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Old 10-06-2015, 23:21
jgrgilbert
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Eurosport have a new player:

http://www.eurosportplayer.co.uk/free-tour.shtml

I was briefly excited, because I used to be a subscriber, but video never played back smoothly on my Mac - it would stick slightly every few seconds. But, sadly, the new player is still based on Microsoft Silverlight, so I expect it will have the same problem.

Why on earth continue to develop on Silverlight, when Microsoft have deprecated it?
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Old 11-06-2015, 08:38
x6461
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Eurosport have a new player:

http://www.eurosportplayer.co.uk/free-tour.shtml

I was briefly excited, because I used to be a subscriber, but video never played back smoothly on my Mac - it would stick slightly every few seconds. But, sadly, the new player is still based on Microsoft Silverlight, so I expect it will have the same problem.

Why on earth continue to develop on Silverlight, when Microsoft have deprecated it?
As it has now rolled out I can reveal that I had been beta testing this on the PC and can report that my constant complaint was that it was based on Silverlight but it was sadly ignored, however what I can is that this version is better for smoother playback but still not perfect.
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Old 11-06-2015, 15:46
jgrgilbert
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Thanks, that's interesting.

I imagine that Eurosport will eventually adopt EME:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encrypted_Media_Extensions

which should deliver smooth video and low CPU usage.
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Old 11-06-2015, 18:34
howard h
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Made a thread on the Broadcasting section; should really have been in here.
The TV app's fine (when it loads) but on my win8.1 laptop (tried with firefox, opera and chrome) the picture is appalling - constantly buffering (didn't before) and the picture is jerky. Useless.
I've contacted support-uk@eurosport.com and am waitng for a reply. If nothing can be done either at their end or mine I hope they can release me out of my contract or at least make the last 6 months free. It's unuseable and "not fit for the purpose" right now. On laptops and PC's anyway.
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Old 11-06-2015, 23:52
gomezz
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You don't mention IE which seems to be an obvious thing to try?
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Old 12-06-2015, 00:30
howard h
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You don't mention IE which seems to be an obvious thing to try?
Do people still use IE??
Last night tried IE and to re-install silverlight but at least the judderyness on IE has gone; so that's one thing; but still the picture doesn't look as good as before, and it takes a long while for the graphics to disappear (that's on all browsers!). Can we click them off? Can't see a way. Not watched long enough so can't comment on buffering.
If it means I have to use IE then so be it, but we should be able to use the browser of our choice.
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Old 13-06-2015, 11:09
ovbg
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Twiddling around with browser viewing is all very good. But what Eurosport really need to get going with is releasing proper apps on connected devices (STBs).

Roku, Apple TV & AFTV.

Oddly enough, it is on the Xbox and some Smart TVs, so that is a start.

As for AirPlay and Chromecast, it is apparently "coming soon".
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Old 13-06-2015, 14:47
x6461
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I had already requested that Eurosport Player is rolled out to Roku, Amazon Fire Tv, Apple Tv, Google Nexus player and smart blu-ray players as well but I have heard nothing.
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Old 14-06-2015, 19:56
gomezz
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Perhaps effort would be better spent by the makers of all these different "smart" devices enabling them to run the standard Android version of such apps? But I suspect they prefer to stay with their Balkanisation approach to support product differentiation. Which is ultimately a dead end approach as smart users go instead with using a generic Android tablet connected to their TV set and do not allow their access to services to be fettered by the manufacturers.
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Old 29-06-2015, 13:44
jgrgilbert
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I re-subscribed for a month during the Tour de France. The new player interface is nicer, and remembers my volume setting, but I think video playback is more jerky than before.
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Old 07-07-2015, 16:47
After
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The new browser based player is definitely a problem for me. The older version played smoothly in all browsers on laptops and tablets but now I can only use it in IE ( but not full screen as the video flashes every few seconds). Previously used their player without any problems in Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Vivaldi. Alas the video quality is less sharp now.

Why oh why do they produce such crap?!

Luckily for me the Eurosport Player app works perfectly on my Samsung Smart TV and my sons Android tablet otherwise I would be looking to cancel my sub. It's a shame as I do rate Eurosport quite highly for the fringe sports.

PS Noticed that Eurosport 1 & 2 will be included in the channel line up of TV Player Plus when it launches later this year ( as part of a 25+ channels line up from £4.99 pm) so that could be an option in future as TV Player seems to work fine on Pcs, tablets and smart TV's.
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Old 07-07-2015, 21:28
ovbg
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PS Noticed that Eurosport 1 & 2 will be included in the channel line up of TV Player Plus when it launches later this year ( as part of a 25+ channels line up from £4.99 pm) so that could be an option in future as TV Player seems to work fine on Pcs, tablets and smart TV's.
Yeap, and on the Amazon Fire TV and Android. Chromecast is coming as well.
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Old 10-07-2015, 19:42
howard h
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Got an apology for the technical problems and an extra month added free (yeah, wow) + they explained they will be having another system available "shortly".

So they've fecked up a perfectly useable system despite using Silverlight. Once something's up and running why can't boffins stay well away and leave the ruddy thing alone?
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Old 13-07-2015, 16:40
jgrgilbert
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Logging in yesterday to cancel my subscription, I noted that they've added a "simplified player" option. It gives you a low res video feed, which stays low res with thick black borders if you choose the fullscreen option!

I've been enjoying the Tour de France on ITV4/SD on satellite. Their picture quality has improved this year -- last year the video wasn't correctly interlaced. It is a huge relief to have smooth motion and colour depth, even though it is only SD.
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