> An option for the iplayer to pop-out to an "always on top" > widow, would be lovely actually - I would't want it all the > time, but for people who watch whilst using their computer, > it would be much easier than re-opening the same tab in a new > window, then resizing and scrolling it around until it looked right.
My housemate's been watching a lot of iPlayer stuff recently (our TV broke and she's going barmy without telly!) She also watches in a browser window so she can do other stuff (MSN etc). I quizzed her on what she'd like in terms of screen size, because she complains the video's too small (too much clutter around it if you don't go fullscreen) - why not offer a feature like ITV's Brightcove player offers, where you can click a button and it maximises the video window inside a frame - but doesn't jump to fullscreen? It'd be great for people who don't want to always go to fullscreen, if the video could enlarge over the top of the rest of the interface, and then just shrink back when you hit the button again / hit escape. That said, she has a 4:3 display on her laptop, and she also expressed a desire to be able to pan & scan the widescreen video so she can fill more of her screen - she doesn't care that she's missing the sides as long as she can see the main action. Some people just don't /know/ what they want! But yes, anyway, I hardly think she's alone in her wishes - if the ability to pseudo-fullscreen the video (hide interface except for 'shrink' button), keeping the rest of browser and desktop visible though so you can multitask without having to fullscreen, jump back, fullscreen again all the time, that'd be a smashing addition. And as well, a button to automatically pan & scan the video to the centre of the stream would be a bit of a pain to sort out, but I think people with older monitors might use it. I guess not everybody always likes digital black and to watch programmes the way the director intended :( Final question - when's MP4 streaming properly coming to the PC platform, then? ;) - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
