Damage Limitation Into Action
Saturday, July 22, 2006 at 11:31AM You may have heard me mention on this weeks EuroMac Podcast that ScreenCastsOnline is to be featured in this months MacFormat magazine.
They were kind enough to send me an advance copy so I ripped open the mag and bunged the DVD into my macbook pro.
Some background first. When MacFormat first approached me they mentioned they wanted 4 early shows to insert on the cover disk and that they wanted to convert them into normal video files so that people could play them on their TVs. I responded that I was more than happy to supply the shows but didn't really want them to be converted to video due to resolution issues and overscan issues when viewing on a TV.
To cut a long story short, they definately wanted the video versions so I pointed out the issues and requested that they addressed them in advance.
You know where this is going don't you!
The freshly pressed DVD burst into life and instead of a menu, it started loading DVD player....
Then I recognised one of the ScreenCastsOnline shows appearing....
The resolution wasn't too bad....
Then it stopped....
Then it started...
Then it stopped.....
Oh dear!
I removed the DVD and tried it in my PowerMac G5, it loaded DVD player and it started the ScreenCastsOnline video.....
Then it stopped....
Then it started...
Then it stopped.....
Arrrrgggghhhhh.....disaster.
Then I took it to my XBox which is the only DVD player attached to a TV.
The ScreenCastsOnline video started OK and played OK.....
Then it transpires that the overscan on the TV means that the OSX menu and half the dock is missing.......
Arrggggghhhh.....double disaster
To get to the Quicktime files you need to quit from the DVD player and load the MAcFormat menu and they are hidden away in the submenus but I fear the damage will have been done by them and by association ScreenCastsOnline will look extremely amateur despite my doing all I could to draw the pitfalls of creating a DVD to their attention.
I've emailed the guys over at MacFormat but I think it's too late to do anything about it.
I'll put a special page on my website later.
Reader Comments (6)
This does not surprise me in the least. MacFormat CD's /DVD's seem to have always had their problems. I remember writing to them nearly 10 years ago about constant problems with their cover discs..... I actually stopped buying the mag because of the problems. I gave them another chance 2 or so years ago and the CD was STILL sub standard.
Just have to stop their lack of assistance or ability to take advice from doing your excellent reputation any harm.
Ugh, that is really too bad... To see your work destroyed like that... Oh well.
Thanks for the sympathy!
I don't really want to turn this into a MacFormat knocking thread as they were kind enough to make the offer and I suppose I may get some additional interest by people determined enough to see what ScreenCastsOnline is all about.
Best I can hope is that my disk is faulty and the playback problem is down to that.
And I suppose most people will play on their computer rather than on the TV so I'll try and remain positive :-)
Subscriber issues are out tooday - haven't checked the DVD yet, will try later.
Thanks Colin, I'd really appreciate some feedback!
In the meantime I'll polish my tin hat :-)
Much as you observed yourself Don.
Put it in the telly's DVD player, starts up directly into SCO, resolution not brilliant, and top and bottom of screen display are missing, so only the top half of the dock shows, and worse, the whole Apple menu bar is missing.
Put it in the iMac and it launches directly into SCO in DVD Player full screen mode. This was a bit unexpected, I thought the Mac Format intro/menu screen would appear. I think this must be because I've set my preferences to say start DVD Player when a new DVD is inserted, which it does because it can see the VIDEO_TS folder there.
Once you quit DVD Player you can get back to the Mac Format menu screen and launch SCO in Quicktime from there. (This may fool some people as it's not obvious, at least to me, how to quit full screen mode DVD Player without ejecting the disc).
On the plus side, the screencast looks OK in DVD Player.
I didn't notice any starting or stopping either on the TV or the iMac but I only watched the first couple of minutes or so each time.