Help / FAQ

1. What browser do I need for the site to work properly?
2. What software do I need to view the video clips?
3. I’ve got all the right software, but the video still doesn’t work. Why not?
4. What are RSS feeds, and how do I use them?

Content issues

1. What’s the quickest way to find a particular film or program?
2. I have searched the site and I cannot find my favourite film/TV program, why not?
3. I found a factual error. Will you fix it?

What browser do I need for the site to work properly?

The short answer: any common web browser such as Internet Explorer version 8, Firefox, or Safari.

The long answer: australianscreen complies with W3C web authoring standards, so any reasonably compliant browser (such as Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer 8) should work perfectly. We have also tweaked our code so the site should work reasonably well with common non-standards compliant browsers such as Internet Explorer 5.5, 6 & 7. With much older browsers, and more obscure platforms, we have designed the site to degrade gracefully – some of the the 'bells and whistles’ may be missing, but the site should still be usable. To this end we have even tested the site on old text-based browsers such as Lynx, and it works fine. If you think the site doesn’t work properly with your browser of choice, drop us a line – perhaps we can fix it for you.

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What software do I need to view the video clips?

The clips embedded in the web pages require Adobe Flash Player version 9 or better. Flash 9.115 or higher will give optimum video quality. We recommend using the latest version of Flash if possible. If you have fast internet access you can register and set video quality to premium which will give even better quality.

The downloadable clips are provided at a three different quality levels, and use a format called H.264 MPEG4. H.264 is a standards-based format, so there are a number of media players that can play it. New ones are being released all the time. The ones we have tested and can recommend are:

• QuickTime version 7 or higher
• VLC
• Miro

The downloadable video has also been successfully tested on video iPods.

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I’ve got all the right software, but the video still doesn’t work. Why not?

This site contains many thousands of video files, so it’s possible that some of them have technical problems we don’t know about. On the other hand, it’s also possible that there is something wrong with your computer.

Before contacting us, it would be useful to check if you can access video on other sites, particularly sites like YouTube and Google Video, which use similar video technology to australianscreen. If you also can’t access the clips on these sites, the problem is almost certainly with your computer or the network you are on – so we really can’t help you. However, if you can watch video on other sites, but not on australianscreen, we’d like to know – perhaps there is something we can do to fix the problem.

You can use our contact page to let us know about your problem and we’ll try to resolve it if we can. You’ll need to include the following information:

1. The operating system and browser you use (for example, 'Windows XP, Internet Explorer 6’).
2. Are you having trouble with all of the clips, or just one? If it’s just one, please tell us the address (URL) of the page it’s on.
3. Which version of the video are you having trouble with? (for example, 'the video on the web pages works fine, but the downloadable video doesn’t’).

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What’s the quickest way to find a particular film or program?

Usually the quickest way is to enter words from the title into the search field you will find in the navigation panel at the top left of each page. Alternatively, you can go to the titles page and use the links. If you are looking for teachers notes then the education page is the place to start.

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I have searched the site and I cannot find my favourite Film/TV program, why not?

There are a number of possible reasons:

1. the film or program isn’t Australian: australianscreen is devoted to the history of Australian film and television; although we may mention films and programs originating elsewhere, this will generally only be in passing. Don’t expect to find much about Hollywood films or other foreign film or television here – there are many other sites on the web which cater to those interests.
2. we haven’t got to it yet: we’re adding further content to australianscreen all the time. It may be that the titles you’re looking for will be there soon. Why not check again later, but in the meantime please browse around the site – you’re sure to find something interesting.

If there are films, television programs or topics you’d like to see on australianscreen, tell us about them via the feedback page.

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I found a factual error. Will you fix it?

We like to be right all the time, but sometimes we get things wrong!

If you think we’ve made a factual error, let us know. Please tell us the address of the page with the error. If you can also tell us where you got your facts, that would be helpful too. We’ll try to to re-check the facts and change the site if necessary.

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