frogfox

So, did I miss the bit where the administrators asked the users what they wanted or was this just imposed? As a long time user and high volume point buyer I find that quite annoying. The first I knew that this was being done was not being able to get into the site during the upgrade this morning. Perhaps those who spend a lot of time on the forum were told but from this thread it appears the announcement was given only a few days ago. I am a MAC user. I've tried the flash and it runs OK on the very fast internet link I am currently on. However, so did Real player and with some advantages - I agree with some of the issues I have seen listed in this thread and I have one to add : 1. Multi tasking really does not work any where near as well as it is not possible to have a smaller screen playing only the video (unless I haven't found it in which case, please tell me how) 2. Size of file is a huge problem - one of the reasons I use this site is to continue to watch shows when abroad. Many non-European / US countries have much more constrained and expensive internet packages - doubling the size of the file has effectively doubled the cost of watching these shows. When 1GB is costing about GBP20 this is a very significant and potentially prohibitive increase 3. Flash appears to have fewer picture controls than real player - the one that I have found most necessary is the brightness control - the default levels are too low for many ambient light environments and without the ability to change this it may be impossible to use the site in many situations All in all, this "upgrade" could have been handled a lot better with respect to whether users wanted it and what functionality trade-offs should be made. Given it is clearly a fait accompli please could the administrators of this site address the above issues? Does anyone else have similar concerns?

frogfox

I am watching Supernatural on the VIP site and it has the logo

frogfox

Another disadvantage to Flash is the inability to use an equaliser to give greater control of the volume. Admin - any fixes for this please?

frogfox

Is it possible to use a stand alone flash player that would give more control on picture, volume, window size, etc? If so, could you explain how please?

frogfox

You can do this with realplayer. Works fine and buffers whole episode faster.

frogfox

Perhaps you should have asked those of us not complaining whether we want to change. If you only notice the comments from dissatisfied people you are ignoring the main segment of subscribers.

frogfox

Apologies. Many of the answers on here sound like administrators or at least the people responsible for the decision. Would any administrators be kind enough to answer?

frogfox

Yes, you could. Academic now but the episode you were watching had to be paused while the next one started. You could then pause the new one and go back to the first one and watch it while the other buffered. The conflict only came if you tried to play two episodes simultaneously which is possible with flash though why that would be useful is beyond me. cheers

frogfox

If the moderators aren't the people responsible for the decision it seems unfair that they get all the questions about the lack of consultation. It seems to me that the admin people should answer that themselves. Also, while I understand that realplayer had many problems that were resolved over time and this is only D1 of flash, many of the issues mentioned here are not bugs but functionality design issues. Again, it seems that admin would be best to answer whether they will find a way to restore the advantages of realplayer through alternative functionality or reinstating a realplayer option. If not, then I fear that a lot of the previously happy people will find they no longer enjoy this service.

frogfox

You have my heart felt sympathy. I can't believe this was done in sum an incredibly hamfisted way.

frogfox

Because that does not solve any of the functionality issues. Just behaves like a limited browser - none of the control for streaming video using realplayer work. Not surprising really since the browser is still just streaming flash, not the realplayer feeds.

frogfox

Yes, that's a great idea. Also, does anyone know any other sites that offer similar services for watching good quality tv?

frogfox

Episode 11 is "Betrayed" then next one is Narco, Part 2 - clearly an episode is missing.

frogfox

I know that that sometimes happens and that's what I assumed. However, when I opened it and watched the reprise of the last episode it really didn't look like anything I had seen before and it definitely isn't the plot of Betrayed. Could you check that there really isn't a missing episode please.

frogfox

I'm sorry - I don't understand. What options do you mean? There is playing in a browser window and popping out. How is this 3 option and what does it do that RP didn't?

frogfox

Hi The pop out is a good addition and implemented very fast. Thank you. One suggestion though. When I pop out the player, it still treats it as part of the browser which means that all the other browser windows are also on top. If I want to have another application visible next to the pop out player I have to close or minimise all the browser windows. This is possible but it I frequently want to refer to the browser windows, very annoying. Is it possible to have the pop out player behave as a stand alone application with its own focus? Many thanks V

frogfox

Ah. I see. I wouldn't count a feature that has absolutely no use and is a disadvantage to the user as an option. Hence my confusion. The pop out option is an improvement and makes it easier to multitask but is still far inferior to RP in that there are no audio or visual controls, i.e. one cannot change the pre-amp or adjust the brightness.