Recently we’ve received numerous complaints from people who wish to view The Daily Show online, yet can’t seem to properly receive the content. This is due to the fact that these fans are located in 1.17.2008
Oh No Canada!
Recently we’ve received numerous complaints from people who wish to view The Daily Show online, yet can’t seem to properly receive the content. This is due to the fact that these fans are located in 
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Me to. Would like to see the show online.
ALSO, I have an idea for a skit on the show. Something that would summarize the conversations Jon has over the table with guests after the interview ends and everybody is applauding. Must be hilarious!
Do you guys read these comments? If so, can you tell me why you don't just post the whole unedited interview (especially in cases like last night's Jonah Goldberg smack down) online? Is there some arcane copyright or legal agreement that says you can't put anything up that's not aired on TV? Please let me know, because I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to see that entire interview.
Hi folks. Yes, we do read and appreciate all the comments posted in this forum. However, discussion is intended to focus upon, and must be limited to the realm of technical development. Besides, we're all fans of the show like you, not the people who influence programming decisions. So maybe we'll all get lucky and get to see the entire eighteen minute interview. Who knows? Not us.
hey this is jovan anderson from beachwood ohio i found this funny video of condoleeza rice dancing at a concert its on my blog jovanandersontv.blogspot.com or you can go to this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCMzFZ3ZEAA
thanks,
I think this new site is a great idea, but I have so much more trouble with it than the old one. I can very rarely watch a video all the way through without it pausing frequently to "buffer". Is this a problem with my connection or the site? I don't remember this happening so much with the old site. Any suggestions?
Thanks for letting us know. We haven't received any previous complaints about buffering, and the content plays well for us on our home connections which are mostly cable in NYC. So it's probably an issue with your bandwidth. If you're using cable, then your performance will suffer during peak hours due to it being a "shared circuit" technology. But this is also what makes it much faster than DSL during off-peak times, so it's a trade off. You need a steady 500k down in order to seamlessly stream most high res video, such as The Daily Show.
But why can't I just pause the video and wait for it to load like I can on YouTube?
And I appreciate you taking the time to reply to these comments. Thanks
hi, and thanks for your response about the jonah goldberg requests.
i understand that choosing to put this up isn't your job and isn't what this board is meant for. but... i really couldn't find anywhere else on the site to make this kind of request. no contact email address or way to submit programming comments. any chance of that showing up on the site anytime soon?
OK fellow TDS-heads, here are a few answers to recent questions...
Monocot -- in answer to your question about why you can't pause and wait for a TDS video to download? Because we use streaming rather than progressive download. Sorry it's annoying, but it allows people to skip to a later point in a video, rather than being FORCED to wait for it to load from the beginning before doing so. People with plenty of bandwidth tend to like this feature.
Gordon -- We're definitely going to address issues such as programming suggestion submission in our phase 2 community platform development, AKA, "new TDS boards". For now, I'm fine with folks posting ideas for the show, or comments about it -- it's just that we can't really respond to those or do anything about them. So as long as comments of such a nature don't over shadow the ones that deal with site performance issues etc, then feel free to post them here in the interim.
Chieffy -- No offense, but the whole butt fingering thing seems more Jack Ass than Jon Stewart to me, so I hosed your post. In general, if someone posts stuff here that isn't directly related to TDS, or at least in the spirit of it (Jovan Anderson's post of Condoleeza dancing, for example), then those posts will be nuked.
Happy Hump Day everyone!
thanks for posting up this explanation, i though it was a technical issue. I guess we should start pressuring CTV then to show it in canada somehow. but you, CTV sort of sucks at this kind of thing, so I don't expect too much. Thats really disapointing because I don't have a tv anymore and literally there are only three shows I'd like to watch, daily show and colbert being two of them.
could CTV not make a deal with you guys to share advertising and let you show the videos in cadan?
I'm in Australia and am affected by the same issue. Your ads run perfectly smoothly and then it just buffers, sometimes plays audio slowly but no video.
It looks like the player or the site is broken and is terribly frustrating. Is Australia subject to a similar content deal? The Daily Show is free to air tv and cable here, why isn't it available on the web?
Sorry, this isn't related to Canada, but couldn't find anywhere else to post. My question is this: What happened to the RSS feed?!
Thanks!
hey, I found out that CTV does actually show it online, they don't seem to have as many episodes, espcially for colbert, but take a look. I don't know if it will work in australia, but give it a shot.
Go to
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/show/CTVShows/20031021/dailyshow-default/20070720/
and click on the image in "Watch it now"
Funny, I don't live in Canada - I live in the Bay Area, CA, and the site still doesn't work for me, between the skipping video and buffering and playing a commercial at the same time as video and no content for the week showing up on the video page... I know you guys can do better than this. And it isn't my bandwidth, google video, you tube, etc etc etc all play fine.
Adam the Aussie -- We're inquiring about geo-blocking down under -- will try to follow up with an answer to that one soon.
Ratel -- Nice work finding the CTV link. Good to know that Canadians can get a little Daily Show love online at least.
Tasha -- That's an interesting problem. Tell us what browser/version/OS/version you're using, and we'll try to figure it out. Quite a puzzler on that one.
Thanks to all for taking the time to comment!
XP Pro, and I've tried it in IE 6 and the latest version of firefox. Here's a typical problem: I click to here, http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=156319&title=the-douche-vote&byDate=true , it plays the commercial. Under the viedo player it doesn't show the text for "The Douche Vote" - it shows the text for "Mitt Drops Out". Then it buffers forever, then shows the "Play next clip" screen. This kind of thing happens a suprising amount. Thanks for taking a look at it.
Tasha -- Thanks for passing this along. Of course we all hate IE6 because it sucks. But FireFox on XPpro is exactly what most of us use to access the site on a regular basis, so it's a curious issue. I will pass this around next week and see what comes of it. Will post whatever we figure out, if anything.
One more question -- what version of Flash do you have installed? It almost sounds like a feed rendering issue.
Have a great weekend!
Yeah, I'm not an IE6 fan myself, but 90% of the rest of the world seems to like it so I thought I'd try. As for Flash I've got 9.0.47.0 . I can upgrade to 9.0.115.0 (and will because of the security patches)... I doubt it'll fix anything but I'll let you know if it does.
Nope, upgrading the Flash player made no difference. Still having the same problems.
kaigaiweb
Thanks for being honest, but you don't have to be rude. Sure, it takes a lot longer for a BIG organization to make stuff happen than a smaller one. And sure, that's frustrating sometimes. And while we can appreciate a good conspiracy theory, suggesting that we are operatives employed by Dick Cheney to stop people in Tokyo from hearing what Jon has to say is a stretch, to say the least. We're actually working every day to make the site better (along with the REST of Comedy Central sites), but it all takes time and that's just the way it is.
Thanks for liking the design and thinking the site is important. We do too.
Adam the Aussie again. Any news on geoblocking of the Daily Show site in Australia? The ads look great but the rest of the video won't play, even on high speed cable. We want Daily Show! Viacom took all the clips off Youtube, now we have nothing.
Adam -- As far as anyone seems to know here, we don't have any reason to be geo-blocking in Australia. Why don't you send us an email to thedailyshowinfo@comedycentral.com so we can try to figure out the issue.
u canoverthrow this country ill help from here.lewis black has it worked out
Sent you guys an email detaling one of the glitchy videos. Thanks for looking at this, as I know I can't be the only one with this problem.
Hi,
Like a couple of other people I'm also having trouble viewing the videos here in Austin, TX. They used to work just fine, so I doubt it's any particular issue with my connection, and I've had no success with either OSX or Windows under either Firefox, Safari, or IE7 (all up to date on the latest version of Flash, I believe.) Here's the problem:
You click to play the video. The intro commercial plays fine, without any problems. Then you see the first frame of the clip, with "Buffering" or "Initializing" being displayed on the upper right of the video window. It alternates for a bit between "Initializing" and "Buffering" and sort of hangs for a while, and then the intro commercial of the *next* clip begins. And so forth.
Again, I used to be able to view all of this without any problems, so I believe it must be some sort of recent change somewhere. I wasn't sure where else to submit a technical problem, thus the long comment here.
I live in Texas (which is NOT in Canada) and the videos on the site rarely work.
Firstly- thank you so much for reading our comments and for your honest and forthright replies.
I'm so glad to at least know that this problem isn't a browser issue, but it's obviously still not great for me because I can't get my Daily Show fix. Rather than complain about the problem, I'd like to give you what I consider an ideal situation for your website from my side of the internet...
The set-up of the website is terrific, however I'd like to have the content worldwide without restriction (the more people who see Jon Stewart the better) and would like to click pause once a new page has loaded and have the movie's content load up (like YouTube does) so that I can play it when it's fully downloaded without interruptions of buffering. (Right now if I have a movie that buffers and refuses to load into the cache I won't watch the movie- this applies across the board). And that's it. That would be the penultimate Daily Show website for me. Actually... unless it is worldwide and caches the content in the player, then your website is fundamentally useless to me I'm afraid- which would be a real shame if it is to continue like this. I haven't seen The Daily Show for a very long time because of this issue. I rely instead on Bill Maher's free RealTime podcast to get my alternative comedic news fix. I'd prefer to balance it with some Jon though. Little help?
Hey Mat -- Yeah, we'd probably dig having TDS available to the entire solar system. But content licensing is definitely handled elsewhere in the greater Viacom world.
The difference in performance you're talking about is between "progressive download" vs. "streaming". See Monocot's previous question for more details on why we do it that way.
While it's not free, you CAN get TDS as a podcast from iTunes. Sounds like that may be your best option at the moment.
Thanks for your response. Much appreciated.
In regards to Monocot's (and my own, and many other people's) disgruntlement about streaming, I don't believe your reasoning when you say the decision is made for people (with fat connection speeds) who like to skip to a later part of the clip- especially when the clips are so small to begin with. It would be understandable if it was the entire show that was streaming, but come on... You can't willingly frustrate so many people with such a decision to stream clips, not to mention exclude so many people that have less that great download speeds, just for people to skip to anywhere in a 2 minute clip. Pff!
No. I think the real reason is that you were asked to choose streaming over progressive download by the same people who decided to make TDS a paid podcast rather than a free podcast (like Bill Maher's) as some way to prevent people being able to save the clips onto their computer once they've downloaded them onto their cache.
I'm right, aren't I?
And you're not even going to be able to say that I am right because that would compromise the nice guy policy this board has with the wishes of the people that pay you.
I'm _sure_ that if the podcast was free, then we'd see progressive downloads (like YouTube) on the Daily Show website. You can agree with me on that one at least, right?
I used to love watching the low low res, ad-heavy, but FREE dailyshow clips on the Comedy Central MotherLoading... the site you used to have. (I'm needlessly whinging now). It was like Jon Stewart and the people behind Jon Stewart wanted to get their very important message and information out to the global public to say: If you're an American, you need to know this. And if you're not an American, we want to reassure you that not all Americans are like you think they are.
Now I can't help but think this is all about cashing in now- which, by my logic, cheapens the message.
(Now I'm really whinging).
Do I reeeeeally want to pay for a podcast (it would be the first podcast I'd ever have had to pay for)? Not really. Not when I used to get TDS for free! Now it just seems insulting, as I'd say this email is probably startingn to seem.
Sorry, nice guy production team person, but I just feel cheated knowing that there is no solution here to get things back to the way I used to enjoy TDS- which was so easy and hassle-free.
Poo.
Gosh Mat -- In all your conspiratorial theorizing, you failed to miss the REAL conspiracy behind streaming video. But it's OK, you've convinced us to come clean anyway and just admit that we secretly intend to allow our audience to view FULL EPISODES eventually. We have a bunch more tech stuff to work through before we can roll that out, but EVERYone wants that, so we're doing it, with streams.
And really, think about the logic behind begging for everything to be "free" -- It costs TONS of money to produce content like this. Yet you balk at paying a couple of bucks for a podcast because you can't get broadband to get the content FREE online? Really? Hmm... Good luck with that.
Hey, come on... I already said I'm stingy by not wanting to pay a couple of bucks for the Daily Show podcasts, but it was the fact that it was for free to begin with, and had progressive downloadable to begin with, and was available to outside the US (which I am) to begin with, and now it's not- was my problem about paying for it now.
Surely you can see why I'd be upset at this.
The fact that I can't watch it for free like it used to be... isn't very good.
The fact that I can't watch what I used to watch for free because of new geographic restrictions isn't good either.
But the fact that even if those restrictions were lifted it would still be unwatchable because of the constant buffering ...isn't good.
So please forgive me if I'm a little sour at Comedy Central for taking away something that I enjoyed so much, and restricting it in a way that makes it now mandatory to pay for. And without even having the compromising position of having an audio only podcast for free (like Bill Maher). Or even really old TDS shows for free. Nothing for the overseas fans of the show anymore.
But besides this, you mock me that I want everything for free- as if you fork out tons of money and get nothing in return. Don't you guys have advertising everywhere? Isn't it true that there's an ad at the start and end of the clip, and around the frame and borders of the page? I wonder if you've even put ads in the paid podcast?
I was happy putting up with all of the ads. Now, literally, it's only ads I can see when I try to watch a clip on your site.
Actually, I have to address some of the silly things you have said...
"We have a bunch more tech stuff to work through before we can roll that out, but EVERYone wants that, so we're doing it, with streams."
"Every"one? No, I don't think so. I remember only wanting to listen to the interviews or of segments I was interested in. I'd select the interview, wait for it to load, watch it in its entirety- for free. Now I can't.
And this...
"It costs TONS of money to produce content like this. Yet you balk at paying a couple of bucks for a podcast because you can't get broadband to get the content FREE online?"
I have broadband, and it's still not free online. I'm outside the US.
But more to the point, why should I want to pay for something when I know it's available elsewhere (the US) for free? I feel duped.
You've convinced me. I won't pay for the podcast.
Quick question: are you planning to introduce a full screen feature in the player any time soon?
Finally, a place to complain about this site!
I'm sure that there is money to be made by Comedy Central in Canada, but I'm in Thailand and all I get is the ads too. Cheetoes and whatever brand deodorant are not available and while I occasionally miss the cheetoes, I would really like to see Jon Stewart. Proxy servers are illegal in Thailand, so that's not an alternative either.
c'mon, please help us out here.
kaigaiweb and Matt_Brady are on the mark. The Daily Show stands for integrity. For those of us without cable TV, this site is our only outlet. But as of today you guys are two weeks behind in posting new content. There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the upload schedule and, from the outside looking in, it appears to be either sloppiness or downright contrived cruelty. If you posted current content on a regular basis this website might get a following, you might get some clicks, which means advertising dollars and eventually you douches might get promoted out of your pathetic little cube farm.
I am with kaigaiweb. This site is a joke. The show you represent, TDS, is funny because it is current. It is no longer funny two weeks after the fact. To make my point: Have you ever watched old Weed-End Update clips with Chevy Chase or Johny Carson Monologues? They were funny 25 years ago because they were timely. Not so much anymore.
So maybe this decision comes from higher up and there is simply nothing you can do about it. If so, I suggest you all quit. Just walk out. Because if your upper management runs a comedy station, but doesn't understand comedy, the modern online media, or the concept of advertising revenue, you are all doomed to unemployment anyway. On the other hand, if it is your fault, if it is your inability to communicate your needs in meetings or your sheer inadequacy as programmers, I suggest you skip a couple Nerf basketball tournaments, forgo Two-Hour Teryaki Friday and get your shit together to fix this site. As a user, I demand current content delivered in a usable format. This site is an affront to everything The Daily Show stands for and you should be embarrassed for yourselves.
Dad -- The Daily Show & Colbert Report were "dark" last week, meaning that re-runs were shown. During dark weeks we try to offer entertainingly creative collections of clips from the past that follow certain themes.
Personally, I think watching older clips from the archives is really cool. I like hearing Jon refer to the events of the day and remembering those times. I like that with Carson and Letterman too. Sorry you don't, but thanks for using this forum to voice your opinion.
Oh, I get it. You think the internet is a quaint, nostalgic archive. Now it makes sense. See, I use it different. I use it as a next-generation media which has the ability to deliver content in real time.
As far as the show being on Hiatus last week I didn't realize that... because I don't have cable. Thus I depend on the internet to inform me of things like that. This would explain a one week gap, but not two, which answers the question of lazy versus contrived. A lazy person would have used that week to catch up. You guys left the one-week buffer intact,
Its just sad. I think your scope of operation is skewed. You have a chance at greatness; You are associated with an amazing show. Grow some balls, stand up to the Viacom execs and demand the right to turn this website into something current and exciting, but speak in a language they understand... Ad Revenue.
Otherwise you are squandering an opportunity.
PS: Good luck in the Nerf basketball tournament.
Personally, I'd just like to see the embedded flash player work like it's supposed to no matter where you live. I'm receiving data at 675 kbps, have no problem with MSNBC or Google flash vids, and yet I can't click on Daily Show videos and have them load and play correctly. The buffering is interminable, and many of the links don't work at all.
I'm on a college campus where the internet connection isn't fast enough at times to watch the daily show. It would be nice if the player could buffer more than 5 seconds at a time.
Just dropping in to say I have the same problem in the UK. My connection is 2.2mbps, I'm on firefox. I can play embedded video adverts (mmm trail mix) and sometimes even see the real adverts before the content but most of the time it just buffers, buffers, buffers, doesn't play and then ends. I used to be able to view a video maybe once every 5 tries but I haven't been able to see anything for weeks. This is on multiple videos from multiple days. It's currently about 7am on the east coast so this can't be a peak time, surely? It's also not available to watch online from our channel here so... any ideas?
Hey there Daily Show Production Team!
I wanted to post another note about the problems with buffering and viewing the content. I also used to love the progressive downloads even when I had a 6Mb DSL line, but now that I'm outside america/korea/japan/EU (in SE Asia) it is just shy of impossible to watch TDS. I too have had the frustration of watchg an ad buffer and air only to see the first frame of the clip hang and then eventually time out and move to the next clip.
I would be soooooooo happy if even the video quality was adjustable. I would take a 100k stream that I could actually watch(or heck, even hear!) over a high quality one that I can't. Wasn't Real working with this stuff when 28.8s were around? This is the most frustrating thing.
As far as the downloadable episodes from itunes are concerned, this is a joke. I realize you(the tech dudes) don't make the pricing scheme but look at it this way, if I want to watch only TDS and TCR I would have to spend $16/week(!) or $64/month!!! and that's on top of internet access charges, plus since the shows are relatively high bandwidth versions I have to spend 2-4 hours downloading 250MB per episode. sure, you don't get ad revenue from a download but that cost is outrageous.
I say, progressive downloads or lower bandwidth requirements, pleeeeeease.
Thanks,
Brian
Oh, and thanks for your hard work getting the new site up. I definitely love the (idea of) access to all of the show episodes online!
Thanks again!
Brian
For some reason I can't watch the videos online either, not in Sweden or in Finland. When I try to download the video it initializes and buffers, and then jumps to the next video without showing the one I want to watch. I can watch the commercials though. What's the problem?
Hi Wilhelmina,
At one stage The Daily Show aired programs for free to the world, and these clips were also progressive downloads- like YouTube (ie. you could wait for the entire clip to load). Unfortunately with the new production team there have been decision that have been made that are less than fan friendly. The first of which is that only US citizens are allowed to enjoy the Daily Show for free now. The rest of the world is made to pay. Also, if you were to view the clips you'd need a strong internet connection as they stream them now, which usually means a stop-start experience, which is incredibly frustrating. These complaints have been made numerous times, but unfortunately the production team don't want to know. Perhaps try somewhere else to complain. If you find out then tell me as well.
Actually, let's ask them right now...
Hey, dailyshow.com_production_team! Is there a place we can complain to that perhaps we'll be heard and taken seriously? People above you perhaps? People like your bosses or the show's producers? Who can we make our greater complaints known to that might actually get something done about this? I'd really like to know. And so would plenty of other daily show fans.
1. Open the dailyshow.com clips to the world.
2. Make the shows progressive downloads.
M
Hi Mat,
yes, I was able to watch the clips about six months ago. And I thought with the World Wide Web it wouldn't matter any more where you physically reside. I was wrong.
Wilhelmina from Finland
"Finland is situated between Sweden and Russia. Interestingly enough it lacks the cultural richness of Sweden and the grandeur of Russia"
Colbert in the Daily Show
(Unfortunately I had to quote it from my memory, because I can't download the clip)
I haven't been able to watch videos properly from the UK for a long time. Probably a few months.
How about fixing this big problem that affects fans around the world?
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