• How do I log in?
• What are plug-ins?
• What is a "pop-up"? What is an "embedded player"?
• What does "buffering" mean?
• Why can't I save this to my hard drive?
• Why is this taking so long?
• Why is the video performance choppy?
• Can I enlarge the video screen?
• Why do I get "403.6 Forbidden: IP address rejected" when I try to look at these pages from home?
• I don't have my password! What do I do?
• Why does Netscape make the embedded RealOne Players overlap one another?

Usage

• How do I log in?

  Logins are usually necessary only if you are trying to access course material. Most material will be accessed using a course page on ERes (http://eres.wustl.edu). Some classes will require a "username", which will be the name of your class, e.g. "chem112a" or something very similar to it. Your professor will give you the password. Due to copyright restrictions, we have to restrict some access to these materials. Do not email us asking for passwords. Contact your course instructor if you need a password.

• What are plug-ins?

  A plug-in is a small program that becomes part of your web browser and extends the capabilities of your web browser. The Real plug-in allows Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Netscape to accept media streams and play Real (.rm) files. The Quicktime plug-in does the same, but for Quicktime (.mov) files.

  Install your plug-ins after you install a browser. If you use more than one Web browser, be sure to allow Real and/or Quicktime to install plug-ins to both browsers.

• What is a "pop-up"? What is an "embedded player"?

  A pop-up is a clickable link that appears just like a link to a Web page. When you click on it, a RealOne Player window will open up, if one is not already open. With an embedded player, instead of a link, a small RealOnePlayer, Windows Media Player, or Quicktime window is part of the Web page itself.

• What does "buffering" mean?

  Before your plug-in can play a stream, it must first buffer the stream. Since traffic on the Internet varies, even from one Washington University machine to another, to prevent "stuttering" or "skipping," your plug-in stores part of the stream ahead of time. Whenever traffic backs up, your plug-in releases some of the stored stream to you and waits to catch-up with the rest of the stream.

• Why can't I save this to my hard drive?

  Due to copyright issues, saving this information to your hard drive is disallowed. The vast majority of these works are copyrighted and allowing those works which are not to be saved onto your hard drive would be prohibitive.

Troubleshooting

• Why is this taking so long?

  If it seems to take a great deal of time to view or listen to streams, you may have a slow internet connection. Most video clips simply do not look great on dialup speeds (28Kbps or 56Kbps), whereas broadband, like cable, DSL, or ISDN will give better results for video.

• Why is the video performance choppy?

  If the performance is choppy, or stutters, you may have a slow connection or your machine may be simply too slow to handle the stream. Typically, video looks poor at dialup speeds, with a reduced number of frames. You may also lack enough RAM to view a stream. Closing as many of the other programs which are running on your machine may help in that case.
  • Bandwidth: The lecture video files tend to be around 175 MegaBytes for a one-hour class, which is a lot of information to send over the network. When the network gets busy, streaming files tend to freeze or hesitate. The audio generally remains constant because this data stream is smaller than the video.
  • Memory and Processing Power: Your computer may lack enough memory (RAM) and processing power (CPU speed) to buffer and process the video stream. Closing as many of the other programs which are running on your machine may help in that case.
  • Digitizing Process: For classes, we intentionally digitize the video with settings that help to make the blackboard as legible as possible. This means that movement will blur and stutter. We try to minimize camera movement because of this. Our thought is the writing on the board is more important than the pacing of the professor.
  • Large viewing window: For classes, we made the viewing window very large to improve blackboard legibility. The larger window does have an effect on the smoothness of the video stream. You will find video clips on the web that have very smooth video, but they generally are only a few inches square. If you have a pop-up link, you can always click on the corner of the player (RealOne Player, Windows Media Player, etc.) and drag it to make the window larger.
  • Why stream if it has these limitations?: We have been asked several times why the files can't be downloaded. This would prevent nearly all of the problems with choppiness. Unfortunately, our agreement with the faculty includes the promise that their lectures can't easily be downloaded by people. Streaming temporarily stores only a small portion of a lecture, thereby making the recreation of a lecture very difficult for someone to do.

• Can I enlarge the video screen?

  The simplest way to change the size of the video screen is to right-click on the screen. One of the options is to "Zoom". Click on Zoom and you can resize the image to full-screen. To change the screen back or to control the video, use the right mouse button again.

• Why do I get "403.6 Forbidden: IP address rejected" when I try to look at course pages from home?

  Due to copyright restrictions, we have restricted viewing of copyrighted materials to machines either on the Washington University in St. Louis campus, or to machines dialed in to our modem bank. You can use a proxy server to fix this if you are attempting to view off-campus. Go here to get started.

• I don't have my password! What do I do?

  Please contact your course instructor for the username and password. Do not email us asking for passwords.

• Why does Netscape make the embedded RealOne Players overlap one another?

  An instance of overlapping embedded RealPlayers in Netscape

  Unfortunately, this is a technical problem Netscape has not yet overcome. Older versions of Netscape (4.x) have a tendency to scramble the locations when more than ten or so RealPlayers are on a page. Frequently, the RealPlayers on the bottom of a webpage will overlap.

  An example screenshot has been included. Notice that some of the players are missing, while others overlap.

  We suggest using a newer version of Netscape, or Internet Exporer or Mozilla. If you experience this problem but are wedded to Netscape for one reason or another, try the following:

  1. Go to the page in question.
  2. In Netscape, hit the "Reload" button.
  3. Click within the main frame, perhaps on the green captioning lettering. Anywhere but the player is fine.
  4. Use the Down Arrow key to move down within the page.

  This procedure usually works.