Having problems playing the videos?

Here is a step by step guide to help sort out any problems you have playing the short videos with-in my site.

There are three main programmes available for your PC / Mac that you use to view videos over the internet. These are Windows Media Player, Quick Time and Real Player. The programme you need is Windows Media Player, because most of my videos are .wmv files (Windows Media Video files). The programme is available for both the PC and Mac. Windows Media Video is the best format available for compressing down video to view via the internet, which means you can view largest file sizes and better quality video in the shortest possible download time.

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1) A step by step guide to getting Windows Media Player installed on your computer…

• Windows Media Player usually comes installed as standard on all new PC's however if you don't have it you can download the latest version for free by visiting www.microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/download
• Choose the correct programme relevant to your computer and click the download button.
• A new window will appear asking you to either Open or Save the programme.
• Click on the Open button, this will then download and install the programme onto you PC. Only chose the Save button if you want to download the programme onto your computer with-out installing it.
• It will take about 45 minutes to download with a 56K modem. When it is installed, restart your computer and you should be able to view the video's. If you still can't view them, then go to step 2…

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2) I've got Windows Media Player installed on my computer but still can't view the videos?

If you know you've got Windows Media Player on your computer but still can't get the videos to play there may be a number of reasons why…

The first most common problem is that people download and save the programme onto there hard disk but don't execute it (install it) afterwards. This is because you chose "Save" rather than "Open" when prompted on the download page. If you know where you saved the programme on your hard disk, go to it via Windows Explorer and double click on the icon to execute it. If you don't know how to do this, simply download it again and click Open (see step 1 above) when prompted.

Another problem that may occur is when you download and install a programme called Quick Time or Real Player onto your computer. When you do this it no longer makes Windows Media Player your default video viewer. It's very easy to fix, follow these steps…

• Open Windows Media Player (Start - Programmes - Windows Media Player)
• Click on the Tools menu, then click Options.
• Then select the File Types tab.
• Click on the Select All button and then the Apply button.
• Then click OK and restart your computer. You should now be able to view the videos.

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3) Other stuff to remember when viewing videos in Windows Media Player.

Most of my videos have been compressed into 3 different choices of file size. It's up to you which version you pick.

• The low quality version has been compressed greatly so has very poor sound quality and is fuzzy to watch. Choose this one if your modem is very slow, such as 28K or a slow 56K.
• The medium quality movie is much clearer and better to watch, choose this if you have a good 56K modem (and don't mind waiting a little longer for it to download) or single line ISDN.
• If you have a high speed internet connection such as Broadband or xDSL then you'll want to click on the high quality option. You can also download the high quality version if you have a 56K modem but be prepared to wait a long time. (a 10 minute video via a 56K modem will take about 1hour 45minutes to download).
• If the video is a bit small you can make it bigger by clicking on the View menu and selecting either Zoom - 200% or Full Screen.

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