iPad Optimization Coming?

I really love your site, but the ipad2/ ipad1 is not going away. They are a really useful tool for musicians, its super portable, clips on a mike stand, guitars jack directly into it, works w/ garageband, etc....

I have been really sad that the Guitartricks site will not play a flash video on it, and so I have to resort to other devices. The ipad numbers are swelling and guitar tricks is ideally suited to this type of portable device. Please consider supporting HTML 5 video encoding or create an app that works natively with these devices, or at least change the encoding of your existing files.

i dont have an i pad but i have an iphone. I can see my self learning guitar on my iphone.

That would be cool.

Is the skyfire app a solution to the problem? The way I understand it is that it converts the videos on the skyfire server to a viewable format; does this work with the guitartricks vids?
Love the guitartricks side, now in the second year; but also love my ipad2...

Recode the videos already.

Get an intern, pay him some beer money, and get an iPad viewable product.

Just so you know

I tried using Skyfire, but the videos still won't load...
iPhone version here

I tried skyfire also and it doesn't work

I'm a longtime Flash Developer and have written books and toured for Adobe and Lynda.com. I also run a video training business: photoshopCAFE.com.

Here is the solution...

Encode all new videos in H.264 format. The existing Flash player on the site is able to run it no problem, with no modification, even with the .mp4 or.mov extensions.. Since Flash Player v9 it supported mp4.
Slowly start to build up the video library. Hire an intern to convert the existing movies. It may take a while, but no rush. Or you can batch process them in Sorenson or AME.

You can continue to use the same player all the way through, and slowly replace the vids.

Then, when you are ready, you could develop an app that taps into the same database of videos.

I'm based in the LA area, so if you want help, or want to discuss it, shoot me a message. I could consult the entire project for you if you wanted, including developing new players if you want.

I'm with Howard on this one. I'm certainly not knocking some of the obviously knowledgable suggestions that have been offered, but I fail to see how the fact that Apple chose to power its i-Pads with an operating system that can't play the most commonly used video format on the web is everyone else's problem.

I could have bought an i-Pad but when I checked into it and found out that the i-Pad would have the same kind of limitations for viewing videos on the web as my i-Phone, so I decided to get a MacBook Pro instead.

There are other similar tablets out there that are PC based that do support & play Flash video, and some are rated as being better overall products than the i-Pad. HP's Touchpad is soon to be released, and it will support Flash video.

I just don't understand why people would buy an i-Pad and then complain to GT that their i-Pad can't play the videos... you didn't know this when you bought the i-Pad? Did you even ask Apple if the i-Pad would support Flash video? They have been very vocal about the fact it would not. But really, why not take this up with Apple? Why not buy a product that does what you want it to do? Just seems weird to blame GT for Apple's decision not to support Flash in their mobile devices.

It's a shame there's not a little more attention to this thread by Guitartricks. I was trying to decide between Guitartricks and Jamplay for online lessons, but since Jamplay has pretty much converted their entire catalog of videos to iPad/iPhone compatible, I'll probably be going with them.

Jamplay completed the conversion in a fairly short period of time, and has provided weekly updates in their forum as to which videos have been added to the iPad/iPhone compatible list. They ran a script on their server that converted all the videos to HTML5.

Guitartricks hasn't even committed to doing any kind of conversion. I agree that they have no obligation to cater to apple product owners, but it's not like apple invented HTML5. It's a better, less memory and processor intensive product that many websites are moving toward.

Kevin

These lessons. There are so many great programs for guitar that my iPad and iPhone have become really important to my learning process. They live on my music stand, I can switch from program to program to keep it I interesting. They come with me to private lessons.

I prefer the teachers of guitar tricks overall, but as an Internet based service provider, from the customer's point if view, there is really no excuse to be so behind the times. It is not a matter of apple vs gt, it is the fact of the market and the kind of service you are providing.

You do not have to roll out a completely converted site all at once. But you do have to make the new and most popular lessons iPad/iPhone compatible so that your customers can see you are moving in that realistic direction. Otherwise, it's a dinosaur and will lose subscribers. Even on my laptop, the download pauses and breaks up. It just is not good enough.

there are still some of us who don't have/use an ipad so keeping lessons accessible the "old fashion" way is important too.

Waiting for Apple to embrace Flash is an exercise in futility. It won't happen. Whatever one thinks of Apple, the fact is that that their products are widely adopted and embraced. GT could provide it's current user base much needed flexibility by adapting its videos to Apple compatibility. Fact is, it could potentially greatly expand the number of GT users by adding apresence in the iTunes Store.

This thread may be overcome by events. Adobe is releasing a way to provide Flash content on iOS devices without those devices having to host Flash itself. i.e.,

"Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 and Adobe Flash Access 3.0. Adobe's solution repackages content in real-time, changing the protocol to suit the target device, HTTP Dynamic Streaming or HLS, for example. This should mean that iOS devices will get much of the advantages of Flash video support, without the processor degradation and battery life cost of the format in use on other devices. 'With Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5, media publishers now have a single, simple workflow for delivering content using the same stream to Flash-enabled devices or to the Apple iPhone and iPad,' Adobe says..."

What it involves is the web sites making their servers workable with this new Adobe release...no content/data conversion necessary, as I understand it.

For more details, do a search; "Flash on iOS devices"

Acoustic Guitar Magazine has gone live with Acoustic Guitar U, their mobile online learning offering. Available on computers, tablets and phones for $7.99 a month for subscribers $9.99 for other users. Will try it out and report my impressions.

Listened to a podcast about the Kindle Fire yesterday. The impressions were that it's a mediocre device running on Android that will be Flash enabled.

Thought, 'hmmm, my Color Nook runs Android and has a web browser. Let's give it a shot and see if Guitar Tricks lessons will work at all.'

I was stunned at the results. The video was clear and sharp with no lag; in fact, the GT videos ran smoother on the Nook that they do on my two year old iMac. Audio was perfect as well.

So if you own a Color Nook, you may not have realized that you already have a fantastic portable option for viewing GT video lessons.

As I noted on a different thread, due to the efforts of one of the Guitar Tricks subscribers, Guitar Tricks Videos can now be viewed on the Iphone and Ipad using the skyfire browser.

Yes! I just tried it on my iPhone and it worked now :)

The quality could have been a bit better, but at least the videos play! Great news!

Sure it would be great to just sign in and enjoy all this on my iPad, but I can also download any of the lessons via RealPlayer and then convert to MP4 and put them in my iTunes video folder and transfer to my ipad, iPhone and have them whenever I want to view them. Awkward ? Yes, but it works !

Apple was right 2 years ago. Eventually everyone will update their sites to run video in open standards such as html5. Richer content and much lower battery consumption. All things a site like this needs. Time to invest in the future guitar tricks. We are anxiously awaiting the day we can take lesson on our i devices.

Originally Posted by: dalekaren We are anxiously awaiting the day we can take lesson on our i devices.

And so it has been for the past three weeks, right?