Full Screen Viewing

I was wondering if the videos can play full screen?  I don't see any button or option to click to play full screen, but I notice in the embed code the "allowFullScreen" is set to TRUE. So I figured that allow someone to click a button and it would open full screen.  Any thoughts?

Hi Anthony,

Try hitting the F key when you're watching a WellcomeMat video.

-Nick

That also works in Youtube, FYI...  I sent that question to support because a client asked about it.  Client didn't like it, but it wasn't a big deal for them at this point.

 Thanks Nick!  That does work BUT how is the average person going to know to hit the "F" key?  I agree with Dustin, the client that asked me about this is NOT going to be happy with that answer.  There really should be an obvious button on the player.

Thanks all! So the full-screen icon was removed from our player about two updates ago. Because we have chaptering, mapping etc to work into our player, the challenge for us is to make sure that our player does not get too busy. In short, too much functionality is never the goal and isolation of the functionality that is most important is.

As a result, we removed the full-screen icon. We have since found ways to make it work and plan to implement in the coming months. But, when we removed it, it seemed like a no-brainer. The player was getting a little over-stimulating.

Actually, Christian, I am glad to see the Full screen button removed. I think the quality is very poor at full screen and it does all of our hard work an injustice. I also noticed that it also can become distorted depending on whetjer you have a wide screen monitor or not.

-Aaron

Why isn't the pop up MLS player the full width/height of the popup? - That bugs me a bit.  It doesn't go to the full width of the popup window.

  Just posted the same thread, essentially. I don't see what the point of chaptering is.  A good video should flow and if  done correctly the viewer should have no need for any type of chaptering.  If you're worried about over stimulation, I would drop out the chaptering before a full screen option, or you could do as companies like smugmug do and have an autosize feature that reportedly senses the viewers watching capabilities and sizes accordingly.  

 Another way to easily solve the problem of a player that is "over-stimulating" is to have the player controls auto hide when the mouse is moved away from the player.  

 Or have it auto-hide after the player has rolled for a few seconds.  

Another thing that would be nice would be a way to edit posts, so one doesn't have to keep posting.

I guess the other thing that bothers me on the player is that the mapping feature is not obvious at all and most likely under-used.

I, however, also think the chaptering feature should be kept, because on a longer video of a large house, it's essential.  Some buyers will watch the entire video, while others will only want to see the kitchen and garage.  It's been a big selling point with agents for me.

But... the map feature does seem kinda weird, because if people find it, it's usually by accident.

@ Dan Colgan, we made some additional tweaks the the MLS Compliant Popup recently. Check it out, but know that new windows could be adherring to rules you've set with your browser.

Tommy,

-The auto-detection of end users' hardware/connection speed info and then serving videos at a size that works best is a great idea.

-No chance we are getting rid of chaptering - people looking at real estate video definitely use it and agents/brokers are sales people that like to control the presentation of their materials. Additionally, egagement statistics for online video point to the need to dice up videos.

-As far has hiding our controls, we've tried this in the past and learned the hard way that hiding controls is an all or nothing proposition. If you hide only some controls, it becomes a situation where end users have to "learn" to use our player. If you hide all functions, that would work, except our partners want their branding ever-present.

-Editing videos. We decided a long time ago not to do this. Local editing software is so mature and good that offering online editing tools seems kind of futile.

Dustin,

I agree with you to an extent with the map icon. However, that icon is becoming somewhat universal in regards to people using it to offer up a map (the iPhone for instance does this and many local sites as well).

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Thanks to everyone for the ideas! We are all about public discussion, but note that you will get quicker respnonses to more pressing issues by emialing us at feedback@wellcomemat.com

Let's make this week a big one!