“The Faces Of Scranton” Video
Do you remember that great video Michael did for the Valentine’s Day episode? The one that ended with “Great Scott!” Well, as far as I can tell, NBC has posted that video on their official site for The Office. Of course, I can’t check that out because the NBC videos aren’t coded for Macs.
So here is what we need. Someone head over there and watch video to see if it is really the “Michael Scott Joint.” (You can see it in in the right side column of the NBC site.
If it really is the video, then I’d be very very very thankful for anyone that can figure out how to get a copy for themselves so we can host it here for Macs and PCs alike.
March 1st, 2006 21:03
I think that once we’re done with the “Supersize the Office” petition, we might want to move on to a petition or something asking NBC to do away with institutionalized platformism and provide video coded so we Mac people can see it too.
March 1st, 2006 21:07
It’s the video, but they ripped it straight from the show, so there’s Michael’s confessional parts in it as well. I would have liked to see the full video, if there is one.
March 1st, 2006 22:37
I second that.
March 1st, 2006 23:27
It’s basically an embedded windows media file, but the address is buried. Try pasting this into Win Media player for Mac (or Flip4mac maybe?)
mms://od-msn.msn.com/3/mbr/office_faces_scranton.wmv
March 2nd, 2006 00:09
Bert,
Thanks for posting the embedded windows media file address, but the MMS is a Windows Media Streaming server protocol. It it was a simple WMV on a standard server, there would be no problem viewing it. However the streams don’t work for macs. Even with Flip4Mac. Kinda sucks.
Shane
March 2nd, 2006 06:48
bert, that was a valiant effort. Thanks.
March 2nd, 2006 06:56
I’m on a mac and the link Bert posted worked fine in my windows media player.
March 2nd, 2006 07:31
I don’t think it’s a clip from the episode. Yes, Michael’s “confessional” is there, but I remember a lot of the video being shown on a TV with Michael standing next to it. This video is full screen. I don’t have the episode anymore. Can someone compare them?
March 2nd, 2006 08:12
As long as you have either the Windows Media Player for Mac OS X, or the flip4mac plug-in for QuickTime, you can open this URL in the player:
http://www.nbc.com/nbc/Video/asx/The_Office/office_faces_scranton.asx
This ASX file is just a wrapper around the URL posted by Bert, but the key thing to know is that the newer Windows Media components for Mac cannot open MMS directly, only indirectly through an ASX file. Tess may be using an older version of the Windows Media Player for Mac OS X.
The clip is a slightly different edit from the episode which was broadcast. In the broadcast episode, the opening of the video is only shown as being projected on a screen that Michael is standing next to. On the web site, we see the opening of the video full-screen as part of the video itself. On the other hand, the web site version is missing the intro music (U2’s “With or Without You”). The web site version is NOT a “standalone” copy of what Michael presented because it does cut back later to show Michael standing next to the screen. I’m pretty sure that the only purpose of the edit was to remove the U2 song due to royalty issues. (Royalties paid for TV use of a song do not cover Internet use.)
March 2nd, 2006 08:17
One more thing: There is freeware for Mac which can download the WMV file from an MMS URL to your hard drive.
http://members.at.infoseek.co.jp/mmaacc/asfrec.html
It’s a command-line tool, so you need to be comfortable with using Terminal (and/or scripting to wrap a graphical dialog around the command).
Also, the page is in Japanese, but the download links are easy to spot, and there are some screenshot fragments where you should be able to figure out what’s going on.
March 2nd, 2006 09:29
Great Scott!!
(its there, just wait…)
March 2nd, 2006 12:02
Tess, you’re right. I got it to work on my Mac to by putting it directly into Windows Media Player. It didn’t work for me in Quicktime even with the Flip4Mac addon
March 2nd, 2006 12:50
Wow, that worked like a charm. Thanks, Bert!
March 2nd, 2006 17:59
Glad to help. I’m not too familiar with Macs and video myself YET (my MacBook arrived today -woohoo)
Anyway, if either the mms or the.asx link (thanks Ronny) worked for your player, you can see other videos by changing the ‘office_faces_scranton’ part with the name from the clip you want, like for the valentine’s
day clip:
http://www.nbc.com/nbc/Video/asx/The_Office/office_hl_216a.asx
or
mms://od-msn.msn.com/3/mbr/office_hl_216a.wmv
anyway, I agree, it *should* be easier.
March 2nd, 2006 18:33
Bert, that was going to be my next question, about how to get the other videos to play. You read my mind!
MacBook, NICE! (I use a 12″ PowerBook G4)
March 3rd, 2006 07:36
Bert,
Thank you thank you!
Chunky as all get out, but at least it plays!
Woohoo!
March 3rd, 2006 19:09
Hey guys, I just captured the video with FRAPS, re-encoded it with XviD/MP3, and uploaded it to my webspace (link). The audio sounds a bit strange for some reason (a little echo) but at least you don’t have to stream it.
March 30th, 2006 16:22
I’ve updated the instructions on how to play these videos on a Mac using a free plugin for QuickTime Player — it works great!
And you can find another copy of The Faces of Scranton here — Mac-friendly!
November 10th, 2007 05:56
Mac users- support those of us overseas who cannot download “The Office”. I work (and live) at the US Embassy in Kabul and we have a foreign ISP and cannot download this show. It really sucks!!!