We're very pleased to offer one of the Internet's biggest and best collections of firework video clips to support our reviews and features. In this section we will run through the types of clips we have on-line, with advice on how to access and play them.

Depending on the section you are viewing, links to our video are presented in a number of different ways. For example, here is the video box from our recent reviews:

Here two clips are offered, one for broadband and one for dial-up. A file size is quoted (this is approximate) and the type of video.

Regardless of how the links are presented, please follow the instructions given to download the specific clips you need. Where requested, you should download the clip to your PC before playing it, by "right-clicking" on the link and "save target as" or equivalent on your browser.

Help us to help you! If you are requested to save a clip to your PC before playing it, please do so. This avoids repeated downloading (streaming) which saves our bandwidth. We pass these savings to you by maintaining our low membership fees.

Where you are not advised to "right click" and save the video clip, it is taken for granted that you can if you wish simply click on the link to access the clip. This is normally the case with smaller clips that have minimal impact on bandwidth.

We have no particular definition of "broadband" or "dial-up" video sizes. Generally, where we compress the same video clip into two formats that give different sizes, we refer to the larger one as broadband and the smaller one as dial-up. Broadband users are welcome of course to download the smaller files (they make excellent quick preview clips) and dial-up users are welcome to download the bigger files.

In some cases you may be prompted to enter your username and password. This will be your UKFR (not Forum) username and password which you registered when you joined. You need to enter this to access member video clips to prove you are a paying member.

As a member you will be aware that there is no anonymous use of our site. As per our terms and conditions we log which files have been downloaded. Please ensure your use of our site conforms with our terms and conditions.

Some video content requires you to fill in your e-mail address first. We do this with large files to encourage members to download the files only once and so that we can better monitor which files are being downloaded. This information is important so that we can improve our site. In these cases, a link is e-mailed to you which you simply click on to download the clip. More instructions are provided during this process.

Of course, we offer a lot of free-to-access video for nonmembers - typically in our Features section. These clips are normally clearly marked.

Much of our video is compressed with the "ZIP" format. We use this to reduce file sizes. Although such gains might not seem much, every byte saved helps us. Compressed files also take slightly less time to download, so dial-up users in particular benefit from this.

You will need a suitable program to "unzip" each file, and retrieve the video clip contained inside. Most modern PC's include software to do this. Otherwise, PC users should try WinZip or WinRAR.

If you download a ZIP file and it says it is corrupt, this is normally because your download was interrupted and you have not downloaded the complete clip. Please try downloading it again. You may need to clear your browser cache to do this.

Some of our very large video clips are split into self-extracting, multiple parts. We do this to enable easier uploading of our content to the server, and to help downloading. For example, in the event of a download problem, you would only need to re-download the part that failed and not the whole file.

Where our clips are presented in parts, you should follow the instructions given. You can only extract the video file if you have downloaded ALL the parts.

A lot of our review video is encoded in the DivX format. To view this you will need to download and install the DivX codec. A "codec" is simply the file needed by your PC to play the video file.

DivX provide this codec for free and you can download it from the DivX website. Scroll down to the free download.

We have found that with the DivX codec installed, the video plays OK in Windows Media Player. A few members have found that it does not. In this case, use the free DivX video player that is bundled with the codec.

Our other format of choice is Windows Media. If you are a PC user you should have little or no problems using this format.

The most important thing is to ensure that you have the latest version of Windows Media that your machine will support. You can download it from Microsoft's Windows Media page.

We often experiment with other formats and you may also come across other types of video in our older content.

Examples of video that resides on UKFR include:

	MPEG. This is a pretty much universal format that crops up from time to time. Some of our review and feature material is compressed in this format. There is no specific MPEG player as such and these clips should play in Windows Media Player, Real Player or whatever video player you normally use. Although this format has broader support, file sizes are generally bigger hence our preference for DivX or Windows Media.
	Real Media. We have used this format in some older reviews to provide low quality, quick-preview clips and we occasionally experiment with this format. To view this video you will need the Real Media Player which you can find here. This company will unfortunately try and heavily steer you towards paying for their player or downloading a "free" trail player which after expiry, will be chargeable. This is one reason why we have largely abandoned this format. To access the basic and completely FREE player (which is all you need), look for links to "Real Player" and then "Get our free player".
	AVI. Some older material is encoded using a now out of date AVI format. These files are typically large in file size and small in video screen size. Some do not have sound. These should play in Windows Media Player but due to their age, we are not able to offer any help or support for these files.
	Quicktime. Apple's .mov format is not one we normally use but some forum members in particular are MAC users and post content in this format. You can get a player from the Apple site. Look for the free player.

Most members enjoy trouble-free use of our video but with an almost infinite variety of PCs, operating systems and software out there, sometimes technical problems occur. Here are the most common we have come across:

	Corrupt ZIP file: This is normally caused when your download was interrupted. This can happen with larger files if the net or our server is busy. Try downloading the file again. You may need to clear your browser's cache or history to prompt it to try and download the whole file again.
	Cannot fast forward or rewind a file: This is normally caused when the download of a non-zipped file is interrupted. See above.
	Error message "Cannot find codec" or similar: You do not have the correct codec installed to enable your video player to understand the video format. Refer to the help sections above.
	Sound but no video: Normally because you do not have the correct codec, or the most up to date version of the required player. See above.
	Jittery or stop-start playback: For downloaded files, this can be caused if your PC is not fast enough to handle our latest high-bandwidth full screen video. Try the dial-up version of the video (if available) instead. Ensure you have the correct codec installed and the latest relevant video player. For files accessed directly off the server, this is because the video has caught up with the file which is still downloading. Once the complete file has downloaded and has been buffered by your browser, playing it again should result in smooth playback.
	Tinny or poor quality sound, blocky playback: This can be caused by any of the above. Sometimes, video will have occasionally poor sound, a drop in frame rate or blockiness. This is caused by the encoding process and is normal. For example lower quality Windows Media files can only contain so much data so in a busy and loud sequence, some sound quality or frames may need to be dropped. The quality does of course depend on the quality in which we encoded the file. We have to balance quality with sensible files sizes. Many firework effects are very difficult to encode, for example white effects in white smoke (leaving a whole area nearly one colour) or bright red effects against a dark background.
	Blue, gold or finer colours not visible: This is normal. Fine gold and blue effects (and some others) are hard to represent with on-line video. We use consumer (not broadcast) quality cameras which lose some detail and further detail is lost when the file is compressed.

If you experience any other problems, we recommend that you ask in our forum first. By all means contact us, but be aware that as video is always tested before upload, we are limited in the amount of technical help we can give for third party systems using third party software.