ev77

@drgonzo456: I’ve sat on my hands for months, but now they hurt so I’ve stopped. I’m a software developer and the only reason major issues (like with the player and APIs) are still around after a few months is because they are features and not bugs. They made that extra clear when they added 5 minute timeout and expiration keys to the videos basically crippling all 3rd party apps.

@lego_my_eggo: Fandom has made it very clear they don’t respect or care about Giantbomb’s legacy. They don’t care about the API, third party apps, or even their own native player; because it doesn’t earn them money. There’s a reason everything is now “free” but hosted on twitch/youtube and only slowly brought over to here. The future is ads: ads on the website, ads in the video player, and ad money through youtube/twitch.

I’ve got bad news for ya’ll; the player and the APIs aren’t going to get any better than they are. They will only get worse until they are completely removed once they decide to stop hosting all their legacy premium video content.

@conmulligan: Hmm, are you appending the api key as well? I've tried both appending and creating the player item using just the URL and in both cases it fails. Might be a tvOS thing as I'm not seeing any redirect?

@conmulligan: The links don't seem to work at all directly in avplayer? If I copy the link and paste it to a browser it does some redirecting to a new URL but the URL doesn't seem to be static from what I saw. Are you able to get the urls to work natively in avplayer?

Also the expiration is 100% just the epoch conversion of the current time + 5 minutes. The sig on the other hand I'm unsure about but it is tied to the specific exp time that is returned so I imagine something that merges the video Id and the exp time and does some manner of encoding or similar to it to generate a unique sig for every exp time.

Either way a huge PITA and a clear sign no one at fandom cares about the API or 3rd party apps. They don't get that sweet ad revenue otherwise...

It’s a known issue, unfortunately no ETA out yet for a fix.

@rorie: Looks like the latest punch out is also having the issue(#5).

@rorie: unfortunately the issue is persisting. Still getting errors on punch out 4 and the latest GMM among others.

This has been happening for a while now, but as of recently it's been getting a lot worse.

1) A LOT of videos are coming back with a duration of 0 from the api.

2) I recently started noticing that a lot of recent non-premium videos are returning "permission error" when trying to play them. The new Grubber Lang punchout #4 is having this issue but the
#3 is working fine when played through the APIs.

Things to consider:

1) Either get a router that sells a range extender as an accessory (I wouldn't trust 3rd party extenders off amazon, etc) or a router that works as a "mesh".
1b) Make sure either the range extender or the mesh routers have a LAN port so they can receive the internet over wifi but then send it out wired through the LAN port (because most devices, even the PS5/XBSX have shitty wifi models compared to a lan connection) so you get reliable speeds. Mesh routers IMO do a better job of this than a router + range extender but YMMV.

Things to avoid:

1) Wifi 6 - it won't help with range, speed, or anything at this point and the devices you listed won't ever work with it. IMO you're better off waiting for prices to get down in the future and update whatever you find next to wifi 6 in another couple of years at minimum (if not wait longer).

2) Avoid a single router. You'll either need a mesh system or 1-2 range extenders with given the size of your house if you want good connections. IMO mesh systems are more reliable, and faster even if they are a little pricier.

Things you might be interested in:

1) Depending on the age of your house, how the electrical wires are set up, and how far you are placing them apart you can get a decent set of powerline adapters to give yourself a "wired" connection as an alternative to buying anything router related. I've tried a couple over the years all around the $50 price range and have had decent/good results. You'll take a drop in top speed (wildly varies based on a number of factors) but you will gain reliability. If you think a set might work out it wouldn't hurt to drop a small amount of cash to test them out and see if they help solve your issues in the short term.

Final thoughts:
If you are living in an apartment, townhouse, or anywhere else with a large amount of neighbors then unfortunately wifi will only get you so far no matter what kind of money you spend on a top-end device.

I have an older(3-4 years?) sony 4k TV and never see ads. But I also only use input channels and never go to the "home" screen. I also don't have the wifi setup and 1-2 times a year I'll connect an ethernet to get updates and then unplug it.