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Technical Advice for Home Users (submitted by Geoff Mathay's students)
Last updated 09/27/06

LINKS TO FREE PLUG-INS to view most internet files

Windows Media Player for most video and audio files
Java script for some Power Point slideshows
 

   Adobe Acrobat Reader for .pdf files

Quicktime Player for Quicktime (Apple) video and audio files

DOWNLOADING MEDIA FILES (56K modem users - take note)

"Hey Geoff, here is the link to the download for ASFRecorder that I used to capture the video streams.

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download/0,fid,7942,fileidx,1,00.asp

to the download page
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7942,00.asp

to the article
 http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,36587,pg,2,00.asp

Webattack is a great freeware site. You might check this link or search for something the same as the ASFRecorder, that might be easier for some to use.  For the most part you will still probably have to copy and paste the link to capture the stream, even if you set a capture utility as your default player, becuase Windows Media Player 9 and Realplayer are great at stealing the default back.

http://www.webattack.com/downloadfind.php?st=capture+stream+media&search=Search&action=s

TROUBLESHOOTING FOR DSL USERS

Some of our earlier versions of video are playing at 696 kbps or higher.  Most DSL service these days play in the 500 kbps range.  We have adjusted our subsequent materials to play in the ~350 kbps which should solve the problem.  However, for the older videos you may have to use the Seattle Central computers to watch the video.

One of my students improved their DSL service this way:

"that patch i mentioned that I applied when I finally settled in to some serious client-side troubleshooting on the streaming troubles is described by microsoft thusly: "Q810243 Update: Watch television shows recorded by Media Center PCs on other Microsoft Windows XP PCs" it seems to have helped considerably. i'm still seeing more than the expected occasional hiccup and rebuffering, but I can at least get through 20 to 45 secs at a stretch before it gets kooky and forces me to rewind a few secs to catch what's missed when it freezes up.  the patch can be aquired via windows update either via the control panel or by directly visiting http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp and running 'scan for updates.' This update shows up under "windows xp"