Author Topic: My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users  (Read 1042 times)

Jay Campbell

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My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users
« on: October 30, 2015, 01:20:53 pm »
Hi there. For the second month now, we're getting complaints from listeners that when they play our monthly podcast, it only runs briefly and then it stops.

http://www.thecompanydime.com/feed/podcast/

http://www.thecompanydime.com/podcast-archive/

http://media.blubrry.com/the_company_dime/content.blubrry.com/the_company_dime/The-Company-Dime-Podcast-4.mp3

The latest complaint came from a user on Windows 7 and IE8. Thanks

Shawn Thorpe

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Re: My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2015, 02:54:58 pm »
I downloaded your linked mp3 file and it looks fine. The encoding options are good and the file size isn't too high. I also tried streaming it directly in my web browser and again, no issues.

I took a look at your RSS feed and everything's working there, too.

I went to your website and began playing one of your episodes using the PowerPress player. I let it roll for about 5 minutes and it played just fine.

The best recommendation I can give you for listeners who report issues is to ask them to try a different way to listen. For example, if they're going to your website and pressing the play button and the playback is stalling, suggest that they download the file instead and listen to the file on their computer's default media player.

You mentioned one user reporting a problem with IE8 on Windows 7. Do you know of any other specific cases?

Jay Campbell

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Re: My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2015, 02:29:34 pm »
Thanks. Yes, another user reported an issue with Windows-Chrome.

angelo

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Re: My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2015, 04:52:41 pm »
Is the file size spposed to be 12.8MB?

Jay Campbell

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Re: My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2015, 04:58:56 pm »
I believe so. It was 13.4 on my hard drive before I uploaded it to Blubrry, but my previous three episodes were also about 1/2 mb larger on my drive than on the server so that seems normal.

angelo

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Re: My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2015, 05:05:43 pm »
Is it using a constant bit rate or a variable bit rate? I just tested it in chrome, it stopped right at 2 minutes, but then I waited for the entire file to buffer, was then able to click play again. This is a characteristic common with a VBR.

angelo

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Re: My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2015, 05:49:15 pm »
I tested the recording, it's using a constant bit rate (CBR) so ignore my last question.

When users complain, please also have them include their location, city-state or country. It may be this is a data center issue.

I went ahead and requested a purge with our CDN provider to re-cache the media file at all of the distribution servers.

Jay Campbell

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Re: My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2015, 09:13:18 am »
Thank you. We have heard complaints from Colorado, Minnesota, Washington (state) and Virginia.

angelo

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Re: My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2015, 10:19:10 am »
Are you still getting complaints after 3pm Eastern US time yesterday? If so, the problem is more than likely with your file not with our hosting.

Jay Campbell

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Re: My Podcast Isn't Playing For Some Users
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2015, 11:02:17 am »
Haven't heard but we don't get all that much traffic. I'll get back in touch if we hear anything, thanks again