Just to let fellow Mac users know:
Don't waste your money on buying an international subscription for the video. Still doesn't work on a Mac, irrespective of browser used - Safari, Netscape (which AOL dropped support for beginning of March), Firefox - none of them work. One can get the Newsdesk video, but not the match replays. Get an error message saying path name blah blah blah are incorrect. Same error message as last season. Phooey.
Jack
Several thoughts about the Mac user situation at the AFL site
1. I concur that programming for a specific OS etc on the web is ill-advised. However, browser compatibility is a nightmare. AFANA has fixed many of the Mac issues we had hweover now this site does not display correctly in IE6. Why? Because IE6 does not handle CSS correctly. We've tested 45 different browser & operating system combinations and only IE6 fails totally (IE7+ works fine). As for the AFL site my guess is that Windows bias per se is not the real issue, Digital Rights Management features and Windows Media Player are what counts. For the record, over 85% of our visitors are still using some version of Windows so that is "where the money is".
2. (Disclaimer to make all lawyers reading this thread happy:) User comments such as Jack's do not represent the views of AFANA or it's officers or staff. The comments and recommendations contained therein are solely those of the person who posted the comment. Now back to our regular programming...
3. The suggestions to use browsers that mimic IE, the VLC player, and the Windows Media add-in for Firefox which occur elsewhere on this site are still highly encouraged. Whether they help in Jack or anyone else's particular situation cannot be guaranteed.
So the main reason... is
So the main reason... is that the choice that BigPond made for video streaming REQUIRES Windows Media Player. It is really a browser issue it is the choice of streaming video that BP/afl.com.au/Telstra chose. I have tried SEVERAL media players to enable this.. VLC should work but BP does NOT allow direct access to the stream therefor it must run as a... wait for it... ActiveX control within the browser context...
Now I have found a capture program for windows that can find the direct URL for the video stream and pull in down with ease.... but then I have to use windows.
Second option was to download the URL as an AVI to the harddrive on my windows box then move it to my OSX machine. Worked fine.. but a lot of work...
Moral of the story? Get Setanta Broadband or... have a spare virus sieve er windows box lying around to do a video capture with....
Beaver
One other option I should
One other option I should have mentioned during my rant above...
You can either reboot your Mac into Windows (yeah, gives me the shivers too, but it works) or you can run an environment in the Mac which can then run Windows. (Either option requires a Windows install disk.) I do the latter when I want to check web sites I work on in various versions of IE. I use a product called Parallels Desktop (see parallels.com). Once you've installed Parallels, you can then install whatever OS you want into it -- more than one at a time if you wish. I installed XP and it works fine.
HTH
Rob
Logged on to see that there
Logged on to see that there was a International subscription to the AFL with all of the games being shown every week. Great! Seems like a dream come true. In realitiy it is the complete opposite.
I agree. I paid for it in
I agree. I paid for it in '06 and it was reasonable and I got through most games OK, but by '07 it had degenerated to how you describe. So I went to ITVN while it lasted and now use Setanta BB which has certainly proved to be the most reliable. Why BigPond has so much trouble is beyond me. They are a major telecommunications company....and as you say...we have no problem with streamimg YouTube or AOL video etc etc etc.
Just got through with
Just got through with watching first game on Setanta Broadband and am pleased.... (Plus the Vic's won! ) ....
Only major complaint is that there is no "Full Screen" option...
Beaver
To Beaver....
....Just right click on the middle of the Setanta display screen and click on "Zoom", it will give you the full screen option.
Dennis.
not available option on a
not available option on a mac with either firefox or safari...
Will have to call setanta sports on this one...
Full screen
Hmmm. I'm no tech, but I think it's a function of your media player, not the provider. The directions were for going full screen with WMP.
What are you using on your Mac?
Proprietary Formats..... erg...
So the issue again is that Setanta like afl and bigpond chose a PROPRIETARY (e.g. Windows ONLY) steaming system. it uses .wmv technology. so for mac or linux users... this means that you have to use FlipforMac or an OpenSource translation program... however.. FlipForMac seems to work fine to get the stream... just need to do a work around for the mac side for zooming since the controls are windows proprietary as well.... soooo...
Here is the work around from Setanta Help Desk:
Mac users have to use the Zoom option:
Click on Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard and Mouse > Mouse (tab) >
tick Zoom using scroll wheel while holding.
Best regards,
Setanta Broadband Customer Services
Rob - I will compile all of this "stuff" after this weekend and post it as a "How To" for mac users like I did for AFL Radio....
Beaver
Thanks...
That would be great. Much appreciated (in advance), Beaver.
-Rob
AFANA Chairman and Site Admin
still working on it... the
still working on it... the full screen option is really kind of a hack and not a good or realistic solution....
Beaver
Typical. They should have fixed this idiocy when they redid the web site, but I've noticed that many Australian web services are still in the dark ages.
Have you tried a browser that can mimic IE? That is, one where you can set in its Prefs that it should identify itself as IE instead of itself. (iCab can do that, not sure about others.) This sometimes works. But of course, if the content is actually depending on a system path, as that error message suggests, then that won't work.
The stupidity of Windoze programmers never ceases to amaze me.
Rob
[ later edit ]
On sober second thought, I wouldn't want to annoy too many people. So I'd better explain that over the years the term Windoze has taken on a life of its own, not necessarily related to any particular operating system. In this instance it refers to programmers who, through error or malice, have created a program which needlessly requires some element of the Windows OS, likely even some version of same, to be available before the program will run.
Now if this was done while writing an app destined for Windows machines, good on ya. But when you're creating an app which will be run on the web, this is by definition a stupid mistake. The web is a medium accessed by many operating systems, under many conditions. No assumptions should be made about the OS of the browsing party. It's especially stupid to require a particular OS just to deliver a bloody video.
If the gormless wonder at Big Pond who programmed this mistake would like to jump into the conversation, I'd love to hear his excuses.