After burner
Bob Crabtree replies:
We're grateful to Bruce for having respond in such detail and in such an even-handed way - though judging by our very positive past experiences with him, we'd have expected nothing less. Clearly, though, as he has shown, there are features offered by Stage 6 that I overlooked.
However, and even though it's true that the review was written after a relatively short period of hands-on, what I believe DivX should take from this is that too many useful features are too well hidden away from Stage 6 users and likely to be overlooked.
These, I believe, need to be out in the open and obvious to see, as is the case when you interact with YouTube.
So, perhaps, a little rethink about what info is shown with each video might be in order, likewise with the way in which info and options are presented - both to the passing Stage 6 visitor and on the My Stage page used to publish videos and access them afterwards.
What I'd also like to see - and I believe it would make life far easier for anyone who fancies uploading clips - is all of the control options for a video available in a single page, rather than being spread around a trio of tabs. There currently aren't enough options to merit tabs and probably won't be even if DivX adds those editing features that I suggested for thumbnail images and titles.
I also have to say that the link to the FAQ is all too well hidden. Yes, I did overlook the fact that it appears on each page but given its location (right at the very bottom) and its size (tiny), that shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone, especially not DivX. The company needs to consider if others might not be equally likely to overlook it - I think they will.
It also has to be said that, in terms of content and presentation, the FAQ seems to me to be work-in-progress. It's a simple list containing only 23 items. Perhaps that explains why it has no index - there isn't yet enough information there to merit anything other than a basic listing.
One comment I didn't make before - but do think that it's appropriate to make now - is that I reckon that the usability of Stage 6 has been compromised by DivX's use of black backgrounds on all pages.
The company might argue that black gives Stage 6 a distinctive and elegant look - and I'd not necessarily argue with that. However, I would point out that the readability of text is massively diminished by having it on black backgrounds - which is the reason why there are few if any successful sites that use black.
I was very pleased to learn from Bruce's response that embedding of a video in a web page is possible - and that code to do that is available for every video, even though its existence isn't obvious. I'm even happier to report that once you know where this code resides - in the 'Share video' tab - adding it to a page is really very simple.
I'd have been happier still, though, if the code worked the way that I'd have expected and hoped. If you are looking at this page with Firefox, you'll see that the player interface below is preceded by a mass of unnecessary white space - until you actually press the play button.
With Internet Explorer 7, the presentation of the player is even worse. It sits below a mass of white space but also seems to have got mixed up with furniture and advert at the bottom of the page, though, again, it sorts itself out once you press the play button.
