[iOS App] Giant Bomb Video Buddy

Version 2.0.4 Available

Added a button to manually mark videos as watched.

@soup_menu: You nailed this app. I've already donated and I still wanted to tell you I use the app daily and it has worked beautifully. The dimmed titles for watched videos was an absolutely awesome addition - but it has started to make me wish for a "Mark as Favorite" button next to that "Marked as Watched" checkmark. Give an inch, want a mile I guess. But having a way to highlight favorite videos would sure help finding old content down the road. But it's beautiful as is, thanks for a killer app.

I'm not sure if anyone else is having issues with AirPlay in iOS 7, but I have found that the following resolves any issues with an AppleTV. @soup_menu I figured you might want to see my temporary workaround.

Step 1: Launch Giant Bomb Video Buddy and select the video you want to play.

Step 2: Watch enough of the video that it plays for a second or two.

Step 3: Four finger or home button exit Giant Bomb Video Buddy application.

Step 4: Swipe one finger up from the bottom of the phone to access your controls.

Step 5: Turn on AirPlay to your TV or computer.

Step 6: Launch YouTube for iOS on either your iPad or iPhone and select any video. Again let it load a second or two of the video on your AppleTV.

Step 7: Four finger swipe to the right or double tap home button to switch back to Giant Bomb Video Buddy to watch the selected video.

That's quite the work around until the application is updated, but hopefully other duders can use this tip in the meantime.

@ruthloose: Wow, thanks for posting. Could you describe the issue you're running into in a little more detail? Like, is the AirPlay option not appearing in GBVB, or are you getting an error message, or anything like that?

One thing you might try is uninstalling and reinstalling the app. It's far from a guarantee, but I've seen issues clear up after a clean install before.

If anyone else is having issues with AirPlay after installing iOS 7, please let me know.

Airplay seems to be OK, but streamed videos are now very jerky on my ios7 iphone 4.

Odly, the sound does not stutter, just the video.

It was fine before ios 7.

Downloaded videos are fine.

I love the app and use it every day.

Thanks

@cyberbloke: Thanks for letting me know. Unfortunately, I don't think there's too much I can do to help improve playback performance. This may be a case where iOS 7's additional overhead is just enough to cause trouble on older hardware.

Changing the scrubbing speed (by moving my finger down when seeking through a video) doesn't seem to work for me. It stays set to "Hi". Is this broken for anyone else?

@raymath: Bug confirmed. I'm not sure why iOS 7 would have broken that, but I can definitely take a look. It probably won't be right away, but hopefully I'll get a chance to work on an iOS7-focused update toward the end of the month.

<3 this app. Awesome job. Support level A confirmed :)

Thanks for the response duder! And for working on this app. I've been using it all the time and it's fantastic.

Seconding request for a "mark as favorite" button.

Is the iPad version broken? Every category says "An error occurred. Press to retry." I tried reinstalling the app and it's still acting funky. The iPhone version still works fine.

Same with the Android version.

Yeah, this all of a sudden stopped working on my iphone. Maybe Giant Bomb changed something on their end? I didn't download an update or anything...

Same issue for me on ipad

@evil_alaska: @counterclockwork87: @zero_: @ted_mosby: Unfortunately, it looks like there may be some issues with the API right now. I've posted in the API Developers forum and will update the app's home page and this thread once I know more. Sorry for the inconvenience.

This app rocks! Been using it for about a year and it rules!

Keep up the good work man!

@soup_menu: thank you so much for keeping this app updated, it's one of my most used apps on my ipad!

This is my favorite way to watch GB videos and I hope it gets back to normal. Great app!

The videos API appears to be back up and running, but the default sort order seems to have changed. If the old API behavior can be restored the app will start working correctly again on its own, otherwise I'll need to work on an update. I appreciate everyone's patience while things get sorted out.

@soup_menu: Thanks again for constantly updating and working on this.

Definitely one of the most easy to use apps on both my iPhone and iPad.

Thanks for checking it out, this is still easily my most used iPad app <3

I have it on good authority that the original API behavior will be restored sometime tomorrow. Thanks for hanging in there, duders!

Update: We're Back!

Big ups to the Giant Bomb engineering team for helping get us back to good. They aren't called Top Men for nothing.

I also want to thank all of you. When I saw the app start acting funny I braced myself for 1-star reviews and upset users, but I didn't encounter any of that. The Giant Bomb crew often talk about how they have the best audience and I absolutely agree. You guys are amazing.

All working OK for me. Thanks again for a great ap. I spend more time watching GB on the Video Buddy than I do watching TV or playing games. Cheers from the UK!

Yes! This is pretty much the main way I consume my GB content. Thanks again soup_menu and GB top men.

Version 2.0.5 Available

Version 2.0.5 is out now and it brings with it an iOS7-ified look. Say "so long" to that old-fashioned iOS6 style!

I also wanted to mention that there is a known issue with the video scrubber under iOS7. Although the screen will say "Slide your finger down to adjust the scrubbing rate," it is impossible to get anything other than "Hi-Speed Scrubbing." I've filed a bug report with Apple and hopefully the issue will be fixed in a future version of iOS7.

is android getting the update as well?

This update just contains UI changes to make the app fit in better with iOS7's more minimalist appearance. Android's style hasn't changed much recently, so there isn't an equivalent update to be made at this point.

This seems cool. I just use the mobile site on mah mobile devices, but to each her own.

@brendan said:

The mobile site is fine for normal use, and over good wifi, but if your wifi isn't great the video buddy loads much quicker. Also saving videos locally is great. Means I can stash up a load of HD vids before hitting the road and catch up on whatever I've missed!

@soup_menu: Man I heard of this a long time ago but it was said that it didn't work with the site anymore. So glad that it's back and I can finally enjoy it.

Now you just need to somehow integrate the forums into the app with a quote button so we're not condemned to the current abominable mobile site.

Great job by the way.

Day One of the 2013 GOTY stuff shows up, but Day Two does not. It's not showing for me in Latest, Trailers, or any other category. Weird!

@joshuacant: It looks like the issue must have been corrected in the interim.

Every so often the data returned by the API is a little bit off (most commonly it's just a video being in the wrong category), but someone over at Giant Bomb usually catches it pretty quickly.

Yep, it showed up a few hours later, and the subsequent days showed up normally.

Hi there soup_menu, any chance the app could support background downloading? ie. let it keep downloading after you close the app? at the moment it seems to stop as soon as you sleep the screen.

cheers!

This app is great! Especially the download feature. Before my last deployment I downloaded a bunch of GB content and still could enjoy videos with no internet connection! Also good for grabbing videos before getting on long flights.

@dvydra: Taking advantage of iOS7's support for proper background downloading is high on my to-do list, but it's a large-ish project and I haven't had a ton of time to devote to GBVB lately. I definitely want to get this in the app, but, unfortunately, I can't offer an ETA right now.

The current version of the app does support the limited amount of background downloading that was allowed under iOS6 and below, but that only allows for 10 minutes of downloading while in the background. It's not great, but it does help a bit.

Cool to see the Video Buddy on Brad's iPad during the Republique quicklook (47:10).

@bobby: I totally missed that! Very cool.

Hi! I've just found out about the app and installed on iPad, but it isn't picking up any videos? Is anyone else having problems? Hopefully the API is still working as the app looks great. Cheers.

@magicjoef: There's been a little bit of API weirdness following the big site update, including a period of time where API key generation was busted. If you linked your Giant Bomb account during said weirdness it's possible that you were given an invalid API key, which would explain why you're not seeing any videos. If that's the case, the fix should be as simple as unlinking your account and then re-linking it. If that doesn't do the trick, please let me know and I'd be happy to look into it further.

I got an iphone for the first time yesterday and was contemplating setting up my premium feed with Downcaster and was agonizing about which quality level to use and then I downloaded this thing and holy shit dude. This thing is perfect. Happy to donate ten bucks for it.

@soup_menu: Thanks for the reply. You were right, I've re-linked my account and videos started appearing! Brilliant, thanks.

Just wanted to throw two cents in and endorse this app! Absolutely badass method of watching old and new video content.

@soup_menu: Are there any plans to include a setting to change the default screen? I love that you surface the patch notes in the app itself, but I would definitely use it more often if I could set it to automatically open to, say, the 'Latest' section.

EDIT: And now that I notice, I should really have posted this in the Android version of this thread...

@mlarrabee: Skipping the home/news/patchnotes screen would allow folks to get at the videos a little bit faster, but right now I feel that the ability to easily get information in front of the entire user base is a little more important. In situations where the app isn't at 100% (like the recent API key generation issue or when Android 4.4.0 had performance problems with 60fps video) keeping everyone up to date is a high priority for me.

Just wanted to pop in and say that this is a great app. When the API stuff went crazy at the end of the year and screwed up the video orders, I ended up watching a ton of super early content that I otherwise would never have looked for, let alone watched. Even when it breaks, it's great having all of GB video content present and easily accessible.

I also love downloading the videos to my iPad for long boring train rides.

For some reasons some videos is not showing up, latest UPF for exemple. Is this just me? Other than that, love the app!

@olqavtoras: It looks like the Feb 14 Unprofessional Fridays video didn't get tagged with a category. Until that gets fixed you'll need to turn off "Hide Trailers in Latest" and then load the Latest category in order to find it.

Every so often a video doesn't get correctly categorized and sort of ends up in limbo like this. They usually catch it pretty quickly though, so I suspect it'll start appearing correctly soon.

@soup_menu: I see, thanks for the help!