s2member, jw player, iPad, NOT happy together

We’re building a new site, a WordPress blog, with the primary purpose of offering videos to subscribers.

Videos are failing to be served for iPad users. They see a JW Player error message: “The video could not be loaded because of server failure or format not supported.”

What does this have to do with s2Member? The video that cannot be loaded is under management of s2member in the s2member-files directory. We are using s2Member with only one level of membership and the iPad user is correctly logged into WordPress.

As a test comparison, the very same video file is available from the regular (free) uploads directory and plays with no problems at all. The problem is NOT the format of the video. (H.264, mp4, 990kbps, Baseline@L3.0, 640×480, etc.), nor with the settings for JW Player. It’s the same player for both cases.

Both videos, free and subscriber-only, work for PC users with a variety of browsers, just not for iPad users.

Test at the following links:
login required – http://www.marymaycarving.com/carvingschool/2012/06/28/beginning-carving-how-to-carve-a-donut/
login not required – http://www.marymaycarving.com/carvingschool/2012/06/02/long-video-test/

Credentials to use: ID=s2tester pw=free-preview

As an aside, this site sits on a dedicated server at Dreamhost and is currently supplemented by a Cloudflare caching service.

Thanks in advance for all solutions. :)

Is this the Safari cookie handling problem described at:
http://www.primothemes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14780&p=37365#p37351

If so, has a resolution been added to s2Member since that older forum entry?

Or if not, what solution is available for someone who can’t bother with arcane code for every post that holds a video?

Hi Mary.

I remember having seen mentioned that protected videos do work in iPads, at least with streamed files from Amazon. I don’t have an iPad myself, so I can’t test it yours. I’ll email Jason to check this.

When might we expect to hear from Jason?

We’re eager to launch a new service and this is the only problem standing in our way.

I expect to hear back from him soon. He’s mostly developing right now and only checking his inbox a couple times a week.

Maybe the tips in the download problems article I pointed you to in your other thread, helps solve the iPad video problem too. Knowledge Base » Resolving Problems with File Downloads.

Problem resolved on our own.

Test credentials revoked.

Glad you solved it. :)

What did you do?

hmmmmm….

We PAID for support and did not get the support we expected. Now, you want us to GIVE you the answer? Compensate us for about a dozen billable hours and we’ll consider telling you the solution.

BTW, these words are Bob Easton’s, not Mary May’s.

I, Bob Easton, am doing the technical work for Mary’s site. I’m the one who has been waiting days for PAID support to arrive with an answer. I’m the one who spent the long hours to find a way to work around the script that denies access to iPads. If you have concerns about this post, direct them my way, not Mary’s. (if you look around, you can find me at bob-easton.com)

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by  Mary May.