Comment by Teri Fotheringham on January 16, 2012 at 3:43pm

So glad this is now a feature we are able to offer clients. A few of my clients and friends have had trouble with the video stopping and also not being able to hear the music on their Ipads and Iphones. If anyone else is having Mac problems please let me know.

Another issue I ran into was when I did my promotional video and wanted to edit it. Changing the video after posting it to YouTube will delete that URL and create a new one. The problem I had was that I sent out the first URL to my clients before I knew that editing the video would create a new URL. Just so you guys know! Make sure it is the way you and the client want it before creating the YouTube video.

Comment by Alan Pinstein on January 16, 2012 at 4:07pm

Thanks, Teri!

1. Auto-playing audio (or video for that matter) is not supported by mobile phones. Basically it's not very nice for a web site to blast audio automatically at someone and the mobile phone browsers disallow it, period. I don't expect this to change, either. The mobile browser folks have gone to great lengths to close all of the auto-play loopholes that people found. There's nothing we can do about this.
2. As for your YouTube issue,that's a known issue with YouTube. Nothing we can do about that one, either, but it's a good point. You could use your own intermediate link, like "mytours.com/demo" or a bit.ly link or something that you could give to customers and still have the flexibility to "redirect" the live link at any time.

Alan

Comment by Teri Fotheringham on January 16, 2012 at 4:17pm

Thanks Alan, I appreciate your response. I actually do hear the music on my moblile phone from the video. It's a Blackberry.

I assumed there wasn't much that could be done. I am sending out the tour buzz tour to the clients to approve of before I send it to video.

I really am glad this is now a feature on TourBuzz. and appreciate you all very much.

Comment by Alan Pinstein on January 16, 2012 at 4:28pm

You will hear the audio track on a video file, but you cannot auto-play either audio or video. I would imagine you had to click play to get the video to start playing, right? (I haven't personally tried it on a blackberry).

We couldn't imagine *anyone* would ever purposefully turn on background music to a virtual tour on their phone, so we didn't waste screen real estate with a "play audio" button.

Alan

Comment by Teri Fotheringham on January 16, 2012 at 4:42pm

Just clicked on the YouTube url and the music starts on my phone. I can understand not having audio on a phone it would be distracting to say the least. What about the Ipad. My friend's/clients are able to hear the music from the YouTube link but not from the tourbuzz link?

This is the response I got from the tourbuzz link on facebook and then below that is the response I got from the YouTube link.

Hey Teri - I'm hoping you're looking for some constructive feedback here. Obviously the pictures are outstanding!!! I think you're looking for feedback from a potential business presentation though. First realize I'm a Mac, so I'm used to some pretty amazing slideshow/movie stuff. FIrst problem is I am looking at this on an iPad/iPhone via WiFi, and unfortunately the load times don't allow for your photos to fully display. I have to go to gallery or rewind once all buffered. Not sure if your intended audience will have the same problem. MUSIC - even slide 19 implies it should be there. Maybe you didn't have time. Unlike Mac stuff, this program is actually better because it gives you more control over seeing specific photos versus just a "movie," so if that is your intent stick with it. Would love to learn more about your thoughts and direction; again, awesome photos!!!

And the response - same person - when he got the YouTube link and viewed it.

There we go!!! I went straight to your tour page. AWESOME! I just don't remember when I had you over to my house to take a bunch of these photos... ;-)

Comment by Alan Pinstein on January 16, 2012 at 4:48pm

The YouTube link is a special case; the phones actually know that it's a YouTube video and just play the *actual* video. You'll notice that they don't load the YouTube web page at all. So it's not really the same thing since the phones have special support for YouTube.

As for the feedback from the customer, I can't quite figure out what they're referring to. Can you share the links you gave them so I can figure out what they are providing feedback on?

Comment by Teri Fotheringham on January 16, 2012 at 4:55pm

Absolutely!

Tourbuzz - http://tours.denverphoto.com/public/vtour/display/46515?a=1

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS21ks_ujZQ&feature=youtu.be

Comment by Alan Pinstein on January 16, 2012 at 5:01pm

Thanks! Yeah so as for audio on mobile we've already covered that, you might want to update your slide to reflect that or just be ready to deal with the question if it comes up. People often ask about it but it's never a dealbreaker (it can't be; no one can do it!).

We will look into the mobile to make sure that it doesn't start the autoplay timer until the photo is loaded. I thought it already did that but I'll check again.

Glad she likes the YouTube link, it is a nice experience on mobile, but of course it's much more bandwidth than the mobile tour player.

Alan

Comment by Teri Fotheringham on January 18, 2012 at 6:45pm

Thanks Alan for your time and help!

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