Ads and Media Player issues

[Andrew]

One of the discussions over at Jabootu right now is about online advertisements.  For myself, I cannot figure out why companies keep making ads that are even more annoying than the last.  Slashdot recently had a story on this:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/30/1752236&mode=thread

If you ever see an advertisement, other than a simple banner or button image, on the site - please let me know.  I do not allow pop-ups or pop-unders, let alone the amazingly annoying types that actually cover parts of the screen.

Another funny thing is that it seems some readers using Internet Explorer are having problems with the sound and video clips.  I have been able to replicate this with Windows 98, IE 6.0sp1, and Media Player 7.1.  You cannot play the file from inside of Internet Explorer, though it does work fine if you save the file to the hard drive and then play it.

I have found the problem did not exist on NT 4.0 with Media Player 6.4, nor Windows 2000 with 7.1, nor Windows 98 with 6.4.  Mozilla, Opera, and Netscape all work correctly.  On the server end, the file is sent correctly.  Maybe tweaking the MIME type could fix the problem, but talk about funky Microsoft stuff.

If anyone else has run into this problem, I would love to know the version of Windows, version of IE, and version of Media Player you are using.

[Fearless Freep]

Sorry, I use Mozilla on Linux and just download the mp3s and use something like mtvp to view them.

But I've already got a list of companies I will not use because of the annoying ubiquitousness of their online advertising (yeah "Orbitz", I'm lookin' at you!)

[GeeWhiz]

I have encountered the problems you described.  In fact, it just happened on the newest review.

My set up is XP Home, Media Player 9.0, and IE 6.0.

[JohnL]

>I do not allow pop-ups or pop-unders

I could swear I've seen popups on here at least once or twice, but I'm so used to just closing them that I never pay much attention to them.

>Another funny thing is that it seems some readers using Internet Explorer are
>having problems with the sound and video clips.

I always just download and save them.

[raj]

The Abraxas: Guardian of the Universe clip works fine in Win2000, Netscape 7.02, and Windows Media Player 6.4.  The clip didn't start until the whole clip had essentially downloaded (I tried just playing it, but there was a file transfer wait).

With IE 5 -on the same system here at work- the file did start playing immediately, but there were pauses while the file transfer caught up to what was being played.

Haven't seen any popup ads, though I'm trying to remember to go to Amazon through here.

[Andrew]

> Haven't seen any popup ads, though I'm trying to remember to go
> to Amazon through here.

Thank you very much.  It definitely is appreciated.  

Because I will not harbor pop-ups, the site actually loses a chunk of money.  I think it will end up being around a $1000 loss this year, if the first four months are any yardstick.  That is after figuring in what the server costs and what the movie sales (the big part of the site's income) and ad banners make.