Located on www.charter.net, Variety Pack Online is a premium online subscription service that combines content from the top Internet subscription and entertainment sites into a single package. For $7.99/month, you can enjoy premium online content from sites such as Shockwave® Unlimited™, American Greetings.com, Major League Baseball’s MLB.com, Encyclopedia Britannica, weather.com, Clever Island and the NHL – all with one login and at an incredible savings when compared with direct subscription rates. Plus, the service gets billed to your monthly Charter statement, so you don’t have to worry about giving out your credit card to multiple sites. Simply sign up for Variety Pack Online and surfing premium content is only a login away.
Variety Pack Online Frequently Asked Questions
Troubleshooting Variety Pack Online
What are my system requirements to access Variety Pack Online premium services?
Due to the high resolution and use of video with our premium content providers, we recommend that your computer meet the following minimum hardware and software requirements.
Note: Variety Pack Online premiums may not be optimized for Mac users and browsers other than Internet Explorer.
- Any Intel or AMD processor, 400mhz or faster
- Windows XP / Vista / 7
- Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher (cookies enabled)
- Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher
- RealPlayer 6.0 or higher
- Macromedia Flash Plug-In (required for Charter Music)
- Shockwave Plug-in (required for Shockwave.com™ Unlimited)
- Active X Plug-in (for streaming video over IE)
- 256 MB RAM
- 16-bit sound card and speakers
- 65,000-color video display card
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What are my Variety Pack Online username and password?
Your username and password is the same as your Charter Email username and password. The username is your complete Charter email address, including the domain (for example, username@Charter.net). Your login password is the same as your Charter email password.
Note: Some markets have other domains like chartermi.net; these domains will also work with the exception of “vanity domains” or custom domains created for businesses, commercial purposes, etc. These domains are not available to our residential customers. Also, if you insert the wrong domain name, you will not be able to log in. Per Charter’s request, the error message does not specify the issue; it will only state that the username is invalid.
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What services are included in Variety Pack Online?
For $7.99/month, you get access to the following premium subscriptions:
- American Greetings.com
- Clever Island
- Encyclopedia Britannica
- MLB.com
- NHL® Premium Videos and NHL Game Notes™
- Weather.com
- Shockwave® Unlimited™
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What is American Greetings.com?
American Greetings.com is the ultimate online card store. It enables you to send premium eCards, and customized printed greetings and projects with Create & Print. There are thousands of greeting cards in many styles and formats available, including talking eCards. AmericanGreetings.com features an address book and reminder service, so that you never forget an important date! It also has invitations, photo cards and so much more, to delight friends and family with.
Features include:
- Access to thousands of cards, including the following categories: holidays, birthday, love, friendship, special collections, events, thank you, family, religious, and more.
- Ability to customize special cards, style, and text.
- Ability to email a certain card style to many people at once. Plus, unlimited ability to send cards.
- Address book and reminder service to ensure you don’t miss a special date!
- Create and print feature allowing you to create customized cards. It’s like having a greeting card store in your home.
Note: Some programs meant to safeguard your computer or programs that affect Web browsing can interfere with some of the features on American Greetings. If you have any problems while on the site (such as logging in or downloading one of the tools), please try disabling your antivirus program and/or pop-up blocker, close your Web browser, then return to the site.
For information on how to use Create and Print, please go to: http://www.americangreetings.com/customer/index.pd.
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What is Clever Island?
Clever Island is an award-winning, fun, safe, learning games subscription service. It focuses on important educational skills, including language, numbers, logic and critical thinking. It offers 3 to 8 year old children over 100 continuously updated games and activities in a self-contained virtual world. Activities are designed by experts from Hanna-Barbera, the Learning Company and Harvard University to be engaging, powerful, and fun. Clever Island offers a distinct and separate parental control center to monitor and measure the child’s progress.
Features include:
- Over 100 award-winning online learning activities updated monthly.
- Safe, secure online site.
- Learning activities to improve the basic skills your child needs, including reading, writing, spelling, math, science, logic, and much more.
This service requires Flash Player and Shockwave plug-ins. Please refer to “Get Plug-Ins,” located in the footer on www.charter.net, to ensure that you have the latest Plug-Ins. For more information regarding Clever Island, please visit: https://www.cleverisland.com/HELP/CITECHINFO.ASP.
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What is Encyclopedia Britannica?
This service offers unlimited access to a search and directory site featuring the full, updated 32-volume Encyclopædia Britannica—including over 120.000 articles. You get news, thousands of video and audio clips, hundreds of magazines and journals, research tools, Merriam-Webster’s dictionary and thesaurus and more—all in an advertising-free environment.
Features include:
- Annals of American History Online.
- Search and browse Britannica.
- Search Merriam-Webster Student Dictionary or Thesaurus.
- Search for videos and other multimedia, magazine articles, and Internet links (selected by Britannica editors).
- Browse the World Atlas – a guide to the world’s nations, people, and places.
- Trace selected topics through history with illustrations and key dates using interactive timelines.
- Activity guides for language arts, mathematics, and science for students, including lesson plans and worksheets for parents.
For more information on Britannica services and policies, please refer to http://corporate.britannica.com/help/.
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What is MLB.com?
MLB.com is premium baseball content, from the source. Gameday Audio broadcasts every game, every day. MLB.com Radio is an all baseball interactive radio station, with live interviews and breaking news. Condensed Games are perfect for when you want to see key plays and don’t have time for the full game. Highlight Reels feature all the key plays—and they’re posted shortly after the game concludes. Searchable Video lets you see your selected players at the plate. All this, plus fantasy, links to each team’s site, and all the stats, schedules and standings you desire. It’s a home run.
Features include:
- Condensed Games: Condensed versions of each game, providing every hit, run, and out. Watch a game in 10 minutes! Users see approximately 85 pitches in an action-packed stream. Watch Condensed Games every day.
- Gameday Audio: Listen live to radio broadcasts of every game.
- Extended Highlights: Missed a game and want to know the key plays? Interested in seeing what happened with a match up, but don’t want to watch the full game archive? Our Extended Highlights feature all the key plays – offensive blasts and defensive gems – in a highlight reel available shortly after the game concludes.
- Searchable Video: Our video search engine lets you view your selected players at the plate – see their home runs, hits, and strikeouts. Go beyond the box score for the in-depth information you want about their at-bats. A terrific tool to help you keep track of your fantasy prospects.
- MLB.com Radio: An all-baseball interactive radio station. MLB.com Radio programming keeps fans updated on the latest baseball information through live interviews with their favorite players, officials from Major League Baseball, past stars of the game, and live press conferences when breaking news hits.
As MLB’s premium Web site is not personalized, you may see advertisements to other premium MLB services that may not be included in your premium subscription. For more information and technical support, please visit: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/help/faq_index.jsp.
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What is NHL® Premium Videos and NHL Game Notes™?
NHL® Premium Videos and NHL Game Notes™ delivers you the best hockey content from the NHL.
Premium Service Includes:
- NHL® Premium Videos, with 20-minute video summaries of selected hockey games available shortly after the game ends.
- Game Notes, with pre-game profiles, post-game summaries, press releases, game schedules, draft results and feedback.
What is Weather.com®?
Weather.com® offers local, regional, and national video weather reports and special feature categories. The Weather Channel features current conditions and forecasts for over 77,000 locations worldwide, along with local and regional radars. Beginning as a 24-hour, 7-day television network devoted entirely to weather, it has expanded across several mediums, including the Internet.
Premium Service includes:
- Broadband Local: A package of rich media local weather content, including local and regional video forecasts that can be personalized for your hometown or your favorite vacation destination.
- Extreme Weather: Video clips of key global weather events, including expert analysis and forecasting from The Weather Channel.
- Weather Vault: The Weather Channel historical field coverage of weather events, including videos.
This service requires RealPlayer. Please refer to the “Get Plug-Ins,” located in the footer on www.charter.net, to ensure that you have the latest version.
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What is Shockwave® Unlimited™?
Shockwave® Unlimited™ is an advertising free, premium games service, which provides you with access to hundreds of online and downloadable games. Many of the premium titles are exclusive, and new ones are constantly introduced. Plus, Shockwave® Unlimited™ lets you play with no time or level limitations. Some games offer new difficulty settings, new characters, or new soundtracks, and most can be played at full-screen. Shockwave Unlimited offers multiple puzzle packs, as well as exclusive bonus features, including an extra difficulty level for each puzzle and special effects puzzles. This is why we describe them as "premium games."
Shockwave® Unlimited™ games include:
- 50 puzzles per month: Solve every day, or download a month’s worth at once.
- Cue Ball Alley 3D Pool: Don’t be a fool; rack up a game of pool!
- TV Mah Jong Solitaire: Exclusive – hoop it up at full screen!
- Nothin’ But Net 3D basketball: Full game video replays shortly after the games are over.
- A – Blast 3D: Fight off 40 new waves, 2 new bosses, an armored mother ship, and 2 new enemy craft.
Note:Shockwave provides many games that require you to download an interface specific to each game. The download creates an icon on your desktop that you need to click on and enter your username and password before the game can be played. Please review the download info link for specific instructions on doing so.
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How do I know if my system has the latest Plug-Ins or Media Players?
Please find the link to our “Get Plug-Ins” located at the footer of www.charter.net. This link allows customers to simply click and have their desktop scanned for available Plug-ins and those needed for optimal use of the services available through the portal. Clicking on this link will result in a window advising of any Plug-ins needed with links to download the software. RealPlayer is the only plug-in required to view the portal content. The rest may be required to access premium content.
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Can anyone else access my Variety Pack Online or Charter Music® subscriptions?
Unless you share your login information with others, only you will be able to access your premium online subscriptions. To prevent others from accessing your premium content, please keep your login information confidential.
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What file formats are allowed for importing images into Story Teller?
File formats that are allowed for importing images in Story Teller:
- .bmp = OS/2 or Windows Bitmap
- .iff = Amiga
- .jpg = JPEG Image
- .pct = Macintosh PICT
- .pcx = Zsoft Paintbrush
- .pic = PC Paint
- .pict = SoftImage
- .ppt = Microsoft PowerPoint
- .psd = Adobe Photoshop
- .ras = Sun Raster Images
- .sgi = Silcon Graphics Image
- .tga = True Vision Targa
- .tif = (TIFF) Tagged Image File Format
- .wmf = Windows Metafile
- .wpg = WordPerfect
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How do I add or remove stocks from the Market Watch component?
If you have stocks that you want to add or remove from your Market Watch component, you simply type the stock symbol you wish to add or remove in the “add/remove” field and click Go.
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How often am I billed for Variety Pack Online
Variety Pack Online will simply be included on your monthly Charter statement. No credit card or separate monthly bills are required; just easy access to the best online premium services!
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What’s happening if I constantly have to log in for access to my subscription service?
You may have “Cookies“ turned off for your Web browser. Cookies allow the Charter system to recognize you and “find” your login and credentials as you navigate throughout the many content partners in your subscription. To switch Cookies on, click on Tools, Internet Options, and Privacy. Select a Privacy setting of ”Medium” or lower, which will enable Cookies and provide a seamless subscription content viewing experience.
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Who do I contact if I my Variety Pack Online service or my login fails?
If you can’t access your content because of a failed password or broken link, please Contact Us or call 1-888 GET CHARTER.
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Why can’t I log in to my Variety Pack Online services (for example, Shockwave® Unlimited™ or American Greetings) directly from their Web sites?
Variety Pack Online provides a unique bundle and discount for Variety Pack Online customers accessing the premium content through the Charter.net portal. In order to provide this service, you must log in through your Charter portal page, located at www.charter.net.
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Why don’t some of the player controls or plug-ins work for me when using Netscape?
If you already had RealPlayer installed before you downloaded Netscape, you will have to re-install RealPlayer in order to make the controls work properly.
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Can I stop the pop-up advertisements that appear while viewing my Variety Pack Online premium online content?
Charter cannot turn off pop-up ads that are part of the premium service or content providers’ offerings. These ads are a service of content providers to promote special offers.
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I can’t view my Variety Pack Online premium online content when the video window appears. What is wrong and how do I fix it?
If you can’t view www.charter.net or a premium content video stream:
- Certain content providers may require that you enable Javascript and ActiveX controls to properly view their pages. For Internet Explorer, click on Tools, Internet Options, Security. Make sure that Java and ActiveX are enabled for your browser, and then save the system changes.
- Alternatively, you can enable Cookies at this time in the Privacy settings. The “Default” security setting will switch on all three features at once. Click Apply to save the changes.
- You may have outdated or incompatible versions of video playing programs on your computer. To check for the latest version of RealPlayer, Flash Player, Shockwave, or Windows Media Player, click on Get Plug-Ins, located in the footer of www.charter.net. This link allows customers to simply click and have their desktop scanned for available Plug-ins and those needed for optimal use of the services available through the portal. Clicking on this link will result in a window advising of any Plug-ins needed with links to download the software. RealPlayer is the only plug-in required to view the portal content. The rest may be required to access premium content.
- Finally, you may be experiencing Internet congestion that is causing slow download and streaming speeds. If the video player tries to re-buffer the stream more than 3 times during the video, close the video pop-up window and select a smaller stream. Internet congestion is common at peak usage hours, and unless it persists for more than an hour, you do not need to contact Charter.
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Why are the text graphics on my greeting cards fuzzy?
Fuzzy text graphics are caused by your computer’s video card. If you have an older monitor or an out-of-date video card on your computer, the quality of your graphics in any program will be compromised, but may seem more obvious in Video Mail.
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Why does the Greeting Card function continue to record after I have pressed the stop button?
If you utilized the optional text feature and placed text in the final panel of the greeting card, the application will continue recording for approximately 7 seconds in the Video Mail Premium mode, and 3 seconds in Video Mail, after you have pressed stop. This enables the application to record your personal text message screen. No audio will be recorded under this text message.
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When navigating back and forth in Windows 2000 Greeting Card mode, why does the program slow down between the page and the record screen?
This is due to the way Internet Explorer (which holds the Video Mail program) renders HTML. Unfortunately, it is not something that Video Mail can control.
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Why did I lose the pictures I loaded into Story Teller when another user signed in after me?
A user who signs out of Video Mail will lose any pictures loaded into Story Teller if a different user signs in. However, if the same user simply logs in and out, their pictures will not be affected.
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