Races On The Web Presents AAHL Hockey!!

As our video audience grows, the number of complaints of 'jerky' or hesitating video and even audio feed grows. While during a live feed, we do have some hesitation, we know what causes it and all I need to do is rap the knuckles of the employee playing video games on the streaming computer... however... most times, the problem lays in the users computer.

Before you think I'm just shifting the blame, allow me to explain. As both the browser wars wage and technology changes, you, the user need to keep up with the changes. Currently, our video feed uses Windows Media Player 11 as its base and anything less can cause a problem of, you guessed it, hesitation, jerky feed, and just plain stalling.

By late this year, all of our presentations will begin to stream in SilverLight, the newest cross browser media player by Microsoft. The nice thing about SilverLight is it tells you you are out of date but also shows you exactly how to get the plugin. Once clicked, the plugin installs itself and within seconds, you are in business.

While I don't claim to be a computer repair guy, I've worked on a few and one program I ALWAYS install on my computers is START-UP INSPECTOR. This neat program allows you to remove unneeded programs from your start bar, thus freeing up system resources and RAM.

Imagine your computer as a car and you begin to turn on every appliance that draws power off the alternator. Bright lights, four way signals, the heater, the AC, the seat warmers, the radio... everything that will turn on. It all saps power from the system. This program allows you to shut off all unnecessary programs until you need them. Programs like Quick Time have a nasty habit of adding themselves to your start bar whether you want it to be there or not. Every time you use QT, you have to run the program and shut it off. (I avoid Quick Time like the plague... it is soooo 1996!)

Once installed and you run the Inspector program, hit CONSULT on the top navigation bar and uncheck anything that isn't specifically "SYSTEM REQUIRED" and then hit "APPLY." It comes up with another dialogue but just tell it "OK." I only have one box checked on my computers and I have tons of programs. If you uncheck something like Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger, it will still work but only draws system power when you tell it to run.

The other big thing you can do to fix your video problems is to update your Windows program. I've seen computers so far out of date that it takes up to five hours and six times of checking to update them. Your computer may have to reboot numerous times during this process but when it is done, it can find missing drivers to all of your programs and bring your computer up to date... and make it so you can watch our live videos!

Microsoft makes finding the UPDATE button difficult on some versions so all you have to do is click this link to find WINDOWS UPDATES. As I mentioned, you may have to check for updates several times the first time and I check for updates at least once a week. I'm not a big Microsoft fan but this is a very handy tool.

If you do all of this, and want to see if you've helped yourself, try going to our ROTW 24/7 VIDEO FEED to check if your system can watch the video on that page. If you will spend some time checking your system, I think you will find your live audio and video experience with us and all across the Internet to be much more pleasant. If you have problems, please feel free to email me from the link in the nav bar. Thanks!

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