Comedy Central New Site Dev Blog

Comedy Central’s New Video Rating System

2008-05-08T13:20:00.007-04:00

While navigating Comedy Central video, you’ll notice the "thumbs up" icon beneath the player on the right hand side. If you like a video, just click the icon to rate it. We chose the thumbs up rather than the five star rating system because on the previous version of the site, we found that most videos were rated between three to five stars, making them largely indistinguishable from each other. With the "thumbs up" system, videos that receive the highest number of votes are featured under the “Most Popular” tab. Please let us know how you like it!

Video Pop-Up Mode

2008-05-02T11:50:00.006-04:00

ABOUT

A key new feature of comedycentral.com’s video experience is the ability to view content in a pop-up window. This allows viewers to watch multiple clips while continuing to use the rest of their screens for other purposes. Below are some tips to help you get the most from these new features.

TIPS

Start at the Beginning

If you begin watching a video clip in the page and then switch to pop-up mode while viewing is in progress, the video will begin to play from the beginning. Click the “Watch in Pop-up” link to the right of the player window instead of clicking the Play button within the player.

How to Play All Clips in an Episode

If you want to watch ALL the clips available from a given episode or playlist, first click the “Play All” link located just below the playlist tab title, then click the “Watch in Pop-up” link, and the entire playlist will play with no further action by the viewer required.

Video Player Issues

2008-04-21T12:59:00.003-04:00

Some users have been experiencing problems with the Comedy Central video players. A common complaint is that when a user pauses the player, it does not continue to download. This is primarily due to the current player having a cache that has turned out to be a bit too small for some Internet connections. We are aware of this, and are taking steps to correct it in forthcoming versions of our video players.

Some users have had an issue with our video player in which the ads play, but the shows do not. The viewer sees only a “buffering” or “initializing” alert for a few seconds, and is then presented with the next ad. While this problem occurs on a limited basis, we do appreciate hearing from you when it does.

Comedy Central has a team of people working to resolve these issues. We will update fans as soon as we have an ETA for the next generation of video player.

Hey Hey! Ho Ho! IE6 Has Got To Go!

2008-04-16T15:38:00.005-04:00

Please, please – if you’re still using Internet Explorer 6, STOP!

Why? Microsoft wants you to. IE6 has many issues with security and display. Comedy Central wants you to. Once you upgrade to FireFox (Windows or Mac), or IE7 (Windows), you’ll get faster download times, smoother animations and better looking pages.

All of the new browsers have useful new features that IE6 doesn’t, such as tabbed browsing (multiple pages displayed conveniently in a single window).

Click on one of the links below to upgrade to the latest version of one of the browsers mentioned for FREE!

Announcing the new ComedyCentral.com!

2008-04-02T22:45:00.002-04:00

Welcome to our new New Site Dev Blog -- this is where we'll keep you posted on all that's happening with the redesign of comedycentral.com. We will be rolling out the new site in phases, starting today with a brand-new home page, a totally revised video hub as well as an enhanced video player with features such as commenting, a "thumbs up" rating system and social bookmarking links.

You can look forward to:

Next month: new shows hub and revamped show sites launch
This Summer: improved message boards and user profiles
Also in the works: updates to the Stand-Up, Mobile and Games pages coming later in the year

Check back on this blog for more developments and details as we closer to rolling these out. Keep in mind that this is a work in progress. For the next month or so the site will be a hybrid of the old and the new -- so you might come across pages that look different, or the odd missing or pixilated image or two.

Thanks for bearing with us for the time being as we continue to build, so we can give you the best site possible -- and be sure to come back for more posts about progress here at the Dev Blog.