Experiencing rough video/audio quality?
The videos should be crystal clear … the text should
be as readable as the text on this page. However, there
are some reasons why this may not be the case on your
computer.
IMPORTANT: We have included both the .WMV version of the
videos as well as a Flash video version which is streamed from
our servers. The instructions below pertain to the
.WMV version and its use within Windows Media Player.
High end graphics card
If you have a high end 3d graphics card (typically used
for video games) then the videos might be blurry. The best
way to handle this is to disable 3d acceleration using the
software that accompanies the video card, or by going to
Display Properties | Settings Tab | Advanced and modifying
the properties for their specific brand of card there. On
my gaming machine, I have an Radeon 9200 series card that
has a problem displaying the videos correctly, but my computers
with lower-end display adapters work just fine.
Improper Settings on Windows Media Player
If you resize Windows Media Player, or your settings in WMP are
set to some other option than the screen shot below of the View
menu then the videos may be distorted. The proper settings are
as follows:
When you open a new media file in Windows Media Player, it will attempt
to automatically install the proper codec for that file. However, in some
cases, that requires the security settings for Internet Explorer – the
vehicle through which the codec is downloaded and installed – to allow
this to occur. Unfortunately, in Service Pack 2 of Windows XP, this
is disabled by default, causing people to have problems where none
used to exist (sp2 came out Summer 2004). To correct this problem:
- 1) Open Internet Explorer, choose "tools" and "Internet options."
- 2) Select the "security" tab choose "custom."
- 3) On the "security settings" window the 4th option down "Download unsigned ActiveX controls." Change this to "Prompt."
- 4) Click "ok" on "security settings" and "ok" on "Internet options." Close all browsers and then attempt to view the recording, you should receive a "security warning" and be prompted to install the codec, select "yes" to allow the unsigned codec to be installed.
- 5) Afterwards, set your security settings back to what they were originally.
Finally in regards to codecs, try and view the videos on
another computer or two. Make sure those computers also have
the latest version of Windows Media Player (current version
is 10 for Windows XP … other versions of Windows I’m not
sure about).