Tech Forum

Hi Community...

I hope that I'm posting this the right place.

I have for a while tried to view General Conference (and BYU TV), but without success. I'm using Ubuntu, and the church is using some kind of locked or closed format, that can only be view, if you are using the products that are sold by the vender, that is used by the church.

I don't understand this. Why don't the church use a open format. The church can still use the same vender, but the content should be in an open format, that is accessible to everyone. I guess we would like to spread the good word to every one.

I don't know the situation in US, but here in Europe the 'open format' movement is gaining momentum, so being locked down on just one platform would be a shame.

Regards Jørn Borup

The church is currently using Move Networks to provide streaming video.

Browser plug-ins are currently available for Internet Explorer and Firefox on the Windows platform, and on Firefox and Safari on the Mac OS X platform. Apparently the Linux version of Firefox is not currently supported by Move Networks, because there hasn't been enough demand yet to create the plug-in.

One option I've see discussed is to run the Windows version of Firefox on Linux using Wine to get the Move Networks plug-in to work. Since I don't use Ubuntu, I don't have a way to see if this works, or how cumbersome it is to set up.

The Church typically does not lead in technology advances, preferring instead to wait until technologies mature so that they don't put resources into technologies that fail to become mainstream.

The Church's recent move away from Flash video in favor of whatever new technology is employed by Move Networks is hopefully a signal that Church will eventually embrace non-proprietary means of delivering such content, such as HTML 5, CSS 3, ogg vorbis, and such. But first, such alternatives need to reach a critical mass before it is feasible for the Church to expend the resources necessary to support offering it.

Support for HTML 5, and CSS 3 might happen sooner than later, though, just by the Church trying to support the next generation of browsers, namely Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4.0.

jborup wrote:...the church is using some kind of locked or closed format, that can only be view, if you are using the products that are sold by the vender, that is used by the church.

Yes, they are using a technology from a specific vendor, but it is certainly not a paid download or product for the user. Questions of compatibility with Linux are certainly justified, as a quick browse of Move Networks official website reveals no mention of the platforms the plugin supports. This leads me to believe that they don't want to advertise what they are not compatible with.

jbh001 wrote:The Church's recent move away from Flash video in favor of whatever new technology is employed by Move Networks is hopefully a signal that Church will eventually embrace non-proprietary means of delivering such content, such as HTML 5, CSS 3, ogg vorbis, and such.

I would probably still consider Move Networks' new technology (that of adaptive streaming and HD-quality delivery) quite proprietary. To me, it seems the technology advantages are no different than going with Silverlight over Flash, or any other similar argument. You have to download the plugin to use the player, so there's really no standards-based or non-proprietary approach to using the Move player.

However, I will say that Move Networks does have an interesting differentiating factor with their technology that only time will tell if it works out for them. From their own website (my own emphasis added):

Unlike other media players, Move Media Player can be tailored to fit your individual strategy. The player can be integrated into Flash, Silverlight, or HTML player environments...

jbh001 wrote:Apparently the Linux version of Firefox is not currently supported by Move Networks, because there hasn't been enough demand yet to create the plug-in.

On the Move Network forums they announced in March that they are working on a capability for Linux that will be released soon.

jdlessley wrote:On the Move Network forums they announced in March that they are working on a capability for Linux that will be released soon.

So there's your answer, jborup!

Hi Community

Thanks for the reply's.

I have been looking around and found this statement from a person that says that he is working for Move Networks:

There simply isn't enough demands from our clients yet to justify the cost for building a Linux plugin yet. Hopefully that will change soon.

I guess that the Church is a Move networks client, so we just needs to persuade the church to ask for this support. How do we do that ? (Besides, I can't see how expensive it can bee, when they do have mac support).

I also found this:

In my opinion, THE most important online video plugin, Adobe's Flash, is available for the Linux platform. That's great news. Flash now supports H.264 MPEG4 content - which can be created with free video libraries such as x264. Such content can be embedded via a web page using the open source Flow Player.

The BBC sees the light and reworks iPlayer to be a Flash based application, thus allowing Linux users (amongst others) to benefit from the service.

Is that something that the Church have been looking at ?

Regards Jørn Borup

jborup wrote:I have been looking around and found this statement from a person that says that he is working for Move Networks...I guess that the Church is a Move networks client, so we just needs to persuade the church to ask for this support. How do we do that?

I think you missed the post from jdlessley!

He said that on the message boards of the official Move Networks website, there was a post announcing that they have already begun work on a Linux plugin for the Move Player. I would be willing to bet that this information is more up-to-date than your statement you found somewhere else on the internet, as this forum post was made only last month!

I imagine that the Church will be able to just automatically support Linux when Move Networks releases the finished Linux plugin, whenever that release date will be (no one knows yet).

jbh001 wrote:The church is currently using Move Networks to provide streaming video.

Browser plug-ins are currently available for Internet Explorer and Firefox on the Windows platform, and on Firefox and Safari on the Mac OS X platform. Apparently the Linux version of Firefox is not currently supported by Move Networks, because there hasn't been enough demand yet to create the plug-in.

One option I've see discussed is to run the Windows version of Firefox on Linux using Wine to get the Move Networks plug-in to work. Since I don't use Ubuntu, I don't have a way to see if this works, or how cumbersome it is to set up.

The Church typically does not lead in technology advances, preferring instead to wait until technologies mature so that they don't put resources into technologies that fail to become mainstream.

The Church's recent move away from Flash video in favor of whatever new technology is employed by Move Networks is hopefully a signal that Church will eventually embrace non-proprietary means of delivering such content, such as HTML 5, CSS 3, ogg vorbis, and such. But first, such alternatives need to reach a critical mass before it is feasible for the Church to expend the resources necessary to support offering it.

Support for HTML 5, and CSS 3 might happen sooner than later, though, just by the Church trying to support the next generation of browsers, namely Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4.0.

sorry to interject but i am also having this same problem though i am a windows users. I am not able to assess either the church's stream site or byu.tv's site. I thought these were flash player streaming videos.

Yes movenetworks is working on linux version of the player.
This is due because of Netbooks!
But I suppose it will be as proprietary, so I don't know if it will be available also for desktop linux.
As linux users we must wait (patiently) and make the best of mp3!

P.S.: I tried Firefox for windows throught wine, but when player start it change all colors and make display unreadable.

leocrawf wrote:sorry to interject but i am also having this same problem though i am a windows users. I am not able to assess either the church's stream site or byu.tv's site. I thought these were flash player streaming videos.

From Windows, using Internet Explorer or Firefox, nagivate to http://www.movenetworks.com/install-move-player and it should guide you through the installation process. You might need to upgrade to a more recent version of these browsers to get it to work properly. And if you are using any version of Windows prior to Windows XP I doubt you will have much success regardless of what you try.