Uploading your Video
Please Note: there is a 100Mb (megabyte) limit on individual uploads to Bay TV Liverpool.
It's important when saving a video to use efficient settings. You can do this by setting your 'Bit-rate' which is at its optimum level when set to 400Kbps. Anything higher may result in a the production of unmanageably large files.
Warning: Authoring tools like Final Cut Lite/Pro, Avid and other systems will output MP4 files with their metadata at the end of the file instead of at the beginning. We're not sure if this will help you at all for your particular situation with uploading on to Bay TV Liverpool, but you can try running your MP4 through an application like MP4Fast start http://www.datagoround.com/lab/; then try upload your video again to Bay TV Liverpool.
If you're unsure about converting to the best acceptable formats, we recommend the file converter 'HandBrake' This is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for both MacOS X and Windows (refer to our Using Handbrake Guide Below).
Video Issues
In CHROME the player sometimes plays a video for a couple of seconds and suddenly ends up with an error message (testcard).
As of February 2013 Chrome seems to have issues with hardware accelerated H.264 playback on some operating systems. Disabling acceleration helps. Open "chrome://flags" and uncheck the "Enable hardware acceleration" checkbox to disable hardware acceleration.
While playing back OGG/Theora in Firefox the player stops playback within the first second or so.
Most likely you´re using Firefox 5 with Firebug enabled. Just disable Firebug and all is good. Please don´t ask. Took my hours to get the trick.
Using with Handbrake
1. Handbrake is an open source video transcoder available for Mac OS, Linux and Windows. It converts media; it cannot rip from DVD or Blu-Ray. Open your browser, go to http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php and download and install the relevent version for your platform.
General Usage
The Bay TV servers work in the following manner for Video on Demand; the video player never buffers the whole video, only enough to fill the buffer which by default is set to 5 seconds. This is to save bandwidth as users might not view the whole video and in that case some of the downloaded data is "wasted".
If you find a glitch in the site (a broken link or some other technical problem) please use the Contact Us facility to report the fault.
The same applies for any queries about the usability of the site. Any queries should be routed via the Contact Us page.
