ThinkProgress moves to Flash video.
By on Aug 8th, 2006 at 9:24 am
ThinkProgress moves to Flash video.
Starting today, all of the video content on ThinkProgress will be in Flash video format. Most people have Flash already installed, but if you discover you need it, click HERE to download it free.
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Thank you.
August 8th, 2006 at 9:25 amSweet.
August 8th, 2006 at 9:29 amJeez, I hate Flash.
Happily for me, I have NoScript installed in FireFox.
August 8th, 2006 at 9:32 amWhy dont you like it just john?
August 8th, 2006 at 9:33 amAmong other things, no volume control / mute, plus a general disregard for proper web design philosophies.
Also, 95% of all Flash-heavy sites are crap.
August 8th, 2006 at 9:39 ami never had any problem with the “before”…
August 8th, 2006 at 9:44 ami think most people wanted a choice between windows media and quick time…
any hope of that?
I, too, am no fan of flash videos. I find Quicktime far preferable.
August 8th, 2006 at 9:44 amYes, I like how C&L does it, with both formats available.
August 8th, 2006 at 9:45 amWhy doesn’t everyone wait for the first flash video post (coming in just a few minutes) and see how you like it then.
August 8th, 2006 at 9:46 amI also dislike flash, though I reluctantly have it installed.
I dislike having it installed because the most annoying animated advertising are almost universally flash.
But I dislike flash for video because it’s difficult to save or work with. Flash video is its own player. I have a number of players already installed that work the way I like. I can’t use them with flash video.
Flash video is difficult to save. I think flash video is often used for that very reason. The hosting site wants to control the video. If you can save the video, for later viewing or to show others when an internet connection is not convenient, it’s so non standard that most video burning/editing software will not work with it.
If you wanted to use a flash viewer for a simpler streaming experience for the user but also included a link to download a standard video format, that would be cool with me.
August 8th, 2006 at 9:47 amJust to chip in.
I am also on the “Flash = Extra Smelly Donkey Dung with Fat Flies” bandwagon.
Why? Because flash os explicitely designed to take away control of the web browser from the user and give it to the website operator, which feature gives orgasms to various mega-corporate whores and thus results in me screaming at retarded flashing, blinking, popping up, zinging and otherwise supremely annoying sites which, naturally, disable the “don’t play” and “don’t repeat” options on the flash menus. So I also have a NoFlash (and as a matter of fact even NoScript) plugins installed.
Or in other words: Flash enabled sites reak of authoritarian control, and I am not sure if Judd really wants to go there.
August 8th, 2006 at 9:56 amJudd,
Ok, I saw the first flash post.
All my previous criticisms stand.
There’s no easy way to save the video, if I wanted to. If I did save it, it would be difficult to work with.
Of course you are not obligated to make those things easy for me, but I like sites better when their video is easy to save and work with.
August 8th, 2006 at 10:00 amI commented also on the other thread. Not only this new thing requires Flash (which is alread a royal pain for non-Windows users) but also JavaScript. And Dave is right, there is no way to save the video (which is sometimes required if the stream is super-slow so it can be played back from disk etc). Me thinks we need the old fashoned direct links to streams for all those who cannot/will not use Flash.
August 8th, 2006 at 10:10 amWon’t be watching any videos here now. Until GNU comes out with a Gnash browser plugin for windows (which I’m sure will allow me to control my browser where current Flash does not), I won’t be watching them.
August 8th, 2006 at 10:14 amwell, my mac w/panther showed that video just fine, fyi…
August 8th, 2006 at 10:20 ambut as for “video quality”, not sure why, but it was really grainy –
like WMP usually looks… that’s why i favor quick time…
I have dial up. What’s it like to watch video on the computer? It must be a new and wonderful world… :)
August 8th, 2006 at 10:26 amKing Rat, that won’t happen, ever. There is a very good reason why Gnash can’t play a lot of newer Flash contents: the whole point of Flash is to take away control from users and give it to the corporate site owners and so Macromedia (now Adobe) will do everything in their power (i.e. forced “upgrades”) everytime Gnash gets even near to being functional. Their whole marketing strategy depends on this as they target a particular customer group, site operators who desire control over their users above everything else. Flash is a particularly nasty and one-sided philosophy of dealing with users and that is why it is so abhorrent to many of us, particularly on the progressive side of things, although as with most things technical, most web users remain blissfully ignorant about what is going on in their computers.
August 8th, 2006 at 10:43 amyes, zooey, it is awsome…
August 8th, 2006 at 10:47 ami got high speed through the cable on a trial offer… can’t go back!
when your son goes off to college – and high speed internet – and comes home for visits, you will never hear the end of it until you get it…
I save lots of videos from OneGoodMove.org and Crooks and Liars, I use QuickTime for everything I do. I work professionally with video every day and QT is by far the best video I have seen. WMP sucks! Real Media is also unuable and expensive. QT is free!
I can’t do anything with flash, it is unuseable for anything. You can’t save it, you can’t process it of make a compilation (I send video clips to family members that don’t have broadband), edit it, or use it in any way. Flash is anti-freedom and dsWRONG!
TP’s transition to flash means that I don’t need to bother even watching the videos as I don’t want to see what I can’t use.
Why on earth would you even switch to flash? What’s the point other than preventing users from being able to save the videos. Please go back to QT as soon as possible. It’s like dumping your broadband connection in favor of AOL dialup.
August 8th, 2006 at 10:56 amYes, Zooey, high-speed Internet is the only way to go if you can get it. I once tried to watch a video clip from a basketball game on dial-up, and could actually count the individual frames. It was that slow. And if you like music, live streams via the Internet are CD-quality. Plus, any program updates you receive are going to go much quicker. Minutes instead of hours. I do not miss the 2 hour upgrade I once made to a new version of Internet Explorer; unfortunately, that also included several dropped calls, so I had to dial back in and restart the download…something you also won’t miss if you have those types of problems.
August 8th, 2006 at 10:56 amI’m fine with EITHER video format, on either my Mac or PC.
And you should ALL lose Internet Explorer. It’s nowhere near as good as Firefox.
All you IE users, just do a search on your ‘C’ drive for a folder called “Content.IE5″.
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\”username”\Local Settings\Temp\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 and look at the “cache” folders (with crazy names like “WPY7C5Q3″) that IE NEVER empties, even when you ask it too. Over time, you could have THOUSANDS of temp files clogging your machine. Stupid Microsoft.
This is NOT a secure browser, like MOZILLA’S FIREFOX, which can automatically take care of you temp files, passwords, pop-ups, etc.
August 8th, 2006 at 11:08 amRobin
“I don’t want to see what I can’t use” – I’ve not heard the sentiment put so well before.
August 8th, 2006 at 11:11 amFlash video is by far the bes way to go….
It’s about time!
Sincerely,
Ben
August 8th, 2006 at 11:17 amFlash video is by far the bes way to go….
Ben, “best” for whom?
August 8th, 2006 at 11:19 amMacromedia does not make Flash Player for my platform, so I will be unable to see your videos. A more universal format would be MPEG-1 video, which is supported on just about every platform you can think of, including mobile phones.
August 8th, 2006 at 11:44 amFactsOnly — Well, we could speculate it might be trolls who don’t like the site, or maybe shills for Macromedia/Adobe.
August 8th, 2006 at 11:49 amUgh, nice and jumpy on a 256K connection, no choices, can’t save it. Thanks. For. Nothing.
August 8th, 2006 at 11:50 amI’m happy with the flash movies. The only thing I’d like better is for them all to be encoded with a free (as in freedom) codec (i.e. theora from xiph.org). However, I do understand and sympathize with those who like to save the videos locally.
August 8th, 2006 at 12:28 pmThose above have made very detailed points against Flash video so I won’t repeat them.
Flash content sucks bigtime. Please go back to quicktime. I’m a big fan of the site and always found the previous video format to be perfectly fine.
My two cents.
August 8th, 2006 at 12:56 pmAlso, the audio is very jumpy if you have any other type of downloads going on. Please please go back to quicktime.
August 8th, 2006 at 1:01 pmOh now you’ve done it.
You let the geeks out of the bag. You could have sold this much easier.
GWB hates Flash
August 8th, 2006 at 1:45 pmFLASH!!!!
UGH!
Just what we need the ability to be locked down. Hate it.
Bush = Worst president ever
Using Flash = Worst TP descision ever
August 8th, 2006 at 1:53 pmGah! No!
Flash is an atrocity, violating every design standard which made the web successful in the first place. The primary design goals that made the web work were accessibility through many software implementations written by many different groups, and an emphasis on user-controlled presentation. Flash’s explicit design goals are to break exactly these things.
And to compound the abomination of Flash with a reliance on the abomination of javascript is truly atrocious. I’ve never once seen anything done in javascript that I wanted to have happening on my computer, and I’m afraid that this incarnation of it is sadly consistent with that.
Please, please go back to the perfectly functional choice of using quicktime. Or if you have concerns about the small number of platforms for which a quicktime implementation is not available, use an even more universally available format like mpeg. But not Flash, not for anything, not ever.
August 8th, 2006 at 2:31 pmAs a long-time daily reader of Think Progress, this change is a dissapointment. I use Mac OS 10.3.9 and can’t load the clips now. I will check back for return to QT, or a move to WM. For now I am taking this site out of my daily bookmarks.
August 8th, 2006 at 3:25 pmCharles, I am using mac os 10.3.9 as well, and have no issues with the flash player. I also tend to do crossword puzzles, which are using a flash based system.
August 8th, 2006 at 3:28 pmRemember the olden days when Think Progress used to have videos?
August 8th, 2006 at 4:13 pmkrazny- i quit safari and opened it up again, and now the flash videos are working. moving TP bookmark back to daily folder.
August 8th, 2006 at 5:42 pmI too believe flash blows, that’s why it’s quicktime for all my sites…always will be. Lots of election fraud related videos on my electionfraudblog.com if anyone is interested.
August 9th, 2006 at 1:15 amFlash is trash, looks like many of us will be leaving Think if this flash crap keeps up.
Too bad for the site.
Goodbye
August 9th, 2006 at 12:22 pm