Due to recent changes to the video players on several network websites that I go to in order to watch tv shows (I can't stand 5 minutes of real commercials and prefer 10 to 30 second commercial bits instead) has rendered it impossible for me to watch them on the laptop.
Why you ask? Well the new players just aren't Vista Friendly and apparently the websites don't care. NBC won't even load - not using IE with Service Pack 1 or Firefox. Firefox tells me that the url is going nowhere and that having javascript or cookies disabled might be the issue. I have them enabled.
FOX loads but I can't watch their shows. I can certainly watch the commercials BEFORE the player for the show loads. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the new player they started using. The player either sits there trying to load or it flashes black and white screens at me and then stalls out altogether. I tried using their feedback form in order to tell them the issue but it froze on me when I clicked submit. Obviously that means they aren't going to know about the issue unless I take the time to rewrite everything in an email.
ABC also loads, as does FOX, but again their player no longer works for Vista. Again, I can watch the stupid little commercial before the show but the player sits there with LOADING... across the window and doesn't play. It tries, though, oh does it try.
CBS still loves me and other Vista users. They have redone the video player portion of the site but it's definitely a huge step up from what they had previously. USA also still works and I don't bother with any other networks at this time. USA doesn't even put anything new up. They have old episodes of the shows they offer and it's not worth it to bother checking since they never change them, or they just add the 'New!' symbol to an episode and change it's position in the list. Real innovative, don't you think?
So either the networks don't care that Vista users can't use their website, or at least me anyway, even with the updates, or the team running the website decided we weren't important to the networks. Instead of watching the shows on their websites they'd rather have me go trolling around the internet looking for the shows I want to watch, completely commercial free and sometimes up the same day as it's been shown on tv or the day after. FOX puts House episodes up EIGHT days after the original air date, why the hell they do that when they put others up 1 to 2 days after is beyond me. That's okay though because I can simply go to Google and type in the show and episode and find it to watch online. I'm sure they enjoy losing whatever it is they gain when people watch online.
Any other Vista users who watch tv shows online having these issues? Found a way to solve them? I'd love to know so please leave me a comment!
Comments (1)
I don't have vista on my computer yet, but I know someone who does and she has the same problem. They are going to have to change it eventually. If they are smart they will do it soon.
As for when they put up videos, I hate their thinking on it sometimes. One station refused to show the last 5 episodes online of a show. How is that fair to people who can't watch it on TV because of other things.
Posted by Holly | June 4, 2008 5:06 AM
Posted on June 4, 2008 05:06