EPTSeeing GOM's problems at the GSL finals today, I want to post about issues with the GOM Player. I hope this hits the right tone and is usable as a bug report.
Even after the network problems were fixed today, some people were unable to watch the stream because:
- The player keeps not cleaning up itself. You'd have to kill the GOM.exe process via task manager to get the protocol link in the browser to work.
Otherwise, the player would start but not show the stream (just sit there after some amount of UI blocking) or open up multiple instances (that all would not work)
Now, with the player and the stream running, still interruptions happen (network issues, I presume). So the stream goes black.
- Resuming the stream won't work (not found)
- Closing the player and once again clicking the link does not work
- Killing GomTVStreamerLiver.exe, closing the player, then klicking the link does work
Today, the player just sat there and hang at startup. Presumably because:
- The playlist file took a long time to retrieve because of the network issues. In the meantime the player blocks and appears crashed.
So that's it regarding the problems today. These issues keep popping up at other times as well.
Here are some other issues that annoy the hell out of me at other times:
- Task switching from SC2.exe to any other desktop program will interrupt the streaming. The image will return. But the sound will not. Pausing and resuming will resume the sound, but the image will stand still. Only Stop and then Play will work.
- Laggy interface in regards to the streaming. It is never clear if the player is busy or not. Any combination of playing, pausing, stopping does never produce a fast and clear reaction. Buttons should probably be disabled when the player is busy.
- Sometimes full screen will not work and a non-scaled image will just sit in the center of a black screen.
I feel, this is already too much text for this to gather any attention. But the issues are very annoying. Especially, since browser/Flash based technology is so mature and works without problems. My feeling is, that GOM could at least produce a reliable player after forcing it upon me ;-)
I did not open up a ticket with them, since I didn't even find a place to do it. Also, I didn't feel like it really would change anything. My annoyances with the web site are for another day... Btw, I am a non-subscribing user.
I feel my description of the bugs is detailed enough to reproduce them.
So, have fun watching the finals and maybe you feel the same and will chime in. Hope is, this gets fixed. I understand, they want to stay on their proprietary tech. So, at least have it usable.
