Forum:Video problems

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I started a new thread for this. I noticed that some video galleries are broken today. I don't remember seeing this before, though I may not have noticed until today. This one is broken:
 * http://cannabis.wikia.com/wiki/User:Timeshifter/Page_3#Video_gallery - the videos on the right side are cut off.

This video gallery is not broken :
 * http://cannabis.wikia.com/wiki/User:Timeshifter/Page_2

Another video problem:
 * Help talk:Video embed tool#Can height-to-width ratio follow the original Youtube sizing?

300 pixels wide is tolerable, but the problem discussed at the above link makes many videos reduce to almost postage stamp size when played. The videos were much better until a few months ago. You do not see the reduction until you actually play the video. Not all the videos have this problem.

Many of the videos are almost useless now due to the size reduction when clicked and played. Videos are featured on many pages:
 * http://cannabis.wikia.com/wiki/Template:Featured_cities_with_videos --Timeshifter 01:00, February 17, 2011 (UTC)
 * WFM, are you using Oasis?  Random Time  06:59, February 17, 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, I am using the Oasis/Wikia skin. I had to look up WFM. :)
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WFM - "works for me" among other meanings.


 * All the example links above show videos fine for me both on Oasis and Monobook. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 17 Feb 2011 11:25 AM Pacific
 * I don't have the same problem. Either it's because of different computers or...something else entirely. ♥Phoenix  feather!♥  23:04, February 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * You don't notice the video width shrinking when you start to play them? Try clicking a few of the play buttons. Some shrink more than others. It makes some of the videos almost postage stamp size. This wasn't a problem until relatively recently (a few months ago). I have only noticed this effecting embedded Youtube videos. It seems all Youtube videos are being compressed to one height.


 * The other problem concerning the videos on the right side of the gallery being cut off is more visible in Firefox. I think additional border/margin/padding space has been added recently. This is what seems to be causing the need for an expansion button on the top right of the video gallery. See the page:


 * http://cannabis.wikia.com/wiki/User:Timeshifter/Page_2 - Above the video gallery I just added a comparison video and image set to 300 pixels wide, but without being in the video gallery. This shows the border problem more clearly in the video gallery. --Timeshifter 00:03, February 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * I think I see it now. The video previews appear to be cropped in many cases, but (at least for me) the video itself plays fine. If that's what you're seeing, you should just send a w:c:cannabis:Special:Contact report. Don't waste your time here asking if others see it. Most obviously don't. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 17 Feb 2011 4:06 PM Pacific


 * On second look... are you talking about the jaggedy right edge when viewing on the new skin (I don't see any issues on Monobook)? This is because your videos don't fit in the fixed width space. This was a "feature" introduced by Wikia a few months ago. See Forum:Large_tables for an example of how remove the "feature". -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 17 Feb 2011 4:14 PM Pacific


 * Thanks. The CSS fix works. Here for now:
 * http://cannabis.wikia.com/wiki/User:Timeshifter/wikia.css


 * The videos used to fit fine in the video galleries even with the current fixed width. So I assume they increased the margins or padding around the videos.


 * I like to figure out what I can before going to Special:Contact. Then I can link to the forum thread. Otherwise I have to send multiple messages to Special:Contact as I figure out more.


 * The current fixed-width is the last remaining reason for moving to another wiki farm, or private hosting. I had already started the process for moving, but changed my mind, and backed out of one possibility I had begun.


 * I think I already sent in a message to Special:Contact months ago about the change in Youtube embedding that caused the cropping and shrinking when played. Not sure. I will send in another message. --Timeshifter 21:07, February 18, 2011 (UTC)

(unindent). Another solution is found in this forum:
 * Forum: Need flexible width up to a wider fixed width

Example
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Here are the 2 methods one can embed a Youtube video on Wikia:

Cab Calloway - Reefer Man. In the 1933 film, International House. Check out the hair action! YouTube link. Lyrics. "Why, that cat's still high."

Wikia Video:
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Wiki-code for above 300-pixel-wide video:  

Youtube tag
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Wiki-code for above 300-pixel-wide video:  D44pyeEvhcQ 

Note that the video just above does not shrink in width when clicked and it is playing.

I may have to convert all the videos on the Cannabis Wiki to this old embedding format in order to fix the shrinkage problem of postage-stamp size videos.

'''Click and start playing both of the above videos. One shrinks greatly in width, the other does not shrink in width.''' Until relatively recently both did not shrink. --Timeshifter 10:31, February 25, 2011 (UTC)


 * All the first one is doing is scaling to fit the height. Try making the height larger, and see if that fixes it.


 * This was unnecessary before. I don't want to have to do that for the many videos on the Cannabis Wiki. I would rather convert all the video embedding to the other format where the only thing needed in the wikicode is the width. The height scales automatically.


 * Unfortunately, captioning is a lot more difficult with the old embedding method. See:
 * Help:YouTube extension#Can I add a caption? --Timeshifter 13:43, February 27, 2011 (UTC)


 * Is it possible to add some kind of auto-scaling for height to CSS or JS or somewhere? Maybe in the video wikitext - is there something I missed? Is there some height info missing from the documentation here: Help:Video embed tool. --Timeshifter 17:22, March 3, 2011 (UTC)


 * Try . No promises, though.


 * I tried it here:
 * http://cannabis.wikia.com/wiki/User:Timeshifter/wikia.css


 * It did not effect the videos here when they were played:
 * http://cannabis.wikia.com/wiki/User:Timeshifter/Page_2


 * They still shrink in width. --Timeshifter 19:27, March 3, 2011 (UTC)

HTML for embedded Youtube
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Here is the HTML found via "page source" in the view menu of my Firefox browser:



Wiki-code for above 300-pixel-wide video HTML:  



Wiki-code for above 300-pixel-wide video HTML:  D44pyeEvhcQ 

I found this:
 * http://www.orangesoda.com/blog/how-to-get-youtube-embeds-to-pass-w3c-code-validation/

It says the tag "was developed by Netscape and is not xhtml compliant."

I have been experimenting at my personal CSS page:
 * http://community.wikia.com/wiki/User:Timeshifter/wikia.css

This allows me to see if the video height has increased in this forum.

increased the div height but not the video height. The container height increased, and so there was white space below the video. --Timeshifter 19:30, March 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * Try.

(unindent). Thanks. That works. Other videos do not have the same height-to-width ratio though. Also, there are videos embedded with different widths.

I tried

and

but those did not do anything.

I also tried these together:

div.tvetnone {height:auto;}

div.tvetnone embed {height:auto;}

They also changed nothing.

div.tvetnone {height:100%;}

div.tvetnone embed {height:100%;}

That did nothing. --Timeshifter 21:15, March 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * You could use JS to calculate the ratio, and then adjust the height accordingly.


 * Is that how Help:YouTube extension works? I only specify the width when using it to embed videos. For example; for the embedded video higher up:


 * D44pyeEvhcQ
 * --Timeshifter 22:50, March 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * I don't know, as extensions use the server's PHP, which we can't view or change (as far as I know).

Screenshot of video shrinkage during play
Screenshot of both embedded videos during play. It shows how one video shrinks in width, and the other one does not shrink in width:
 * File:Embedded Youtube video width during play.jpg --Timeshifter 05:48, March 19, 2011 (UTC)

Summary pages
Here is one page summarizing and illustrating the problem:
 * Portal:Video shrinkage problems.

I am in the process of changing the format of all the videos on the Cannabis Wiki to the old embedding format. So the previous examples of video shrinkage that I linked to will no longer be applicable.

To see examples of the problem go to the summary page I linked to above. --Timeshifter 22:31, March 30, 2011 (UTC)


 * Have you used Special:Contact yet? It would be better for Wikia just to fix this problem than try to figure some elaborate workaround. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 30 Mar 2011 3:43 PM Pacific


 * Yes. The old embedding format is not complicated as long as I don't need to set up an enclosed caption on a right-floating video. --Timeshifter 09:16, March 31, 2011 (UTC)


 * So what did the Wikia rep say? -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 31 Mar 2011 4:43 PM Pacific


 * They acknowledged the info I sent in the last month or 2, but I haven't heard anything since. I realized today that I first used Special:Contact about this in October 2010. See: Forum:Youtube videos squished starting today. --Timeshifter 01:21, April 1, 2011 (UTC)