Surfcam using Macbook and Safari

Hi bandicoot, we changed over the surfcam codec a few days ago, and are hearing sporadic reports where it's not working for all users. Ironically, I'm on a Mac and they're streaming perfectly for me in Safari - so we're not sure what's causing these intermittent problems for around 10% of our audience.

Can you please try another browser (ie Firefox or Chrome) and tell me if you're still having these issues? Also, what OS is your Mac running?

If anyone else is also having problems viewing our surfcams, please let us know - preferably with your computer type, OS and browser version.

my Mac os is 10.6.6 and safari version is 5.0.3
I tried Chrome and the problem is the same.

Thanks bandicoot. We'll investigate and get back to you.

Anyone else experiencing similar problems?

We've changed the surfcam player to a new skin. Any improvement at your end bandicoot?

I still cant view the Sydney cameras.......however I can see Margaret River OK but not the other WA ones....maybe you can identify the problem from that.

That's even weirder bandicoot! Margs and Manly are (for example) both using identical streaming mechanisms and protocols.

We'll continue hunting down this problem.

Im running WIN 10,1,53,64

I cant see any cameras at all. Not even Margs. On the fluidzone site I get a loading screen with the circle coninuously loading but on swellnet its just blank. Both still time out though.

Hope this helps, let me know if I can do anything else to get these babies back online!

Thanks Steve.. great info. We're still trying to source a fix for the problem.

Hi msavage. I'm not real tech savvy but used your link above. Am running same as steve-noort above on Sony VAIO using Windows 7 Ultimate (for English interface here in Japan)with I-Ex. Internet speed is very fast here and I have cable so buffering is rarely a problem.

Camera appears to be loading really fast, I get a 'Done` message but just white screen, not black box with spinner. Is the same for all cameras Oz wide. A week or so ago, I could get a few selected cameras but not all, now none.

Hang in there, looking forward to seeing waves from home again.

Ben, as emailed . . . I too am unable to see the streaming cams. Using PC (I-E 8).

Thanks Greg.. we had your deets recorded as:

Browser: Internet Explorer 7 (7.0)
OS: Windows
Resolution: 1200x1920
Flash Version: WIN 10,1,102,64

All good for me too until the "change". I'm using Explorer and google chrome. The coastalwatch cams all seem to be working. Good luck sorting it...

Thanks PJE. Just for our testing purposes, weo had you as:

Browser: Internet Explorer 8 (8.0)
OS: Windows
Resolution: 1080x1920
Flash Version: WIN 10,1,102,64

Just a thought - for those of you who are unable to view the surfcams - are you viewing from home or from work?

If you're in the office, there may be some firewall restrictions in place that could be affecting the incoming stream.

We're currently viewing the surfcams across multiple Macs and PCs, using all browsers (IE, FF, Chrome, Safari) across a number of OS versions, from a number of different ISPs. And they're all working perfectly. This really is a strange issue.

Another curveball - Phil and I (in the same office, on the same network) are both running the latest Macbook Pros.

The surfcams stream perfectly on my system - on every browser - but Phil can't get them to load at all, on any browser (we're both up to date with the latest software versions too).

So, it's not ISP dependent. It's not hardware dependent (PC/Mac). It's not OS dependent. And it's not browser dependent.

What could be causing this? We're still searching... thanks for everyone's patience.

Hi, I have no surfcam video box at all, thought it might have been because i recently reset my browser settings to default but this appears to be happening to many others too.
I'm in Newcastle and have a Toshiba laptop, core 2 duo 2ghz,
2g ram, running win vista home prem with IE 8 , ISP = dodo adsl2.
Have looked at most cams with no luck at all but will look further as some posts suggest that some work and some dont.
Other website cams seem to be workin fine :(
I just want my fav surfcam back.
Good luck guys

I have had no luck viewing the surf cams for days i just get a blank screen something has changed ,i use windows and have no trouble with coastalwatch cams ,swellnet needs to fix this asap.

Had another look at more cams with no luck on IE8 but i did find that Chrome works fine. Shame about the dud surf though. Anything you can do about that while your fixing things up?

Thanks wayne and jdonski, we're still working on it here. Hope to have a resolution ASAP.

Hey Ben,

Can you please post on facebook when you have resolved the problem. Its easier for me to get the message that way rather than checking back here every hour.

Cheers mate

Will do Steve.

We've just made some changes to our streaming server. Has anyone noticed an improvement in the service.. ie can you see streams now when you previously couldn't? For reference, please try the Manly cam as it's one of our more reliable units.

Still nothing on the Windows/Explorer system

Just tried Manly as suggested but still no luck for me

Just as a matter of interest I did my post about 2.30pm and the time on the forum says 11.28 am...more things to fix by the looks of it

We've made a little bit of progress - Phil's Mac (in the office) that was unable to see streams at all yesterday is now getting intermittent vision across all browsers. But we're still not sure what's causing it. Will post updates as they come through.

Bandicoot, the timestamp on your previous post above says "13 January 2011 02:28 PM" on my screen (close enough to the actual time of post, around 2:30pm). Or, are you seeing this on a different page?

Mine shows 11.28 Ben.

I just noticed a very fast message that comes up in the camera screen that says "no suitable player found".....hope this helps

Ben, I'm using IE8 at home and work. Using the IE8 debugger, here are the error locations:

Unspecified error. v60.js, line 1 character 1621
Object doesn't support this property or method libs_packaged.js?3094610, line 178 character 2930

This was from loading https://www.swellnet.com.au/surfcams/margaret-river and I just get white space where the player should be.

Let me know if I can give you any further info.

Roger

weird as it is, I can still see Margaret River and nothing else.

Bandicoot, try a CTRL+F5 on that page. That might make it consistently not work - just like the other pages. It may be just that your local cache still has the old version of the player.

WIN 10,0,45,2

Hi, I can't view any of the cams now either - using windows 7 64 bit and Exporer 8. Was ok about a week ago.

It may be just coincidental but it seems like the page errors when the adverts load. Is it possible that one of the adverts is causing the problem? The advert on lower-right of my page is flash content.

What is the problem with the surf cam at Mollymook. I have not been able to get it for a long time now. I can get the cam at Wollongong so I don't think it is my browser

hi, I can't use the webcams. I am on windows seven using WIN 10,1,102,64.

Thanks guys.. we're working feverishly with our streaming provider to fix the problem. Thanks for your patience.

sundaysax - the Mollymook surfcam issue is a different problem. We have a couple of locations that have had hardware failures in recent weeks/months (MM being one of 'em), all of which are due to be replaced in the coming weeks. We're still awaiting replacement hardware from overseas, some of which has arrived, some of which is still in transit. We hope to have the full surfcam network - plus some new locations - completely operational by early/mid Feb (many locations will be back before then too).

Hi Ben
Is Coffs Harbour surfcam offline permanently. I haven't been able to get it on Google Chrome since they did the extensions to the Fishos club. Cheers

i have the same set up as bandicoot with same issues. i can't get the majority of the cams but i do get some.eg no yalls cam but get margies

shockwave, no it's not permanently offline - it's one several locations that have experienced multiple hardware failure, and will be replaced shortly. We have also decided to relocate the cam (to another part of the same building) due to their new building extensions - which further complicates the upgrade solution from simply swapping over hardware. However, we hope to have this done in the next couple of weeks too.

bowser, that's a weird one. Margs and Yall have almost identical systems, so there's no reason for one to work and another not to work. I just dialed both locations up then and they're streaming perfectly for me across a standard ADSL line.

Thanks for the info though - we really need as much information from everyone as possible so that we can pass it on to our streaming provider for them to assess. It's a difficult solution to troubleshoot when it's working perfectly at our end!

Wouldn't work on MS Explorer but does on Firefox. Haven't upgraded either for a while. I'm on Vista.

I noticed it doesn't time out either. Is that here to stay or is this an accident? Very cool if it's a new feature.

Picture is better as well, less pixelation, but who knows on that one

Thanks Ricco - we are using a new codec and have upped the streaming quality so the picture should be better than it previously was. The time-outs vary depending on how you access the surfcam.. we're playing with a few new things here too (last thing we want to do is waste bandwidth unnecessarily).

I am operating on windows vista and like others have had no access to any cam , it is just blank - just not working tried alternate browsers and still nothing - does this require an update to the latest flash player??

Rob, you probably should install the latest Flash player anyway but I do not believe it is the cause of these problems.

Doesn't work for me either since changing the codec(s). I'm using a Mac running 10.6.6 and have tried it with Chrome (8.0.552), firefox (3.6.12) and Safari (5.0.3).

No love

Ben, finally some love. Updated Adobe and am running Windows 7 Ultimate (Japan version). Could not get anything on I.ex8 not even a spinner. Google Chrome shows selected cameras from around oz, Snapper only, a few NSW cameras, Knights, Margs etc the others seem to endlessly load. As mentioned a while ago, super fast internet here 100mbps+ and on 6 month old VAIO. Maybe prob. lies within I.ex?

Forgot to add, Google Chrome is Japanese version, pre-loaded with laptop.

Great info zenagain, I'll pass this on to the tech team. Thanks :)

Hey Thermal,

I'm on Windows 2008, Adobe 10,1,102,64 installed, I dont even get the loading screen anymore.

FYI