I select an audio-only version?
|
| |
| A: |
Our speeds are 8kbps for audio only, 100 kbps
for low-end video & audio, and 500 kbps for high-end video plus
audio. To select an audio-only version, manually
set the connection speed of the Media Player to a speed less
than the lowest video stream (100 kbps). |
| |
| Q
|
I have all the recommended software installed but I'm
still not able to view/hear the webcasts. Any suggestions?
|
| |
| A: |
Double-check your connection speed?
Check your connection speed to determine if it is
high enough for the lowest video stream (100 kbps). Check to see if it
has been manually set for audio-only.
Are you behind a firewall?
Occasionally a firewall will reduce the speed with which you can receive
webcast information on an otherwise high-speed connection. We have gone
to great lengths to make our data as 'firewall friendly' as possible but
bottlenecks can still occur at a firewall (especially when connecting from a
corporate LAN). Most users experiencing this problem can still enjoy the
audio-only version of the webcast.
Do you have a sound card and speakers?
Some computers do not have a sound card and/or speakers.
Is your volume turned on?
This happens more than you think. There are three different places to set
volume control: (1) in the media player, (2) in the operating system, and (3)
on the speakers themselves. Double-check to make sure that the volume is turned
on loud enough and, if you have them, external speakers are turned on. This is
especially important when using a low-speed connection where there might not be
enough bandwidth to display video.
Is your plugin installed properly?
Sometimes Netscape browsers will not pick up the Windows Media Player plugin
properly, to fix this problem re-install
Windows Media Player and
try again. Note: This applies to Windows Media Player version 6.4.
Do you have the needed codec to decode & play the
file/stream?
Older players may need to download a codec from Microsoft to play a
broadcast.
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Automatic Codec Download - To insure that your Windows Media Player has the
proper codecs bring up the Player in it's own window and click on Tools/Options
on the menu at the top of the window. Within the options window be sure
that "Enable automatic codec download" is checked, and click on "OK".
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Manual Codec Download
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More Information about Codecs
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| |
| Q
|
I can hear the audio but I can't see anything.
What's wrong?
|
| |
| A: |
The problem is one of three things: (1) You
don't have a fast enough connection to receive the video portion of the
webcast, (2) you have manually selected an audio-only
webcast, or (3) you do not have the proper codecs
installed. |
| |
| Q
|
How can I determine my connection speed?
|
| |
| A: |
The easiest way to check your effective connection speed is
to select a webcast (live or archived) and:
-
In Media Player 6.4 place your mouse cursor over the small picture, usually of
a sun or storm cloud, on the bottom-left hand corner of the viewing screen as
the webcast buffers or plays. A small pop-up window will appear
displaying the speed at which you are receiving the webcast.
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In Media Player 9, select "View" from the menu bar and then "statistics".
This reports the network speed the media player thinks it is connecting at.
|
| Q
|
Is there any way I can make the viewing area larger?
|
| |
| A: |
You can make the video viewing area bigger by right-clicking
on the embedded video box and selecting the full-screen option or type
‹alt›-‹enter›. To return to the normal viewing size right-click and
deselect full-screen or simply hit the ‹esc› key. |
| |
| Q
|
The webcast stopped while I was viewing it. Was
it something I did and how can I fix it?
|
| |
| A: |
Occasionally enough packets will get lost in cyberspace on
the way to your computer to cause a noticeable interruption. In most
cases the system will recover automatically and resume the webcast after a few
seconds without any special action on your part. However, if you get no
response after the first minute, refreshing the page is the best way to resume
the webcast. |
| |
| Q
|
What codec is used to encode the webcasts?
|
| |
| A: |
The audio codec is Windows Media 9 and the video codec is
Windows Media 7. Testing proved these two to be the most compatible with the
Macintosh and Pocket PC media players.
|