A program to view DVC entries
 

I am doing a program to view DVC entries without needing to go to Youtube website.
This is how it works: At startup, I look for Youtube videos with two keywords, "thedvchallenge" and "DVC#" where # is the DVC number. When I find something, I store it in memory so the user can browse the available entries. Clicking on an entry will play the video from Youtube directly in the application.
Right now it works with a few entries of past DVC, some of us were very clever in their choice of keywords ;)
What would be cool is if every one could update the videos already uploaded with the adequate keywords, for example "thedvchallenge" and "DVC9" for the DVC #9.
What would be even cooler is if every one could upload to Youtube the videos from past challenges. Well, that will be some work for the one who participated in every single challenge!
If you win a challenge, you can add the keyword "winner", for the winning entry only.

If you have ideas for naming this program, please go ahead. Its temporary name is DVC Entry Viewer, not very exciting...

Dylan, I would need to host one file on the server if possible and to put a SWF file in the new website. Please contact me off list for details.

I will post more info in this thread about the progress I make. Meanwhile, if you have ideas, feel free to post them here.

Benjamin.

EDIT: Added a screen capture.

Benjamin, that's cool!
Emailing you.

I finished the first version. It is not really polished but I wanted it to be available for the DVC #10.
Dylan hasn't find a hosting server yet so I put it temporarily on my company's server.

You can go to the install page now.

Features planned for futures version:
- Voting grids
- Automatic updates
- Storing entries info locally
- Author's info

And to make it work better, don't forget to put the adequate keywords in Youtube.

Benjamin.

This app works on my Macbook Pro Intel :) All ready found one DV10 Entry. I have edited my youtube description so hopefully mine will show sooner or later :)

Maybe it can be edited to watch the official channel which I think only will show the videos after they have been approved, that way entries don't show up too early?

I really like this app and I was very close to modifying the FLV player that I use to do a similar thing where the entries of the URL are fed into a play list that the player would go through showing the entries and the winner could also be noted :)

Great! Thanks for telling.

The problem is Youtube doesn't seem to frequently update its public feeds. So it could be a long time before your entry appears. It is why the best is to include the keywords when uploading the video.
I think Dylan wouldn't mind if you upload the video another time with the right keywords.

It is what I wanted to do at first. Unfortunately, Youtube doesn't provide this function.

;)

Hey Benjamin, going to take me a bit to get server space ready, thanks for hosting it for now.

I'm going to write a list of keywords for people to add to their Youtube entries, probably within a day or two.

Cool, the faster the better!

Hi Benjamin,

The Application works on my MacBookPro as well. I only have one entry that is viewable for the DVC10 (and its not the one I uploaded to youtube). I uploaded mine around 10 hours ago and I used the tags you suggested.

I did edit the tags after doing a test upload to see how it looked on the tube. I guess that is the reason for it not being picked up by your program. The info is updated on youtube though.

How often does AIR refresh?

Good idea. I'm sure that it won't take too long to work out the bugs.

Cheers,

DK

I know this is frustrating but there is nothing I can do as it really is a Youtube bug. It was already reported about one month ago and they say they are working on it. You can see the details here, it is the issue 111. If you have a Google account, you can vote for it by clicking on the star at left.
And thanks for the feedback,

Benjamin.

Huh? "This is a general index issue that we are working on a solution for." is not very informative.

Oh well its for free!

I was writing this when you responded to my last entry so I'll post it for what it is worth.

I did a search for DVC10 on youtube in the general video area; my entry doesn't show up on the results of that search.

It doesn't show up in the group set up by Dylan (but that is probably because he has to release it first).

It did show up in "the DVC'ers" group started by Bradley Loren Marlow (I guess he set it up so that he doesn't need to release the videos that collect there).

If my entry with modified tags is showing up somewhere in youtube way is it not showing up in the general youtube search results?

Weird.

Noticed one glitch today. Maybe two.

When you click the full screen on a Macbook Pro Intel the application goes full screen but the video does not. When returning to non full screen mode the video will then lay on top of the list of movies preventing you from selecting another movie, going back to full screen allows you to see the list of movies again but the video is still not full screen.

Let me know if you need more information.

:)

Now it shows in the search and in my program. I noted that a description I changed a few days ago has been updated. So I guess they update their "index" every few days.

I have also seen a problem with full screen mode once, but it was not exactly the same. It looks like an Adobe bug but I will monitor this.

Thanks,

Benjamin.

No problem. I also just fired up the app and the update must have happened in the last hour as I now see a few more entries including mine that I had edited in the keywords last night :) Another thing I noticed was that the discriptions seems to run off and expanding the player does not show them. Attached is a picture.

Got it. In fact, this part will change a bit in the next version. It will be much cleaner.

ok! Sorry I am posting so much about it. Its just a very cool idea and Im trying to help :)

No need to be sorry, go ahead with bug reports and suggestions. I am glad to have some.
To thank you Josh, I just uploaded an update. There are a few cosmetics improvements, maybe a few bugs fixes and a voting grid.
I'd like to have some feedback about the voting grid. Right now, the total is:
(StoryTheme x 2 + Production ) / 3
Is it fine for everybody or would you like another system?
In the next release I will add a window to see a summary of the votes, sorted by points.

Oh, you can download it at the same place.

Benjamin.

Downloaded the new version. Turned on voting. I voted for a film but not sure if all I have to do is click or something else? After clicking the two numbers it did average them together. I closed out the application and when I came back my vote was not there so Im not sure if this would allow me to vote a few times or not. Is it possible to pull in the youtube star ratings and use those as well? I understand the desire for a more refined voting system but it might be easier to use the system all ready in place.

Sorry, my bad. I forgot to tell that votes are not saved in this version so they are reset when the application is closed. They will be saved in the next release.
The goal of putting the voting grid in the program is to replace paper and pen. What I can do is adding a function that copies the three first entries in the clipboard. Then you paste this in your email to Dylan.

There are several reasons why we can't use Youtube rating system:
1) Everybody can rate a video in Youtube whereas only the DVC contestants can vote. I don't think there is a way to control who is rating (not an easy one at least).
2) The Youtube API (or functions or feeds) are read only for the moment. So there is no way to rate, upload or modify the information about a video. Until Youtube provides write and read functions that is.

I hope I didn't confuse you more with these explanations. But that is the dark reality of programming...

Benjamin.

No problem I hear you loud and clear, I didn't realize you were trying to replace the voting system of sending in our top 3 films, I just though you were trying to allow feed back to the creators of the films. Good work :)

You can find a new update here.
The big new feature is that all the video infos are stored locally. What it means is the first time you launch the application, it will have to search the videos in Youtube which can be pretty long depending on the number of video. But it will save everything locally for the next time. So the subsequent times you launch it, the application will first load the info from the hard drive then search Youtube for updates. It also means the voting grids are saved.
I hope you will appreciate the comfort.

I am a little disappointed by the participation. For DVC 10, there are only 6 videos out of 16 with the adequate keywords. I noted that from these 6 contestants, 4 are between 19 and 30 years old, one is 40 and one is of unknown age. What about the others? Is there something I can do to make you participate?

Dylan, can you spread the word? Please? They will listen to you.

Now we have 8 entries with the right keywords, half of the total contestants.

Eight to go!

On the new version I get this:

Josh, I am contacting you off-list.

Workin' on it now, Benjamin. Thank you for doing this for everyone! :)

Thanks Lorinda.

I won't hide that I was desperate not seeing your entry appear.
Finally you are here!

Josh, I sent you an email yesterday but got no reply. So I will ask my questions here:
- Do you have Windows or Mac and which version?
- When exactly this dialog box appears? When trying to install, when launching the app, when the app is already running for a few seconds?

To solve the problem, try uninstalling the application first, then install again.

Thanks,
Benjamin.

Today I noted I could not play the videos in the DVC Entry Viewer. After investigating, I found the url for the videos was corrupted in the local database.

Does someone has the same problem or it works fine for everybody? I'd like to have more info so I can fix this.

Thanks,

Benjamin.

I am running Mac OS X Leopard. I will uninstall and reinstall. It is right at launch of the viewer. Not sure why I did not get the email but you can always contact me @ josh <'at'> simplethoughtproductions.com I removed the application and AIR and reinstalled manually but get the same error. Maybe the updated something on the mac side but not the PC side yet?

It seems it's a problem with AIR and Leopard. Adobe is now informed of the problem but I am afraid it will take some time before they correct the bug (not before December I think).

Sorry for that Josh, you were one of my best testers!

Benjamin.

P.S. : the other best tester is Bradley ;)

Crap.... well.. my windows machine just died...(I swear DVC10 did have a curse on it). Looks like I might have a new loaded up Dell fairly soon though so I can test on that if I can get AIR to work with Vista.

Hi Benjamin,

Wow! I opened the viewer and all the newly added videos were there, as if by magic. You're right--they don't play right now, but what you've done so far is very cool. :)

I uploaded a new version that should fix the problem of videos not playing.

Lorinda, I know you added the right keywords for your DVC entries, that's great. Now we have to wait for Youtube to refresh their indexes. Ah, they are so slow at this!
Then, maybe you will beat Bradley on the number of entries available...

Oh, but it did refresh! Check it out!

So, do you need to provide us a link to install the new version?

Sorry, I forgot to put the link. You can download the update here.

Lorinda, in my part of the world, Youtube doesn't list your entries. Even if I do a search with DVC10 and thedvchallenge, you entry is not listed. Although I can see the keywords listed in your video if I watch the video in Youtube. I guess they have different servers for different parts of the world.
But I am glad it is working for you.

Benjamin.

I will add that I have a function to automatically update the program when a new version is available. It is ready but I am waiting for Dylan to find a server for hosting the files.
It will be much easier for all when this is enabled.

New version plays the movies just fine, Benjamin. Nice work. :)

How much web-space do you need?

Right now, it is less than 500K. It will grow each time I add new functions but not that much.
The difficult part is that I need a fixed address because I will store this address in my program for searching the update. So I want a server that will host the files for years. It is why it is not easy to find.

Benjamin.

Lorinda, I can see them now. You've put them all, that's terrific. There are even some I have never seen!
Now waiting for Mike Teutsch and the other veterans (DVC veterans that is) to join.