How to view VIDEOS on the internet

This is a very complicated subject, so bear with me. I have learned a lot over the several years I have been fighting the mind boggling system of compresion programs, different file formats, and programing glitches. Most of this I have learned from trial and error, so I wll try to save you all some time by sharing my techniques.

How do you watch a video on the internet? I will give a step by step tutorial. After each step, I will assume that it didn't work, and go on to the next method. If you follow this you will eventually get to see what you want. I will also assume you can download and run programs (no firewall), because I have tried to view stuff at piblic access terminals, and if it doesn't work the first time, it is likely it will never work. But there are sometimes ways around this, so give it a try anyways, because it just might work.

#1 left click on the link.

#2 double left click on the link.

at this point one of two things will have happened. Either you are now watching a video, or an error message came up telling you the media player could not play it because: the video is the wrong file format, or the player is missing something it needs.

Most people have more than one media player on their computer. If it had an error message then you probably should try opening the file through another program. What you will need to do is one of two things.

#3 open up different media player. Go to the file menu and click on "open url". You will then need to type in the specific web address you are trying to access (or cut and paste it).

To cut and paste it, right click on the link for the movie you want to view. A menu window will pop down and you can select one of several options:
"Open, open in new window, save taget as, print target, cut, copy, copy shortcut, paste, add to favorites, properties" one of these should hold the key to what you need. I will reffer to this list again.

If you are using the URL "cut and paste" method for viewing, you should select "copy shortcut". this will save the specific web address to a temporary file on your computer, you can only save one of these at a time in this temp file, and if you do it to another movie file, you will loose the old one, so use this one video at a time.

Go to your open media player and clear the field in the URL dialoge box, once it is empty (it may already be empty) right click in the box, ad a window should pop up with several words: "undo, cut, copy, paste, select all" only one of these should be darkened... "paste" click on paste, and the "shortcut" to the web address should be pasted in the box. alternately you can type i in manualy.

to manualy type it in, right click on the link for the video, and select "properties". this will bring up a box that has "Address, URL" in it. you can either write down this address on paper, and type it manually into the URL dialoge box in the media player, or you can left click at the begining of the URL text string (in the properties box) for example "https://www.flamingsphere.homestead.com/files/DanHyperloops1_NEW.avi" and "drag" the highlighted area all the way to the end of the text string. at which time you release the left button, and the text will stay highlighted,. Then right click on the highlighted text and select "copy" from the menu that drops down.

go to the UL dialouge box in the media player, and clear the text (if any is in it). left click on the empty box, then right click and a menu will drop down, select "paste"

press "enter" after the URL text is inserted by any of these means, and the movie will play. (hopefully)

Now, let us assume it still is not working, try doing this will all the media players you have on your computer. one of the media players should work. If it does not, you can try another method.

#4 Right click on the link to the movie. Select "save target as" from the drop down box. This will open a box so you can save the file directly to your computer, and you can then use the file whenever you want, without being online. it will also allow you to access the file repeatedly without needing to wait for the file to download over the internet, thus saving time and bandwidth.

Now, after you have downloaded (saved) the file to your computer (make sure you know where you put it, use the drop down menu at eh top of the "save as" box if you aren't sure where it is being saved at, or if you want to save it in a different place) you can now open the file from your own computer with variouse media players.

Now, if you have tryed every player on your system, and nother works....

Download the media player you need. I am using DivX, and Real Media compresion formats, but there are a million others.

after you have downloaded and installed the new media player, repeat the previouse list of methods. If it is still not working....

here are common problems.

#5 sure, you have the new program, but your computer is still opening the old program (the one that didn't work) and is trying to run the video in it, and it of course doesn't work. That is because of the setting in the media set up. YOu have a player set as the default for the specific media type, but it is the wrong media type for that player (or the right media type, but the wrong file format, avi for example has several formats, not all are interchangable)

What you need to do is manually open up the new media player you downloaded, and use the "file" menu to either play the saved fil off your computer, or open the URL dialouge box to view it directly off the internet, using the new player.

Now, at this point you have probably seen the video, if not, I will help you in rounding up the evil programers who decided we needed to have all these different file formats, and beat the living Sh@t out of them

Now, in all probability, you have now seen the video. however, it is also possible that, after all of this, one of your other media players stopped working because of the dreaded software conflicts that sometimes arrise when adding new media players. You will proably end up needing to reload some of your old media programs, which is not to bad, because they are all available for free, you just need to reinstall them. there is sometimes a "magic order" to install them in, which nobody knows, only trial and error can tell. If a media program stops working on you, just re-download it, and install it. eventually all your programs will work properlly.

I may have left something out, so stay tuned additional info as it becomes available. If you follow this guide, you should get good results.

Anybody else who has pertinent info should help by posting it here. Good luck, and may the force be with you.

Forums > Help! > How to view VIDEOS on the internet