Hi there!  I am loving the RC as always, and was wondering about downloading an exhibition and re-uploading to my own space.

It seems prohibitive to lock an exhibition in case some errors are found, so uploading to my own server seems smarter for my purposes.  I love that RC lets me do that.

BUT when I upload my rough exhibition, I get some "file not found" errors when playing video.  Even though the video plays, there's a popup which seems like RC code "An Error Occurred" with my web server's 404 page (Page Not Found), but as a floating pop up in the RC exposition!

Hard to explain but here's a video of the event.  I'm not sure how to make this go away.

https://vimeo.com/716968253/32eedf6469

And here's where I've uploaded my work temporarily:

(remove the spaces to see it)

https://flickharrison.com/ OurVoices/ pages/ 1575658.html?x=0&y=0#

2

(6 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

Aha - I figured it out.  Just had to trial and error.

I uploaded an image and embedded it on a page no one can see, then used that image location url as a link.

3

(6 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

HMMM ... I don't know enough about CSS to know how to replace your CSS with my own image.  I tried replacing an image URL in there several ways but I don't know which parts of your code are  from the images host requirements vs the RC requirements.

I also have to host the image elsewhere in this mode - I can't figure out how to have the image appear using an upload to RC itself.

4

(6 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look into this CSS option.

5

(1 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

It seems like I can go full screen with uploaded videos but not with embedded video from Vimeo.  Am I missing something or is this not possible?

6

(6 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

Is there a way to build a total background for a block page, or set background attributes like colour?

I have an image I'd like to have in the background.

7

(3 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

Oh!  So it is not possible to show anyone outside RC the exhibition while it's being reviewed.

:-(

I submitted my exposition to be published, and I don't know how long this will take for review.

In the meantime, I would like to send a link to some people to privately view the exposition.  However, I can't see where this option is anymore.  After submission, the menu for sharing has disappeared.

Thanks,
Flick

Hi Casper,

(It seems to all be working again now speed-wise, so I can't answer your question anymore... might have been my connection that day).

What I'm trying to do might not be possible in that exhibition, which is too bad but understandable.  There's two things that don't seem to be possible...

The problem I explained above trying to get the paused videos to play again from where they left off is one... but also, if they figure out to jump back to the spot in the video where they left off, the arrow in the other video doesn't jump with it.  So the arrow which is meant to tell them which video clips to look at at certain points in the main video, doesn't line up after the first one they watch.

The sync tool only starts the videos in sync, it doesn't keep them in sync!  Too bad.  But I can understand it's a non-trivial programming issue... I'm trying to do something which is admittedly complicated.

I have a few videos on a page, one of which is a "master" and the others are interruptions that the user can look at in the middle of watching the master video.

I would love it if they could watch the interruption, thus pausing the master, then after that video finishes, continue to play the master video again from where it was playing.

https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/664738/664739

Right now the default behaviour is for the interruption to stop the master, and revert it to the start.  The same thing happens with the sync button's "pause other videos" option.

[Also - seems like RC is responding slowly today.  I'm in Vancouver so pretty far away, maybe that's the issue.]

11

(1 replies, posted in Bug Reports)

OK! I get it now.  "Stop other videos" option in the video tool will prevent this problem... however it then jumps back to the beginning of that video if you go back to it.  So having multiple vids open so you can go back to them isn't an option.

Not a bad solution, I just need to decide which I prefer.

12

(1 replies, posted in Bug Reports)

So one last problem (I hope) before this exposition is done.

I have a number of videos that I can play on the page.  I have them set to pause when I play another one.

BUT when several videos are open at once, even if they are paused, then further videos stop working.

Here's video of the phenomenon, it happens at around 1:20 of this clip:

https://monosnap.com/file/BiecHN8osQjKk … Aw9GIe6KbO

I can leave instructions to refresh the page, which solves the problem but... not ideal.

What I would love (don't know if it's possible) would be to have the ability to reset the vids I'm not watching, back to their thumbnail state.  Or a way to clear the cache of the paused vids so they don't keep eating up memory while they are paused and I'm watching something else.

I imagine this is a tricky programming question... might be best solved in my instructions, tell people to refresh the page if videos won't load...

Thanks!
-FLick

13

(3 replies, posted in Bug Reports)

Wow Casper, you really did solve it!

Thanks so much.

Hadn't explored far enough to know I could do CSS changes, not that I'm good with that stuff anyway!

- Flick

14

(3 replies, posted in Bug Reports)

So I have a problem with transparent png images in thumbnail images.

I set a partly-transparent .png file as a thumbnail for a video.  I want to see the writing behind the button, and the user clicks the play button to see the video.

However, when I preview the exposition, the transparency turns to black.  Ruins the effect and makes me worry I have to do a lot of cutting and pasting of screen-grabs to actually get the effect I want.

Here's an example of what I mean:

https://monosnap.com/file/tgtU76QhbpFY1 … Iwcd29m6v#

15

(3 replies, posted in Bug Reports)

Hi Caspar,

I can't remember if I replied to this or not, but I'm pretty sure I was just using too large of a TIFF image.  I wanted some transparency but didn't know a PNG would do the same trick in a much smaller file size.

I'm not sure i can remember now which image was causing the problem...

16

(3 replies, posted in Bug Reports)

Interesting - I replaced the image with a much smaller image.  Then it worked.  And when I zoomed out (cmd-minus) then it switched back to my original image by itself and worked fine.

Weird!

17

(3 replies, posted in Bug Reports)

I seem to have a bug with a background image on my exposition.

It was working fine a while ago, but seems to have stopped working now.

My picture tool starts loading an image, and then stops partway down, showing instead a broken image icon in the top-left of the tool.

This happens in edit mode and preview mode.

I tried it in Chrome and Firefox on OSX and both experience the same issue.

I also restarted my computer and this didn't help.

Here's a video of what's happening (the last bit is when I reloaded the whole page with cmd-R):

https://monosnap.com/file/VHkR0Yji1BqYQ … YUpPN4wYrD

18

(4 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

Another question - is there any way to FTP videos directly to the exhibition?  That way I could bypass the video upload tool and the encoding process.

I am doing a video piece right now and it would make things easier.

19

(4 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

PS to add:  I wondered about h264 being proprietary and thus less desireable as a mandatory format, but it apparently is free and open:

https://www.videolan.org/developers/x264.html

20

(4 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

Thanks for the response.

I'm not a coder but it seems like detecting the encoding settings on the uploaded files is a pretty trivial thing, and letting the uploader take responsibility for video quality is fine, even preferable from an aesthetic standpoint.  I hope it is as easy to implement as it sounds!

These days it should also be acceptable to list the video standards that the site demands, and put the onus on the uploader to conform...  your site actually does that but it gives enough options that I suppose a less-technical person just accepts what their software spits out the most easily, instead of figuring out what is the most precise standard - I suppose this expands the scope of who can use the RC easily.

But as I say, nowadays h264 video is bog-standard for any software to output, the only wildly-variable part is the bitrates.  And HEVC (h265) is coming in fast, smaller files but slower encodes, and RC may have to keep up (that kind of knowledge management an external service is probably good at).

21

(4 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

I see that the RC transcodes video files after upload.

I'd love to output from my video software at the optimized size and format so that there doesn't have to be another transcode at the RC end, or, if that's not possible, to upload at the best possible quality so that the transcode doesn't degrade my files too much.

For instance, I uploaded this file which is around 96MB h264 .mov and the site transcoded it to around the same size, same codec etc... which seems like it's just a loss of quality for no benefit in file size...  the loss isn't huge but I'm still willing to find the absolute best.

I'd love to upload a video in such a way that RC likes it, but that I don't have two transcodes?  Has anyone found the ideal mode for this?

22

(2 replies, posted in General Discussion)

This is very helpful.  I notice the software is open source as well, so this all gives me high confidence that we can count on this as a reliable place to publish.  I will archive stuff as I publish so it’s available to republish if anything happens to the RC (knock wood).



Thanks!

23

(2 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Hi there!

I'm in the midst of creating a fairly complicated exposition for the catalogue, with a lot of video.

Before I go to all the work of committing the project here, I just wondered what the long-term prospects of the RC are?  I love the platform, and I've had some great interactions with it on a few projects.  But I wonder how long it is funded for, how long I could expect something created here to last?

Thanks,
Flick Harrison

24

(2 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

Ah!  Makes sense, thank you.  I keep forgetting that author /= co-author

25

(2 replies, posted in Questions on Using the RC)

I am looking through the instructions and all the interface pages and I can't figure out how to publish or share an exposition. 

The instructions seem to indicate a need to individually share each object in the exposition - but that can't be right.

Also, the hamburger menu on my profile page has no option for share:

https://monosnap.com/file/7CP46p4VbyClI … ddCGdYRog#

Thanks,
Flick