Video player is really making it hard to enjoy the site.

I know there are plenty of threads open about the video player, but since they aren't really getting responses, and the same problems persist and new ones are popping up, I see no problem in posting another.

So, this site is heavily dependent on it's video content, it would make the most logical sense to devote most of your engineering resources to make sure your video player works properly. Ever since the site redesign (it wasn't great before either), the video player has been getting progressively worse. Just now, I was in the middle of watching the latest archived Unprofessional Fridays, when it stopped playing right in the middle, screen went black with the big play button in the middle of the video. I clicked it, and now it won't load, I've tried every option available, and nothing. My internet is blazing fast, I know it's not on my end. If this happened every once in a while, it wouldn't be ruinous, but as it happens on almost every single video I watch on this site, it's getting pretty damn annoying. I appreciate the fact that making a good video player can't be easy, but come on guys. The seek/control bar always reappears spontaneously, the mouse cursor doesn't disappear, the random freezes and skips, the starting where I stopped, the seeking not being accurate. It's kind of inexcusable for such a video heavy site. Please, please fix this.

Thank you for your time.

I agree. I haven't been able to watch videos consistently for months. Occasionally I'll try to watch one and it will work fine, but that is becoming increasingly rare lately. It's really frustrating and makes most of the site's content useless.

It hasn't been quite as bad for me, but it does stutter on occasion, and trying to go back and rewatch a cool/funny moment can be frustrating on the longer videos.

Problems i have the various video player options.

Streaming player only has Auto for video quality and never ever pushes HD quality. I can watch multiple 720p or 1080p streams on Twitch at the same time without issues so give me HD dammit!

Progressive will not let you skip ahead of what is loaded so fuck that. Ain't no one got time for that. BTW i know this is not a bug. Still, fuck that!

HTML 5. HD takes forever to start playing and once it does don't try to skip in the video to many time. With almost 100% consistency skipping throughout the video 5-6 times will crash the player. Often it will crash on the first or second skip anyway. The long time it takes to start playing is not my connection either, again refer to being able to watch multiple HD streams on Twitch at the same time with no issues.

Also it's 2013 now. If i try to skip to a specific time in the video and it shows 18:23 i don't want to hear the video player tell me "sorry, best i can do is 18:12 or 18:41". Being able to go to 18:23 is critical to maximizing the fun of the Ravaged Quick Look.

Also screw locking the Youtube player behind the subscription. Jeff eventually said the logic behind this decision was that they get less ad money from the Youtube player since not all of it goes to Giant Bomb. So by this logic it's better to send people to Youtube entirely instead of having them watch content from the site and see the rest of the ads on Giant Bomb?

Edit: Oh yeah, Windows 7 64 bits, Chrome Version 27.0.1453.116 m.

Yeah streaming is pretty inconsistent. Lately I just put it on progressive and just let it load the entire video. Often times its faster to just watch it on the youtube player which isn't ideal. The giantbomb player needs some attention I think.

I don't know if it's exclusive to me, but whenever I watch a premium video that's a large file (TNT, UF, etc.), the player skips like a record, constantly. I'm talking every five minutes, sometimes less. I typically don't say this because I think I would sound melodramatic, but they have become unwatchable for me. I've been reduced to watching premium content on my iPhone, and YouTube for every thing else.

I was hoping they would change the player after the redesign...

Yeah the player sucks big time. Recently I have downloading the videos I want to watch.

The only way I can watch GiantBomb videos is on my iPad 3. When I try to watch them on my Roku 3 the video constantly is buffering, on my Macbook Pro it stutters and wont play for very long.

I've noticed similar skipping problems, but if you switch to either the "progressive" or HMTL5 player, then videos play fine.

I never watch videos on Giant Bomb anymore, because I had/still having pretty much the exact same issues you guys are talking about. I watch all of my Giant Bomb content on YouTube.

@captainthunderpants: I've actually found the progressive to be the worst when I try to watch. Streaming is the only thing that ever works for me.

It's weird how so many people have issues with the video player but they seem to be different for everyone.

I wish they'd just put the premium content on a private Youtube channel and find a way to make it so only premium members can access the videos. This is how much I hate the new player.

The player blows. I am flabbergasted as to how being owned by CBSi has brought in the shittiest player yet.

Can I +1?

I try to use the youtube option whenever I can because it works the best. Unfortunately, the premium content does not have that option, and that content is usually pretty long, so I have to use the streaming option.

I don't know if other people have this problem, but the streaming option seems to switch quality frequently. A lot of time when it switches quality, the audio will jump back 5 seconds or so and the video with freeze until the audio catches up. This happens on my macbook at home and my macbook at work. It makes it pretty frustrating to watch videos. Maybe if I could lock it at HD?

I love this site guys. But man... that video player is not good. I don't remember these problems with the old one?

I see most everyone in the thread is a subscriber. That means most of us have the option to download videos to our respective hard drives. I realize that shouldn't be a permanent solution but it's a fix that avoids having the deal with the site's player until these issues get pwn'd by Top Men.

signed. which is incredibly hard to do from my phone for some reason

For being a "behind the scenes" guy Matt Rorie sure does spend a lot of time on camera. Maybe he should focus more on getting the video player resolved and overseeing that process. I still don't quite understand how he was supposed to replace Dave seeing as he doesn't seem to have the same skillset. Looks like they created some sort of role where his skills fit better but all I know as an end user is the site slowly getting worse. Aside from the video player issues the download speeds can be unreliable as well. This is maddening because the only reason I am downloading is because the video player doesn't function.

I wonder what the odds are that Dave simply could not make progress on getting the sites issues resolved for whatever reason (engineering, management, etc) post relaunch and his kid was a convenient excuse for him to throw up his hands and exit.

I guess I am not surprised. CBSi is only interested in Giant Bomb as long as it is profitable. Fixing these issues takes money and money takes away from profit. As long as they can keep enough users happy to where they profit then they are probably content. I know I don't plan on renewing in September due to the various technical issues combined with the overall lack of content I feel they are putting out. It just seems to me that the GB crew's heart is not in this site anymore. I think what we will see is continued output from Alex and Patrick so they can justify their cost but the in office guys just kinda going through the motions. I would love to be wrong about this.

I've been having a different problem with the player. Ever since the redesign when I play something in fullscreen the video becomes incredibly choppy.

i agree :(

Some genius thought it was a great idea to put Youtube behind a pay wall, when you can just visit the youtube channel anyway...

@cutyoface said:

Same. I just download the video content and watch it in VLC, because the site's video player is really quite poor.

When I set it to progressive, it always stutters and pauses for the first minute or two, even though it clearly has like 15 or 20 seconds buffered and shouldn't have to pause. No video player on other sites does this, so I'm assuming that my browser and hardware are not the problem.

I don't have any problems at all. Is it an addon or something that is causing a problem for you guys? I can view through the normal player, or just hit the download button, not to actually download it, but to lower the quality (I have a bad computer.) So I am curious as to why you seem to have the problems.

Yeah, I have been getting more and more stutter when trying to watch videos too.

Recently I have also been getting sound issues too, when it starts repeating the audio from about 5 seconds before, and then switches back to audio that is in time with the video.

Same here, as a yearly subscriber it really does chap my hide.

Yeah, I've been getting exactly what you described too a lot where it just goes to black. Real irritating.

I have no idea why the player is so poor but it is the only player I have ever had issues with. One would think this is something that would be on top of the list for fixing for a site whose content is primarily videos but here we are, a year after the move to CBS.

i have the exact same audio problem. the audio on literally every video i've been watching recently has to play catch up with the visuals and it's been driving me bonkers. frequent skipping, too. :(

Well, not to make a new thread, I'm having a problem with the video player were the bar is outside of the player.

I'm getting an issue where the video finishes then the audio starts again. very irritating. Also On the longer videos every once in a while it'll just say awwhhhh fuck it and stop working. I agree that YouTube is the best way, but I want to watch the premiums

@ho_blivion: I do not recall exact words, but as Dave was leaving, he mentioned how after the redesign, his position was kind of redundant because Alexis was mostly taking care of things. Also, they supposedly hired a couple engineers since the move, I think.

I assume they hired Rorie because he was available and so was an extra position left by Dave, and Giant Bomb just altered the duties to be more community-focused.

It sucks, though. It seems everything has gone to shit in the past year. I'm in the middle of watching this past TNT, and they're having audio issues. Again. I had to put headphones on just to hear.

I in no way think there aren't any capable people that are at least informed of this issue, if not addressing it as we speak. It's just that, well, it's been a while, and the quality of my experience with the video player has continued to degrade, which is directly affecting the enjoyment I get out of their great features.

I'm pretty sure there is no conspiracy going on with Dave or anyone else for that matter.

Is anyone else having a problem where when you scroll down to the comments the video player, which takes up 90% of the screen stays on and blocks a huge portion of the comments section? I usually don't comment of videos, but I sometimes like reading the comments to see what peoples impressions are and this problem (I HOPE its a bug and not a feature!) is making the comment section completely unusable.

Not only that but the same thing happens in the videos section of the site where the "main" video on that page is again covering up nearly the whole screen making it almost impossible to browse the other videos. Again, I hope its a bug, when I scroll down I clearly don't want to look at that video, that's why I'm scrolling down!

I also have this issue.

Yep the whole thing is fucked. I just download the videos anyway so... yeah.

@rollingzeppelin: Click the pin icon on the video player between the gear icon and volume control. That's the sticky function to keep the player on the screen while you scroll down to read comments.

Thanks man, totally missed that. I guess that might be useful if you had a really big monitor. On a related note, I'm getting the bug where the audio loops when the video is over, not a big deal for me though.

The freezing and skipping back/forth isn't just me? Thank god. Yeah, get some engineers on that. Yesterday's Unprofessional Fridays was giving me a ton of trouble but actually I was able to solve it by just downloading it in the browser such that it played as if it were streaming by left clicking on the HD Download link. Worked like a charm actually. I might suggest you all try doing that.

I think it's due to the resolution changing since you can only stream in auto. I think it's too sensitive to quick fluctuations in the internet speed, and so deceases quality when a short dip in speed happens. The problem is that when that happens the player loses track of the spot and either jumps forward or back every time the resolution changes. Might not be that, but I have noticed that the jumping in time and resolution changes are highly correlated.

I solved it by using the progressive player, but there are problems in that sometimes that player will stop loading and I'll have to wait quite a while after reloading to get back to where I was. Also progressive is no good if you just want to jump to a part later on in the video.

I used to get freezes and stuff like you, but I haven't had one for a long time. Now I just have a problem where it will replay a second of video every once in a while which is really weird.

+1 to everything here. I haven't used the player in months - I watch all their videos on Youtube and for the premium videos I just download and watch on my phone.

If I want to watch one of their videos, I just use YouTube, and I haven't unblocked YouTube ads. Not being able to go fullscreen is absolutely killer for me, and just makes me not watch any of their videos, sadly. If they get that fixed I probably won't watch them here ever. (I know it's to do with how browsers play videos natively, and it's somewhat out of their hands, but it's still fucking annoying)

Also, most of the issues like not being able to skip properly, it not pushing HD when it's on Auto and just being a laggy piece of shit happens to me too. Locking YouTube behind the subscription paywall is fucking dumb and they should stop doing that.

Indeed. I watch every video I can with the Youtube player, and premium videos I either only watch on my Roku, or just deal with the shitty site player.

Also, @pr1mus, right on. The fact that the (freely accessible) YT player is behind a pay wall is totally absurd. Ad revenue maximization or not, you're probably actively sending more people away from the site, to YT, and losing other ad and page views in the process.

I agree with everything being said here so far and I am also experiencing the same issues. It has gotten to the point that the video player has become unusable and makes watching premium content impossible. I have been a subscriber of the site since the option was put in place but it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify paying for a service I can not even use. I really don't want to stop subscribing as the subscription videos are some of the best on the site, but with the constant lack of input or even acknowledgement of this piss poor video player I don't see myself resubscribing this year.

@rorie Your my man. Please let us know this is an issue and top men are on it!

The current video player is complete garbage.

This is how the newest tekken quick look, looks, playing in progressive low.

And THIS is the tekken 6 psp quick look from 09, on the same progressive low setting. WTF?!

Ever since Dave left, issues with the site, of which there have been many functional ones, are not being addressed or fixed. Dave please come back and fix this shit. :)

@ho_blivion: Matt confuses me. His comment about not knowing the face buttons on the PS4 "oh, they dont use X Y A and B?" made me seriously question why he's part of the staff.

45 posts and no staff letting us know whats up :(

I've started just downloading the high quality versions. I used to stream low, but it looks awful now.

+1 the video player has been consistently getting worse since the move, and it's really frustrating to see that nothing is being done about it.

He's a PC guy. That and he's not actually part of the editorial staff.