Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: TVNZ on Demand actually doesn't suck

46 Responses

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  • Danyl Mclauchlan,

    there's plenty of time on the tube dedicated to punters who want to see nothing more interesting than charlotte bounce her jugs around.

    Those low-brow fools. That's what the internet is for.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    That's what the internet is for.

    hell, sit in a park with sunglasses on and watch the girls walk by, you'll get the same rush.

    feel like a perv?

    ...then why expect your tv stars to be scantily clad? heh.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    well I'm also in the Linux-only house boat - I seem to get a you-tube clone under konq - dinky flash player, no full screen - no obvious place to download drm-crippled stuff (am I missing something obvious or are they just hiding it from me?)

    mind you thanks to our wonderfull nationwide internet backbone I can't actually get enough bandwidth to keep even that fed well enough to be usefull (and no way to download stuff in the background)

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    According to discussion on the NZLUG mailing list today, poking around the HTML source reveals URLs for files which will open in mplayer:

    I clicked through to a Fair Go episode, looked at the source, found the URL of the actual video file which is nicely listed there (a text search for flv will help), and opened it with mplayer.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Zippy Gonzales,

    All things considered, TVNZ ondemand is nice. Agenda's homepage has a Quicktime embed that plays silly buggers for some reason, so I finally can watch the show in another format.

    The biggest quibble I have so far is a autoload video when flicking between pages. I don't want 25 minutes of video to load every time I browse a page. It gnaws at my data cap for no good reason and sucks up TVNZ's valuable bandwidth. Ditch this glitch.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 186 posts Report Reply

  • Don Christie,

    (And I really don't care how much advertising they play, there are bills to pay and I'd far rather arseholes like Sony pay them than I do.)

    Me neither. Its just that having sat patiently through a perfectly well delivered ad, I would like to see the actual programme I clicked on - which is described as "free". Free, but with shackles?

    All the technology is on my system to play their stuff and any file format. All that is lacking is an OS flag saying "Windows". Or am I missing something?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report Reply

  • Andrew Wilson,

    Well I just opened yesterday's 6pm news on my laptop in Aberdeen so I'm happy - I can't see me paying for Shortland St but being able to catch the news and various local offerings should make this pretty cool. And the video really isn't bad at all at full screen. Not a bad effort at all, and I'm pleased to hear us ex-pats aren't being left behind. I was worried I wouldn't be able to see anything.

    Aberdeen, UK • Since Nov 2006 • 13 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    The biggest quibble I have so far is a autoload video when flicking between pages. I don't want 25 minutes of video to load every time I browse a page. It gnaws at my data cap for no good reason and sucks up TVNZ's valuable bandwidth. Ditch this glitch.

    Absolutely. It's the major thing wrong with the site.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    According to discussion on the NZLUG mailing list today, poking around the HTML source reveals URLs for files which will open in mplayer:

    It's actually easier than that ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Benjamin Franzmayr,

    I can't get it to work....

    Got the introduction video to play but for every other show I click on all I get is the "loading" screen - am I doing something wrong or can their servers not cope? OK, it IS peak internet time (9-10pm) but still. Am trying to download "The Zoo" episodes for my kids to watch - they're crazy about it.

    Thanks
    Benjamin

    Palmerston North, New Zea… • Since Nov 2006 • 15 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Capewell,

    It's actually easier than that ...

    Safari's Activity/Firefox's Page Info windows?

    Manchester • Since Nov 2006 • 62 posts Report Reply

  • Ben Austin,

    I don't know if anyone has been following the internet radio royalties issue in the US, however I've been reading about it and I'd like to know how NZ deals with this. Anyone know or got a link?

    http://stevegordonlaw.com/article_webcast_royalty.htm

    London • Since Nov 2006 • 1027 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Safari's Activity/Firefox's Page Info windows?

    Nope. Oh, alright ... check the RSS feeds in Safari.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I don't know if anyone has been following the internet radio royalties issue in the US, however I've been reading about it and I'd like to know how NZ deals with this. Anyone know or got a link?

    APRA = keen to grant licences, realistic about terms.

    RIANZ = Difficult.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Nobody Important,

    I still haven't forgiven TVNZ for what they did to The Sopranos ...

    expat • Since Mar 2007 • 319 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Capewell,

    Gosh darn it. Now every FLV (ad or program) is throwing up

    Access Denied

    You don't have permission to access "http://download.tvnzondemand.co.nz/download/store1/flash/2007/ads/sony_ad_060307.flv" on this server.
    Reference #18.683183e.1174576801.1f1a9620

    Grumble.

    Manchester • Since Nov 2006 • 62 posts Report Reply

  • Exeter Expat,

    Been trying to look at the classic content from over here in the UK (firefox and explorer under vista) without any luck - says it's loading but it don't. I need my top town fix!

    Are we sure the free material is aailable outside of New Zealand? I sent feedback to tvnz asking about this but as with most corporate websites it has been ignored so far - why do web designers waste their time building feedback pages when their clients usually can't be bothered reading the resulting messages and replying to questions?

    Exeter, UK • Since Apr 2007 • 2 posts Report Reply

  • Nobody Important,

    why do web designers waste their time building feedback pages when their clients usually can't be bothered reading the resulting messages and replying to questions?

    Well, it's not a waste of time if the web designers can bill the hours at a good rate is it? But it is a waste of money for the client if they're not using the facility. Which they invariably don't. Worst offenders are the real estate companies who (in my experience) never respond.

    But yeah, there are huuuge numbers of companies who invite feedback and then fail to respond. Infuriating!

    expat • Since Mar 2007 • 319 posts Report Reply

  • Exeter Expat,

    Latest development - Thanks to TVNZ for adding adverts which us out of NZ'ers can watch but still not allowing access to the shows - you suck TVNZ, you suck big time.

    (posted here cause it's no use posting to them)

    Exeter, UK • Since Apr 2007 • 2 posts Report Reply

  • Damian Christie,

    Could we not have programmes broken into meaningful chunks as well?

    Close Up is broken into its component parts on the net. The TVNZ search function still isn't the best though - I often can't get search results pointing to my own stories, and I know what they're called!

    Having the little 10 second or whatever ads at the start of stories now also provides some strange outcomes - I re-watched a story I did about dataveillance, where I looked at Progressive Enterprises' One Card, and privacy lawyer Tim McBride pointed out they're not doing it for altrusitic, reasons, they're mining your data, building a profile on you etc...

    When I watched the story the opening ad (and surrounding banner throughout the story) was for Progressive... I'm not sure if either advertiser or journalist would be overly thrilled with that outcome.

    Still, exactly the same thing happens in other media all the time. I heard Michael Laws slagging off snake oil on Radio Live, only to be followed by ads for biomag underlays, bee pollen, deer velvet etc...

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1164 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Edmonds,

    You would think you could at least catch up on the news without DRM that doesn't work across the board. Anyway off to TV3 to catch up

    Auckland • Since May 2015 • 1 posts Report Reply

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