I have a simple request for all those newspaper folk putting all that great video on-line: keep in mind those of us with older computers. Flash video, which is excellent, requires a lot of processing power. And at some sites, the video is being encoded at rates that my computer can’t handle. I get stops and starts, stuttering sound, flickering pictures and extremely frustrated. So I go away. And I suspect I am not alone.
If you can’t test your stuff against lower-powered machines (such as my G4 iBook), at least provide the video in alternate formats. Two Flash-encoded videos that I was unable to watch, played fine when I chose the available alternatives, a WMV file in one case and an MPEG-4 in the other. Or, you could send me a couple of grand for a MacBook Pro.
The goal, after all, is to have your stories seen. Thanks.
