Experimental Tutorial Player

Very good, the subtitles up at the top are a great and innovative feature to have. The tutorial is also great. Suggestions: I would appreciate seeing things magnified. It's hard to see which settings you are changing in the overhead/full view. I know a lot of video tutorial authors are doing that. Maybe a more concise video? I don't think it's a huge problem, but I, personally, have a short attention span and find myself always skipping through different parts of most all video tutorials that I have ever watched to see all the good parts. It's just me, not much of a suggestion. I think that you could make your voice louder though, it's still a little too quiet even with all the sound controls up (my laptop's speakers and the sound control in the player). There is a bit of a static problem, but not too noticeable. Every once in a while there will be a mike blip, but otherwise, good work! Sorry for such a long list of crits. My overall impression of the tutorial was very good, great even. Good job, please keep it up!

I would really prefer if you don't use, and consequently support, another non-standard Internet technology. The Web is build around standard technologies to which everyone has equal access. By pushing non-standard technologies into the web, you give certain companies (in this case Microsoft) the means to disallow certain parties from the Web, and hence you give them control over the Web. Flash is non-standard too, and just as bad, but another one like it just makes things worse.

I only have 6 choices that I know of for video: Flash, Silverlight, Quicktime, HTML5, and WMP and Java (not Javascript, Java). HTML5 is out because hardly any browsers have the video tag working yet. Quicktime is out because it only allows one dated design and does not allow me to make the player as I need it. WMP is out for the same reason. I don't use Java because I do not know how to make a video player with it, and I don't want to spend the time to relearn Java and figure out how to do all that. That leaves Flash and Silverlight. I use Silverlight because I got the program for free, I had no choice (not that I would have chosen Flash for certain). It just happened to be what I got and I am not getting Flash unless someone out there is going to pay the $300 or whatever it is to get it for me.

With that said, and if I am understanding you correctly, it sounds like you think adding another company who could gain control over the web is a bad thing. Meaning, Adobe's total rule over video and rich applications on the web is bad, but having two compete is worse. To me, that is like saying having a monopoly company with complete control over an entire market is better than having competing companies, neither of which have total control.

I can't really see what you've done with this experimental video, since I refuse to install Silverlight, but if you've just added titles and captions, this is something that you could easily do with video compositing. And if you are unable to achieve the same effect, I would prefer if you stick to the current tutorial formats – they are fine enough. Also, HTML5 video tag is catching on pretty fast, so maybe could just wait a little for that—so far only EI doesn't support it, but there are workarounds. The reason why another Adobe Flash is worse is because with just one, there can be a focused effort in fighting the format—by having two non-standard formats the effort needed would be doubled. Also, another non-standard format might hamper any of the standard technologies that are emerging—Microsoft undoubtedly would do their best to resist any technologies that might compete with Silverlight. I understand your point, that two companies dominating the web might be better than one, but I would really prefer that all of us strive for a web that is dominated by no one.

Ah, I see what you mean. I do think the video tags are a really good step in that direction as Flash is used mostly for videos. I would prefer using the video tags, but I will only use it when the majority of people have a browser that supports it. Of course, IE is always there to ruin that...I probably ought to try and make a simple HTML5 video player sometime soon, regardless.

And yes, right now all there are is captions and titles, but what I have been wanting to do since the beginning was add next and last buttons so someone can jump back to the last step or next step without having to click and hope you land in the right spot. That was my main reason for wanting to use Flash or Silverlight in the beginning rather than just a Vimeo embed. In any case, I do plan on putting the videos on Vimeo and YouTube as well.

Lastly, you won't have to worry about me not making the text tutorials, when I start getting videos out, they will just go with the text tutorials I have already made. Text tutorials will always come first, then the video will come later.

Thank you for your understanding. I appreciate your work and hope to see more from you!