International rentals test (part 2)

[Doug Nelson]

Our first experiment with international rentals for our RetouchPRO LIVE shows was a mixed success. All the renters had very positive things to say, but it turned out the hosting company had...exaggerated...about their capabilities.

So I continued my search.

I've found another candidate. This one lacks some of the interface polish of our previous attempt, but they have the infrastructure and other techie stuff we need. And you can use PayPal.

The image quality is superb, virtually indistinguishable from the live show if viewed full-screen. The downside is that there is no "non-HD" version, so those with sub-3Mbps broadband should skip this round (use speedtest.net to check).

I've posted one of our most popular shows ever, Amy Dresser's second show (AKA "Face") for rental using this new service. This is possibly Amy's best demonstration of her signature "shine" technique, and she answers a LOT of general questions about her retouching and life as a professional retoucher at the end.

As with all our rentals, you can pause, rewind, and watch as many times as you like over the 3-day rental period.

Give it a try, and report back here about how your viewing/renting experience went and don't forget to mention what country you rented from. Please use the separate show thread for comments/questions about the show itself.

http://www.retouchpro.com/rentals

Remember that if you're in the US you can rent this show regardless of your broadband speed, and all of our other shows besides on our YouTube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/retouchpro#g/u

[Mike Abbott]

Hi Doug,
Unless its at my end... there seems to be some HTML glitch on the rentals link above. The page only partially loads for me.

[Doug Nelson]

There's not much there, just the player, an animated gif, and a sentance about posting feedback. Are you seeing even less than that?

[Andy Bird]

I'm afraid so, Doug! All we can see is the running gif and a blank flv/shockwave player which when clicked, opens a duplicate page in Chrome and in Firefox.

Pity: The Dynamo player was awesome!
Thanks for working on this.

Also, any time paypal is available, i'm there.
It's not wise to have to enter your credit card details into so many different places.

[Doug Nelson]

This is weird. It's showing up just fine for me. Are you using some sort of blocker? The player has a different UI, but at its core it's the same player as the Dynamo player, loaded in the same fashion.

Paypal is on my "must have" list for any new hosting service.

[Andy Bird]

Firefox and Chrome open up a duplicate window tab with HTML is showing.

Safari works! Loading the player complete with a "channels" tab on the right and all the GUI bits… but for me a "cannot connect to server" pop up which is likely a recent local DNS issue.

[Doug Nelson]

For some reason it's only working correctly in IE. I'm on the phone with support right now.

[Doug Nelson]

OK, I've got it working for my versions of IE, Firefox, and Chrome (I don't have Safari).

Let me know how it works for you.

[Gingi]

Chrome and Firefox only open a duplicate of the initial screen, and only
a link to YouTube (not very helpful for non-US viewers.)

Firefox using IE Tab does open pop-up window with the show, but only
allows you to rent the video, not see a trial. Since I have already seen
this show (twice), do not want to pay another time.

Most people will probably react like me, not wanting to purchase a show
they have already seen. There really ought to be a button for a free, small
trial presentation (as in the previous int'l attempt.)

Please don't give up the effort to allow non-US viewers to rent shows. The
service is simply too valuable to dump.

Also, thoroughly enjoyed Ctein's show. Different from your "regular"
presentations, but extremely valuable to anyone who has to scan and
retouch old photos, not work from highly-paid professional photographers.

Stan Greenberg, Kibbutz Kabri

[Doug Nelson]

The YouTube thing has me confused. Are you sure you're not clicking on the ad for our regular rentals?

You are correct that this service does not offer a preview (or even a thumbnail in the viewer, as you can see I had to kludge my own). But they only launched a few days ago, and they assure me both of those features are coming soon.

I certainly don't want anyone to pay to watch a show they've already seen, but I also didn't want to put up one with incredible demand and potentially disappoint a lot of users if this doesn't work.

Thanks for the feedback. No way will I give up my search.

[Gingi]

"The YouTube thing" has me confused too: under regular Firefox and Chrome, the only
links which show up are to YouTube. (All the extra windows below the initial
announcement + links are not visible.) Surprisingly enough, was able to see more links
and windows using Firefox with IE Tab, than by simply using MS IE itself.

Until all the birthing pains are straightened out, you might consider just posting links to
some kind of free trial; I'm sure more people will try it (and give you feedback), and
that's actually exactly what you're looking for right now: feedback. BTW, a
3 megabyte connection is pretty fast (for Israel. Yes I know lots of countries are
way ahead of us. But there may be plenty which are not, or at least viewers who
don't pay for premium, faster connections.)

Stan

[Doug Nelson]

In theory you should see something similar to the attached screencap.

And support for slower broadband is also on their "coming soon" list.

[Gingi]

That's exactly what you don't see in regular Firefox and Chrome.

Keep up the good work, both you and Retouchpro are providing
a wonderful service, and have a reputation to match.

Stan

[Doug Nelson]

Just out of curiosity, are you on a Mac? Could you try clearing your cache and reloading the page?

This works in every browser I have.

[Gingi]

No, I'm using Windows XP, SP3 (but on 2 different computers.)

Will try cache clearing, and see what happens.

Stan

[Gingi]

Just retried int'l rentals on different machine, using regular Firefox 5. Was able to see
the picture and rental button with no problems, so whatever was causing the blockage
is apparently fixed, at least for me.

Doug, it has to be the middle of the night for you. Go to sleep (but at least you know
what it's like to view live presentations at screwy hours.)

Stan

[Doug Nelson]

Glad it's working!

And it's doing rebroadcasts at 6am that has my clock all messed up.

[Rust]

Hello. I use a mac and safari. But the problem starts already when i have registered and added the payment details. I then click submit, and it says i have to register. I Then add the username and password i previously have made. It then takes med to the payment section. But when i click submit , it just direct me again to the window that tells me to register. If i try to register again, it says that "email is already in use". And i try renting this from Norway

[Doug Nelson]

The registration is separate from the forum registration. It should have sent you an email.

[bolezub]

Hi, I am from Czech Republic.
I've rented this one and watching it. The image quality is excellent. I've had a lot of buffering going on when I've moved slider to about a middle of the video, but playing from the begining is smooth without any buffering. Thanks a lot!

[Doug Nelson]

Several rentals so far, and no complaints. I guess it's working?

[Martin G.]

@Rust and in general

I had the same problem with my IE9 / Win7. You have to accept cookies for dacast.com then it should work.

@Doug

Yes, it works for me and the quality is really good.

And... I can't wait to see more rentals because I'm from Germany and this Youtube Rentals Beta takes too long.

[TheDrift-]

Having trouble with this, cannot validate my email address, I'm on a MBP (last years model).

I'm in UK & Using safari and cant get past the email validation?

I type the code in and press return nothing happens, the only option I have is to go back??
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5305/...de99a2f4_z.jpg


**EDIT**

Got it sorted....... I cut and pasted the code in and nothing works.....type it in and works fine.

[Doug Nelson]

Perhaps try Firefox? I know Safari plays hob with our live shows.

Also, make sure you are typing the code and not pasting it in. When it gets to the 5th or 6th character you should see some additional fields appear.

[lunaxxxxxx]

Hi - dont know where else to get rid of my frustration - first i tried to pay for amy dresser show with my pay pal and it keeps redirecting me to account login ( i registred with new password and new email adress - shouldnt be a problem or ??). then i suceded in submiting all my visa card info and it redirected me to account login again inspiet of one can only get to payment if one has locked into account . i dont get it - . this is not funny fooling around with visa card info on the internet not knowing anything . did i pay or didnt i pay- question for Doug Nielson! thanks in advance

[Doug Nelson]

See the comment above about allowing the cookie from dacast.com

[TheDrift-]

Following on from my last post.....

Have now got to page 4..tried to pay with paypal and keep getting directed back to page 3, just like LunaXXXXXX

been messin around now for 10/15 mins trying to pay...gonna give up and go get some coffee instead..

..shame did my first live webinar last week and really enjoyed it,

[Doug Nelson]

In both cases it sounds like security software (or the browser itself) is blocking the cookie it needs to set. The cookie will come from dacast.com, not retouchpro.com, so might need to be approved.

[lunaxxxxxx]

hmm - im on a mac in safari ... i dont see any cookie and im really no cookie expert ..

[Doug Nelson]

So, when you hit "play" on the video, does it invite you to login, or does it say "this account doesn't have access"?