New Flash Video section... BETA!

sweeet

i like the format of the new section but i don't like not being able to read the entire title. the other negative is the amount of videos without thumbnails. those are the only two negatives for me.

my exact thoughts!

Yeah that definitely is an issue, but as people become more familiar and use the new system, it will populate with waaaaay more thumbnails.

There's definitely tweaks to be made still, but we're moving in the right direction.

I appreciate you guys are trying to amp up the vids and i think the new version definitely has potential

A few things though...

thumbnails vs. list - I understand the there will be more thumbnails as members catch on but my biggest problem with thumbnails is its harder to tell which videos are which and you can't read the entire title. Is it possible to adjust it so you can read the title?  Also  when this is launched i'd consider an enable thumbnails option in account tools for those worried about load speed or just find the list setup easier to use

Overall I think the new layout has alot of potential and I dig the changes.  A few small things

1) everywhere else on the site the previous and next buttons are at the top. I think uniformity makes the site easier to navigate 

2.)  Video, info/ rating, and comments are what the majority of us look for.  I think it'd be perfect if you grouped them together in the  left column and moved the embedded links into the right column.  The embbedded links would still be  obvious and you won't have to scroll past them to look at comments

3.) I think its my browser but sometimes there's a click to watch thumbnail that opens a flash page, sometimes theres just a  link, and sometimes theres nothing.  I liked how in the old setup people started embbedding videos right into the page. I really liked this cause it cut down on clicks, was obvious where the video is, and minimized new windows. Is there any way to make it so all videos are embbedded right in the member video page?

i'm usually not to good with words.  so i made a pic of what i was trying to say. Take it or leave it overall i dig the new layout

I think there's actually a problem with the embedded flash videos right now. SOmething isn't displaying properly when they're uploaded... and I think there might be a problem with the uploader. :)

Today is thanksgiving, and Paul is taking a break. TOmorrow morning, he'll get at it hard tweaking the system.

I like the suggestions above... we'll work on it and keep tweaking this thing until its perfect!

Which is why we left the option in to simply watch the original video.   Our goal was not to take that away from the purists who want the full quality, we wanted to just make video viewing more simple for teh average user who just wants to watch some ski videos.  


Lets face it, 90% of people are completely fine with Youtube, so we offer double the quality of Youtube (h264) PLUS the option to download the original file.    Its the best of both worlds, so there isn't any liking the "old" way of doing it, just not liking the new display. 



Is the problem that its not apparent enough that you can download the original file?  

For some reason its taking a ridiculously long time to upload a video.

cool

i would say just have the option
List View/Thumbnail View

and yeah, change it around so that the comments are directly below the video, with all other info on the right hand side. it sucks having to scroll through.

im not a fan of the thumbnails

What if it was the old list view, but with the new thumbnails? The list would be a lot longer, but would pack in more information...

word up to that. thats a really good idea to switch out the thumbnails for video type and keep everythingelse about list the same.

its probs just me but videos dont work for me

I've really enjoyed looking at other skiers videos on this site for a long time. This new section looks all-right to me EXCEPT I don't want to sit through a commercial to look at random people's videos in the video section. It's pretty retarded.

My thoughts exactly. I clicked to watch the new ATA A basin edit, and got my drink during the 15 second commercial. The second video I watched, I didn't want to watch the commercial, so I went back to the old format and found the video. Sponsored videos having sponsored ads, fine. But small, social videos shouldn't have the same thing. I'll keep using the old format.

I definitely see your point! We're really experimenting with different things in there. We're also going to try the google overlay-style of ad which is super cool.

One problem I just realise is that video pre-rolls in the user videos are supposed to be frequency capped. So you're only supposed to see a few per day kind of deal, not on every single page load that relaly doesn't make sense... thats too many ads.

Don't give up on the section though, please keep giving it a try and letting us know your feedback. We are going to improve it thoughout the winter so that we get it perfect for you guys!

Hey Doug, I think it would definitely help if it was way more prominent that you could view the original high quality file. I didn't even realize you could do that until I spoke with you about it in another context. I just wish there was a way that the flash videos could be higher quality.

I didn't read the thread yet but, we have to do more clicking just to get to the quicktime file (if there is one) for better quality? Sure it's better than you tube but still annoying quality to watch.

You're probably right, its the exact same amount of clicks, but its just kind of buried in there and not easy to see. When you actually boil it down you can have the same experience as the old one... I think if we just tweaked the layout we'd be there.

As for the quality, h264 is pretty good midrange between quality and bandwith usage. Offering the h264 for a quick viewing experience and then the original file for download we thought was a pretty good way to go about it.

If things start to go really well (and people stop using youtube) then we can look at offering multiple quality rates, differing sizes, and whatever else is out there. Just gotta prove this thing works first ya know?

So... stop uploading your vids to youtube and put 'em on NS!

i HATE the advertisements

Yeah they're playing WAY too much.

^woohoo

hell yah beat him up!

But after using the new video section I have gotten used to it a little but the embed right under the video is annoying because i always scroll like through the embed too and it is really annoying to scroll down to see the beginning comments..just a lil OCD thing i have