Gamespot video player

Is there any reason gamespot can't just use the youtube video player for all of their videos.

It seems to run much better on my pc & I'm sure it must be the same for other people with older PCs.

Want to know whether this might be something worth considering gamespot could implement as opposed to their own player.

+1. I totally agree. Gamespot video player really sucks. It stutters a lot and whats with 'Leave fullscreen to change video quality'?

@duskmist: Well, it comes down to us having to pay our bills. Between Youtube's revenue share policy and how often they show ads, we would have a much harder time paying for the content we produce.

Maybe a new simple and functional HTML 5 player customized to show adds when you want, in place of the current Flash player would help.

@pug987: It's in the works. : )

Ever since GS went to their own video player I can never see videos anymore. They never load period. Running up to date Chrome on Windows 10 Home 64-Bit. That is why you....Gamespot....have lost a long time used to be loyal reader. Please use an industry standard video player. It would be nice to see videos on the site again....(I never have problems with nay other site except this one.)

PS - Gamespot do you see the number of complaints you have about your video player in these forums. Do you not think this is a hint something is wrong.

@reddog00: As noted in the post above yours, we're working on it! There is a new pure-HTML5 player in final stages of development/early stages of testing.

In the meantime, if you could share what exactly the current player is doing so make it so you can't watch videos on it, it'd be a huge help for us in debugging. Thanks!

@wemmick: Hi wemmick. Glad to hear y'all are working on something different. The problem occurring right now is that when I first go to view a video the loading bar shows it loading the video but the video itself never ever plays. It just sits there. This has happened ever since GS changed the video player. I have been unable to watch any videos period. Thanks for your concern and I wish y'all best of luck in getting this fixed.

@reddog00: could you attach a screenshot? Just want to make sure I understand what you're seeing. And have you turned off you ad-blockers? We've noticed that some of the more aggressive ones (esp Ghostery with all options turned on) can prevent the player from working.

@wemmick: Okay so I have a few adblockers installed on my Chrome browser. I disabled Adblock Plus and what do you know....I am able to see videos now. Okay my next question is why is Gamespots' video client so annoyed with adblocking??? I value my privacy and hate to see ads unless I am looking for them specifically. Anyways thanks for your help. wemmick At least I can see videos on the site again if I need to.

@reddog00: It's a harder question to answer than you might think...hehe. Ad blockers follow their own rules and do a lot of deep, techy stuff to block ads, and sometimes that unintentionally gets in the way of other things. It's pretty tough for us to constantly rewire our code just to accommodate whatever code ad-blockers might be rolling out in any given week. : \ That said, we're hoping our new HTML5 player (when it's ready, likely late summer) will be more friendly with ad blockers.

I also want to add my support for an html5 video player - I haven't been able to watch any gamespot videos on the site for years because of how poorly flash works on linux (audio always goes to alsa not pulse, performance and security issues due to adobe discontinuing flash updates for linux many years ago, etc). I've been sucking it up by just reading the article, but I thought by now an html5 video player would have been implemented.

I hope it gets rolled out soon.

I think it time to switch to HTML5 player seriously even giantbomb has it, though you have to pay for.... have to pay for something that less a sercurity risk then flash.. most funny

I refuse to put flash on my computer atm.

And thank gawd i will then be able to view gs videos on my ipad. I specifically came here to post how fed up I was that despite having a plenty powerful desktop pc setup, most of my entertainment email / review content was consumed on an ipad when I was away from the desktop.. Hence it is infuriating to follow a link from a gs update email directly to a video that will never play on a mobile device.

@DetN8: In general, the video player should work on iPad. Which video are you having trouble with?

@wemmick: hi mate.. To me it seems msgly the oppostite. I perhaps couldn't give you an expansive list, but rather find that most times when I follow a link from email newsletter or following update, if it leads to a video it never plays... Eg from this morning: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/sniper-elite-4-lets-you-kill-nazis-with-see-throug/1100-6441208/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160510&bt_alias=eyJ1c2VySWQiOiAiODA1ODA3NmUtMzc3My00ODQ2LThkM2YtMzc1NDQzYjFiYzM0In0%3D&utm_source=weekly_newsletter

Thanks,

@DetN8: Alright, we'll check that one out. What's happening exactly on that page - do you see the play button? If so, what happens when you click on it?

@DetN8: Also, are you using any special browser other than the default? A version number would help. And are you running an ad-blocker?

@wemmick: hi wemmick. Sorry mate, i didnt mean to hijack this into a support thread. Yes, this is on default safari browser pop-up block off, ipad air, no jailbreak, running ios 9.3.2. When the page loads there is a large orange play button in the middle of the vid box. Tap this and it is replaced with another play button (grey circle, black play icon). Tap this and nothing happens, even waiting 2mins encase it requires a huge buffer. Have also tried this on current ios mobile versions of firefox, chrome and opera. Only difference was when i switched opera's settings from mobile client to desktop then reloaded the video, the vid went to a solid black box with the video player control bar visible at the bottom (embed, quality, fullscreen etc) but nothing played.

@DetN8: We're looking into this, but we're having trouble replicating the problem so far. Do videos on other sites work for you?

@wemmick: thank you for looking into this. Must be my setup then. I tried another half dozen videos and they dont play either (yes other sites seem to). I'll try some other troubleshooting as it may be related to the router, or just generally it may be a good excuse to ditch the $&$@ ipad and get a surface pro ;-)

Hey GS, use this for your articles, please.

https://www.youtube.com/user/gamespot

The video player still needs fixing...

I hope this HTML5 player is going to hurry the hell up. We've been asking you to ditch Flash for years.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/20/12243990/mozilla-firefox-block-flash-august-2016

@pongley: It's in progress now, I promise!

I notice that the quality option on the player now lists HTML5. So is it just the underlying API that's changed or will the player itself be replaced too?

@pongley: The entire thing is being replaced - soup to nuts. We're looking forward to it as much as you guys are. : )

I'm unable to see your videos and I don't have Adblock extension installed on Google Chrome, what's the problem? I've also tried with IE, Edge and all browser in Private mode.

@jakko01: Are you seeing that error on all of our videos, or just that one?

@jakko01: That message appears when you're unable to get to our video server (typically in cases of ad-blocking.) Try this - at a Windows command prompt, type:

tracert v2.gamespot.com

and send the results to me at support@gamespot.com and then we'll try to figure out what's going on.

Thanks!

@jakko01 said:

I'm unable to see your videos and I don't have Adblock extension installed on Google Chrome, what's the problem? I've also tried with IE, Edge and all browser in Private mode.

I get that on all videos, but I do have Adblock running. I refuse to whitelist gamespot or any site that bombards me with crappy ads.

The few times I visit youtube, adblock keeps annoying ads from playing, but I can still view the videos.....

@neatfeatguy:

Unfortunately this sort of thing is not easy to "fix" as it's actually a bug in the ad-blocker. We show this message when an extension blocks your access to our video files (not just ads), and there really isn't much we can do about it because it's an issue with how the ad-blocking was written particularly for our site. Ad blockers will likely take more care to block correctly on Youtube because it's a more high-profile site.

If you're using Ghostery or any other extensions that restrict your browser, try disabling those first.

@wemmick: After your comment, I went through my Kaspersky configuration and added Gamespot.com to the "Anti-Banner" exclusion list; now all of your videos play without an issue.

Thanks for your help!

@jakko01: Glad to hear it, thanks!

Hi, is there any eta on when you guys will be upgrading to html 5 then?

@vpacalypse: We're in the testing phase now. We hope to run tests in the community in a matter of weeks. Stay tuned!

Just popped back to eat my earlier words... Turns out that it is something in my router / firewall (specific to wi-fi) that is blocking your videos. Ethernet to PC from router (ASUS AC68U with Merlin firmware) works fine, as does my ipad & Android when its on 4g. JIts just when Ipad or Android are on wifi at home from the same router - No Go. Black screen for vids. <scratches head>.

@DetN8: Mysterious indeed!