A Few Changes
Download Links
Some of you may have already noticed that the download link is back! A few people were having trouble with the embedded download link (some couldn’t see it and others had poor download speeds). But now the traditional download link is available for every video. Simply right-click and save the file. You’ll have the video downloaded to your desktop in no time!
RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are getting a major change. The feeds will no longer require a username and password, so they can be used in ANY reader. That’s great news! But unfortunately, the feeds also no longer contain video file information. The purpose of the feeds now is to simply notify you of newly-published content. Click the link and it will take you to the post where you can download the video or watch it directly on the site.
When it comes to matters of security the less said the better so I won’t be going into details. But I hope you’ll understand that I’m not making this change arbitrarily. As far as video-based membership sites go we still enjoy a lot of freedom due to our small size and tight community. Most sites won’t even let you download video files and they certainly don’t give you lifetime access like we do. So for folks who use the RSS feeds to do your downloading, you’ll have a couple of extra steps to do including logging in to the Guild site and manually downloading your files. iTunes users can then simply drag the files into iTunes library for viewing or syncing to devices.
So if you do use an RSS reader make sure you update your feeds. Each project has its own feed and the Guild site has its own general feed. These feeds have all changed. You can find all of this information on the Feeds Page.
Seems at lot of us IT guys are into woodworking…
iTunes has went downhill for certain. I work on servers for around 70+ hours a week. So sitting in front of a computer any more that absolutely necessary when I am not at work is hard. But, being a determined and stubborn computer guy, I’m still working on a way to automate a few things on my end π
Thanks for clearing it up. I see Shannon had to go to this format too. My new job (a little over a year ago) took up most of my time for awhile and I am finally trying “catch up” on some things. Sorry I am late to the party π I fully understand why you needed to move to this format, but, I also understand I will not take the time to download each file. I love the content and always have. I know that I am not a big participator or frequent visitor to the site. But, I have watched every bit of content you have put out (free and paid) I can get on my iPod. Having an auto updating feed to my iTunes/iPod (so I can take it to the gym, on bike rides, in the truck on my drive to work, and at work) is a major part of what I like about the podcast type feeds. I am trying not to sound “bitchy” in any way (sorry if it came off that way) and just FYI on it.
I completely understand since I too am an iTunes user, though I am getting more and more frustrated with the software as of late. Navigating and updating my feeds is clunky at best and subscribing to my own Guild feeds was becoming increasingly problematic. Your presence will be missed but I hope the content is good enough to motivate you to log in and click the download button. π
When I add the feed to iTunes none of the episodes show up. Is this how it will be now ? Do I need to download each episode and add it to iTunes separately now ?
Yes that is correct.Check out my reply below to Snicols for an explanation on what I suggest you do for iTunes.
No worries, It was just something I was thinking about while downloading some of the videos. If you could just group select and then download the that might be a good compromise. That way on the server side your not increasing your storage requirement on your cloud storage; you’d just assemble the ftp package for the ftp request.
Marc,
Any chance of having a compressed archive for each project, which contains all the project’s downloadable items?
Just thought I’d ask
Thanks,
Jason
Even in a compressed format, the download would be massive. I’ll look into our options for something like this but I’m not sure it would work out that well and would likely cost me a lot of money to host the files reliably.
Yeees, it works again, thanks !
How can you manage to find time for your incredible woodworking, making videos (that probably consume lots of time), your website, your family and … fixing stupid errors like that so quickly ?
Are you a team of 5 in your body ?
Thanks a lot !
There is still one file that needs to be replaced (leg vise pt. 2) so hang tight on that one.
As for how I find the time? I honestly have no idea. Work and life in general seem to be one continuous stream of events and I’m just carried along with the current. π
Hello Marc,
Thanks for the fast reply !
When I click on the link, everything goes normally, except that the download goes extremely fast for those files and the size of the downloaded file is abnormally small. For instance :
Roubo before 17 seem ok.
Roubo 17 is only 8,2 Mo large and +/- 30 seconds long
Roubo 18 is 7,3 Mo.
Roubo 19 is 17
Roubo 20 is 8,3
…
But when I watch the videos directly in the embedded player, everything goes well.
So don’t bother too much on that. I hope it will be fixed once, but it’s not a super emergency !!
I’m facing the problem for some time (days ?). I’ve waited to see if it would get fixed in the following days, but nothing changed so far.
I also checked if the problem couldn’t be on my side, but videos for the Morris chair, for instance, go well. As well as 16 first Roubos episodes.
Thanks for your help !
and thanks for your incredible work, too !
Marc
Looking deeper, it appears some of the Roubo videos were damaged upon upload. Have no idea how or why. But I’m in the process of replacing those files as we speak. Check in an hour or so and you should find they work.
Hi Marc,
Since those changes are effective, I’ve got some issues downloading some of the videos. Everything used to be fine before that.
Concerning the Roubo for instance, mp4 video files downloaded are about 30 seconds long (at least from nΒ° 17 onwards) .
As your explanations after that time are also quite interesting, I’d find interesting to get them too π
Do you know what I can do for that ?
Thanks !
Marc (another)
Hey Marc. What happens with the actual download progress? Is the entire file downloading or is it being cut off at some point? Those files are rather large, especially for the Roubo, so they should take some time. I did just run a few test downloads and it seems ok on my system. So can you tell me what happens after you right-click to save the file to your computer?
Hi Marc,
I typically stream your videos on my mobile rather than download them to save space, rarely viewing on my computer. However I typically fat finger when getting around a normal website on my phone, or the video is hard to manage appearing as part of a website.
Is there a mobile guild site in the wings, or perhaps similar to the App so that we could still have the videos nicely organised and stream similar to normal. And please forgive me if there is something really obvious that I’m missing.
Absolutely loving your work btw Marc! And I’ll survive if there isn’t a magical solution, I’m just resisting change π
Thanks
Brett
Hey Brett. Can you clarify for me how you used to do things on the site? None of these changes really impact mobile viewing/streaming. I’m just curious if this is a general request or if it’s specifically in response to these changes.
That said, we are rolling out a new TWW site in the Fall. We’ll learn a lot from that as it will contain a number of heavy duty changes that will work great on mobile devices. We’ll be able to then apply that knowledge and framework to the Guild site where appropriate. In all likelihood, it won’t be until 2015 that we see those changes. But due to the simplicity and large icons of the Guild site, I never felt overly pressured to introduce a mobile framework.
In the mean time, I don’t think there’s a magic solution that isn’t already on the phone. Pinch to zoom for the win! π The project buttons and video embeds are fairly large so it shouldn’t be too bad even for the fattest fingers. Let me know if I’m missing something here too. I’ll need this kind of feedback to make sure the new version of the site addresses member concerns.
Is there a way for the videos to come up as Podcasts on the iPad or do they have to come through as movies now?
When you add videos to your iTunes library, iTunes wants them to be under the Movies tab. You can actually go to the file and change the content type to Podcast but it will start to get a little confusing since Podcasts expect an RSS feed to be involved. The easiest thing to do if you’re collecting an entire series is to call it a TV Show and set the genre to Woodworking. Make each video an episode of that “TV Show” and all of the videos will show up under that projects header all in one place. You can also collect them as Movies but each file will live by itself, which will make your library pretty messy. If you need more details on this, let me know.
Thanks Marc. That worked. You look good in iTunes next to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and SuperWhy.
Ahh yes, two of my favorites. I’d be proud sitting next to good old Wyatt. π But you could do a brother a solid and at least put me next to Handy Manny. π
Marc,
When I download the video from within the Guild site I receive the HD version. That’s easy enough.
How do I obtain the SD version if I want it?
Thanks,
Pete
I probably should have included that in my list of changes as well Pete. We will no longer be offering the SD versions of the files. If you want to make the file smaller you can use a program like Handbrake http://handbrake.fr/ to get the job done pretty quickly. Just trying to increase my efficiency on the production side so I can focus more on building and less on computer time. π