I agree that the lack of full screen mode is an incredibly poor decision, but what they do offer is not even in the same league as YouTube. YouTube video quality is horrible, plus I'd rather not watch the Olympics in 10 minute segments like YouTube would have.
I've watched a few videos in the Silverlight player, some of which were nearly 2 hours long and what I saw was fantastic video quality with no interruption.
I ended up in this discussion because i was searching for fullscreen in silverlight, more exactly about "how to make my app work fullscreen"
well, i'm a developer, and i use forums to help me developing software.... i usually read helpful and nice posts of programmers halping each other...
and what do i found here? people with really bad education and lack of respect that are frustrated because they can't watch the olympics in full screen..
i have to say: so what? how pathetic are your lives, so that you're angry over something really not important? i mean, you're not even paying!
off course, most of you are american (i suppose, because we're talking about nbc) and everybody (except americans theirselves) knows that american people don't care a lot about the world..... so i would like to point somethings for all of my overweight dumb
and narcisist fellows:
- silverlight is not being developped to display video in full screen, it's something A LOT BIGGER AND COMPLEX. video display is just a really small part of it.. i've been working with it for the past 4 months doing a lot of other things (i never had to
put a video in my silverlight apps)...
- silverlight 2 is in it's BETA version, meaning it's still being developed, and it's not in it's final shape...
- there are other countries around the world, where people don't have 22" lcd monitors...
- microsoft is a powerful company with lots of power to "decide" new technologies... so don't say you won't use silverlight again.. it's a waist of time... you are goint to eventually
but ok, i think microsoft made a huge mistake: it underestimated the "dumbness" of the end users... they should not have advertised "full screen video" and they have had to put a huge note telling that silverlight 2 is in beta version, so problems may occur
I was aproaching this from a different viewpoint than you suggest. I too have been working with and learning Silverlight for months now. I'm actually banking on the fact that Microsoft succeeds with Silverlight, that is why I'm converting my company's main
product over to using it. From that frame of mind I was really wanting them to put their best foot forward in the big debut with the Olympics site. I knew it was perfectly capable of going fullscreen because I had used the MIX08 site a lot to watch the recorded
sessions. I was simply dissapointed when I went to check out the site and realized it was disabled and I personally couldn't think of a good reason for them to have done that from a technology point of view.
everybody (except americans theirselves) knows that american people don't care a lot about the world..... so i would like to point somethings for all of my overweight dumb and narcisist fellows
always amuses me when someone insults an entire country/group of people, what great form/manners!!
as to the full-screen aspect, it's definitely a mistake on the development teams' view of the issue, imo. when you are trying to highlight a technology, especially one going up against an established market leader like Flash, you should really put your
best foot forward showing off the technology. a simple solution of having certain, key videos full-screen enabled would alleviate the design issues outlined and allow the user to experience the full power of the Silverlight platform. as it is, a decision
was made across all the videos that limited them and hence, limited the 'pop' that people see in the technology. a shame, really, given how simple a solution is to the issue.
Could you also post something that tells how to stop the video from "improving" itself and then showing up blurry on my monitor. After a few minutes watching Olympics my screen freezes and I get a flash of a blurb that says I'm being updated for improved
image viewing, and then when the video starts up again my screen is blurry and difficult to see. I don't need this type of improvement.
For anyone who doesn't want to use the workarounds already described (Firefox 3's zoom-in mode works well), I have posted a blog article showing a simple 2-line CSS tweak that you can make to force the NBCOlympics.com player to fill the whole width of the
IE7 browser window, regardless of how big your monitor is.
>The silverlight is not a TV substition. [Silverlight is not a TV substitute].
Well according to this
article by Will Zachmann there are a lot of people at Microsoft working to make Silverlight exactly that (at least long term). Below is a partial quote from Will's article:
"Breaking Broadcast The common theme behind all this is an extremely bold and ambitious effort by Microsoft to supplant traditional TV video-distribution with a Web-based alternative model built on Silverlight. The essential idea is to offer everything currently available
from your local cable company and much more -- not via channels on a traditional TV tuner but directly through a Web or Xbox game interface. If Microsoft succeeds in this effort, just who makes money and how they make it in TV distribution will change dramatically
over the next few years."
>I'm surprised no one made a bookmarklet / favlet yet, to set the style to 100%.
Hmm. That's a great idea. I'd never done a bookmarklet before, but I just made one. It tests fine in both IE7 and FF2. I have added it to
my blog article. For those who haven't used them before, a
bookmarklet is a tiny Javascript program living in the href of a bookmark. Very useful.
BTW: One feature of the player that really rocks at 1600x1200 is the wall of 24 thumbnails you get in the "Highlights" view. I've
uploaded a screen capture (286KB) of that at 1600x1200 in IE7. The thumbnails have enough detail that they really benefit from the big resolution. Actually, the highlights videos themselves (higher bit rates as Tom Taylor from MS pointed out) look impressive
at 1600x1200.
TWallace
Member
10 Points
5 Posts
Re: Re: NBC+Olympics+Silverlight 2.0= No Full screen mode?
Aug 12, 2008 04:29 AM | LINK
andrevieirad...
Member
6 Points
3 Posts
Re: Re: NBC+Olympics+Silverlight 2.0= No Full screen mode?
Aug 13, 2008 08:41 PM | LINK
I ended up in this discussion because i was searching for fullscreen in silverlight, more exactly about "how to make my app work fullscreen"
well, i'm a developer, and i use forums to help me developing software.... i usually read helpful and nice posts of programmers halping each other...
and what do i found here? people with really bad education and lack of respect that are frustrated because they can't watch the olympics in full screen..
i have to say: so what? how pathetic are your lives, so that you're angry over something really not important? i mean, you're not even paying!
off course, most of you are american (i suppose, because we're talking about nbc) and everybody (except americans theirselves) knows that american people don't care a lot about the world..... so i would like to point somethings for all of my overweight dumb and narcisist fellows:
- silverlight is not being developped to display video in full screen, it's something A LOT BIGGER AND COMPLEX. video display is just a really small part of it.. i've been working with it for the past 4 months doing a lot of other things (i never had to put a video in my silverlight apps)...
- silverlight 2 is in it's BETA version, meaning it's still being developed, and it's not in it's final shape...
- there are other countries around the world, where people don't have 22" lcd monitors...
- microsoft is a powerful company with lots of power to "decide" new technologies... so don't say you won't use silverlight again.. it's a waist of time... you are goint to eventually
but ok, i think microsoft made a huge mistake: it underestimated the "dumbness" of the end users... they should not have advertised "full screen video" and they have had to put a huge note telling that silverlight 2 is in beta version, so problems may occur
Omnius
Member
24 Points
9 Posts
Re: Re: NBC+Olympics+Silverlight 2.0= No Full screen mode?
Aug 13, 2008 08:58 PM | LINK
I was aproaching this from a different viewpoint than you suggest. I too have been working with and learning Silverlight for months now. I'm actually banking on the fact that Microsoft succeeds with Silverlight, that is why I'm converting my company's main product over to using it. From that frame of mind I was really wanting them to put their best foot forward in the big debut with the Olympics site. I knew it was perfectly capable of going fullscreen because I had used the MIX08 site a lot to watch the recorded sessions. I was simply dissapointed when I went to check out the site and realized it was disabled and I personally couldn't think of a good reason for them to have done that from a technology point of view.
pdjplano
Member
59 Points
38 Posts
Re: Re: NBC+Olympics+Silverlight 2.0= No Full screen mode?
Aug 14, 2008 01:52 PM | LINK
always amuses me when someone insults an entire country/group of people, what great form/manners!!
as to the full-screen aspect, it's definitely a mistake on the development teams' view of the issue, imo. when you are trying to highlight a technology, especially one going up against an established market leader like Flash, you should really put your best foot forward showing off the technology. a simple solution of having certain, key videos full-screen enabled would alleviate the design issues outlined and allow the user to experience the full power of the Silverlight platform. as it is, a decision was made across all the videos that limited them and hence, limited the 'pop' that people see in the technology. a shame, really, given how simple a solution is to the issue.
Souleao
Member
2 Points
2 Posts
Re: Re: Re: NBC+Olympics+Silverlight 2.0= No Full screen mode?
Aug 16, 2008 12:42 AM | LINK
Could you also post something that tells how to stop the video from "improving" itself and then showing up blurry on my monitor. After a few minutes watching Olympics my screen freezes and I get a flash of a blurb that says I'm being updated for improved image viewing, and then when the video starts up again my screen is blurry and difficult to see. I don't need this type of improvement.
zambelli
Member
26 Points
12 Posts
Re: Re: Re: NBC+Olympics+Silverlight 2.0= No Full screen mode?
Aug 16, 2008 06:12 AM | LINK
Souleao, I've moved my reply to the other thread: http://silverlight.net/forums/p/22929/81101.aspx#81101
Alex Zambelli
Media Technology Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
Alan Cobb
Member
479 Points
208 Posts
Re: NBC+Olympics+Silverlight 2.0= No Full screen mode?
Aug 17, 2008 06:16 PM | LINK
For anyone who doesn't want to use the workarounds already described (Firefox 3's zoom-in mode works well), I have posted a blog article showing a simple 2-line CSS tweak that you can make to force the NBCOlympics.com player to fill the whole width of the IE7 browser window, regardless of how big your monitor is.
Please see:
http://www.alancobb.com/blog/2008/08/17/TweakingTheNBCOlympicscomSilverlightVideoPlayerToRunFullScreen.aspx
Alan Cobb
www.alancobb.com/blog (Silverlight blog)
Alan Cobb
Member
479 Points
208 Posts
Re: Re: NBC+Olympics+Silverlight 2.0= No Full screen mode?
Aug 17, 2008 07:51 PM | LINK
Hi mypam,
>The silverlight is not a TV substition. [Silverlight is not a TV substitute].
Well according to this article by Will Zachmann there are a lot of people at Microsoft working to make Silverlight exactly that (at least long term). Below is a partial quote from Will's article:
"Breaking Broadcast
The common theme behind all this is an extremely bold and ambitious effort by Microsoft to supplant traditional TV video-distribution with a Web-based alternative model built on Silverlight. The essential idea is to offer everything currently available from your local cable company and much more -- not via channels on a traditional TV tuner but directly through a Web or Xbox game interface. If Microsoft succeeds in this effort, just who makes money and how they make it in TV distribution will change dramatically over the next few years."
Alan Cobb
www.alancobb.com/blog (Silverlight blog)
slyi
Participant
1027 Points
313 Posts
Re: Re: NBC+Olympics+Silverlight 2.0= No Full screen mode?
Aug 18, 2008 12:00 AM | LINK
Im surprised no one made a bookmarklet / favlet yet, to set the style to 100%.
Alan Cobb
Member
479 Points
208 Posts
Re: Re: NBC+Olympics+Silverlight 2.0= No Full screen mode?
Aug 18, 2008 02:56 AM | LINK
Hi slyi,
>I'm surprised no one made a bookmarklet / favlet yet, to set the style to 100%.
Hmm. That's a great idea. I'd never done a bookmarklet before, but I just made one. It tests fine in both IE7 and FF2. I have added it to my blog article. For those who haven't used them before, a bookmarklet is a tiny Javascript program living in the href of a bookmark. Very useful.
BTW: One feature of the player that really rocks at 1600x1200 is the wall of 24 thumbnails you get in the "Highlights" view. I've uploaded a screen capture (286KB) of that at 1600x1200 in IE7. The thumbnails have enough detail that they really benefit from the big resolution. Actually, the highlights videos themselves (higher bit rates as Tom Taylor from MS pointed out) look impressive at 1600x1200.
Thanks for the tip slyi,
Alan Cobb
www.alancobb.com/blog (Silverlight blog)