Help


Contact Details for problems within MediaCentral 

Uploading Video
Content Browsing

Unsuccessful Uploads

Playlists
Chapter Points
Videos Don't Load
Editing Media
Mobile Access

Contact Details for problems within MediaCentral:

Uploading Videos:

If the option of uploading videos is available to you as a user of the system then simply click on the "Upload" button on the menu bar. You must then add the video's metadata, including Title, Category, Description, Your Contributor Name as well as your e-mail address.

Click: Next

You will then be prompted to upload your video file. The maximum recommended file size is 500Mb. This can however be changed in the General section in Settings.The Media Library will let you upload videos in various formats shown on the upload page including: .mov, .avi, .wmv, .flv, .mpg, .mp4, .mp3, .wav, .wma

If you try to upload a video in one of the above formats however cannot see the file when browsing to it, it is likely that the Media Library has not been enabled to allow that type of file to be uploaded. See your Systems Administrator who will be able to advise accordingly.

Upon upload a progression bar will show the percentage of the file that has been uploaded. Once the whole file has been uploaded the system will begin to extract the thumbnails from the video. Please wait for the thumbnails to appear on the page - a "Loading Thumbnails" icon will appear in the interim. If the extraction of thumbnails is successful eight random thumbnails will appear on the page.

Please select one of these, then:

Click: Next

If thumbnails are not extracted for the video file then you will be given the option of uploading your own or alternatively selecting the default thumbnail for the Category you have uploaded your file into. Images uploaded for thumbnails must be 320W X 204H and the format must be .jpg

Click: Next

You will be asked if you would like to upload any associated files - various extensions shown on the upload page allowed including *.doc;*.docx;*.ppt;*.pptx;*.xls;*.xlsx;*.txt;*.zip;

Congratulations, your video has now been uploaded to the system. The next step is that you will receive an e-mail issuing you with a link to your video once the system has encoded the file for streaming delivery.

Please note: The process is not instant, so be patient as the system may have a queue of files that it is already working on and also depending on the format of your file, may need to encode into a different format or at a different quality level. This is dependent on the set up of your system.

In the media listing area your video will say false until your video has been encoded. This is not an error; as if encoding has failed you will receive an email to inform you of the failure.

Content Browsing:

Once you have logged into the system to view videos in a certain category simply click on the category name you desire on the left hand side menu. To view a specific video either click on the video thumbnail or on the video title.

The Video Window will be displayed. This has various user options dependent on the way your system has been configured. The option to flick from High to Low Quality Video is simply done by selecting either High or Low on the drop down menu.

Clicking on the "Full Screen" Option, where available, makes the video viewer expand to fill the page. Return to the normal size by simply pressing on the "Esc" key on your keyboard.

Embed Code can also be copied from the Video Window so that you may embed your video in a web page.

You can use the search facility to allow you to search the title or tag text of any video. If you just click on the search button without typing anything in the box, you can refine your search by searching just one category, or videos from a certain contributor.

Unsuccessful Uploads:

On rare occasions some files will not be encoded by the system and you will be returned with an e-mail to notify you of this. This can be for a variety of reasons mainly to do with the audio and video codecs contained in your video file not being recognised by the system's encoder. The event that this happens please alert your Systems Administrator who will advise accordingly.

Playlists:

Playlists allow you to create a list of your favourite clips and have them display at the bottom of your screen. You can have as many clips in a playlist as you want, scrolling left and right when playlist gets full to view all the items. You can also create several playlists to host different types of media according to your needs. Enable the playlist in the My Account area of the Media Library, and add content to the playlists on the playback page when you view clips.

Chapter Points:

Chapter points can be created for clips that are long and will benefit from segmentation to draw attention to particular points of interest. They can be added and modified by the contributor of the clip and by a Media Library administrator. Chapter points cannot be added to audio clips. When chapter points are added to a clip, the original is not modified at all. Chapter points can be added and deleted leaving the uploaded clip in its original state.

Media Fails to load:

If when clicking on a clip you only see the URL, Code, and video information but just a white space where the video is meant to be, it might mean that you do not have RealPlayer installed or there is an issue with it. Please make sure that you have the latest version downloaded from www.real.com. Alternatively, you can change the playback method by clicking on Preferences and changing the output format to Flash. Click Save to save the changes and try your clip again.

Editing Media:

If you wish to make changes to media that you have already uploaded, it can be done by clicking on Upload and then on My Media. This will list all the media that you have uploaded, and you will be able to make changes such as change the title or modify the description, add tags or even skip past the first page and change the thumbnail that the video uses. If you would prefer to use a thumbnail other than the ones shown, you can select Custom and then chose a different thumbnail if you have created one that you want to use.

Mobile Access

You can access the Media Library from an iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android and iPad

When you visit the site you will be presented with the clips that can be viewed by unauthenticated users. If guest access has been disabled, you will need to log in using the same credentials as you would normally when accessing the Media Library from a desktop computer.

You will see the same layout as you would on a PC when accessing the site from an iPad. The only difference is that you won�t be able to see the coverflow, upload clips or create or view playlists as Flash is unsupported on the iPad.