It looks as though S4C have put what was the “beta” test version of Clic into production recently, or since I last used it which wasn’t long ago.
It’s ok, but I have noticed a few problems, which I have contacted them about.
One of them is that the subtitles have lost their colour differentiation between characters. I believe this is there mainly to help non-hearing viewers (and there is a Europe-wide standard covering it), but it’s sometimes helpful even if you can hear the dialogue, when conversation exchanges are rapid.
I tried looking at the same programme on BBC iPlayer and the colours were there, so the information is still in the subtitle data*, but the Clic player is not making use of it.
.
Beta, shmeta, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it …
.
.
*Also, if you are a semi-demi-guru, it’s possible to see the subtitle data
I just tried to use the new version of Clic. I can’t watch any of the videos that are supposed to be available worldwide, including Cariad@Iaith which I could watch just fine before the site changed. (I am in the United States.) I tried in Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. I get the error message “FLASH: srcnotfound”. I updated the browsers, updated Flash Player, and rebooted. No change. I really want to see some of Y Sioe. I would be really appreciative if anyone outside the UK would be willing to report if they can see any of the videos. The link for shows available worldwide is http://www.s4c.cymru/clic/e_category.shtml?id=99. I did send S4C a message to see if they could help.
There was a time when, if you googled a Welsh phrase, the chances were that one of the top hits would be one of S4C’s subtitle XML files. This doesn’t seem to happen any more.
@sophiedysgwr Thank you SO much for trying it and for letting me know you have the same issue. I really hope S4C responds to my message. If I get any information, I will let you know.
I got a very quick acknowledgement to mine, but no substantive answer yet. Sounds like they may by now be getting inundated with complaints. I don’t remember seeing a warning about the change, but then, I might easily have missed it.
I tested it as a beta and found a heap of things which were very unhelpful compared to the previous version. I gave them feedback and they responded that it was only a beta and lots could change before it went live, but it doesn’t look that different to me. And I agree with the ‘if it ain’t broke’ comment. Why oh why S4C?
@sophiedysgwr Just to update…I never heard anything back from S4C, but yesterday I checked again to see if any of the videos would work…and they do! I can now watch all the videos shown as available worldwide. So hopefully this means S4C fixed something on their end, and it will work for you (and others!) too.
