Downloads

[mbwelch]

I just wanted to say that I think the ability to have digital downloads is great. The ability to load all the STS videos into iTunes and then watch them quickly and conveniently, without changing DVDs is very, very, nice.

Now for my criticism. Do you think you could have made the act of downloading the videos any more of a kludge? You guys need to get your own servers. Using Amazon S3 is very time consuming. I have to click on each individual download, and then there is a limit to how many I can download at once. I tried three different browsers, three operating systems, and each time met with a stalled download. Finally I resorted to a download manager as suggested (but I really think this is to much work for the average user), with improved and speedier results.

So while I applaud the finished product, I think you're distribution model is unreliable and slow. I think the three click limit is onerous especially considering the unreliable nature of the downloads. To really make this work it should be as transparent as it currently is for me to order movies on an Apple TV or Netflix. Great workouts, horrible distribution.

 

[SNM Videos]

Sorry you're having issues, but we do use our own high end dedicated server for downloads. As for Amazon S3 servers this is not something we currently use, so I'm not sure why you think we do? Actually Amazon S3 servers are something we're looking into to improve downloading, but not something we currently use. Why don't you like Amazon S3 servers?

We feel three attempts is plenty for most consumers. If you have a problem and use all three attempts all you need to do is contact us and we will reset.

I'm sure Apple and Netflix have better delivery systems than we do, but these are multi billion dollar companies with thousands of employees and years of experience with digital downloads. We're many times smaller and digital downloads are a new business for us.

The main reason a company like Netflix will have fewer problems than we do is they use a built in downloader. The reason you're having a problem with the downloads is you're losing connectivity. This is where a built in download manager is a great thing to have. Unfortunately, most off the off- the-shelf digital download shopping carts don't support download managers. This is something we're working on, but in the meantime if you have a connectivity issue you just need to use a manual downloader. They're really very simple to use.

Most people will not have an issue downloading our files, but if you do all you need to do is install a free download manager. As time goes on we will improve our download service, but first you crawl....then you walk...and then you run.

 

[mbwelch]

Downloads stalling

Well I tried it on a Windows machine and eventually just decided to use my iMac. And then used Speed Download as indicated. There may be better ones, but I didn't want to make a life time project out of this. Usually the download starts in Safari (I tried Firefox pretty much the same result), and then I copied the URL into Speed Download. This is the reason I thought you were using Amazon. since the address shows up as https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.e-junkie.com/366266-cache?AWSAccessKeyId=xxxxx(I deleted this string). Anyways I'm pretty much done downloading the files, but I did mess up on one, so how do ask for a reset. Thanks

 

[SNM Videos]

The link you see is just the ejunkie shopping cart link, not the server that actually sends you the file. Amazon S3 servers are actually "Cloud Servers" and are highly regarded in the industry as some of the best servers. We don't currently use these servers to send you your file, so they have nothing to do with the problem you're having.

To have your download file reset you just have to go to http://cathe.com/help/ and then click on the Download button and fill out a ticket. Somebody will back to you on Monday.

 

[mbwelch]

Problem Solved

Thank you for your help. I had the help desk reset the download "clicks" and was able to download the file without problem. Interestingly, today I didn't have to use a download manager and download was pretty zippy.

I think the format though is great. Right now I have all of the downloads imported into iTunes and I'm able to watch everything through Apple TV. I'm experimenting with an HP MediaSmart Server and then using Tivo to access the recordings. This whole thing is very cool. Anyways thanks again.