UWOL#2 How to make it better

[Kevin Railsback]

Don't sweat the server space Mat. :)

[Ruth Happel]

Windows machines (including Vista and XP) do not have the capability to play .mov/mp4/h.264 files until QuickTime is downloaded and installed.

Macs cannot play .wmv files until Flip4Mac is downloaded and installed.

Why not take a vote on which is more common?

[Chris Barcellos]

By the way, will there be a new theme announcement around March 1, 2007, as previously discussed ?

[Meryem Ersoz]

march 1 is the date for the next theme announcement. we'll post a sign-up thread on the 22nd or so......

and voting does not solve our platform issues. our goal is to be universally accessible, and to invite as many new players in as possible. we're working towards that, and we have some developments which may invite other platforms. stay tuned.

let me just say up front that, we will never put anything to a group vote, because anything that today's group votes on forecloses on input from new players. and people who vote may elect not to play in the subsequent round, thereby dictating terms which they then will not have to meet.

having said that, our team will do its absolute best to insure the best experience for the most players. working out every single bug will take another round or two, most likely. so be patient, but be assured we're listening.

[Ken Diewert]

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

i suggested DivX originally, and the idea wasn't met very enthusiastically. people simply don't want to be required to download software to play. moreover, that limits your viewing audience to DivX viewers, so if i wanted to, say, find a sponsor to get us better prizes, i would have to request that they download the player--people really seem to hate chewing up their memory on dedicated software. it's not efficient or universal. it sure is nice-looking, though!

youtube got the ax because its artifact-y compression looks a lot worse than what we put together on our dedicated website.

if we can change the uploader to accept larger files, we will. i don't think we are going to radically change anything--bump up file size, if we can, and bump up aspect ratio sizes, if we can enlarge the file size, and i think we'll be in business. we'll work on that.

Hey all,

I'm back. Wish I was there. Returned to cold, wet conditions from a month in near heaven in Costa Rica.

I wanted to mention that I just learned a youtube trick. If you buy the DivX converter for $20 (d/load from DivX.com), then convert your .avi using Divx before uploading to youtube, the rez is far superior. I just uploaded a 7 min piece that was about 1.6gb before DivX, and 76mb after. Even the youtube compression doesn't mess it up too bad.

Here's a link to the short. It's a favor for some leatherback turtle researchers I met. There's no narration as the researcher will be speaking to the piece. The piece highlights the challenges of the nesting turtles; feral dogs, shrimp boats inside the 3 mile limit, lights on shore. Not too entertaining but does show that the Divx/youtube combo can work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vglpvOpDxGk

[Dale Guthormsen]

Ken,

That is a real nice bit of information!!! will use that myself!!

thanks for sharing!