Inside Aol Video http://www.insideaolvideo.com Inside Aol Video http://www.insideaolvideo.com/media/feedlogo.gif Inside Aol Video http://www.insideaolvideo.com en-us Copyright 2010 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/New Video Player Feature: Choose your video qualityhttp://www.insideaolvideo.com/2010/05/06/new-video-player-feature-choose-your-quality-selection/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2010/05/06/new-video-player-feature-choose-your-quality-selection/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2010/05/06/new-video-player-feature-choose-your-quality-selection/#commentsFiled under: ,

Close up of video quality selectionHello AOL Video users. Its been a little while since we've been in touch. When we last were in touch back in December of 2009, we had just finished rolling out a collection of back end features that improved general functionality for AOL editorial and International users. We were very proud of that release, as it contributed to the overall stability of the video player product. Over the course of Q1 and Q2 of 201, we've continued to introduce platform and stability enhancements. We're sure you'll agree that stability is important. We think you will also agree that ease of use is equally important. That's why we're very excited to announce the release of our new video quality selection feature. Now users are able to select the video quality setting that's ideal for your Internet connection speed and your video quality expectations.

BTW: You can click here to watch the Iron Man 2 trailer and checkout the new video quality selection feature.

Of course you are most welcome to keep reading. For a while now, video featured around AOL's network of sites is optimized for three user profiles:

  • Users with dial-up or slower broadband connection speeds
  • Users who have access to average connection speeds typically delivered through DSL or cable modems
  • Users who have high-speed access or are willing to wait a little longer to get high quality video content.
We offered user-based quality selection several years ago. Last year, when we relaunched our video player with help from Brightcove, we experimented with dynamic Internet connection detection. The idea was that the player would recommend the best quality setting for your connection speed. For a variety of different reasons, we eventually dropped this approach, and for a good chunk of last year, opted to surface a single lower quality profile to the majority of users. There were a couple of experiences around AOL where we attempted to offer high quality video because the experiences called for large, wide-format video players, but these were few and far in between.

The video quality selection now gives that control back to you by surfacing a simple toggle that lets you choose between three quality settings:
  • LOW - for our lowest quality video, optimized for slower connection speeds. For gear heads, the LOW quality setting delivers bit rates of about 400 kilobytes per second.
  • SD - for standard quality video, we are delivering video bit rates of about 700-800 kilobytes per second.
  • HD - for high quality video, we are delivering video bit rate of approximately 1500 kilobytes per second.

Try out our new video quality selection feature while watching the Iron Man 2 trailer.

Iron Man 2 Movie Trailer

 

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]]>Video Player LaunchesVideoPlayerLaunchesVictor Haseman2010-05-06T05:32:00+00:00AOL Video Player December 3, 2009 Releasehttp://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/12/01/aol-video-player-december-3-2009-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/12/01/aol-video-player-december-3-2009-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/12/01/aol-video-player-december-3-2009-release/#commentsFiled under:

The Video Player team is pleased to inform you of the complete feature release of Video Player Sprint 7.9 to production on the evening of December 3. This release was focused on some of our major feature deliverables such as: universal player embed code implementation and bug fixes. Also we released support for the dynamic player selection based on the geographic location, Omniture/error reporting integration into the new AOL Playlisting player templates and legacy FPM Players dynamic switch to Brightcove.Video Player Sprint 7.9 Released Features :

1. Universal Embed code production release and bug fixes.

A configurable player JavaScript embed code that swaps a custom photo, graphic or text link on your Web page with a Brightcove video player.

Music Main page UEC implementation example: http://music.aol.com/

Fixed Bugs in 12/1 release:

- Play button renders early
- The outer wrapper does currently have a fixed area instead of expandable.
- The transparent tag that detects the clicks doesn't get created in IE.
- While loading the image to play the video in IE, it doesn't remove all elements from the container div like in other browsers.
- High Quality images load in flickering style
- if truveo has no images for assets, default image should be shown instead of blank
- on click of thumbnail/stillimage player should start playback
- Unable to view the autoplay false player without the still image

Fixed Bugs in 12/3 release:
- Truveo calls are made twice to retrieve the image from truveo
- Flash pop-up and Twice from the fullscreen screen mode the playback goes to normal mode without user initiation for universal embed code
- Ad param is not working in Universal embed code
- The groupname and partnername is not working in Universal embed code
- Unable to retrieve truveo image when param videoid is pmms ID

2. Dynamic Player Selection (country specific ads and reporting) based on geographic location.
*** The Brightcove US Player templates will be updated with the dynamic player functionality before December 14th.

Open Issue:

- Intl player dynamic text localization functionality will not be part of this Sprint release due to the technical implementation challenges.

3. Included wmode = transparent parameter to the player embed code on the video launcher page to avoid page component overlap with the player.

4. Integrated Omniture/Comscore and error reporting components in the VideoList and Playlisting BC players.

5. Dynamically switched legacy FPM/FxPM players with the syndicated Brightcove Player.

 

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]]>Tanya Van Dyke2009-12-01T17:10:00+00:00AOL Video Player October 13, 2009 Releasehttp://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/10/14/aol-video-player-october-13-2009-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/10/14/aol-video-player-october-13-2009-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/10/14/aol-video-player-october-13-2009-release/#commentsFiled under:

We are pleased to announce the release of our Video Player Sprint 7.8 to production on Tuesday evening, October 13 , 2009 . In this release we made multiple performance improvements and code optimizations ( loading features on demand) resulting in a decrease of player load time by ~ 0.5 seconds.
We are pleased to announce the release of our Video Player Sprint 7.8 to production on Tuesday evening, October 13 , 2009 . In this release we made multiple performance improvements and code optimizations ( loading features on demand) resulting in a decrease of player load time by ~ 0.5 seconds. In addition, we added a few user experience improvements and bug fixes to the player as part of our continued effort to provide quality products to our consumers.

Video Player Released Features:

1. Player Performance Optimizations (Player re-architecture by loading player features on demand and not during the player load time)
2. Phase 1 release of the simplified js embed code that allows editors to program a video thumbnail and by clicliking on the thumbnail load the player inline or as a popup on the page.


3. Added Truveo logo to "Truveo related videos" module.



4. Added the Replay tooltip to the replay button

 

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]]>Tanya Van Dyke2009-10-14T09:46:00+00:00AOL Video Portal October 5th Releasehttp://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/10/07/aol-video-portal-october-5th-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/10/07/aol-video-portal-october-5th-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/10/07/aol-video-portal-october-5th-release/#commentsFiled under:



We are excited to announce the release of updates to the AOL Video Portal. While there are a handful of improvements to AOL Video Main, most of the features in this release are technically under-the-hood "enhancements."



We are excited to announce the release of updates to the AOL Video Portal. While there are a handful of improvements to AOL Video Main, most of the features in this release are technically under-the-hood "enhancements."

Let us know any feedback you have on the site by using the Feedback link found in the page header.

Thank you for using AOL Video!

Scott

New Features:

- AOL recently launched a new product called SlashControl - a very focused full length episode experience. You will now note that full length episodes found on Video Portal re-direct to the Slashcontrol experience.

- New Main Page DL module - The new DL module is designed to match the Slashcontrol DL with a large image, more editorial text and two larger thumbs with additional text room. We feel this will enhance the editorial experience for our consumers.

- URL re-direct override logic was deployed so that certain types of videos re-direct to the proper channel pages.

- 728x90 Banner collapse - The ad banner now collapses to prevent certain types of ads from displaying. This will enhance the consumer experience.

- The Facebook Video Gift application has been updated. Be sure to send your friends an AOL Video Gift from within facebook.

- Video Gallery Module updates were made to deprecate expired partner deals.

- The play buttons have been changed from circles over the thumbnails to squares in the lower right corner creating a cleaner looking experience.

 

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]]>AOL VideoAOL Video PortalAolVideoPortalRelease NotesScott Frost2009-10-07T10:43:00+00:00AOL Video Player September 29, 2009 Releasehttp://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/09/30/aol-video-player-september-29-2009-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/09/30/aol-video-player-september-29-2009-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/09/30/aol-video-player-september-29-2009-release/#commentsFiled under:



Tuesday evening, September 29, 2009, our team released the Video Player Interim Release to production. This release included, among other things, several Omniture Reporting improvements for error and video streaming tracking and Clarabridge user feedback form changes.
Tuesday evening, September 29, 2009, our team released the Video Player Interim Release to production. This release included several Omniture Reporting improvements to the error and video streaming reports, Clarabridge user feedback form changes including additions of Player Help Topics, and updates to the invalid/geo restriction error message text.

Video Player Released Features:

  1. Omniture Video Streaming and Error Reports Optimizations.
  • Added Category and Partner Name asset metadata to the Video -> Video Streaming Report.
  • Added page domain information to the Omniture error report.
  1. Updated Clarabridge Form by displaying video player error help topics.



3. Changed Invalid Asset/Geo-Restriction message text to a single geo-restriction error message.


4. Feedback Icon tooltip change.

 

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]]>AOL Video PlayerAolVideoPlayerRelease NotesTanya Van Dyke2009-09-30T12:02:00+00:00AOL Video Player August 24, 2009 Releasehttp://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/08/31/video-player-august-24-2009-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/08/31/video-player-august-24-2009-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/08/31/video-player-august-24-2009-release/#commentsFiled under:




On Monday evening, August 24 , 2009, our team released multiple performance improvements and code optimizations to production to reduce the player load time by ~1 second. In addition, we added a few user experience improvements to the player as part of our continued effort to provide our users with the best experience possible.

Learn more about our release after the jump!
On Monday evening, August 24 , 2009, our team released multiple performance improvements and code optimizations to production to reduce the player load time by ~1 second. In addition, we added a few user experience improvements to the player as part of our continued effort to provide our users with the best experience possible.

Video Player Released Features:

  1. Player Performance Optimizations (~1 sec improvement).
  2. User Experience Improvements: Display 'Loading' animation when there is a delay on loading the asset/Pre-Roll Ad instead of black screen .
  3. Full screen functionality: Allow users to playback pre-roll advertisement and content without taking them out from the full screen to show 300x250 ad banner.
  4. User Experience Improvements: Improved recovery from failure of player components by proceeding with video playback or displaying an error message.
  5. Updates to the Launcher Tool embed code to remove dependency of the Externalad.js and APIModules.js files .
  6. Allow editors to add/remove 300x250 ad banners to/from any Brightcove player ( viral or standard).

 

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]]>aol video playerAolVideoPlayerRelease NotesReleaseNotesTanya Van Dyke2009-08-31T13:53:00+00:00Video Player July 13, 09 Releasehttp://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/08/07/video-player-july-09-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/08/07/video-player-july-09-release/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/08/07/video-player-july-09-release/#commentsFiled under:



Monday evening, July 13, 2009, our team successfully released the Video Player Sprint 7.6.1 to production, making available a number of important features.
Monday evening, July 13, 2009, our team successfully released the Video Player Sprint 7.6.1 to production, making available the following features:
  1. Enabled error messaging in the player for geo-restricted/invalid assets (support for localized error messages)
  2. Enabled User Feedback option in the player for allowing users to express comments/concerns.
  3. Made performance improvements by loading the player in less than 6 seconds.
  4. Editorial Brightcove playlisting support for the related videos module (viral player only) .
  5. Allowed users to embed/post multiple players on a single page.

Geo-restricted error message example:


We hope you'll let us know if you have any problems with this release. Thanks for taking the time to find out more about AOL Video Player.

Thank you,

AOL Video Player Team.

 

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]]>AOL Video PlayerAolVideoPlayerRelease NotesTanya Van Dyke2009-08-07T16:50:00+00:00AOL Video New Main Page Launches!http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/08/07/aol-video-new-main-page-launches/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/08/07/aol-video-new-main-page-launches/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/08/07/aol-video-new-main-page-launches/#commentsFiled under:

We are pleased to announce the launch of the newly designed AOL Video Main Page! Please visit http://video.aol.com to see the changes.

You will notice a much cleaner look to the page and more promotion of the best video content on the web.

Our new search box will hep you find the video you are looking for!

More changes are coming so chime in and let us know what you think...we really value your feedback!

Scott, AOL Video

 

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]]>Scott Frost2009-08-07T13:14:00+00:00AOL Video Main Re-Designhttp://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/07/15/aol-video-main-re-design/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/07/15/aol-video-main-re-design/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/07/15/aol-video-main-re-design/#commentsFiled under:



%Gallery-68420%


AOL Video is excited to give you a sneak peek of our newly designed main page that will be launching in the coming days. We have listened to your feedback and created a cleaner, less cluttered main page, that also provides you with more pertinent and exciting video content. You will also notice a reduction in ads in order to provide you a better consumer experience. :-)

We hope you enjoy these changes! We will continue to update this site in the coming weeks as we develop and deploy even more new features and enhancements for AOL Video.

As always, we truly value your feedback, so please be sure to use the Feedback link on our portal to send us your thoughts.

Scott, AOL Video Team

 

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]]>Scott Frost2009-07-15T13:35:00+00:00Issue Watch: Video Playback in AOLhttp://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/05/19/issue-watch-video-playback-in-aol/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/05/19/issue-watch-video-playback-in-aol/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/05/19/issue-watch-video-playback-in-aol/#commentsFiled under:



Earlier this year, the AOL Video Player team identified and resolved a number of video playback bugs in AOL Clients 9.0, 9.1 and several other releases within the AOL software family. For all of you users who hung in there and helped us debug the issues, thank you! Now that the player is working smoothly again, count on our continued monitoring of video playback in the AOL Client.

Learn more about our plan after the jump!

Earlier this year, the AOL Video Player team identified and resolved a number of video playback bugs in AOL Clients 9.0, 9.1 and several other releases within the AOL software family. For all of you users who hung in there and helped us debug the issues, thank you! Now that the player is working smoothly again, count on our continued monitoring of video playback in the AOL Client.

Our goal is to always catch issues before they impact you our customers. But from time to time we will miss things. Because of this we hope that you'll keep us posted whenever you experience a degraded video experience so that we can look into it immediately.

There are a number of ways that you can let us know when you are having trouble:
  1. You can submit feedback via our Fedback Link on video.aol.com
  2. You can post a comment on "Dear AOL Video", our consumer feedback area right here on Inside AOL Video.
  3. And we try to keep help.aol.com up-to-date with the latest details and known-issues on the video player and AOL Video Portal.
In an upcoming release of the player, we will also expose a Feedback link directly from the video player interface so that if you see a problem, you can let us know immediately. We love having you use our video products and we want your experience to be as enjoyable as possible.

Thanks for your patience and your support.

Happy Viewing,

Victor, AOL Video

 

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]]>BugsKnown IssuesKnownIssuesPatch ReleasesQuick FixesVictor Haseman2009-05-19T16:36:00+00:00Don't Miss: Urlesque's "The 100 Most Iconic Internet Videos"http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/05/19/dont-miss-urlesques-the-100-most-iconic-internet-videos/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/05/19/dont-miss-urlesques-the-100-most-iconic-internet-videos/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/05/19/dont-miss-urlesques-the-100-most-iconic-internet-videos/#commentsFiled under:



If you haven't seen Urlesque.com's post on "The 100 Most Iconic Internet Videos", then you are missing out on an awesome "time wasting" activity. The Urlesque team has pulled together some of AOL Video's all time favorites including "Will it Blend" the best viral video featuring an iPod not made by Apple, the creepy "Little Superstar", and the uproarsly funny but controversial "Inmate 'Thriller' Dance". Watch them all at once or ration them out over 100 breaks. In either case, enjoy!

Happy Viewing!

Victor, AOL Video Team

 

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]]>Favority VideoTop 100 ListsUrlesqueViral VideoViralVideoVictor Haseman2009-05-19T15:36:00+00:00New daily Moviefone series: "Moviefone Minute"http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/04/18/moviefone-launches-new-original-series-moviefone-minute/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/04/18/moviefone-launches-new-original-series-moviefone-minute/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/04/18/moviefone-launches-new-original-series-moviefone-minute/#commentsFiled under:




Teaming up with Verizon, MediaGlow's Moviefone.com site launched a new daily video series called "Moviefone Minute" April 1. Hosted by Kimberly Lansing, Minute promises a "Daily Dose of Movie Dish." We're excited to see a MediaGlow site lean into a wide screen viewing experience, but expect nothing less of our Moviefone colleagues who launched a fantastic HD-Trailer hub late last year. Hop over and check it out the next time you're ready for a coffee break in the office.

Happy Viewing!

Victor, AOL Video Team

 

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]]>Favorite VideosMoviefone MinuteMoviefoneMinuteNew Video ContentNewVideoContentVictor Haseman2009-04-18T15:29:00+00:00New Video Player in Productionhttp://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/04/18/new-video-player-in-production/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/04/18/new-video-player-in-production/http://www.insideaolvideo.com/2009/04/18/new-video-player-in-production/#commentsFiled under:

The AOL Video team recently rolled out a new video player and platform to power content across AOL's MediaGlow Web Site network. The video player and platform, powered by Brightcove, will replace our home-grown video solution (code named FPM) as our global solution for video playback. We're excited to have the experience in production and invite your comments and feedback.

Thanks and happy viewing!

Victor, AOL Video Team

Watch more Live in Hollywood - Aquarius videos on AOL Video

 

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]]>AOL Video PlayerAolVideoPlayerVictor Haseman2009-04-18T14:56:00+00:00