*geeky title coming...* What the Flash?!

I know... it's rather nerdy but seriously out of every 4 customers at least half of them have this problem. The problem you ask?  Well... for some reason the customers can't get Youtube to work on the SL Viewer 2.0 nor the Snowglobe 1.3.2.  And honestly... there are literally several reasons for why.  I've yet to see the reason being one that is "in-world."

What you'll need to do to view Youtube or any Flash content:

• First check to see if you can view flash in an external browser... (IE, Firefox, Opera) I use Hulu.com as a test site.
• Download the most recent Flash player from http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/
• Check access for SLPlugin.exe for your firewall or antivirus software. No access with the plugin will result in a "media_plugin" error ie. no flash video...

Special Case Scenario:
In special cases some customers have had trouble getting flash even after trying the steps above, plus restarting their computer.  Some of them have had Windows 7, some have had Windows Vista/7 64-bit. Some others have had issues even though they had all the appropriate system requirements.

• Regarding Win 7 and 64-bit OS':  Both are still quite new on the market.  Just recently Adobe issued a 'candidate release 2' this release is supposed to support 64-bit Operating systems.  It would appear this release might still be in the testing stages however here's the URL if you're feeling like you want to give it a try... http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html.
• Regarding those that have issues even though the computer has system requirements:  Here it gets a bit hairy.  One thing I'm noticing is that most of the customers are using a certain internet security suite.  I recommend you keep it and have some sort of protection for your computer, however you may want to research on how to grant application access.  That is likely the issue.  Unfortunately I can not provide you the steps because... well every security suite is different.  

Other Info/Suggestions:

• Emerald is hoping to release a 'flash' oriented viewer... 2 in fact (or so I've been informed).  One will be with the old UI (user interface) the other will look more like SL viewer 2.0.  Therefore, fellow Emerald lovers, bide your time it's coming hopefully by May.  
• If your like "OMG I can't take it!!!! I need Video NOW!!!" (the way it was before this mess) you can try to locate a free site that will allow you to upload your music and allows streaming capabilities...
• Or you can do what I've done (only for those that have the Wonder/Zoom/DreamTV model)... use Opera Unite or buy a hosting site, download the videos off of youtube (try searching google for youtube to mp4), upload them to your newly created site, grab the video URL... and load them into the "myplaylist" notecard provided in the TV. If you do this method there are some things you'll need to insure... 
• Make sure you have enough space to accommodate your videos
• Make sure you have enough bandwidth to support your viewing as well as those others that you wish to see the video.  If you use up all of your bandwidth... you're not going to be able to view any more videos unless you upgrade your bandwidth (yes it will cost more money more than likely) or wait it out until the end of the month when you're bandwidth renews. (Please note that this portion is solely for those who upload videos to a web host.)

Welp... I think I've rambled enough. I hope this was informative. Have a great weekend all!!!

T.L.

Youtube Issues

Hello Customers,

Youtube has been down SL-wide for a few days due to some (apparently critical) changes Youtube has made.  I've been hearing a lot of different theories on why videos will not play within SL... What I don't know is why SL has not posted a notice about the issue.  So here's what @home has done to bring you all Youtube.

Rather than working against the changes youtube has made nightlife Overlord has evolved the tv to play flash video (the current format of Youtube's videos) only on certain Viewers. If it is just imparative that you have youtube for business... you can now view it on Snowglobe 1.3.2 or better... or SL Viewer 2.0 Beta.  Currently, these are the only viewers that enable us to view flash video on SL.

More information and downloads can be found here.

Updates on the status of Youtube for other viewers will be posted on the ning site.

Tami L.

Updating Your TV

Today we'll talk about how to update your @home TV.  A few things you'll need to check before updating are: 

• Make sure you have the correct updater.  @home carries two updaters in the main store, the DreamTV Updater and the Youtube/WebTV updater. The DreamTV updater will work for the Wonder/ZoomTV/DreamTV but will be completely ineffective for your WebTV Youtube. The same goes for the Youtube the DreamTV updater will not work on your WebTV Youtube.
  
• Make sure your TV is not deeded to a group.  If your TV is deeded to a group you'll need to return it to yourself (or whoever originally owned the TV) and re-rezz it.

Next rezz the updater box that you've obtained from the @home store near the TV.  Next you'll click the box.  It will give you a script called "Clean 3.0."  Drop the script into your TV's contents (do NOT remove the box).  When the updater completes you'll get a message in local chat and a hovering text over the updater box informing you that the update has been successful.  It is now safe to delete the Updater box as it will no longer be used.

Error?

In rare special cases some users will receive an error that says something like:

@home [TV model name here]: Verifying TV version, Please wait...
@home [TV model name here]: Failed Verification: Error Code 0002

@home [TV model name here]: Please contact @home Support

By all means contact us and if we're online we will guide you through how to fix the issue... but in the strange phenomena that none of us are online... Here are a couple of causes for that message.

1. Your TV is already the most up-to-date model.  There's nothing really to do here... except play your tv as you normally would.
   
2. Your TV is missing a script or more. In this instance you'll have to contact us with an IM (or notecard if you prefer) letting us know you've received said error. 
   
3. Your TV is too old to update.  In this case,  if your Youtube TV is older than 3.4 or your DreamTV is older than 5.0.3.4 you'll need to send the TV to one of us so that we can get you the updated version assuming all of the scripts are in order.