Cornica comeback - Video entertainment for MacOS users - opinions, please

[Bolkonskij]

Hey everyone,

so you long-timers may remember Nicolas Bahamondes attempt to create a plattform for MacOS users to stream videos online back in 2012. If you don't remember it, don't worry - it was unfortunately rather short lived. But I really liked the idea.

Ever since I had the idea of bringing it back as sort of an archive of Quicktime movies. I talked to Nicolas, the original creator, who thankfully approved of the idea and gave me the green light to use the name and logo.

What exactly is it?

I've created a basic version of Cornica that allows you to download and watch Quicktime videos on your Macintosh. I've hand-coded the website according to HTML 3.2 specs, so that even a Quadra or PowerMac 6100 running an old Netscape or Internet explorer will be able to fully use the website and download videos.

Right now, Cornica consists of the Quicktime videos I had on my HDDs. I've also converted some great videos from elsewhere with author's permission (like YouTube's 65scribe). One To-Do for the next weeks is to allow user uploads, so ya'll being able to send-in videos. (though each video will be moderated)

This does not aim to be a 2nd YouTube. (which is why this is no Youtube proxy!) I do want Cornica to be a genuin Quicktime archive

    * with hand-picked video content that celebrates the 80s, 90s and early 00's, our Macs and lifestyle
    * with zero influencers, ads, fake news, political stuff or something
    * that is simply a fun place to hang out with your old Mac. (ok, emulated systems too)
    * that makes people dust off their old Macs and use them again, because they are still good for something, even if "only" for entertainment.

or simply put - the general idea is to make this a place for you and your old Mac to have fun!

Check out the the current version: http://www.cornica.org

The videos are all hosted on the mighty Macintosh Garden servers (who, if not them, has experience with hosting/downloads? ). So Cornica won't likely just disappear overnight - which is important to me!

What I am most interested in is whether or not you would use Cornica?
Is that something interesting for you?
Any feature you'd love to see? (except user uploads)

Thanks for any feedback, appreciate it!

(And thanks to DieHard for permitting me to post this thread here *thumbs up*)

[Philgood]

Absolutely!
Will take a look hopefully this night.

[ovalking]

That's so cool Bolkonskij.

Just watched a few videos I'd not seen before. It worked really well with my OS8.1/QT3/Netscape 4.8/ 8500.
Will return when I have more free time.

It just proves to me that today's incompatibilities are unnecessary.

[DieHard]

Talk about a resurrection, awesome job, I am sure many will like this and great to have you here

[Europa]

This looks amazing! Will definitely check out sometime soon!

[Philgood]

I watched some commercials on my os9 1Ghz titanium. Working great. Some wouldn't load can't remember which one. Will try again and report back.

[Bolkonskij]

Thanks for trying out and the feedback everyone! I've experimented really quite some time to find the best settings for the videos to work on both 68k and PowerPC, I'm not sure this is the perfect solution but the best I could come up with to run on almost all Macs.

@ovalking - Thanks for testing on original hardware! I've only tested it on my 8600/200 so far, so I'm really interested in all reports from people testing it on older hardware.

I wonder if anyone of you has a Mac with a 030 or 040 CPU and would try ? I know these people will be a minority but I still want to support them if possible. The Quadras or Centris are lovely machines.

@philgood - thanks for the feedback! All videos but two old small ones (the Quadra ad and Sculley interview) are exported to quickly start streaming. But those two are so small in size that it's only like 5-10 seconds before they are completly loaded.

If you remember the names of the videos that wouldn't start, please let me know and I'll check. As a rule of thumb you're always better off simply downloading and running the videos locally - 90s style ;-)

@DieHard - thanks (again) for the kind words! I believe there is still so much potential left in our machines if only we'd unearth more of it. Look at the amazing things the Amiga people do with their inferior machines / OS ;-)

[Philgood]

I forgot to mention...I'm using classilla as browser.
Using classilla when clicked on the videos they would immediately begin to stream, so it was very convenient. The two videos that were not working would show a progression bar loading but finally appear as broken.
I'm sorry can't really get back to it until this night.

[mrhappy]

Holy Cow!

[ovalking]

>I wonder if anyone of you has a Mac with a 030 or 040 CPU and would try ?

Don't normally visit the web with this machine, but just tried some small videos on a Performa 475 / Sys 7.5.5 / Netscape 4.08 / QT 2.5 and it does work!
Wuff.mov was an exception that did not play after it downloaded though.

Still using the 475 to post this message...

[Bolkonskij]

Wow, awesome. Thanks for trying and reporting back, ovalking. Really appreciate it!

I will look into the wuff.mov for what is wrong as it should play fine!

How are rendering times on the LC 475? I've really tried whatever possible to make the website render fast on older Macs but then I've only got a 8600 for testing.

In the meantime, Cornica has seen two updates with new content (about 30+ videos) for any category. There's also a new "Applications" section which will cover videos on applications. I hope to get some cool tutorial videos up soon. So for the time being, enjoy! (and let me know if it works for you or not)

[Bolkonskij]

Just thought I'd post a little follow-up a month later so you guys know Cornica still thrives and gets updated!

We're on update #6 now, closing in on almost 200 videos (counting low res & high res videos as one). So if you haven't checked with Cornica, get yourself a nice drink and watch some old movie trailers or reports to get really nostalgic. :-)

[teroyk]

YES! But it would be nice that change "for Mac OS users" to "for MOV compatible devices"
It would be nice that fanatic Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP users with Quicktime Player find this
Also Atari-compatibles plays 320x200 MOV:s nicely with Aniplayer.
Is there any another machines that Youtube doesn't work, but Cornica works? Amiga?

[Bolkonskij]

After taking a short summer break Cornica is back with update #11. Check out the new stuff and enjoy watching videos on your 'obsolete' hardware :-)

www.cornica.org

@teroyk - sorry for the late reply! No idea about Amigas, Ataris & whatever else. I'm more than happy if they can enjoy the videos too. But I neither have time for nor interest om these systems. It's just that I don't want to get into the hassle of figuring out if and how these videos can be played back on an Amiga 1200 ... if someone else is willing to do that, I'll gladly add any info about it!

I'm also not reluctant to adding content about these machines in the near future. But I'd like to keep the focus on the Macintosh, hence the claim "for Mac OS users".

[Europa]

I love the new layout! When I get time I'll definitely stop by on my iBook and browse the new videos.

Just fyi, the hyperlink in your message is broken.

[DieHard]

Just fyi, the hyperlink in your message is broken.

Link Fixed

[Syntho]

I've had ideas for making tutorials that are Classic-centric. The 9600 thread I could've turned into a two hour video. Also, tutorials on SVP, general Mac hardware setups and other stuff. The problem is incentive. I have a job (which is actually making tutorials...) and I also want to make music on the side, so time is an issue. And time = money. There probably isn't enough interest in it anyway. If there were, maybe I'd do some of it, but not for money. Gear donations sounds better. Still have a lot to buy.

[Bolkonskij]

Just wanted to leave as status update on Cornica. We're finally out of "Open Beta" status and settled on a design. This is it.

I've got great feedback on how to improve it in the past weeks and I know some of you reading this will nod their heads. I can say that I've managed to implement about 90% of all suggestions. :-)

Some new features:

    * Videos are on separate pages now and are already embedded for YouTube-style playback
    * Random-video-bar for easy exploration (I am lucky style)
    * Search the page content with our retro-compatible site search
    * Upload your videos via FTP and share them with Cornica

Yet the page remains fully functional on a 68k Mac running Netscape 4.08! So bring your old Macs back online for some "computer video" 90s style fun :-)

Check it out => http://www.cornica.org

Thanks to everyone taking the time to write back with ideas, suggestions and error reports!

[Bolkonskij]

Hope it's OK if I push this thread with an update:

Cornica has been around for more than 1 1/2 years now. We're up to 500+ videos for your viewing pleasure, added a second theme option (for those browsers with CSS capabilities), a guestbook, more categories and since yesterday, we even got Quicktime Karaoke movies! Now if that isn't a reason to check out what you've been missing lately? :-)

=> http://www.cornica.org

Have fun!

Supporting Mac OS. Have been. Ever will be.

[Bolkonskij]

Quick update here - Cornica turned 2 years old in March !

About a few months ago, I got permission from Inside Mac Games Tuncer Deniz to host their 90's Quicktime content. It made me extremely happy to know that Cornica will be able to preserve IMG's video interviews with 90's Mac (gaming) industry veterans. As far as I know, they are nowhere to be found online except in the original issues where they came in small segments embedded in a docmaker file.

I've since extracted and concatenated the clips and added the previously printed questions between the segments, so it's really just one big Quicktime movie now.

The first two videos are interviews with John Kavanagh from Domark (May 1995) and one with Apple's Games Evangelist Mark Gavini (December 1996).

As always, fully Mac OS9 / Classilla compatible. So if you're looking for a diversion from all the terrible stuff going on in the world right now, why not boot back into better days, see that familiar OS9 desktop and watching some Quicktime movies for simply having a good time ?

I'd really appreciate feedback if those video interviews are interesting. If so, I may go and upload them all.