Why are SugarUniversity videos in .WMV?

[yizzung]

We use Macs here and none of us can watch any of these pre-recorded tutorials... Seems like such a strange choice for an open source company.

(We've tried Flip4Mac conversion tool and it doesn't work.)

Starting to wonder why I left salesforce.com.

[susiewilliams]

They are posted in WMV because that's the only format GoToMeeting, the tool that was used to record the sessions, creates when you record a session.

[yizzung]

Ok, that makes sense.

So the obvious follow-up... what are your Mac customers supposed to do?

[susiewilliams]

I spoke with some Mac users and they usually just use flip4mac, which works well for them. They also said there are lots of other tools available to convert files; they'd do a Google search to find one that works.

In general, there isn't one video format we can pick that will satisfy everyone. Quicktime, is a proprietary format from Apple. If we just posted every video in Quicktime, we'd hear from the Linux crowd. By posting in WMV, we hit the majority of our users. At some point we'll look into double-posting everything in every format, but for now, we're hopeful that tools Mac users use for handling other situations, like flip4mac, will work in this situation as well.

[edub]

The problem isn't necessarily that you're using WMV, the problem is that your videos are using the g2m3 codec which is not compatible with Macs, so Flip4Mac will not handle the video. You don't have to use the g2m3 codec, GoToMeeting added Mac support in the last couple months and don't require the g2m3 codec anymore. You will still need Flip4Mac since they still use WMV, but they no longer require a proprietary codec.

But I still think that using WMV is a poor choice since it requires the end user to do some work if they don't use Windows. YouTube uses Flash video, and I don't hear people complaining about that. The Flash player is almost universally installed on systems. There would be little need for you to double post your videos in every format if you used that format.

[yizzung]

Right. As I said in my original post:

(We've tried Flip4Mac conversion tool and it doesn't work.)

Sounds like there is no solution here.

[SugarDev.net]

For me, this is not a problem. Also, the choice of using MS Word files is something I can overcome.

My problem is that it's not possible to join a GoTo session with Linux.

It would be great if an open source company would use open formats...

[susiewilliams]

SugarDev.net, you should take that up with the folks at GoToMeeting. Right now, in order to run a scalable, globally accessible online meeting with a reasonable chance of success, your main choices are WebEx, Citrix (GoToMeeting), or Microsoft (Live Meeting). Each of these options has pros and cons (as does DimDim), which I won't bother everyone with here.

As we record new sessions with Citrix's new Mac-supported technology (and retire the old ones), hopefully the issue will go away. There are still lots of written descriptions on all of the training topics, so even if you can't watch a "how to" video you should be able to glean some tips and tricks from the written docs. We are also starting to post some "how to" videos on You Tube so that should be another avenue for material, along with our audio podcasts, found here and on iTunes.

[JVWay]

Susie,
I notice one alternative you've missed that we've used with great success at my business for the past four years.

Adobe Connect. It's gone through a few name changes over the years when Adobe bought Macromedia who started it as Breeze. But it's flashed based, has many meeting room alternatives and layouts along with video.

One of the reasons we went with it over alternatives is that it requires nothing more than flash. Check it out sometime.

(I'd really check into the codec thing mentioned earlier. I can hear the wmv files on my Linux box but not see the video. With mplayer installed I should be able to see it. I've been told that there must be something up with the codec.)

Jerry

[edub]

I use Adobe Connect as well and for the same reason Jerry does, it is cross platform and I don't have to worry about giving support to the person on the other side that is having trouble installing a plugin. If they have Flash (and almost everyone does) then Flash handles installing everything else in a breeze.