We sometimes get posts from people telling that they have playback problems, and presuming that the site isn't working in some way. Please try to help yourself before posting up with such problems by reading this simple guide to the most common causes. If you don't, you will just get referred back to this page every time:


No picture at all:

Firstly, this website uses the latest version of Flash (currently Flash Ver 10). If you don't have this version installed, please go to www.adobe.com and update your copy, it's free and it takes literally seconds. Remember to disable the Google toolbar (unless you like such things)

(note....If you are using Vista then there is sometimes a problem in updating flash, this can be remedied by turning off UAC, User Account Control. This is a safety feature of Vista that is always bugging you to make sure it is really you that is initiating an operation. It keeps malware from simulating a user operation, and installing something bad on your computer. It is one of the supposed reasons why Vista is more secure than earlier op-systems. How can I disable the User Account Control (UAC) feature on my Windows Vista computer?)

Secondly, update your Windows or other OS) installation. Whilst it might be time consuming, they generally have a good reason for issuing all those annoying updates.

Thirdly, if using FireFox, try starting it up in safe mode, to eliminate potential clashes with any plug ins that you may be using. Official plug-ins work fine, but some of the unofficial ones cause problems.

Fourthly, if the above don't work for you (and you have tried both firefox and IE or whatever you have on your computer), please post up in this part of the forum, providing details of your processor type and speed, your total RAM, what video card you are using and what operating system/browser combination you are using. See below for links to help you to find all this out.

Jerky Picture

This can be caused by a combination of factors, including low ADSL bandwidth, other users on the same network sharing the same connection, poor wireless signal between your computer and the router, inadequate processing capability, too little RAM and so forth.

TVC has been tested on a 1Mb/s ADSL stream, using a 900MHz intel atom N270 processor (as fitted to the Asus EePC 901) with 1 G RAM, using Windows XP with all adobe and Windows updates current interconnected by wireless 11/g. It worked perfectly.

If you are trying to use TVC full stream on a lesser specification PC, we would respectfully suggest that you are likely to experience some jerkiness of picture, given that we are using the H.264 codec and this places demands on processing power. You can't get a quart out of a pint pot, as the old expression goes, and that old 166Mhz computer may well have had it's day!

If you are using an ATI video card, or one that is, shall we just say "getting on a bit", it may be worth disabling hardware acceleration. This will free up more resources for processing the video.

We are working on a variant of this site that specifically caters for lower specification PCs and mobiles that are not Flash equipped.

Picture Freezing

When you first click on a channel it is not uncommon to hear the audio, folowed by a still image of video (a frozen picture) for a few seconds whilst your computer buffer fills up a little. The lower your bandwidth and the lesser the RAM fitted to your PC, the longer this will last

Many ISPs use dynamic throttling techniques at peak periods, although few admit to doing so. Often these actions are selective, in other words, they may throttle external services but not those provided by themselves. Please be aware that this is an issue you may have to raise directly with your ISP.

Can't get full screen

Please make sure you have tried right clicking on the screen, and selecting fullscreen from the menu that appears. (With MAC users, use ctrl+click) Pressing the Esc button (top left of keyboard) restores screen size.

Again, if you are using an ATI video card, or one that is a bit long in the tooth it may be worth disabling hardware acceleration by rightclicking on the desktop and adjusting video properties. This will free up more resources for processing the video.

Other functions on the sub menu are not enabled, we do not currently offer a low resolution version (see below)

Stream Not Found message

This suggests that you may not have read the terms and conditions of this website, which stipulate that users must be situated in the territory in which the broadcast was intended to be viewed, or, you are viewing via a pirate site.

Alternatively, your firewall settings may not be set to allow streaming, and a port may be blocking traffic (in which case try switching off the firewall for a few seconds to isolate the problem - TVC uses port 1935) or otherwise your IT department or ISP may have blocked streaming at source. You will have to ask them, we cannot do so on your behalf.

If you need to check whether port 1935 is blocked, then you may find THIS site useful. Alternatively a visit to GRC will allow you to test your port status.

For the avoidance of doubt, we do not provide media to other sites, we are not affiliated in any way with any site offering media to download. If we have a syndication agreement with a website, there will be a link to authenticate syndication and there will be a formal acknowledgement of our syndication agreement within our forums.

Using a VPN or Proxy?

If you are using either of the above it will be because you cannot access the site directly because you are ineligible. We accept there may be many legitimate reasons, such as your employer using their own offshore network, you are staying in hotels which may network via a central overseas location, etc. In which case, users will almost certainly be using a quality VPN, and any problems will be addressed by their provider.

The vast majority of "frozen picture" problems arise because people are using free proxy servers in an effort to overcome our geographic blocking and the proxy server used is inadequate for the job. This is a contravention of our terms of service, and we will neither support, encourage nor assist such users in any way.

Please be aware that moderators shall check the IP address of anyone requesting help and if a proxy appears to be being used to circumvent geo-blocking, we shall summarily ban that user and may summarily block the entire IP range of that proxy. Our decision on this will be final.

GETTING FURTHER HELP

If you don't post on an appropriate thread, your post may be deleted or moved without explanation, as the spurious threads that keep cropping up are driving us all crazy. Same goes for anyone who doesn't check here first.

So before you post on any thread, please make sure you have gone HERE and provide us with the information displayed, along with details of your hardware (processor type, RAM, video card, etc) together with details of your broadband line (ISP, line bandwidth, etc), your router and whether you are hard wired to the router or access it via wireless LAN. It will also help us if you could go to THIS site to tell us about your internet connection.

Without the basics, we can't help. It's a bit like phoning up your doctor and saying you feel bad, we need to have some background if we are to be able to help you. If you've gone through the above, we will almost certainly be able to find a solution and you will soon be enjoying the world's first legal independent web tv service.

Thank you