Attention! Video posting and viewing issues

  1. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    It has come to our attention that for our members who view Mandolin Cafe on their iPhone or iPad, and recently updated their software to ver. 15.1, they are no longer able to view videos that have been inserted using the tried and true (and generally followed) method we have been using for years. That method is to make your post using “go advanced” (rather than “quick reply”) and click the YouTube icon, and paste the URL after the “=“ in the YouTube URL, into the pop up box you get when you click the YouTube icon. That is the method that Scott (owner of the site) had said for us to use, and it’s worked perfectly all these years. I would venture a guess that at least 95% of the videos here in the SAW, have been inserted using that method. And I realize it’s very stressful for those of you who suddenly can’t view these videos. There is just a big blank space where they should be.

    This seems to ONLY be being experienced by iPad/iPhone users who updated to 15.1.

    There is another way to insert videos, and strangely enough, videos inserted that way, are viewable by users running 15.1.

    If you are posting a new discussion, and want to insert a video, instead of clicking the YouTube icon, if you look at the row above that, you will see other icons. On my iPad, it’s the little group that starts with the world icon. The last icon is for inserting a video clip. When you click on it, it opens a window where you paste the entire URL of your video.
    If you are replying to a discussion already in progress, you can find that same icon in both the “quick reply” and the “go advanced”.

    There have been no changes to the coding of the site on Mandolin Cafe’s part. The only members who are having an issue are the ones running 15.1 (the newest update) on their iPad or iPhone. Hopefully, whatever bug that is responsible for this on Apple’s end, will be fixed in the next update.

    So…. What does that mean for us? Well, going forward, I am recommending we stop using the You Tube icon to insert videos, and start using the “insert video clip” icon, remembering to paste the entire URL into the box.

    If you are one of the members who uses 15.1 on your iPad or iPhone to view Mandolin Cafe, all I can suggest is if you have any other device that isn’t running 15.1, use that. If you don’t have that ability, all I can suggest is that if you find a discussion with a video that you can’t see, and want to see, you can post a reply on that discussion asking anyone who CAN see the video, to repost it in the discussion using the other “insert video clip” method. Or, you can do a search on you tube for the video, and insert it for the benefit of others.

    I am very sorry we are having this issue. But, I feel certain that it isn’t a Mandolin Cafe issue, but rather an apple Ver 15.1 bug.

    I know it’s very discouraging for those of us who have submitted videos, to think that many users now cannot view them. For those who have only submitted a few videos, you can always go back to your discussion and reinsert the video using the newer method. For those who have submitted hundreds of videos, I doubt that’s something you want to undertake…..

    So, let’s all just hang in there, and try our best to stay calm and do our best. From this point forward (until we are notified differently) please stop using the YouTube button to insert videos, and use the “insert video clip” button, and remember to paste the entire URL!
  2. John W.
    John W.
    Noted, Barbara.
  3. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Just a head's up, with my 'supreme' ability to edit other's posts, I've gone back into week #554, Mazurka Schloss Freiberg, and added the videos using the 'new' method, on those videos that were submitted in the last couple of days by you members that used the 'old' "you tube" method. I just added them to your posts (I didn't replace the ones you inserted the old way), so viewers that DON'T have the issue of not seeing videos, will see both videos on your posts! If that bothers you, you can go in and delete the ones you added the old way. When you go to edit your post, you will be able to tell the difference; the old way of posting the videos will start out with YOUTUBE=, and the ones I added will start out with video=youtube!
  4. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    In order to post a vid here on the Song A Week group, in the past you would use the Advanced button and then paste a truncated youtube link into a box.
    If your vid link was https://youtu.be/tEJiB2KhruI then this is the code that the program (which uses a different codes) would write in response:


    [*YOUTUBE=tEJiB2KhruI[/YOUTUBE]
    note:‘*’ is there just to prevent the code from loading the vid right now. You delete the * when using.

    Now, with Apple's new release of IOS 15.1 and their concerns for our security following recent revelations, we use the little graphic button that Barbara describes and the following code here on MC would be produced.

    [*video=youtube_share;tEJiB2KhruI]https://youtu.be/tEJiB2KhruI[/video]
    note:again, ‘*’ is there just to prevent the code from loading the vid right now.



    The tEJiB2KhruI is the individual vid identity part, the rest is the same.
    So in fact the SAW archive needs a script that would go through all the SAW archive and cut and paste the first code to the second.
    Seems very simple?
    It’s most probably not.




    BTW an easy way to remember how to write out the new code by hand is:

    Write:

    [*VIDEO] X [/VIDEO]

    where X is your full YouTube video link, for example https://youtu.be/tEJiB2KhruI
  5. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    interesting outcome to your adding my video by the "other" method, Barbara. My "offically posted" video is smaller in size on the screen to teh one you have added, so an unexpected bonus here. I often wondered why some videso seemed to be in a larger format than others and this may well explain the phenomenon.

    Thanks for your explanation of how to post for viewers who are using iOS 15.1.1. As a Windows user I have not had the viewing problem.

    Simon, I think that Scott has made it clear in the Forum Software Support section that he will not be doing any tweaking of the Cafe software to accommodate Apple's latest update. I would agree with him on this as it is surely up to Apple to sort out their code, which has previously caused no problems as far as I am aware?
  6. Jess L.
    Jess L.
    Barbara wrote: "use the "insert video clip" button"

    That method has never worked for me (Windows 10 currently, Windows 8 before that etc). It does not produce a preview (picture) of the video. It only produces a text URL (same as if I'd used the regular link button, which defeats the purpose of having a separate video button). That is not new - it's been that way for years here.

    But, for several years now, I also manually add a clickable link with the full URL, below the embedded video. I started doing that when some members were having problems viewing videos at work or behind firewalls or something (I forget the details), anyway that allows the videos to be viewed on their actual YouTube page.

    So I don't see as how I can change anything here from what I've been doing all along.

    Simon's reply above may hold an answer but I'm afraid my new-learning abilities are quite addled in my old age and I was not able to understand if the technique was the same or different than what Barbara said.

    My options seem to be to do what I've always done - embed the video *and* provide a separate clickable link directly to the YouTube page.

    - Jess
  7. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Jess. It sounds like you’ve come upon a method that works for you. I guess that I will amend my recommendation!

    When you are wanting to insert a video in your discussion or reply, be aware that if you use the “You tube” icon method, the members who are viewing it on an iPad or iPhone running ver 15.1, at this point in time, will only see a blank space where your video was inserted. It appears that if you use the “insert video” icon method, that all viewers will be able to see it.

    However, some users are unable to get the “insert video” icon to work for them! If you are one of those people who cannot get the “insert video” icon to work, go ahead and insert your video using the “you tube” icon, however, please also include a clickable link to the video itself.

    The way to do that, is to go to your YouTube video and copy the entire URL. Then just paste it into your discussion. That way, even if the video doesn’t show up in your discussion for some viewers, there will be a clickable link to it!
  8. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    A good plan, Jess and Barbara, and probably best solution at present. I have found previously that I could not get some of my videos to show using the "insert video" link, so have always gone to the Advanced option and YT button. On the most recent one I added in the URL link as well after Simon had mentioned that he could not access the video. This worked.
  9. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    The thing is to not stress about it. Is our history really that important?
  10. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    I did it the formerly inofficial and now recommended way all the time because the display was bigger (prig as I am ), not because of my prophetic abilities as an Android user
  11. Mandolin Cafe
    Mandolin Cafe
    So we've made some changes and the testing with 15.1.1 or 15.1.2 Mac OS, videos are visible, as long as 1) they are embedded correctly, and 2) the video is actually still available on YouTube. Can someone running those versions of Apple OS confirm they are working for you too? Instead of a "no" in case that's the answer, it helps to have a web address of the page where you think you're still experiencing a problem so we can look to confirm one of those two instances mentioned here. Instead of posting here, if you can reply directly the Mandolin Cafe private message that helps us so we don't have to return to check for replies.
  12. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    I'm going to insert a video using the old way (using the YouTube icon and the shortened version of the url), and see if it's visible to everyone!



    and this is the same video using the insert video and the entire url

  13. Mandolin Cafe
    Mandolin Cafe
    Barbara, you posted in the space where the video goes this:

    MxP7eqyQf38&t=2s

    leave the &=2s off and it will work, as such below. The YouTube video ID is always exactly 11 characters. In this case those are MxP7eqyQf38

  14. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Well, I must have done something wrong, because the first video isn't showing up for me on any device (error code)

    Here's a different video, still using the You Tube icon, and the shortened URL (only the part after the =)

  15. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    OK, ya'll, this crazy thing has been going on so long, and is so confusing, I don't know anything anymore! But, it does appear that inserting videos either way works again. I don't know WHERE I came up with a you tube url that had more than 11 characters after the =, but that is what the problem was. So, from now on, you can insert your videos either way. If you are using the You Tube icon, just make sure that you are just pasting 11 characters after the = in the URL of the You Tube Video. If you use the insert video, you paste the entire url. We have noticed that if you like the look of the bigger video, use the 'insert video' option!
  16. Mandolin Cafe
    Mandolin Cafe
    Right, that works. It's always 11 characters and if there's a & in there somewhere that video is not going to be visible.
  17. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks for the prompt fix, Scott! I have reverted to the old/new style of the Youtube button and as there haven't been any protests I assume they were visible to the Apple world. It might be a good idea to keep posting the URL underneath the video as well, as a way of future-proofing which takes up very little screen space.

    I also have the impression that the page takes longer to load when the videos are inserted with the "video" code instead of the "Youtube" code, but that may be spurious.

    Martin
  18. Michael Pastucha
    Michael Pastucha
    All is good in the world because I can see and play the videos at the SAW Group again on my iPad! i think the idea for the url code being posted under the video is a good one!
  19. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Some explanation of what those special characters do in a YT URL:

    Suppose you have something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH5roIHHi94
    This is a perfectly working URL to the whole video as-is, consisting of
    https:// - the protocol (secure HTTP in this case)
    www.youtube.com - the DNS name of an internet node hosting the service
    /watch - a sub-path to the servlet you want within the service
    ? - the separator that separates the access part from all following parameters
    v=fH5roIHHi94 - the first parameter (code of the video in this case)

    more parameters can follow, separated by a &, such as &t=15s for playing from the 15th second forward, but they cannot be processed by the Cafe plugins, so you better omit them.
  20. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Many thanks.
    I must admit that I’m very happy with the work that Scott, Barbara and others have done on SAW I can now go to vids on https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/g...856&do=discuss and see a lot more of the historical content. Really gives me the urge to join in with tunes that have already been posted rather than starting fresh threads -which is also a pleasure for me too.
    And all those ancient SAW members! You’ve got to love humans!

    And mucho gracias Bertram for the html address explanation. It’s a joy to read a clear explanation of something that’s quite complicated.
    -I’m guessing that the plugin could be written to truncate the thirteen characters but that would then limit functionality for people who work with suffixes?
  21. Mandolin Cafe
    Mandolin Cafe
    I'm changing the sizing of the videos which I'm sure is going to get noticed. Possible I maybe change back, too. This based on the suggestions from YouTube's support page at https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6375112
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