VUVOX ::: faq

We're Winding It Down

2013-09-10T05:38:51Z

Dear Valued VUVOX creator,

VUVOX launched it's first creative tools in 2006 with the mission to provide an easy way to mix, create and blend your personal media into rich experiences. We continued that journey by adding new visual styles and enabling the instant connection to your online web albums, RSS feeds, Flickr photo streams and Facebook Albums.

In 2008, VUVOX was acquired by eBay Inc. where it continued to add value to their growing portfolio of companies & commerce offerings.
Over the past couple of years, media sharing & personal expression has evolved and changed. Many of the key VUVOX team members were absorbed into eBay properties and the VUVOX platform has not seen many new developments in quite some time.

We have decided that VUVOX services will begin to wind down. As of today, we will no longer support the creation of new accounts or content.
At the end of this month of (September 31st, 2013), VUVOX will sunset the services completely, removing all data on our servers.

We are incredibly grateful for all of the people who used and supported VUVOX over the years. We will keep in touch with further announcements.

Best regards,
The VUVOX Team

Drives should be working... Sorry for your trouble

2012-04-13T08:07:00Z

VUVOX customers,

Sorry for the inconvenience over the last couple of days. We had some servers we had to rebuild. We've tested them and everything should be back up and running correctly. Thnaks for your patience and sorry for the inconvenience!

the VUVOX team.

Rebuilding some drives...

2012-04-10T02:51:20Z

VUVOX customers,

Looks like a drive failed (or was physically pulled out) on April 7. It seems like someone pulled out the 1.5 TB drive and stuck back in a 500GB drive, so our drive array can't rebuild, and switched into read-only mode, which is causing issues on our servers.

We are looking at the issue now. Sorry for your trouble...

Stay tuned...

Image uploading fixed

2011-09-09T15:15:00Z

We've migrated some servers, expanded capacity and fixed some bugs. Uploading to VUVOX is testing well and we seem to be back online.

Sorry to everyone if this was disrupting workflow.

Keep Creating!

-the VUVOX team

VUVOX: Uploading media is currently not working

2011-09-08T19:33:00Z

Sorry for your troubles! We're working on getting our servers fixed and our bugs triaged.

This currently affects creation and editing of new and current collages, but will not affect existing collages.

We'll let you know as soon as this is fixed.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

The VUVOX team

My Video files won't encode on VUVOX, What's going on?

2011-04-21T12:43:00Z

If you are experiencing problems with uploading video to VUVOX, this is a known issue and the team is investigating a viable solution. At this time, the collage tool supports only photo uploads. We'll update you once we can support video uploads.

Sorry for your trouble.

I can't save my VUVOX Collage. What's going on?

2011-02-03T08:23:51Z

Q: I've been working on a VUVOX collage and can't save. What do I do?

A: On longer sessions within the browser, your signed-in session may time out or you may have lost internet connection. If this is the case, make sure you click on 'Sign In' from the global nav in the upper right of the website. This will allow you to sign in and you should then be able to save your progress.

Q: My changes in my collage aren't reflected. What is going on?

A: one way to help this along is to see if you can 'Save As' another version. Give it another name and see if you will be able to branch and make progress moving forward. We've found that creators that do this create versions of their work in stages, allowing them to go back if necessary to earlier versions if needed.

SAVE Often... VUVOX is an online tool, and thus your changes you make to your collage should be saved every few minutes to ensure that you are responsibly saving. For this reason, you can save as 'Draft' to ensure that your version isn't being shared in a public forum as you build your collage.

thanks for your questions!

UPDATE: VUVOX should be back up & running...

2010-12-09T19:38:00Z

We're humble and sorry to ALL our customers for this outage. Our DNS issue should be fixed and should be propagating across the web. If you are NOT seeing VUVOX.com in your browser yet, give it some time to propagate across the network.

We've been graced in the past that the loads and traffic on our servers have been good to us.

Thanks for your patience and not throwing tomatoes!

The VUVOX team

Oops! Site is down. We're working on it.

2010-12-09T17:20:00Z

We're sorry for this glitch in the matrix... We've had an unexpected Server issue and are working to repair it as quickly as possible.

We're grateful for your patience and are humbled and sorry to have affected your deadlines and your VUVOX.

the VUVOX team.

'# of cylinders' error message

2010-07-19T16:08:00Z

We are aware of this problem and are working on a fix, which should go live soon. The problem occurs when a listing is created on eBay Motors using the VIN (vehicle identification number), which pre-fills information like your vehicle engine type. Unfortunately, there’s a bug in the system which prevents us from updating your listing’s description with the HTML embed code for your collage, because it thinks you didn’t enter the # of cylinders.

It may be possible for you to copy the embed code, and then edit your listing on eBay, and manually insert the embed code into the listing description.

You would go to your collage, click on the share button in the lower-right corner, click on embed to blog or personal site, click on the full option, and then click on copy code.

Then go to eBay.com, and revise your listing. Go to edit listing description, and switch to HTML mode, and paste in the embed code into your listing, and then hit save.

Sorry for your trouble. Hope this helps.

The VUVOX team

Q: How do I publish a 'private' VUVOX collage

2010-05-18T09:02:59Z

VUVOX is a 'mashup' for media creation and syndication. To publish and control the viewing of a 'private' collage can be handled in the following way.

Since VUVOX can handle multiple media types from different sources (Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug, uploading), it is possible that the final collage presentation can include both public and private media.

Regardless, I suggest the following when trying to publish a VUVOX collage privately.

1) upload your media, pictures or video to VUVOX.
2) Publish your collage as a 'draft' as your setting (not public). This will ensure that your presentation is not viewed on VUVOX, yet still allows you to grab the embed code.

3) Embed your collage in a web page you can control. When you copy the embed code to your clipboard, you can supress the 'share' control by unchecking the box 'include SHARE menu'. By keeping this box unchecked, your player will not enable the share controls, allowing the player not to be shared or fur.

When you paste your embed code within an intranet webpage, the content will be presented, but you will have controlled the 'only' viewable player.

This solution still allows you to log into your VUVOX account securely and remotely update the presentation of you like. All updates or changes you make to your collage will be affected on any embedded instance of the player.

This is the best way to ensure that your presentation remains secure.

Video Upload and encoding with VUVOX

2010-02-04T19:24:30Z

How do you know if your video is encoding correctly? Follow these steps:

-- 1st, while editing a collage in VUVOX, select the button that says "Upload more Files'.
-- Select the movie file from your machine and upload it. The upload time will depend on the size of your file and your internet connection speed.
-- One your file has been uploaded it needs to be *encoded* to the proper format. Navigat to the 'My Media' tab and select 'Video' from the pulldown.

NOTE: you should see feedback directly on the new file that says 'Media not available yet' with a progress bar % of the processed file.

Once your file has been encoded, you should see a thumbnail of the file and you can add it to the stage. (see below)

---------- HERE'S A TIP ----------
For the *most* control over video encoding, you can use a Flash Video encoder, and output at any aspect ratio and size. (100MB limit).
when you upload a .FLV file directly, you can use it right away, as it will not need to be re-encoded.

For more information, see our posts on uploading to VUVOX

VUVOX presentation at Adobe Max... 2008

2009-11-20T09:17:00Z

We had a chance to present the VUVOX platform at the Adobe MAX conference last year. Below is a video of the presentation & demonstrations.

How to control the playback speed of a VUVOX Collage.

2009-09-03T16:43:09Z

Q: Is it possible to control the speed at which the collage scrolls? I would like to slow down the speed...

A: Yes, There are a growing number of things you can change that affect the appearance & behavior of your Collage. These are located in the 'Settings' panel in the edit mode of the collage. You can adjust the speed of the Collage playback by adjusting the slider bar. Additionally, you can choose whether or not you want the collage to include page jumps.

FAQ: Can I host my own VUVOX presentation?

2009-08-23T06:21:51Z

Unfortunately, there is no way to host your own VUVOX presentation from your own servers at this time. We only currently support embedding the presentation inside of another site.

(Know issue is that it does NOT work if you are trying to embed in a WordPress blog that is hosted by Wordpress).

We have received many requests from our creators that they would like to download a local version of their creation once they've published it and then upload that *package* to their own serving environment.

Due to the high-demand of this request, we've prioritized it in our Feature list. Once that feature is supported, we will announce it here.

Thanks for your creative spirit and support. You make us better.

How to edit a VUVOX Collage Once you've Published it...

2009-08-10T04:38:24Z

Once you've published your VUVOX collage, you can edit (or delete it) directly from the specific detail page.
You must be logged in in order to see the 'edit / delete' buttons... All you need to do is clik on the 'edit button, and this will sed you back into the edit mode of VUVOX collage so you can make edits or changes.

NOTE: You can edit a piece at any time, even if it has been embedded to another site. Use this to your ADVANTAGE so you can update pieces over time. All your edits will automatically be distributed to all embedded players.

Share Controls for VUVOX: Email, Permalink and Embed

2009-08-05T04:17:41Z

Where are the Share Controls? They are located in the lower right of any of the VUVOX players. From here, you can embed, email or copy/paste the permalink of your piece.

How to Add Background Music

2009-07-16T23:30:51Z

Adding background music to a VUVOX presentation can be done by uploading a non-DRM MP3 file into your VUVOX account.

If using VUVOX Collage, navigate to the 'My Media' tab in the lower left. Use the pull-down to select 'audio' as your media type. Next, drag and drop your file onto the stage. You will see feedback via a yellow layer. Drag the audio there.

The panel will slide out from the right. It can be accessed by clicking on the music note icon as well. You can add multiple audio files and set your playback options.
You can set it to Loop or Shuffle. For multiple files, you can enable a controller allowing the viewer to skip tracks if needed.

Currently not supported is the ability add audio to hotspots. That is Coming SOON!

For more information on supported media formats, see the 'Uploading FAQ'

What is VUVOX Collage?

2009-07-16T17:47:00Z

Visual Tour of VUVOX Collage. Here's just an introduction. A full tutorial is located at Lynda.com

VUVOX Embed Tricks

2009-06-03T15:44:01Z

The following are some tips for Embedding the VUVOX player, including many of the parameters to update or change the functionality of the player. Object height= This is the height that is necessary to display in the DIV or Table cell being pasted into. Most often measured in number of pixels. Object width= This is the width of the collage. Most often is presented at 100%, as this will work best when presented inside variable DIV or table widths. This can also be explicit, allowing a specific pixel width to be set as well. Param Values: the following values can be set to "True" or "False" -- "allowFullScreen" --> will enable the full screen button, allowing the player to be seen Full Screen -- "showHeader" --> show/hide title -- "controller=autohide" --> this will automatically hide the control bar on VUVOX players that contain slideshows. -- "bgcolor=" --> this changes the letterbox color of the player when it is embedded. See embed code sample below.

Q: Can I remove the 'VUVOX' logo from the Player?

A: Yes, but we usually ask that you ask for permission. You can remove the logo from the player by inserting a variable value into the embed code. See example below:

------------ < begin embed code > < Your object height="400" width="550"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"/><param value="showHeader=false&showMenu=false" name="FlashVars"/><param value="always" name="allowScriptAccess"/><param value="http://www.vuvox.com/collage_express/collage.swf?collageID=YOURCOLLAGEID#" name="movie"/><embed height="400" width="550" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" FlashVars="showHeader=false&showMenu=false" src="http://www.vuvox.com/collage_express/collage.swf?collageID=YOURCOLLAGEID#"/>< end your object tag > < end embed code > -------------------

Q: Can I change the color of the Player?

A: Yes, but only on collage only. You can change the color of the Letterbox by inserting a parameter into the embed code: see example below

------------ < begin embed code > < Your object height="400" width="550" bgcolor="cccccc"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"/><param value="showHeader=false&showMenu=false" name="FlashVars"/><param value="always" name="allowScriptAccess"/><param value="http://www.vuvox.com/collage_express/collage.swf?collageID=YOURCOLLAGEID#&marginColor=0xcccccc" name="movie"/><embed height="400" width="550" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" FlashVars="showHeader=false&showMenu=false" src="http://www.vuvox.com/collage_express/collage.swf?collageID=YOURCOLLAGEID#"/>< end your object tag > < end embed code > -------------------

Account Management: FAQ

2009-06-03T11:28:00Z

Q: I want to change the email address on my account. How do I do it?

A: Your privacy is very important, and so is the security of your email address. As a policy we don't change account email addresses once an account has been opened. We recommend you use your username as the primary way of logging into your account. If you have questions about changing your email address associated with your account, please request in writing

Q: I want to close my account. How do I do it?

A: While you are logged-into your account, click on 'My Account' from the top nav bar. This will take you to a simple 'Update your account' page. Click on the Red link entitled 'Delete Account' -- You will be asked if you REALLY want to do this. If yes, then your account, all media and respective presentations will ALL be removed.

Q: How is the 'Public info' field used?

A: The public info is used to mask your username if you would like to have a more 'legible' and user-friendly phrase of authorship associated with your creations. Use the Public info field on the 'My Account' Page. This is the info that people will see next to your profile icon.

Q: How do I set my profile icon?

A: Follow these steps:

1) While you are logged into your VUVOX account, select the 'My Stuff' tab from the global nav.

2) select the link entitled 'Profile' --> you will be presented with your public profile page

3) Select 'Edit' to update and change the information on your public profile. From this page you can upload an image to change your profile icon.

Q: How do create / use channels?

A: Channels can be created from your 'My Stuff' page by selecting the button entitled 'Create a Channel'. You can think of channels as online containers for your presentations. Their visibility can be set to Public or Unlisted based on your sharing preferences. When you publish to a channel, your presentation can have it's own content and permalink, but you can also get the permalink of your channel itself, allowing you to group content together. The channel architecture also let's you embed channels in the VUVOX player. For more information on embedding Channels, visit the Embedding VUVOX FAQ.

Embedding VUVOX Collage: FAQ

2009-06-02T15:27:01Z

Frequently asked Questions about Creating, publishing and embedding a VUVOX Collage. For additional help, visit our Online Video Tutorials on Lynda.com.

Q: Can I embed Collage in my blog?

A: We support many existing blog formats, but there is a known issue if Wordpress hosts your blog, it will not be able to be embedded. If you have a specific blog where it does NOT work, please tell us.

Q: Can I embed a VUVOX Channel in my website or Blog?

A: Yes, Channels are supported in the embed code. All you need to do is replace the path of the URL from a presentation ID to a Channel ID. See example below. YOURCHANNEL#.swf" flashvars="controller=autohide" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%" height="450">

Q: Can I defer Collage from playing automatically?

A: Yes. Collage will not play *any* background music until the end user presses the 'play' button. You can also defer the player from playing by embedding collage with a width smaller than 320 pixels. anything below 320 pixels width will put the player into a mode where (when clicked) it will start the presentation and go full screen.

Q: Can I update my Collage after it has been embedded?

A: YES. Emphatically, yes! This is a great advantage of the publishing workflow. You can evolve your piece after it has been placed on a site. This is great when you want to make updates & changes to a collage without involving any additional technical pushes or updates to your site. Alternatively, you can not hurt an existing collage by using the 'save as' button in VUVOX collage to create a new version. Any additional changes will only be reflected in the new version.

Q: Can Collage be modified to something other than horizontal format?

A: We currently don't support other stages other than Horizontal. We'd like to support other stage sizes and aspect ratios soon.

Q: Is there a White Label version of Collage?

A: VUVOX is willing to work with select companies to develop custom variations of the tool. Send us a note via Feedback form with attention to 'Business Development'... it'll be routed to the correct person.

Q: Can I remove the 'VUVOX' logo from the Player?

A: Yes, but we usually ask that you ask for permission. You can remove the logo from the player by inserting a variable value into the embed code. See example below:

Q: Can I change the color of the Player?

A: Yes. From VUVOX Collage, you can select the 'Settings' button. This allows you to change the background color as well as the color of the Letterbox when it is published & embedded. Below is the interface used to change the color:

NOTE: you can also change the color of the Letterbox by inserting a parameter into the embed code as well: see example below

Connecting to Flickr, Picasa & SmugMug using VUVOX - FAQ

2009-06-01T15:59:43Z

Q: How do I connect to my Flickr, Picasa or Smugmug account using VUVOX Collage?

A: Once you're in VUVOX Collage, select the respective media tab corresponding to the service you use.

Flickr - Connect to Flickr account by authorizing your Flickr account to talk with VUVOX. (note, you only have to do this once). Once connected, the pull-down menu will allow you to select which online set you can select.
Picasa - Enter your username (NOTE this is usually the name before the '@' symbol when you log-in to Google's Picasa account. Note that all public web albums will be visible in the pull-down menu. If you DON'T see your web albums, check the privacy settings. Only 'Public' web albums will be seen.
Smugmug - Connect by entering your SmugMug username and password. This will allow SmugMug API to connect to VUVOX. Inside the pull-down menu will be all of your SmugMug online Albums.

Q: How do I paginate through my media when connected to Flickr, Picasa or Smugmug?

A: We'll paginate every 24 photos when connected to another service. Look for the phrase 'page 1 of 'x' . Click on the 'down' arrow right after the 2nd number. You will be presented with a number of pages that you can click on. This will allow you to jump from one page to another.

Q: What happens to my photos if I publish using my Flickr or Picasa images using VUVOX?

A: We never hurt the originals, they are retrieved every time the VUVOX piece is viewed. If you delete the original or move the album, the respective VUVOX piece will be unable to show any of the cooresponding images. NOTE that you are using these accounts to be the *source* of your media, so if you change that original media, then those changes will be affected in your VUVOX collage.

Adding YouTube to VUVOX - FAQ

2009-06-01T15:50:34Z

Q: How can I bring videos from YouTube into VUVOX collage?

A: At present, YouTube videos can't be added directly to collage, however you can add them indirectly through VUVOX Studio. We hope to add this functionality to Collage soon. To add a YouTube video to a media hotspot, follow these steps:

1) From VUVOX Studio, publish a slideshow including a YouTube video.

2) Copy/Paste the new VUVOX URL of that piece into the path of the Media Hotspot in Collage.

Uploading to VUVOX. FAQ

2009-06-01T15:23:45Z

Frequently asked Questions about Creating, publishing and embedding a VUVOX Collage. For additional help, visit our Online Video Tutorials on Lynda.com.

Q: What is the best way to upload into VUVOX?

A: The most comprehensive way to upload into VUVOX is through the Collage interface. You must be logged in to access this screen. Uploading images, video and audio can all be done through this interface. Even if you are wanting to use VUVOX Studio, you can upload through the Collage interface. From here you can organize your media into groups or sort by media type (images, video, audio) if needed.

Q: What media formats do you support for upload?

VUVOX Collage in Private Beta

2008-03-27T19:08:33Z

We're in our final stages of the Collage private beta. It's been fantastic seeing what has been created! We've added a bunch of new features lately, including:

Secure Flickr account access
Secure Picasa account access
Smugmug account access
Video Layering
TEXT layout and positioning

to check out collage, visit: http://www.vuvox.com/collage

Cut-out Express launched: Dynamic Photo frames meet Photoshop-like tools

2007-12-05T02:43:03Z

We're very excited about the advancements in 'VUVOX: Cut-out Express'. It's been been fun watching some of our early beta testers create some pretty amazing things. The possibilities of dynamic frame cut-outs allow any photograph to be used to create a contextual portal to another piece of media. That could be a slideshow OR video. The juxtaposition of the media seems to be a really nice combination. There's really no end to what you can create with this thing. We want you to use it, share it and *dare* someone to a Cut-out dual!

Click on the 'Menu' button in the player to navigate to other cut-out examples.

VUVOX featured in prominent Photojournalism essay

2007-12-05T02:35:57Z

We've been making advancements in our photo collage tool. Our most recent collaborations include the San Jose Mercury News Photo department, specifically the work by Richard Hernandez. We recently invited Tech Blogger & photo enthusiast, Robert Scoble to talk with us about these recent developments, and how VUVOX works with Photojournalists. The piece created by Hernandez was an interactive photo essay on the town of Willow Glen, California. The piece took about two weeks of research to document and photograph, but only about two hours to create in the new VUVOX collage tool. Scoble interviews Richard on his Creation process. Next, Robert Scoble interviews Dane Howard, CXO of VUVOX about tool itself and how the user experience was design for VUVOX collage. The Collage tool is currently in private beta, if you're interested in giving feedback or being contacted about the VUVOX beta, let us know.

VUVOX sponsors Flashforward conference

2007-09-18T20:50:36Z

Boston, MA: Our friends at Flashforward and Lynda.com are using VUVOX to showcase images coming directly from the conference. The attendees are invited to upload their images to Flickr and join the "Flashforward Boston" group and/or tag their photos "flashforward" --> They'll be participating in one big photo feed, that is syndicated back into the Flashforward Website. There will be three galleries of content. Conference Photos Gallery will include images from conference attendees, Expo Hall Gallery, and Flashforward Speakers Gallery, which will focus on the Point of view of Speakers. Mario Klingemann, AKA (Quasimondo) will also be on-site, giving a talk and being Mr. VUVOX ambassador.

Animated Style variation 'Waves'

2007-09-07T19:24:30Z

After a bit of tinkering, I came up with a great style variation that showcases VUVOX's video capabilities. This one is available to those of you using VUVOX Express and our Facebook application, Photo Slide. It demonstrates just how captivating a little video can be.

We’ve been working on Style variations that use video overlays and backgrounds to make your media come alive. Waves is a new variation that displays a slideshow on a sandy beach as waves wash over your media. The effect is a peaceful and contemplative as a day beside the ocean can be. The layout I created is kind of complex, using multiple layers to create the transparent effects. The effect on the other hand, is akin to the simple pleasure of watching the waves wash over your feet. You can find 'Waves' under the mediawall Style in VUVOX Express and Facebook's Photo Slide.