VIDEO PREVIEWS HELP

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Help with Video Previews

0. It says "click on the picture" in the newsletter, but the picture is not a hotlink and nothing happens.
Some email programs don't recognize multimedia streaming links.
Please go to this page, with working links to all previews.

1. There is a link (the cursor changes to a hand), and I click on it -- but nothing happens.
(a) These are full DVD-size and quality videos - so with most Internet connections, the player will have to download or "buffer" some of the video before it starts playing. Look on the player to see what % buffering is completed. PLAN ON WAITING A MINUTE OR TWO BEFORE IT STARTS. If there is no progress, try Step 2b below.
(b) You might not have the player installed. Go to Step 3.
(c) It is possible you are behind a firewall that prevents downloading of this kind of file. Sorry!

2. The video "buffers", plays, stops, buffers, plays, stops, buffers
... how do I stop this annoying behavior?

You have started streaming the video: playing the video from your hard disk before it has finished downloading the entire file, hoping to be able to download the rest fast enough so it doesn't run out.

It isn't working.

There are four ways to fix this:
(a) CLICK PAUSE ON THE PLAYER and wait while it downloads more video. There should be an indicator bar showing how much is downloaded. When you have a better margin built up, click Play on the player to resume.
(b) Click stop, close the player, then right-click the link and choose "Save Target As..." then save it on your Desktop. This will force your computer to download the whole video like a file. When it has completed downloading, double-click on the downloaded file icon on your Desktop to play it from your disk.
(c) Go into your player's configuration options, and increase the setting for buffering, or
(d) Purchase the video or DVD.

3. The video is very poor quality. The audio and video are not synchronized.
How do I fix this?

You most likely need to install a new version of Windows Media Player. There are Windows Media players available for non-Windows machines. Download and install the latest Windows Media Player
If that doesn't work, try Step 2b above.
It is possible that you have a low-power PC that can't do the digital-analog conversion fast enough. We have found it looks beautiful on our P4 desktops, but looks degraded on an old P1 laptop we have. The solution is to get a new computer with a Pentium 4 and 512 MB RAM from Dell for $500...

4. My computer asks which application to use to open the file, or says "invalid media type", "unable to download required codec" or a similar error message.
You need to install a new version of Windows Media Player. There are Windows Media players available for non-Windows machines.
Note that if you already have Windows Media player, you still need to update your player to be able to play these free samples, encoded using the latest MPEG-4 codecs.