Why Can't MSNBC.com Fix Their Online Video Offering?

I've blogged about the problems with MSNBC.com's online video offering so many times now that they probably think I'm picking on them. But I'm not. It's just that the experience from their site is so poor, the video encoding quality is not up to par with other sites and frankly, many times I can't even get the video to play.

Last week I had trouble with videos taking more than thirty seconds to buffer. This morning for hours, when I clicked on any on-demand video links on their home page, I got a pop up window with no video player at all. It's just a colored background and the browser is trying to connect to msnbcmedia.msn.com but never resolves. (see screenshot above)

In the past few minutes, it seems they have fixed the player issue, which now loads, but the video doesn't. I'm still getting the "loading video, please wait" message for twenty or thirty seconds before videos play, if they play at all. I had someone check this on the West coast and they saw the same problems as well, not to mention I had it happened to me on two different machines, in Safari and Firefox.

Why does MSNBC.com continue to have so many video problems? Why isn't the video encoded at a higher quality? Why can't someone from MSNBC.com address these issues in a public forum? The last time I contacted MSNBC.com about a problem I had they said there was no issue. Then days later they quietly put out a statement on their website acknowledging that the webcast "was hindered by technical difficulties." So what is the problem today? A player that would not load for hours and videos that take forever to buffer.

I encourage someone from MSNBC.com to contact me or to give an official reply in the comments section on why MSNBC.com's online video offering continues to have so many problems.

Previous MSNBC.com posts:

- MSNBC.com Won't Say Why Their Debate Webcast Failed

- MSNBC Debate Webcast Constantly Buffering, Poor Audio

- MSNBC.com Video Still Not Supported In Firefox Or Safari For Mac Users

- MSNBC.com Needs To Dump MSN's Lousy Video Platform

Comments

[Davis Freeberg]

What I don't get about MSNBC's online videos is that you can always get the commercials to work, but half the time the video won't play. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be forced to watch an ad 3 times before finally getting the real video to kick in.

[Tina]

I agree I spent the last hour and a half trying to upload a video 2 seconds at a time, of a man that just found his mother after 42 years. I have just found my mom after 36 last month under the same circumstances. Dad took me from mom when I was 6 months old.

I REALLY WANTED to hear this story. MSNBC Fix your stuff!! UGhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Bob Carroll]

You can view "live" MSNBC here:

http://www.lasvegasmixx.com/tvu-channels.html?msnbc

Although MSNBC has video clips of their shows available after a few hours delay, this is another option for viewing "live" MSNBC online.

The site link above requires the TVU Networks P2P plugin and only works with Internet Explorer and Firefox in Windows (not available yet for Linux).

[Ah Clem]

"Why can't MSNBC.com Fix Their Online Video Offering?"

I suggest you consider the first two letters in MSNBC which would be the "MS" as in Microsoft... Microsoft is a corporation that like so many others pays lip service to "offering the best product" but NEVER follows through with that commitment. It's more important to them to offer glitzy products that are bug ridden than it is to properly develop the actual software that supports all the 'glitz'. Should they have a legacy product such as Office that does function reasonably well, they make the choice to redesign the UI so everyone has to re-learn how to use the product. And why? Well they have to keep the money rolling in and there are only so many features possible in a word processor or spreadsheet application. So what is there that can be changed but the UI. Inconveniencing the user community is of no consequence to them.

I too have had all the problems mentioned here and more. Contacting MSNBC is a joke, they rarely respond. When they do their response is in one of the two default support answers. Either it's "your browser version, java version, connection, etc." or the standard N-POO-E response (No Problem On Our End).

In my case there are only a couple of programs I watch daily from MSNBC, and I've decided that as a time and frustration reducer I've decided to go back to taping them on my VCR or DVR. MSNBC can draw vacuum on my anus.

Thanks for writing this article, at least I know I'm not alone out here...

[M. Dunphy]

Ironically, it's comforting to know it's not me who's creating a problem w/these videos. (I've been labeled a "computer dummy" by some close relatives--but that's another story.) Still, it really is frustrating, since I like MSNBC news coverage and I won't go to Fox news or CNN either one. They're bent in the wrong direction, if you get what I mean. I will say, though, that I really like Anderson Cooper and every now and then Larry King actually sounds alive and lively.

[Ken Johns]

I have never had any problems with any other sites. The friggin' commercials always stall, sometimes I'm lucky and it plays all the way. I've been stuck with these 2 god-awful Cisco ads for months now. I wish Rachel Maddow would move to another network! ;-)

[Web Guru]

Remember the old joke about Microsoft: If Windows was a car it would get 100 miles to the gallon and periodically explode, killing all passengers.

MSNBC's unreliable performance proves the truth behind the humor. They are not incompetent, they just don't care.

I complain because I am disappointed that this important progessive (mostly) content is inaccessible or delayed so much of the time. The podcasts are equally clunky and often do not appear at all in the podcatcher on the day of the broadcast.

[Rich Tackett]

About a month ago the commercials have stop me cold from watching. Fix it!