There are lots of ways to watch The Sufferfest (or any cycling video, for that matter) – all of them involve a bike, of course. Getting that video in front of you, however, requires that you download it and are able to open it and play it in your application of choice. Here are some tips:

Downloading

The first thing you need to do is make sure the video is on your computer. You’ll be able to do this by downloading it from the thank-you screen after purchase or the link on the email you receive. Save it wherever you like, but make sure you save it somewhere where you’ll remember. These files are very, very large. The individual version is 715mb, while the group & class version is 2.25 GB. Please make sure you’ve got an excellent connection before starting the download.

During the purchase process, you’ll also have the option to buy a CD backup of the file. If you do this, and are happy to wait a few days for it to show up in the post, then  you need not download the file (although you certainly still can if you wish).

The File

The file itself is an .mp4, which should work on just about any computer with any settings. If you play the file back and experience stop/start motion or jerky pictures, then you might have either a performance issues with your computer (it’s not powerful enough to play large video files) or a settings issue. If you think it is a settings issue, you can download a free VLC playere here which will allow you to play the video on your machine regardless of settings.

Watching

iPod or iPhone using iTunes

If you want to watch the video on your iThingy, then you have to import the file into iTunes. This is how you do it:

1. Open iTunes on your computer by double clicking on the iTunes icon.
2. Click on “File > Add to Library.”
3. Browse for video files. Search folders where you might have stored videos—try “My Documents,” “My Videos” or “My Received Files.”
4. Select one or more files and click “OK” or “Open.”
5. You can also drag-and-drop video files from a folder (navigate folders with the “My Computer” or Windows Explorer feature) to the open iTunes window.
6. NOTE: Sufferfest videos might show up in the ‘Movies’ section of your iTunes, rather than in videos, so be sure to look there for it.

There is also a video you can watch here.

For some reason, some iPhones have problems syncing movies in a ‘large’ format (like Revolver). This isn’t an issue with the Sufferfest file, but rather with iTunes/iPhone. If you can see the video in your iTunes, but you can’t get it on your iPhone then you’ll need to convert the file to a ‘medium’ format. Just Ctrl+click (mac) or right-click (PC) on the file in iTunes and then on ‘Convert to iPhone.’ If you don’t see anything when you right click on the file, look at the iTunes toolbar for the ‘Advanced’ tab – in there you’ll see a ‘convert’ option. This will then reformat the file, which might take a little while, but which should sort the problem out.

Watching on your laptop

The file size and resolution of The Sufferfest is optimised for iPods and iPhones (except for Revolver, which is in a ‘large,’ higher resolution format (see above). However, it still looks good on laptops. If you’re watching on your laptop, then you should be able to do so straight away by clicking on the file to open it. Depending on the set-up of your computer, you might have any of a number of applications open the file, from Windows Media Player, Quicktime, or iTunes. One advantage of watching on your laptop media player is that, if you don’t like the music, you can turn the sound down and play your own through iTunes, etc.

Making a DVD

If you want to watch the Sufferfest vids on a DVD player, you can do that but will first have to convert the file to DVD format. If you have a mac, you can use the iDVD software to do this pretty easily. If you’re on a PC, you’ll need to download some DVD authoring software. CNET.com is a good place to search for that kind of thing, or just google it and you’re sure to turn something up. (Why don’t I provide DVDs? Because the cost of rights video and music for DVDs is prohibitive.)

It all should work pretty smoothly and you should be suffering before you know it. If, however, you have any problems, just drop me a line at david at thesufferfest.com