I can't play some video files on my iPhone
by Eoin Ryan
on
Nov 18, 2008 at 11:56:48 pm
I'm new to iPhone. I just got the 3G. I can't play some videos on it when on the internet (browser is Safari). When I go into You Tube it's fine, but when I go to play a video (that I think might be flash), or look at a website that is made up of flash, nothing happens. I get a small blue box in the centre of where the video should be and I can't play the video. I've tried downloading flash player but Safari tells me I can't do that.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by David Roth Weiss on Nov 19, 2008 at 4:11:42 pm
You're encountering one of the biggest issues with the iPhone, which is absolutely zero support for Flash video. As yu are probably aware, Apple's competitors own Flash, so despite numerous rumors, whether Flash video will ever actually be supported on the iPhone is still a big mystery.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW's Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Paul Harb on Nov 26, 2008 at 7:10:49 pm
Funny (when I say funny I mean sadly stupid) thing is that they just added podcasts and they all seem to use flash video...so anytime I try and see a podcast video in the iTunes store on my iPhone...they dont work...wow ...brilliant Apple...those guys are losing their minds over there I think...some really head scratching things in the past couple years....
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Zane Barker on Dec 11, 2008 at 6:36:56 am
[Paul Harb]"Funny (when I say funny I mean sadly stupid) thing is that they just added podcasts and they all seem to use flash video...so anytime I try and see a podcast video in the iTunes store on my iPhone...they dont work"
Umm there are absolutely NO podcasts in the flash format on available in iTunes.
There are no "technical solutions" to your "artistic problems".
Don't let technology get in the way of your creativity!
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by William Peterson on Dec 20, 2008 at 6:03:10 am
Flash, Flash, that's all we want in iPhone.
Apple won't let Flash in. It's the simple business trick.
We have to wait, and wait to some developer can break this limit with perfect solution/app.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Zane Barker on Dec 20, 2008 at 7:06:36 pm
[William Peterson]"Flash, Flash, that's all we want in iPhone. "
[William Peterson]"We have to wait, and wait to some developer can break this limit with perfect solution/app"
Apparently you don't understand somethings about flash.
1-Flash is NOT owned by Apple, it is owned by Adobe. Therefor it is in Adobes hands not just any developer. Plus to be able to be used by the web browser it would have to be at the system level. A simple app CANOT do that.
2-Flash uses a LOT of system resources. For a simple test to show this all I did was open Activity Monitor and watch the percentage of the CPU that the user is using, then start playing a youTube video. My user percentage went from 14% to 25% by doing nothing other then start playing a video on youTube. My computer is a 2.6 Core 2 Duo with 4GB of ram, the processor of a iPhone is a 620MHz ARM chip. So do the math. A small 620MHz processor just isn't going to cut it for the CPU usage that Flash video requires. Especially if my CPU usage on my multiple core computer went up by 10% just by playing a Flash video.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Sharon Smith on Aug 22, 2009 at 1:30:33 pm
While some people are arguing over who\'s to blame or why it can\'t be done, ordinary iPhone users are missing out on content from sites using flash. Does Apple have an alternative/solution/suggestion? Or are we going to just keep laying blame or dodging it here?
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Ron Lindeboom on Aug 22, 2009 at 6:00:07 pm
Hello Sharon,
Only people that aren't thinking the issue through, are fixing blame -- or are expecting an answer anytime soon. Most of us with iPhones came to grips with the math very early on and are not really expecting a change soon.
As pointed out in Zane Barker's post, a dual-quadcore (8 proc) Intel desktop Mac measured in the 2.6 Ghz range -- as compared to the single proc 620 MHz range of the iPhone -- finds Flash adding 10% to the dual quadcore to play a Flash video. So what do you think is going to happen on a 3G connection (which is far less pipe than the cable modem many surf on) using a single proc 620Mhz chip?
Compression gets better and better with each passing year and I have no doubt that video will eventually play on the iPhone using Flash. But will it be this year? I doubt it.
If a finger is going to be pointed in blame at anything, then I blame mathematics.
Anything else is merely pointing in the wrong direction and is likely the outcome of reading too many conspiracy theories.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Ron Lindeboom on Aug 22, 2009 at 6:33:51 pm
I can't say. I just think that there's a much higher bar that iPhone designers and users have than some of the other things out there. Maybe that is it, I don't know.
Our sales director, Tim Matteson, had a Blackberry for years and loved it. But recently he switched to an iPhone and he's been like a kid in a candy store. He and I spoke on the phone the other day and he just went on and on regarding how much slicker and much more polished everything is on his iPhone. (He is a longtime PC user, not a Mac guy.) He used words like "seamless" and "has an ease of use" that he didn't find on any of his Blackberries.
Maybe Steve Jobs & Company want a certain level of "finesse" in the system that has to rise to a level that matches everything else it has already. All I know is that I have logged in to our MOBI interface on an iPhone and it looks nice. When I log in using a Blackberry or a Palm, etc., it looks very disheveled and crude. Oh the parts are there but that's about all you can say about it. (It wasn't written for an iPhone, it was written to the published 3G standards for all the systems, and each has a bit of tweak to the code that recognizes the logging-in device and feeds the code appropriately.) The iPhone is just a whole lot slicker than the others.
Steve is a maniac on finesse. Maybe that's the bar. I don't know.
All I know is that many people are completely unaware that many parts of the iPhone interface and software was co-developed with Adobe and yet Flash doesn't run on it. Go figure.
But as Tim Matteson told me in his call: You know, I don't care that Flash doesn't run on this, everything else is so much better and so slick and seamless that I'd still buy it.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by David Roth Weiss on Aug 22, 2009 at 7:55:35 pm
I agree. There's just something about the well thought out UI on the iPhone that just makes one want to actually use the apps. I do however wish that Flash video would play on it, but it's not really a deal-breaker.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW's Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Zane Barker on Aug 23, 2009 at 3:10:11 am
Sharon,
Apple does NOT own the flash format, does NOT have control of the flash format, they CANNOT develop s player for it, cannot make plugins that for flash, CANNOT distribute it with out permission.
IT BELONGS TO ADOBE NOT APPLE.
So stop acting as if it is Apple's fault, start directing your complaints toward Adobe.
For flash to come to the iPhone it would have to be with Adobe's assistance, permission, blessing etc. And obviously Adobe is NOT not doing that.
There are no "technical solutions" to your "artistic problems".
Don't let technology get in the way of your creativity!
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Sharon Smith on Aug 23, 2009 at 4:59:34 am
Zane
thanks for that prompt, if condescending response.
i think we've already established Adobe makes flash, but my question was a pragmatic one, not an ideological one.
Mac users are renowned for their creativity so there's possibly a way around it that someone somewhere has identified but, if not, one thing's for sure: Apple's not gonna do a thing about it (eg develop an alternative to Flash) unless its customers bring some pressure to bear using forums like this one.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Zane Barker on Aug 23, 2009 at 2:26:13 pm
[Sharon Smith]"Mac users are renowned for their creativity so there's possibly a way around it that someone somewhere has identified but, if not, one thing's for sure: Apple's not gonna do a thing about it (eg develop an alternative to Flash) unless its customers bring some pressure to bear using forums like this one."
Sharon apparently you still do not get it.
Apple has an alternative video format and it is already on the iPhone its called QuickTime.
You want something that will play flash video but because Apple does NOT own flash they cannot develop a flash player for the iPhone without a big fat lawsuit from Adobe.
ANY ALTERNATIVE THAT WILL PLAY FLASH VIDEO WOULD BREAK ADOBES COPYRIGHT.
If you want Apple to develop that then why not offer to pay their legal fees and also pay every penny that Adobe would in a lawsuit.
Now Sharon please give it a rest.
There are no "technical solutions" to your "artistic problems".
Don't let technology get in the way of your creativity!
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Ron Lindeboom on Aug 23, 2009 at 2:14:18 pm
[Sharon Smith]"I repeat my question: does Apple have an alternative or some kind of solution or even a suggestion?"
Is this a rhetorical or a trick question, Sharon?
I think it's pretty obvious to anyone that owns an iPhone -- you do own one, right? -- that the answer is "No."
Personally, I find people boring that ignore every other point of a discussion and only want to hear ONE WORD that is one that they already know the answer to.
Those kinds of discussions are not really COnversations -- a word whose root is found in "co," implying two or more -- but are more accurately MONversations, from the root "mono," implying one person who wants to hear themself talk.
If you just want to monversate, please take it elsewhere, we do a lot more than that here at the COW.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Vince Becquiot on Aug 24, 2009 at 6:43:35 pm
I do love my iphone, but there is a certain ego coming with Apple products, some call it finesse :-)
I won't go into guessing why Quicktime never got much market share for online video, but let's just say that the fact that they never fixed that black toolbar issue on Vista browsers, and the constant push for a non existent safari update didn't help...
It is also true that they depends on Adobe to develop the mobile product. After all it would be an Adobe product, not Apple.
There's also the whole user experience alteration rule that could have gotten in the way.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Ron Lindeboom on Aug 24, 2009 at 7:16:04 pm
Vince,
I use Macs, Windows, PCs, Linux and PDAs of most varieties over the years.
The system that I have the most of? Linux.
Macs are a distant second, PCs come in dead last.
Why?
Of all the various systems, I find Windows the least "smooth" and easy to use, in my opinion.
Yes, I call it finesse -- but so does our sales director who we didn't force to jump from a Blackberry to an iPhone, nor did we force him to jump to a Mac Laptop. He did that all on his own, after buying the iPhone.
Why did he jump? He called it seamless interoperability of all the components. He also used the word finesse. That is where I got the idea.
I have heard that kind of story many times over the years from people who used iPods and iPhones and had been on PCs and jumped to Macs.
Am I saying this because I am a Mac fanboy. Hardly. There are many places where I wouldn't use a Mac for love nor money.
But when it comes to finesse, I don't think the jury is out on that matter -- the case was decided long ago and the jury has gone home.
Oh, and like many here, I too wish that the iPhone supported Flash and I hope that it does someday.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Vince Becquiot on Aug 24, 2009 at 7:35:58 pm
Ron,
At least you were careful not to throw Vista and finesse in the same sentence :-)
But I think in that case in the broader sense of things that's really what makes the PC vs Mac so hard to win.
On one side you have a very tightly controlled, hence secure and "smooth" system, on the other a highly customizable one.
Microsoft is getting closer with Windows 7 and I should probably also take another look at Linux, but I do have kids... and some kind of a social life after 11pm.
Re: I can't play some video files on my iPhone by Ron Lindeboom on Aug 24, 2009 at 7:50:41 pm
[Vince Becquiot]"On one side you have a very tightly controlled, hence secure and "smooth" system, on the other a highly customizable one."
In this case, I would counter that for the vast majority of users, at least, the "customizable" system is another word for intimidating.
When I want real customizable power and security, I bank my company on Linux.
When I want ease-of-use and security, I use a Mac.
I use Windows when it makes sense, which in our company is mostly business software and audio apps.
But I use an iPhone just because it's so much more fun than the Nokias, Motorolas and other phones I owned. Our 10 year old granddaughter agrees and from her iPhone we get pictures, voice clips and all kinds of stuff from her all the time. Her Nokia just didn't have the same umph, I am afraid.
