For the last two days I have been unable to view the FFRC web cam from http://bobcats.info/ffrc.html. I can see the chat just fine, but after you see the Ustream logo the screen goes black and the cam is not displayed. I can see the cam on the http://www.ustream.tv/ffrc site with no problems. I have tried refreshing and rebooting. I checked and my Adobe Flash is up to date and so is my Java and browser. I am using my laptop with Win7 and Chrome as my browsers. Any suggestion on what to try next?
Thank you!
Unable to view cam on bobcats site
Moderators: Gossamer, purple_cat
Re: Unable to view cam on bobcats site
After some investigating, I have some answers. Luckily, I am able to easily replicate the problem on my end, so I was able to dig around.
First, lets go over how to fix it, then an explanation later. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), it is not a problem on your end, so there is no way for you to fix it. The easiest way for the page to be fixed is to have the owner use http://www.ustream.tv/embed/2298576?autoplay=true instead of the current one. If someone opens up a support ticket with Ustream, they can also choose to fix it.
As an alternative, you can choose to use http://www.fofrescue.org/kittycam3.html, though you can't resize chat/stream (easily), as it is.
Now for the explanation! I'll try to keep it as simple as possible, though.
One interesting thing about how the stream player works is that it is actually receiving all the data even though the screen is black. As soon as the play button is hit (which is automatic for the bobcats page), you start getting the video data.
But then why is the screen black if the video is available to be played? Between the pressing of play and the actual playing of the stream comes one other task: the playing of an ad. The reason the screen is still black is because the ad hasn't finished playing yet. Buuuuut it hasn't started playing, either! Unfortunately, finding out why this bug exists is a lot more work, so I don't have an answer to that. All I know is that the player doesn't even ask for an ad to be played.
Amusingly, those that use AdBlock won't run into this problem, due to how the AdBlock plugin works. Of course, the charitable thing to do is not use it/disable it for the livestream. Or, if you're a supporter of the internet, consider not using it at all (getting off-topic here :>).
Once again, http://www.ustream.tv/embed/2298576?autoplay=true is a player that works, and it is virtually identical to the one on bobcats. In fact, the one I linked contains the player on bobcats, plus a few other things. It's possible that one of those other things is what the one on bobcats is missing.
However, Ustream still provides fairly similar code to what bobcats uses, though they probably consider it obsolete. That's why submitting a support ticket would probably work since this is probably unintended behavior.
Hope this information helps! I would be happy to answer any questions if you have any :D
First, lets go over how to fix it, then an explanation later. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), it is not a problem on your end, so there is no way for you to fix it. The easiest way for the page to be fixed is to have the owner use http://www.ustream.tv/embed/2298576?autoplay=true instead of the current one. If someone opens up a support ticket with Ustream, they can also choose to fix it.
As an alternative, you can choose to use http://www.fofrescue.org/kittycam3.html, though you can't resize chat/stream (easily), as it is.
Now for the explanation! I'll try to keep it as simple as possible, though.
One interesting thing about how the stream player works is that it is actually receiving all the data even though the screen is black. As soon as the play button is hit (which is automatic for the bobcats page), you start getting the video data.
But then why is the screen black if the video is available to be played? Between the pressing of play and the actual playing of the stream comes one other task: the playing of an ad. The reason the screen is still black is because the ad hasn't finished playing yet. Buuuuut it hasn't started playing, either! Unfortunately, finding out why this bug exists is a lot more work, so I don't have an answer to that. All I know is that the player doesn't even ask for an ad to be played.
Amusingly, those that use AdBlock won't run into this problem, due to how the AdBlock plugin works. Of course, the charitable thing to do is not use it/disable it for the livestream. Or, if you're a supporter of the internet, consider not using it at all (getting off-topic here :>).
Once again, http://www.ustream.tv/embed/2298576?autoplay=true is a player that works, and it is virtually identical to the one on bobcats. In fact, the one I linked contains the player on bobcats, plus a few other things. It's possible that one of those other things is what the one on bobcats is missing.
However, Ustream still provides fairly similar code to what bobcats uses, though they probably consider it obsolete. That's why submitting a support ticket would probably work since this is probably unintended behavior.
Hope this information helps! I would be happy to answer any questions if you have any :D
Snappy + Whisk > All :DDDD
