SingleMalt.tv & The Mac Owner

I'm all Mac, all the time - which is apparently a problem, as it seems SingleMalt.tv isn't a fan of the Mac.

Any other Mac owners out there having problems with Singlemalt.tv?

Between the audio-visual sync issues and the dropped audio...I can't watch any episodes enjoyably.

It isn't my Internet connection as that is a fast broadband connection. Is it better on a PC?

UPDATE: I got a chance to view Singlemalt.tv on a PC. Looks great and no issues (aside from the program bumpers being quite a bit louder than the programs- easily fixed). But wait, did I just see the Speyside Cooperage spelled "Cooperidge"???

Comments

[Rob Draper]

Re Mac issues.

First, thank you for your comments re singlemalt.tv.

Unfortunately there is a problem with Mac's and our servers in London. A big problem for us as we are, and always have been, fully Mac based.
The issues are being worked on as a top priority.

Regards,
Rob Draper
singlemalt.tv

[Michael Perkins]

I am a Mac guy also (all the way back to the 128k original in 1984), currently running a G4 800 MHz iMac. As I sent to Mr. Draper:

"I run:

"iMac G4 800 MHz
768 MB RAM
Mac OS X 10.4.7
Safari 2.0.4
Flip4Mac Plugin 2.1 (/Library.Internet Plug-ins/Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin)
Flip4Mac Web Plugin 2.1 (/Library/Internet Plug-ins/Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.webplugin)

"The video player comes up, but with three significant problems:
1. No controls available.
2. Echoed sound; the soundtrack plays both in-sync and a second or two behind, creating an echo effect.
3. Clips would keep repeating, never going past the intro video.

"Interestingly, if I disabled the Flp4Mac Web Plugin, that solved the doubled/echoed audio issue, but failed to resolve the other two problems.

"Please let me know what I can do to have a pleasurable viewing experience. :-)"

I truly hope the problems are rectified quickly. Why, oh why, though, if they are Mac-based, did they go with Windows Media streaming instead of Quicktime?

[Michael]

On Windows I found that the automatic bandwidth-estimation program came up with numbers significantly higher than I could achieve. I received beautiful video that would usually stall (but the audio kept going). Increasing the buffering (through the video program controls) made it possible to watch the video for longer periods of time before it stalled. I could have caused it to buffer entire segments, but the startup time (and time to rewind) was inconveniently high. Using the Single Malt TV settings to decrease the bandwidth estimate decreased the video quality but fixed playback problems. I expect that these issues could affect anyone.

I find that the programs have audio mixing issues. Different segments have different volume levels (from the barely-audible MacLean to the blasting "bumper" ads) and different scenes within segments sometimes require loadspeaker adjustments. Otherwise, everything appears to be well-produced.