AutoView is written to follow web standards and should be compatible with any standards compliant browser. However, due to the complex nature of the Javascript, the necessary interactions with video plugins and variations in browser implementations, the behaviour of AutoView can vary from browser to browser and OS to OS. Below we present some notes based on our own testing of AutoView with various OS and browser combinations over the past few years. We attempt where possible to fix any problem we find, but many are due to bugs in the browser or the plugin which are beyond our control.
Playback and editing modes are dealt with separately in the testing.
We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% up to date since new versions of browsers and plugins are constantly being released. However we do endeavour to keep it as current as possible.
AutoView presentation playback testing
Current Versions used for testing.
Older versions may work, but this cannot be guaranteed.
- Internet Explorer 6/7/8
- Mozilla Firefox 3.5
- Opera 10
- Konqueror 3.5
- Safari 4
- Google Chrome 3
Firefox is the primary development browser, so if you have problem, please try Firefox first so that we can establish if the problem is a bug in our code, or a problem with the browser.
- Flash Video : Adobe Flash Player 10.
- Real Player : Version 12/SP.
- VideoLan VLC : Version 1.0
- Java Audio Player : Java Plugin 1.6.
- Silverlight : Version 3
- Quicktime : Version 7.6.
- Windows Media Player : Version 11.
Windows Browsers
| Flash Video | Real Player | VideoLAN VLC | Java Audio | Silverlight | Quicktime | Windows Media | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internet Explorer | OK | OK | Not supported | OK | OK2 | OK | OK |
| Mozilla FireFox | OK | OK | OK | OK | OK | OK | Not Supported1 |
| Opera | OK | OK | OK | OK | OK | OK | Not Supported1 |
| Safari | OK | OK | OK | OK | OK | OK | Not Supported1 |
| Chrome | OK | OK | OK | OK | OK | OK | Not Supported1 |
1 : Windows Media Player sources will be automatically substituted by VideoLAN VLC
in browsers which do not support windows media player.
2 : Slide sync fails when switching to Silverlight from another video source.
Windows 7
AutoView is fully functional under Windows 7 with all options working reliably.
Linux Browsers
Note, only Firefox is officially supported for Linux, other browsers are shown for information only.
| Flash Video | Real Player | VideoLAN VLC | Java Audio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mozilla FireFox | OK | OK | OK | OK |
| Opera | OK | OK | Slide/Subtitle sync fail | OK |
| Chrome | OK | No Slide Sync | Browser can't find plugin | OK |
| Konqueror1 | Slide Sync Fails | Slide/Subtitles not triggered | Slide sync fails, play/stop buttons fail | OK |
1 : Flash slides don't work reliably.
Known Problems :
- We have encountered a problem with RealPlayer crashing when trying to play videos. This usually manifests itself by the RealPlayer plugin going blank shortly after pressing the play button. In some cases updating to the latest version of RealPlayer may solve the problem. If the problem persists, open RealPlayer in standalone mode (either from your system menu or by typing 'realplay &' at the command prompt). Select 'tools>preferences' from the menu bar, click the 'Hardware' tab and un-select the 'Use XVideo' check box. This may solve the problem.
- Version 10.0.8 and later of Real Player seems to have a problem with slide/subtitle synchronisation when using embedded event triggers. This is unlikely to affect 3rd party websites using AutoView. We do have a workaround for this problem, but hope that later releases of RealPlayer will fix the problem.
- RealPlayer doesn't seem to be able to pick up the users Moodle session in some cases, so anything which requires the user to be logged in may fail.
Moonlight (Sliverlight for Linux)
The current release of Moonlight is not capable of running AutoView, we hope that later releases will add the necessary features.
Crossover Plugin & Quicktime
Quicktime may partially work under Linux with crossover, but this mode isn't supported. Slide sync is unlikely to work. Linux users are recommended to install VideoLAN VLC instead to view Quicktime videos, VLC should be automatically substituted for Quicktime for presentations which do not have a VLC source configured.
OpenSolaris Browsers
Please note, we do not officially support solaris, this is for information only.
| Flash Video | Real Player | VideoLAN VLC | Java Audio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firefox | OK | Plugin crash | Not Tested | OK |
Mac OS X Browsers
| Flash Video | Real Player | VideoLAN VLC | Java Audio | Silverlight | Quicktime | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safari1 | OK | Not Tested | Not Tested | Not Tested | Not Tested | OK |
| Mozilla FireFox | Not Tested | Not Tested | Not Tested | Dosn't play | Not Tested | OK |
1 : Flash sides don't work correctly.
Note : We do not have any Apple Macs here, so this information is based on user feedback. We are happy to work with Mac users to ensure that AutoView works correctly with Apple software.
AutoView editing mode testing
At present editing mode is only officially supported with Mozilla/IE 6+ on Windows/Linux. However, if you have test results from other browser/os combinations, we would be happy to post them here.
| Windows | Linux | Mac OS X | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mozilla Firefox | OK | OK | Not tested |
| Internet Explorer | OK | n/a | n/a |