Starship Asterisk*

FWIW, I object to APOD being used for NASA TV webcasts!!!

First, the sound system on my computer may already be in use when the browser retrieves the APOD page. In my experience so far, the NASA TV stream simply begins without asking whether I want it to begin, so the stream sends sounds to the speakers irrespective of whether the sound system is already in use, resulting in a mashup that is unintelligible.

Second, the stream also begins before the page is fully received by the browser, so I probably will not see (whether hear) the actual beginning of the webcast.

Third, there is no disclosure of how much time will be required to webcast the entire stream. The "progress indicator" merely discloses the proportion of the total time that has already passed, not the ultimate total. Regardless, the "progress indicator" did not move at all during the first webcast to which I was subjected (29 May 2006), one which apparently was about some NASA matters in which I have no personal interest (I terminated it before it ended).

Succinctly, I have plenty of other demands on my time and energy. USING MY COMPUTER TO WATCH MORE TV is definitely NOT at the top of my list of things that I'd like to spend more time doing!!!! PLEASE don't foul-up APOD by using it to stream NASA TV webcasts in the future. I'm looking for a heavenly vision, not some video stream promoting a federal bureaucracy!!

Thanks for listening!!!

nasa tv streams live all day and night
it never ends, and thats why it has no total time!

I agree with Stardance..... I haven't seen it or heard it, all I get is a black box with the windows media logo in the middle, maybe because I don't have broadband. I can't stand TV .... you'd think you'd be safe going to a site dedicated to "picture of the day" but I guess not...... I'm glad it didn't work or I'd have gotten "television" into my system inadvertently -- definitely not why apod is part of my morning ritual!!

I have APOD set as my homepage.

NASA uses Windows Media.

Windows Media Player is no longer supported for Safari or Firefox in OS X.

...

Which means every time that APOD chooses to show NASA TV, they are rendering Safari and Firefox useless on my computer as all they do is freeze for a while and then crash.

Now, if NASA used Flash like every other sensible company, we wouldn't have these sorts of cross-platform problems. As such, I'm going to have to change my homepage to something else and stop checking APOD entirely... it's not worth the risk.

What a mess!

There is already a thread dedicated to problems with handicapped browsers. People, "you can't host <some format here> because firefox can't handle it" argument is simply invalid.

EDIT: here is where it is going to end.