Thank you to everyone who replied to my posting yesterday about Films on Demand's halting and erratic delivery. I appreciated the input. A good result I had from the listserv postings was from the FOD tech staff member I spoke with yesterday. He saw my post on Videolib and called today. Even though I told him of the halting and erratic running of the system on the phone yesterday, he did not share with me then what he shared today. They are having problems at FOD which could be causing all of what we have been experiencing!!!!!!!
He told me that they have been troubleshooting the halting and problems of buffering for a week and a half. That they had received complaints prior to that and had dealt with them on a case by case basis. But now they are totally focusing on the problem as it seems more widespread. As of 7:50 last night, they switched to a back-up server, hoping that would solve the problems for now. I am to let him know of any other complaints and the time and day they were experienced. I let him know about our philosophy professor who could not get the service to work yesterday, and told me today that he is about to re-plan his courses which feature heavy dependence on FOD. When I asked the tech staff how much longer the service would be interrupted, his answer was hopefully it will be fixed in another week. When I asked about a proxy server slowing the service, he said that it absolutely would. A log-in and password would work better for streaming. When I told him that the service still works improperly when the log-in and password has been used in the past 5 weeks, he said that it could have been the problem with their server. He still maintained, however, that many larger universities use a proxy server, even though he said that proxies were never meant to carry videostreaming. The correct script to be used is: T Films on Demand U http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid= ____(whatever you need to put in there for your institution) DJ films.com H digital.films.com Yesterday, the tech staff member did send me information to optimize streaming from FOD. Should you want to receive that or report any other problems you are having with Films on Demand, make note of the day and time and please call Elliot at 800-257-5126 X5760. And I hope, Elliot, that you will be reading this and correct me if I have included any inaccuracies. Mary Lou Neighbour AV Librarian/Assistant Professor Montgomery County Community College 340 DeKalb Pike Blue Bell, PA 19422 [email protected] 215-619-7355 ________________________________ Montgomery County Community College is proud to be designated as an Achieving the Dream Leader College for its commitment to student access and success.
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
