Hey Danny -
congrats on the relaunch – looks great!
- steve wolkoff / adobe systems

ever since the new full episode launcher was launched on ABC, now the only way to view their shows, i have been unable to view any episodes of any of the shows. the audio is fine but i can’t see the video. i have sent several emails to the help and feedback buttons but i have had no response. can anyone help? i’m using ie7 as my browser. thank you

I’m having the same problem with being unable to run or launch the new program. I hate missing the only two television shows I like (Grey’s and Housewives). Like Sandy, etc… have complained, I get no response from ABC. I wasn’t even able to get close with Firefox. AOl looked like it would work, but nothing ever happened. Please help. -Dorothy

I, too am unable to get the ABC site to work. I’ve sent several emails to ABC with nothing but the form-letter reply. Does anyone know how too make this work? Last season I had no trouble viewing shows online, this season so far I am not able to make it work. Any ideas anyone….Thanks, Sue

Hey all
I’ve been searching online and I found a fix for the problem many of us seem to be having. It seems to stem from Norton Internet Security. I hope this helps people. Here’s what to do. Open the Norton Internet Security Console, go to the Norton Anti-Spam tab, and turn OFF ad-blocking. Once I did this, the player installed and worked without difficulty.
Sue

I have tried everything – java console changes, add blocker, security blockers, etc…
ABC video used to look beautiful and was SO EASY TO USE! What have they gone and done?
I hate this? You can’t even buy their shows from Amazon Unbox…
doomed, doomed…

My problem is a bit different. I loaded the player and could see the full length shows for a few days. But then last week I started getting the Only Viewers in the US Can Watch Full Length Episodes message. The thing is, I’m in Virginia about 12 miles from the Washington Monument – connecting through COX Cable.
Why does it think I”m overseas, and what can I do to fix it????
Thanks

I have tried everything, why cant ABC fix their problem!
Very unhappy with this!

I can watch but it plays for a few seconds, then pauses for at least twice that long, then plays for a few seconds more and over again. They suggested disabling my anti-virus. I did and it did not help.

I have the same problem as Jane. The commercial finishes and I “click to continue” and it never loads or plays. I’ve done every thing they said to do, but can’t get it to play. Why can’t we get any answers! When we go digital, I won’t be getting TV out where I live (and it’s not that far from the stations – digital stinks). I know several other people who have no problem watching the episodes……

I do not understand why ABC will not fix the problem with their episode player. I can’t get it to work.

having the same problem. I have mozilla and it does work there. I have internet explorer 7 no luck daughter has ie6 works fine seems like the problem is in ie7

I don’t know why you’d write ABC about this when Move Networks is the group responsible for the player. ABC hasn’t written me back after I’ve written them 3 times. Move Networks responded but their answers have gotten me nowhere closer to viewing their awful player.
I get the “Loading…” page and I’ve done everything to reinstall, turn off phishing and internet blockers/filters, it’s just getting me nowhere. The companies representing the software can’t even help us.

I hate this new player. The old one worked just fine!!! Go back to the old one! i work two jobs and i hate missing my favorite shows. So i look foward to watching them online with no commercials just 30 sec ads. Why cant you fix the problem.. i mean there was nothing wrong with the old player to begin with… dont try and fix something that isnt broken!!! VERY UPSET!!!

i also have been having problems with this new player as i used to watch it for my favorite episodes. but since the new player launch i have been unable to watch the episodes. after the commercial, there is no button to go to the show. im not sure why but im quite irritated and unhappy with it.

NEW PLAYER DOES NOT WORK…and no one will help. Where are their techical lines?

I too have had issues this last week. I have had two different IT people look at it and can’t figure it out. My error says The player encountered an error code parser. I’ve tried several computers in office, all do the same. My older computer at home pulls it up but hard to view due to age. Ok you computer buffs, whats going on. I’m missing Lost! It must be something in this new player that isn’t compatible.

“FIX” – agreed. The above link from Kim worked for me by opening up the old player. The new player never showed anything but a black screen for me.
So disappointing, I used to rave to everyone about ABC and their player.

I used th browser above but it only contains the old episodes. I don’t understand why they changed it. I sent a message to ABC but they only responded with they can’t respond to all their mail. Lots of help there. Any Ideas? I have vista.

Also having problems getting the darn thing to play. Why did they have to mess with a good thing?

I just tried and that annoying parser error is GONE.

I watched episodes just fine over the summer with my computer. However, I too have the problem of viewing a commercial but nothing further. I don’t get the familiar button to “click to continue.” Same automatic response as everyone else. What is going on?

“invalid package URL
check your interent connection and try later” is the message I receive when I try to download the full episode player from ABC. I have tried everything I know and nothing has worked.
After reading all the messages here, I surmize there are poltergiest in the mix:) Any suggestions?

I’m getting the parser error too…still, even though someone said it was gone. Also I’ve tried that link that a few people said worked, but I get a message that says the ads are not available and to try again later. I get it constantly though.
Any more suggestions??

I agree. The new player is terrible – I have a MacBook Pro and can’t get it to work in Safari or Firefox. In Parallels, I can get it started in IE, but it stalls and skips, and if I click full screen, it completely freezes. I wish I could have the old player back!
I’ve clicked the feedback link many times and reported my experiences, but nothing changes. It’s so frustrating! I’m definitely losing interest in the shows I used to love.

YES! the old player link tells me that the ads are not available and to try another episode. I’ve tried several. what is the deal? why can some people use it and some people can’t?
Am I just going to have to admit defeat and never watch Grey’s again?!

i live in california, but the player wont let me watch because apparently i dont live in the united states. please fix this error.

This is terrible – with all these complaints why don’t they change it. I can’t get any shows. I tried the other site they were talking about but no luck there either. How can I download the old version, or can I?

Try changing your screen resolution, I did and I can watch the shows now..

You had something to do with this terrible, non-working online episode player at ABC? I’m quadruple irritated… I’ve had to “launch” and install the player multiple times… then I’ve watched numerous commercials with nothing to follow, no episode playing, and no navigator buttons anywhere (the commercials load and play just fine)… then, I’ve searched the site for a “help” or “report error” page (nope, the closest thing to help is that page that tells psychos how to write love letters to people they don’t even know)… and now, my final irritation is that I just can’t watch the show I want to watch. It’s the one ABC show I watch. Maybe I’ll just poo-poo the network altogether. Yes, I’m ranting on your blog, because I don’t know how to get my message through to a tech person (or anyone for that matter) at ABC.com. Sorry you have to work there, dude.

I am having the problem of getting to watch the commercial and then nothing it stays on the commerciaol page with no click to continue. I reinstalled my OS fresh and tryed it with no ad ons or anti virus same crap. I am useing ie and vista, They really screwed this up hope we get a fix soon.

This problem seems to be ongoing for past year. ABC are a bunch of idiots…why use some crazy useless players such as this crappy player when you have common players that people use such as “Real”,”WinAmp”,”Windows Media” and “QuickTime”.
This problem has not been fixed in over a year…wake up ABC!!

I had the same problem so I took my laptop to the pctec store all he did was change the screen resolution to 1024 x 768 and it has been working ever since..i had the same problem with getting to the commercial and nothing else not even a button to click on..so i would try that. make sure that new plug in thing is downloaded also. any more questions ill try to help…

Well, maybe it’s new an maybe it’s 3 mo triel, but it’s NOT working at all!!!

From Good to worst.

I can’t download this on my laptop either. It keeps telling me “invalid URL”. I was able to download on my desktop PC but when I try to watch a show there, it stops, drags, and the sound and video are not in sync. ABC needs to help all it’s loyal watchers. I am very disappointed. When you send them a message for help it is a pre written message that is no help at all. Why do they not have technical support?

This seems like insanity. I had no problems watching for months on THIS laptop. And now, it won’t load. Just sits on the screen, circling, until I get the same message as everyone else seems to be getting. Then, suddenly, it worked again for an a couple of hours, and now, it is worse. I only get a grey screen. And then I get hung up at 30%, then 90, and still nothing, back to a grey screen.
why isn’t anyone at ABC trying to communicate with anyone??????? I tried NBC, no problem. I tried CBS. Worked fine. Maybe I will drop ABC (and their stupid non-season Lost) and just go watch old reruns of Twin Peaks over on CBS. They seems to care about their viewers.
I never watched ABC’s shows until I watched Grey’s online. Then I started watching ABC. Won’t anymore. Don’t put out a product that doesn’t work. That is more irritating than not offering it at all.
Jenna

I was having no problem with the old full episode player and now all of a sudden I get a blank screen. I have tried launching the new version and it won’t work. I have a Dell with XP. Please help, I am missing my shows.

you do not have to join AOL just log into
video.aol.com and then click on tv shows then click on the show you want to watch then click on full episodes and if it an ABC show it will go to the Abc full episode player which will work on this website

WOW Thought it was just me I have been going crazy trying to use the player at ABC.
Never had big issues some freezing few months back but i made some changes to my laptop and it was streaming perfect! now the last few days nothing I have tried fire fox IE and I use MSN premium, I have a Dell XPS gamming laptop so its really good at wathing videos but now all i get on it is a blank gray screen and on fire fox I get to 30% and nothing…. So annoying I was going to start watching Eli Stone and now I cant, and CBS and NBC are perfect their video player playes fine, even ABC News plays fine lol imagine that!
ABC must not think much of the viewers that watch online because you cant even contact anyone, I tried and all I got was to click the help on the video player which would be fine if the screen would show me something to click!!!!

well, i’m trying to watch extreme home makeover on my computer, but apparently the site has been “upgraded” for whatever reason and now won’t work on my updated computer. Just get a gray box. Looks like I’m not the only one having issues and it would make since for ABC to go back to the way it was since NOTHING was wrong with the way it was. Until then, how do I get it to work on my computer before I decide to boycott ABC? You would think the shows themselves would be hacked off because this is preventing their loyal fans from being able to watch. I can’t even report it from this website.

I was having the same problem that a lot of people were. Every time I launched the player I would just get the gray box and that was it. I used the link that someone posted back in October and it worked !! Thank you!! Here it is again, hope it works for someone else!
http://ll.static.abc.go.com/streaming/move/00090000/static.html?aff=kmgh&affTo=wpty&wrapped=1&raff=wpty&affFrom=wpty&affLost=kmgh&dmarank=18&dmazip=69121&hostname=www.myeyewitnessnews.com

I can’t watch any full episodes on abc.com either. WTF! I’ve tried everything, been on million forums and nothing works. F abc! I see posts of people having problems as far back as march 07′! And these f’s haven’t fixed this shit yet!

My wife and I just stopped watching ABC shows altogether. Hahaha way to go ABC.

It doesn’t work right and is super annoying! I used to watch all the shows and now its so slow I can’t watch anymore!!

I was also having the same problem–gray screen. Nothing happened. After weeks and weeks and WEEKS of trying to figure it out, I FINALLY got it to work!! YAY!!! I always knew my problem lay somewhere within the Flash Player settings and my Video settings, but everytime I tried to right click and change the settings for the Flash Player, it would freeze up on me.
(I don’t know if this applies to every version, but know that I’m using IE 7.0.5730.13 and the most recent (Version 10,0,12,36) of Adobe Flash.)
Go to another site, any random site using the Adobe Flash Player. Right click on the screen and select “About Adobe Flash Player.” Go to “Settings Manager” which can be found in the right column under Support. On the right hand column you will see this:
Settings Manager
—Global Privacy Settings Panel (Always ask)
—Global Storage Settings Panel (10MB, uncheck never ask again, check third party, check store common flash)
—Global Security Settings Panel (Always ask)
—Global Notifications Settings Panel (Uncheck)
—Website Privacy Settings Panel (Delete all the sites in the list, then change to always ask)
—Website Storage Settings Panel (Delete all sites in the list, uncheck “Never Ask Again,” set bar at 1MB)
Click on any of those and change the settings to what I have put in parenthesis. When you click on them, you are ACTUALLY changing the settings on your computer.
After doing this, I shut down and rebooted the computer. When I restarted IE, I was able to get the player running!! I don’t know which of the settings I changed made it happen, but it happened. I also made sure that “Enable Hardware Acceleration” under the Display Settings (which I was now able to get to when I right clicked without it freezing up) was unchecked.
I hope this works for some other folks…

I am having a different problem then what most here have mentioned. When I agree to the “terms and conditions” I then get an install screen. When I click install it does a short install, but then whenever I try to “Launch” the player it takes me to the terms and conditions screen again. I never even get to the actual player. Here in Portland, OR Dish Network doesn’t currently broadcast ABC because of a contract dispute with Fisher Broadcasting, so the only way I can watch ABC shows is online. PLEASE HELP!!!

My system meets all the requirements but I can’t install OR watch any abc full episodes…seems they just can’t seem to get this system up and working at all.

I can’t get the player to work either. I have done everything required and it still will not work. I never had problems with the old one. The feedback page didn’t even work. What am I doing wrong – I want to be able to watch shows on ABC. The old player worked great – it’s just since the new one was installed. I have the requirements, fast DSL, Flash 10, allowed pop-ups and have unloaded and reloaded the player 4x – still does not work. Help me!

The thing that sucks to me is I went to watch the episode of Lost I missed tonight, but apparently if I don’t download it, I’ll have to wait till after next week’s episode is out being forever behind everyone else. That’s just stupid.

I just followed Alisa’s steps in post from 12/31/08 (referenced in LA’s post 1/21/09)and I got the full episode player to work. I was getting a blank gray screen. Wow, she saved me a month of headaches. Thanks Alisa & LA.

I too cannot get the player to work, it is jumpy, stalls, just sucks…
You can find, and watch, commercial free shows on:
http://www.surfthechannel.com
Often they will link you to foreign language sites that host them.
Im stoked I can watch the back episodes of Lost again, it was a disaster trying to get the FEP to work…

ABC player blows dogs for quarters. I have tried every fix on every blog. ABC Family runs videos fine, but the ABC network player is costing them viewers and ripping off their advertisers. ABC does NOT respond to emails about this, so email their advertisers!

I too was having the problem with the new ABC full episode player. I could install the new move networks player and watch the test video. But once I tried to launch an actual episode from the abc site I would get the grey pop up screen and it would stop there. I finally found as one gent above listed the setting was in the adobe flash player settings. In particular in was in the one labelled —Global Storage Settings Panel (check the box – allow third party flash content to store data on my computer)Once I checked that box the flash player worked and am able to use the player just fine.

I have tried using both Safari (obviously on a Mac) and Firefox and neither of them work, but my problem seems to be a bit different from everyone else’s… I click on the LAUNCH button for the new full episode player, and literally nothing happens, like, everytime I try and click it the little hand turns to an arrow… help please??

this new player sucks i cant play any of my fav shows like greys and lost i have either had to buy them from itunes or have someone tape them bc i have to work on the actual play day of the shows.. i even had just bought a new laptop and same dang thing

I am having the same problems as the rest of you, a blank gray screen where the media player used to be. And I have tried all of ABC’s fix its. They’re not the problem because the settings are all correct and my cache is clear.
What I think is amazing is that, if you go to http://www.movenetworks.com, your media player works just fine. You can see and hear all the videos perfectly. I went there to uninstall & reinstall my media player. Even though it worked as soon as I got to the site, I did it anyway, thinking I had a glitch in my program. The new download of the player worked fine until I went back to use it at ABC.
First, it needs to be said, I watch House on Fox. It uses the Move Media Player and, guess what, no problem.
So, if I’m able to use the Move Media Player on the Fox Network and on Move’s own site, it’s clearly a problem with ABC’s network and how their network is interacting with our systems.
At this time, I’ve sent Move Network an email, letting them know of the problem, in case they didn’t know already. We’ll see what happens.
Try heading to Fox and see what happens with your Media Player. I’m guessing it will work there.
Before you judge the software company, make sure that’s where the blame goes.

OK! After 5 months of searching for solutions for the ABC (and CW) video player problems and trying them all: I have found the solutions, and this is the summary:
The player is extremely sensitive to all sorts of ridiculous software and hardware issues. It’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s that you don’t realize what it needs to run. Your set-up has to be literally ‘perfect.’
1) First make certain that you have ALL the required software and updated plug-ins (Flash etc.). Go to the ABC player area that tells you exactly ALL the components. Install and restart.
2) Be certain Java is enabled (both IE and Firefox).
3) Review a few other forums searching under “ABC video doesn’t play”. There are several idiosyncratic programs that prevent/interfere/block the player, or special settings that might need to be adjusted. Don’t obsess, just check a few and make those adjustments for your system as necessary.
4) Here’s the final kicker that prevented me from being able to use it for all these months: The driver for my video controller was not installed. For ALL my computer needs, it didn’t matter one bit. But when I went to Device Manager (control panel, system – hardware – Device manager), and looked, there was a yellow question mark next to it. I then used Microsoft’s automatic installation feature (double click the icon to bring this up) to search the web for the right driver). It installed it. I restarted the computer and… Boom ABC video playing the way it always did – almost a year ago.
In other words, now that EVERYTHING was installed, flash, Java enabled, video driver installed, NOW, only NOW would it play. Ridiculous!!!!!!!

I got the new FE player to install by going to Firefox preferences, selecting ‘manage add-ons’, then went to plugins and disabled all the old MoveNetwork plugins. Then I went back to ABC and the new version installed just fine

To one and all who have been plagued by the blank grey screen which goes nowhere when trying to use the newest ABC Full Episode Player: if you went through the same agonizing gauntlet of trying everything I did (upgrading to the absolutely latest versions of the Flash Player and Java, repeatedly uninstalling the Move Media Player and reinstalling from multiple alternate sites; tweaking browser, firewall, antivirus, and antispyware security settings, etc.–all to no avail), I would strongly recommend following Pyrokinetic_Alchemist’s suggestions of March 6, 2009. His description of how to tweak Adobe Flash Player’s settings did the trick for me, and in fact has left me able to use both IE 7 and Firefox 3 to playback ABC.com videos flawlessly, without the subsequent freezes which still affected his playback. (That must be a completely separate issue.) Poster LA, on January 21, 2009, also correctly notes that this portion of what Alisa suggested in her post of December 31, 2008, appears to be the really relevant part of the adjustments which will solve the problem.
Be aware that on the page you’ll reach at http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html#118539 , you’ll need to select the second tab from the left (”Global Storage Settings”) in the Adobe Flash Player Settings Manager box. After you’ve made Pyrokinetic_Alchemist’s sugessted changes, don’t worry about the absence of any sort of “Apply” or “OK” button–the changes should stick when you exit the site.
Why there is no one at ABC.com who will take the small amount of trouble to monitor the web for postings of solutions to problems encountered by users of their site is beyond me. They certainly haven’t lifted a finger to change their canned Full Episode Player “support” response to reflect anything but the solutions most folks a notch above computer novice aren’t already aware of. It’s like they’re TRYING to alienate potential viewers!

The ABC full episode player tells me that I need to be in the United States. I live in California! I try to start an episode and I get the black screen with the message. What do I need to do? I was watching episodes as recently as March 2009.

Thank you for any help you can give me.

I am going crazy with this sownload problem of the ABC player. I get the dreaded gray screen, yet I had no problems earlier this year and would go directly to the site. No this “launch Player Now” message keeps coming up with no results. Obviously this is a HUGE problem with no answers by the amount of posts on this forum. There is no way to get an answer from ABC. I have called the corporate offices several times with no results. I have searched for a way to email with no results. What have others done to resolve this? I have tried to get the latest lost episodes.

FYI: We think the problem is caused by the advertisers storing “cookies”. We haven’t been able to confirm this, however, that’s why it would work and then stop. Also, the storage settings are used by other sites and once you reach your limit it could cause the issue.

The storage settings in flash has a size limit… once you reach that it could be causing this issue. That’s why it doesn’t happen to everyone but a small percentage of millions of users.

Try out the above steps and if it solves your issue you’ll be golden!

I will see what the status of this is on Monday. I just sent another IP that was being reported incorrectly.

Danny

Hi Yahna,

Can you please explain what you mean by you close the website that launched in tab? That could be a bug that needs to get fixed… please give more detail.

Thanks,
Danny

Yes, I will forward this on to QA.

FYI: Our content will be made available on Hulu soon as well.

I have tried to download the full episode player 30 times..It still wont load.

ABC’s new media player SUCKS!!! Talk about taking a play book from Microsoft. Hey ABC, for future reference when you have a program that works just keep it!!! You don’t even have support to help people having issues. BAD FORM.

Last year you (Move Networks) announced you were working on adding linux compatiblity since this player cut off all the Linux users ablity to watch ABC’s episodes.

As many of us thought was going to happen…nothing has come about. This is why when asked if we could try out the betas they wouldn’t allow it. There was nothing to test. They were just trying to silence us.

I still don’t get why you wouldn’t make it OS agnostic. Most other video streaming sites only care you are running a browser that is Flash and Java enabled. Thier players are java based so a particular OS isn’t and issue.

The old ABC player worked just about flawlessly. I could watch news clips from my “local” news station (which I can’t receive OTA due to geographic terrain.) and even got to watch some actual ABC programming. I got programming they got a captive audience that watched the commerical spots….

Hmmm……. advertisers….. maybe they can prod ABC to use a OS agnostic Player so MORE PEOPLE SEE THEIR ADs THEY ARE PAYING FOR. Think they’d like to know they are missing people due to ABC switching to a viewer that cuts out quite a few viewers? I’ll be sure to let them know.

Danny,
Thanks for all the info, but regarding the HULU issue, yes, the ABC shows are listed, but they don’t use HULU’s player. They just link to the POS on abc.com that, like many others on here, just stays grey for me. I’ll try some of the fixes that have been described, but I don’t give a crap about HULU until they actually use the HULU player.