Video problems (including Roku/Chromecast/etc)? Get in here!

So previously I had rocky problems months ago that got fixed. Now the same problems have returned and the fix from before isn’t working. The roku app will just not open giant bomb. I click on it and it acts as if I am about to go in and then just returns me back to the Home Screen. Any help would be appreciated.

Same here. For the last week I have noticed that none of my roku steaming sticks can launch the GB app without an instant crash, where my Roku premier works fine.

I have been using bombermin but yesterday that app has also stopped working for me. Just crashes when I select browse.

just an update since my last post on here. The Roku stick model was apparently 3800X not 3600R, but i have two of the same model 3800X (i think, they use black ink on black plastic), and one works perfectly fine with the beta channel, the other crashes when trying to load the beta channel. And i have a "Streaming Stick +" that also works with the beta channel. All fail at loading the "official" channel, which i assume Roku hasn't gotten around to updating yet. Just find it odd that two sticks that are the exact same model, one works, the other doesn't.

Any updates on the app? Roku still not working.

About 1-2 months ago premium videos stoped working on the site.
I have active premium but the videos wont load. I can still download the videos but cant stream them.

Have tried on both my stationary pc and my mac laptop.
Same thing on both.

@rearmed: Were you tweeting the official account about this? Just checking to see if it's happening to multiple people.

Hope this is the right place on the website for this, but it's 3:05 am and I'm too tired to dig around any more.

Recent videos have been going to black after 5 secs trying to watch them on the site on fullscreen on my phone. It only seems to happen in fullscreen for some reason, and I made it reliably happen by watching the most recent Bombcast for a bit and switching to fullscreen.

I tried hitting the replay button while still in fullscreen to see if it was something about the transfer into fullscreen that was doing it, but it still crapped out after 5 seconds.

I'm using Chrome on a Pixel 3A. I can hit download and watch them in full screen that way, but I don't think everyone has that option.

There are some more troubleshooting steps I could take, but since there's a way I can watch anyway, I'm mostly sharing in case there are other people with the same problem and it's not just me.

I also went back and watched some of Bombcast 679 in fullscreen, and no problems no matter what I did.

All videos were set to auto quality.

Same exact thing here, not sure what's up. I'm using firefox on both computers.

Same. Also using Firefox.

Just this week all videos and streams just show a black screen with "Loading Video..." forever. I'm using firefox and already tried switching off my ad-blockers and nothing changes. Also tried clearing browsing data/cookies and loading it up in Edge. Still get the same issue.

I've had a bit of a routine going since the pandemic began -- every Wednesday morning (Central Europe time), I get up a bit early and stick the Bombcast on via GB's Android TV app on my Shield TV Pro while I get ready for the day's working from home.

But lately it's been impossible, the app just endlessly buffers and I get about a minute or two of playback for every five minutes of buffering. This is the case whether I'm accessing the high-quality or low-quality feed from the app. My only options are to revert to one of the versions with ads (either on YouTube or audio via my iPhone podcast app). Removing ads is literally the only reason I subscribe, so I kinda resent having to revert to versions that have ads.

I've tried resetting everything (router, Shield) but it makes no difference. Has the server capacity been reduced or something?

@lordtataraus: Hey, sorry for the follow-up but is this still happening for you? I'm not showing anything obvious wrong with your sub, but I wanted to see if this might have cleared up already. If not I can try flipping some switches.

@jimcaris: Is this happening for you on PC as well? I think it might be related to some API bitrate changes that we are trying to get reverted.

@rorie: It's still happening. I don't think it's sub related. I can still get into premium chats and load up the video pages. For GrubbSnax today I tried to watch and could see and interact with the chat, but the video player is just black with the "loading video..." flashing forever. I tried loading a premium and free video and they just sit at a black screen when I click play.

@rorie: Hey, I finally resolved the issue on my end. Apparently there was a cdn "cdn.cookielaw.org" you are now using that was blocked by my pihole DNS filter. With that whitelisted videos are working again.

@lordtataraus: OK, I was about to say - that sounds like a pihole kind of thing. I believe the cookielaw.org thing is to help us stay up to date with privacy laws on the site, so it's weird that pihole would block it by default. Sorry for the trouble!

Are you having this issue still on FF? I've been trying to replicate without luck.

@rorie: For me, I figured out that it has something to do with my VPN (PIA). Strange that it doesn't affect Chrome, but when I disable my VPN the video player loads up in Firefox now. Thanks, @rorie.

No, it was only a problem on the Android TV app. It seems to be working again now, but the problem's been arising intermittently for at least a few weeks. It seems to me that my Wednesday morning Bombcast watching time is most affected, hence my wondering about capacity (I'm usually watching at 9pm California time, Google tells me) - but that could just be that could be a type of confirmation bias on my part, as that's the only time each week that I'm definitely and regularly using the app.

Anyway, all is good for now, I'll post again if I have the same problem next week :)

@lost_forester: Had same problem, not working in firefox, but then not working in chome or edge. But worked on other devices. then i turend of PIA and it worked.

Sorry if this has been mentioned before - is anyone else unable to chromecast videos right now?

This is probably an issue for the add on developer but on UPF you guys were asking for issues no matter how weird the set up, so i thought i'd mention it...

https://www.wonderworldspace.com/what-is-the-lowest-value-of-paper-money-without-the-portrait-of-a-u-s-president/

@natearcade: I do too!

The Chromecast button is not visible at all on my Android phone when visiting Giant Bomb, and the only way to cast from a Chromebook is to use the Cast-button in the browser menu (not on the video itself). It's been like this for at least a couple of weeks now.

@swedownhill: Whew, at least it's not just me.

It's not visible for me on the Chrome browser. I'll try and see if there's another button I can use in the browser menu...

I am also having problems watching on chromecast. The chromecast button that's usually on the bottom right is missing for all videos, even videos that I had watched with chromecast last week.

I'm having the same issue on android. Can't see any chromecast button.

@rorie: I've got an escalating problem with the Roku app (ver. 2.2 build 5). Some videos are causing my device to lock up and reset just by highlighting them, not even trying to play them. Today's Tales of Arise quick look is doing it, but so are the only ep of Giant Bomb animated, the most recent Best of, and last week's We Talk Over for the Sony presser. The thumbnail shows the padlock icon for premium videos, except that I'm logged in as premium (and can watch other premium videos) and it's appearing on some videos like the aforementioned Quick Look that aren't premium. The same problem is happening across both my devices. Since it happens just from highlighting, it also means that I basically can't access the entire show if the most recent video has this happening, so for example I'm unable to watch any Best ofs because merely trying to open the show category causes the entire system to lock up.

I noticed the exact same issue today with the Roku app.

My premium is connected but I am locked out of some stuff. When I click on it the Roku crashes

@rorie following up on my post from last week. The new Hot Takeout is afflicted by the same problem, and even trying to load it will cause the entire Roku to lock up and reboot.

So this past week a problem has started for me: Each time I click on a video a get the error message "It seems your device is having trouble keeping up!" and some livestreams such as Grubbsnax kept freezing up every other minute or so and reverting to low quality settings. I'm using chrome and the freezing issue is pretty much only when I'm on GB.

@rorie the Kena quick look posted today is also suffering from the problem I mentioned above. Any help? I'm gradually losing access to more categories.

Same issue here.

Hi, any plans on supporting picture-in-picture video on Chromium (Chrome/Edge/etc)? Thanks!

Seeing the same issue, on every video. Including old videos. No problem streaming 4k content from any other site.

Also the OLED Switch / Metroid Prime video is giving a 404

Hey, apologies for the trouble here. I'll see if I can track down if there have been any recent changes to the Roku app. What kind of Roku device are you both using?

We're looking into removing this error message since it seems to be firing more often than is needed. And the OLED switch video was unpublished; it should be back soon.

Thank you sir!

Any idea if the Chromecast button will come back? It's how I have watched GiantBomb videos for years. I don't want to invest money into another solution if this is only a temporary issue.

What button was this? Where was it located? I'm not sure I remember this one.

Hey just FYI it looks like this might be due to the Roku app still linking to the CBSi domain for some URLS instead of the RV domains that we've flipped over to. I'll file a ticket to get it looked into but it might take a little bit of time; apologies for the trouble.

Thank you!

Also getting the issue on Roku of some categories being locked and causing hard crashes if you try to select them.

Roku app is still broken. Random stuff is locked and crashes the Roku. Been a month

@rorie: The button looked like the picture. It was at the bottom right of the screen next to the settings and fullscreen buttons. When clicked, it allowed you to select a chromecast device and stream the video directly to it.

@ryudo: @panfoot: Hey just FYI it looks like this might be due to the Roku app still linking to the CBSi domain for some URLS instead of the RV domains that we've flipped over to; took us a little while to realize this, apologies. I'll file a ticket to get it looked into but it might take a little bit of time; apologies for the trouble.

@fourleafsully said:

@rorie said:

@fourleafsully said:

Any idea if the Chromecast button will come back? It's how I have watched GiantBomb videos for years. I don't want to invest money into another solution if this is only a temporary issue.

What button was this? Where was it located? I'm not sure I remember this one.

@rorie: The button looked like the picture. It was at the bottom right of the screen next to the settings and fullscreen buttons. When clicked, it allowed you to select a chromecast device and stream the video directly to it.

Hmm, ok, this might be due to the switch to a new video player. The video player is becoming more of an RV-wide kind of thing, so far as I understand, but I'll see if we plan on returning that button to the browser.

@rorie: Thanks for the reply. For another data point, the Far Cry 6 Quick Look that just went up is also causing my hardware to crash just like the other videos mentioned before.