Chef Paul Prudhomme's Magic Seasoning Blends

Frequently Asked Questions
Concerning Chef Paul's Videos

How often will the videos be updated? The videos should be updated monthly with ten new clips. Just check back the first week of each month and there will be new videos to view!

Chef Paul didn't fully list the ingredients he used or the amount of each ingedient - how do I make the recipe? Go to the recipes page; there you will find a heading called "Recipes From Our Video Section", under which there will be a link for the recipe.

Can I make the video bigger? No. The size of the media player's window has been preset for optimum viewing.

Why is the picture so small? Due to the limited speed of Internet connections, we need to make the videos small enough to transmit at an acceptable rate. The larger the window size of the media player, the higher the required bandwidth. This is why the "High Speed" videos are in a larger window and have greater video & audio quality than the "Dial Up" videos.

What software do I need to play the videos? The media players used to view the videos work with Internet Explorer (version 4.0 or better). In order to view a video, you will need to have either Microsoft Media Player or Apple's Quicktime installed. If your operating system is Windows 2000 Worksation or Windows XP, Microsoft Media Player should already be installed on your system. If you need to download and install Microsoft Media Player or Apple Quicktime, you can click on either of the two logos at the bottom of the videos page; you must have one of the two required media players installed in order to view the video's content.

There are four (4) selections for each video. Which one do I click on? To view a particluar video, you must look under the preview snapshot of the video. There are two columns. Look under the column that matches your Internet connection type. If you connect to the Internet using a phone line and modem, look under the "Dial Up" column. If you connect to the Internet via DSL, cable modem or corporate network, look under the "High Speed" column. You will then click on the media player type that is installed on your system. If both media players are installed on your system, you may select either video format. Clicking on a media player type will cause Microsoft Media Player or Quicktime to start in a pop-up box. The player will "buffer" or download the audio stream and begin playing within seconds. Microsoft Media player and Quicktime both have full VCR type controls so you can stop, start, pause, advance and rewind the story. The player does not automatically close when the story has finished playing. You may close any pop-up box window by clicking on the "X" button at the upper right of the video player. Each new click on a video's media player type will launch a new player window.

Where do I go to download the media players? Click here to download either the Microsoft Media Player or Quicktime media player.

It takes a really long time to connect - why is this? Many factors will cause slow connection times. If you are dialing in to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) with a 56Kbps modem and you are experiencing very slow connection times, please call your ISP directly. If you are connecting through your corporate network and finding slow response times, there may be heavy traffic on your company's Internet connection. You should contact your LAN manager. Users can also experience this problem when there are several other users simultaneously trying to view Chef Paul's videos. Keep in mind that when we send out emails to the Chef Paul fan club or when Chef Paul appears on national television, we often see a sudden surge in the number of users visiting our website. We will especially see a sudden increase in the number of users trying to view one of Chef Paul's videos when we state in the fan club email that new videos are available for viewing. We also see the largest amounts of traffic to our web site between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. central time. If this problem occurs, you might want try try viewing the videos at a later time.

The video frequently stops moving and/or my media player frequently stops to buffer data - Is there a way to correct this? Smooth video is dependent upon two things: sufficient bandwidth (connection speed to the Internet), and sufficient CPU resources (how much horsepower your computer has). Most of the time there is little that you can do to avoid bandwidth issues on the Internet. Modem users at 56K and below may experience choppy video quality due to the insufficient bandwidth at those rates. In addition, your computer must be powerful enough to allow your media player to make data into motion video. If you have problems with receiving a smooth video stream you may want to close all other applications you have running (to make more CPU resources available) or try and play the video at another time (when traffic on the Internet may be reduced). Users can also experience this problem when there are several other users simultaneously trying to view Chef Paul's videos. Keep in mind that when we send out emails to the Chef Paul fan club or when Chef Paul appears on national television, we often see a sudden surge in the number of users visiting our website. We will especially see a sudden increase in the number of users trying to view one of Chef Paul's videos when we state in the fan club email that new videos are available for viewing. We also see the largest amounts of traffic to our web site between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. central time. If this problem occurs, you might want try try viewing the videos at a later time.

I don't hear audio - What do I do? There are a number of things to check to make sure you can hear audio. First, check to ensure that you have speakers and that they are plugged into the correct port on your computer or sound card. Check to make sure that the speakers are powered on and that the volume is turned up to an audible level. Also, the media player used to view a clip (Quicktime or Microsoft Media Player) has a volume control - make sure that it is set properly.

How much space do these audio/video files take up on my machine? None - the files are never saved on your computer. When you play audio or video, a small file may be downloaded to your computer by the appropriate player software; this "redirector" file simply tells the player where to find video stream.