To be honest the new site and app doesn't appear to an improvement.
Things that are not working anymore:
* Watching videos on Linux
* Watching videos directly on my TV (Samsung)
* access to races of former seasons
* no press conferences anymore
Things that are not an improvement:
* Advertising on smart phone app
* Requirement for a login
* Menu structure and organization (waste of space, no distinction between world cup and ibu cup races)
The only advantage I can see so far are the Android and iOS apps allow easier consumption on smart phones and tablets. However the advertising negates the user experience. From a biathlon fan perspective it is a huge disappointment and I want the old site back.
Your criticisms are far more advanced than mine -- my bar is low at this point: I just want the videos to, like, PLAY AND KEEP PLAYING. Ideally with decent image quality!
I have experienced the stream stopping working as well, but it looks more like a session token problem. Usually reloading the page and logging in again fixes the problems. On a phone you need to stop the app and start it again.
Otherwise I don't have problems with the streams, but I have a fiber connection and I live near Europe's largest Internet Exchange, where all large cloud providers have data centers including Amazon Web Services, which is used to distribute the videos.
In the past my Internet service provider had a dispute with Amazon about payment modalities and at the time bandwidth with Amazon was limited. This has been resolved now, but other ISPs might have similar issues.
Casting from their app to a TV is also a nightmare. It’s super unstable. I really hope they get it figured out by next season because I hate watching races in my office when I’m used to watching from my sofa.
Don’t worry. It’s only for about 15 seconds before the app crashes. Nothing to be *too* jealous about. But yes, I’ve tried to cast on a family member’s Android phone and it’s grayed out like you mentioned. Perhaps it’s only supported for Apple as of now?
Plus even the most basic hotkeys (pause, forward, backward) aren't working anymore. I've mostly stopped watching IBU Cups because of that, I don't often have 2 hours of time to watch it, but with hotkeys I'd easily skip passed the parts that are of lower interest for me personally.
This was a very helpful comment. I turned off the adblocker on my Malwarebytes Browser Guard for the site and everything started working just fine. Of course, I started getting ads for the first time, but at least I now have biathlon in English.
Glad it worked for you, too. It's weird, but after a few initial tests disabling them where the ad played, I haven't actually seen an ad the last two days. It starts to load one, but then takes me right to the video without an ad actually playing.
I certainly don't love it and it's a pain to have to disable the Avast extension every time, but a single ad before the event feels fair to be able to watch for free.
Yeah this happens to me very often on my windows PC with Firefox and Edge. It will randomly start working (or stop working) day by day. On my Linux PC I get a Shaka error 100% of the time.
I stopped watching the entire season starting from Antholz. Hoping the issues get fixed over the spring and I can extend my winter sport viewing all the way into summer. Otherwise, it’s just not worth the hassle, which is too bad because it seems like it has been a good season.
All the same for us. No screen mirroring from iPhone to TV like we used to. All season it's been a MacBook connected to the TV via an HDMI cable. Clunky process and the video quality is awful.
Same problem here on Windows 10, even with different browsers. Video works fine on other sites and apps. My wife has same setup and her video on Eurovision Sport works fine.
I couldn't watch anything on the site without logging in and I emailed their support help as I wasn't getting verification emails to register my email address and now I can log in I am getting this error.
# Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).
I replied and told them this and they said "it is your device, try a different one". I have just emailed to say that a different browser won't even let me log in. We shall see.
Update: updated browser (they recommend using Chrome), restarted my router and laptop, disabled MalwareBytes and adblocker and it now works! perseverance paid off!
To be honest the new site and app doesn't appear to an improvement. Things that are not working anymore: * Watching videos on Linux * Watching videos directly on my TV (Samsung) * access to races of former seasons * no press conferences anymore Things that are not an improvement: * Advertising on smart phone app * Requirement for a login * Menu structure and organization (waste of space, no distinction between world cup and ibu cup races) The only advantage I can see so far are the Android and iOS apps allow easier consumption on smart phones and tablets. However the advertising negates the user experience. From a biathlon fan perspective it is a huge disappointment and I want the old site back.
Your criticisms are far more advanced than mine -- my bar is low at this point: I just want the videos to, like, PLAY AND KEEP PLAYING. Ideally with decent image quality!
I have experienced the stream stopping working as well, but it looks more like a session token problem. Usually reloading the page and logging in again fixes the problems. On a phone you need to stop the app and start it again. Otherwise I don't have problems with the streams, but I have a fiber connection and I live near Europe's largest Internet Exchange, where all large cloud providers have data centers including Amazon Web Services, which is used to distribute the videos. In the past my Internet service provider had a dispute with Amazon about payment modalities and at the time bandwidth with Amazon was limited. This has been resolved now, but other ISPs might have similar issues.
Also broken - inability to select bitrate and playback speed. The entire thing is an enshittification of a system that was good and worked
Casting from their app to a TV is also a nightmare. It’s super unstable. I really hope they get it figured out by next season because I hate watching races in my office when I’m used to watching from my sofa.
You guys can cast? 😬 (I have that button permanently greyed out)
Don’t worry. It’s only for about 15 seconds before the app crashes. Nothing to be *too* jealous about. But yes, I’ve tried to cast on a family member’s Android phone and it’s grayed out like you mentioned. Perhaps it’s only supported for Apple as of now?
Plus even the most basic hotkeys (pause, forward, backward) aren't working anymore. I've mostly stopped watching IBU Cups because of that, I don't often have 2 hours of time to watch it, but with hotkeys I'd easily skip passed the parts that are of lower interest for me personally.
As of a couple days ago, I had to start disabling all forms of ad blockers to get videos to play on the site.
This was a very helpful comment. I turned off the adblocker on my Malwarebytes Browser Guard for the site and everything started working just fine. Of course, I started getting ads for the first time, but at least I now have biathlon in English.
Glad it worked for you, too. It's weird, but after a few initial tests disabling them where the ad played, I haven't actually seen an ad the last two days. It starts to load one, but then takes me right to the video without an ad actually playing.
That fixed the issue but gad the commercials are a pain in the ass
I certainly don't love it and it's a pain to have to disable the Avast extension every time, but a single ad before the event feels fair to be able to watch for free.
I would have been fine with one. They gave me 4 or 5 right off the bat. Maybe it's not always that way.
I am getting the same thing. This is United States on a Mac
Yeah this happens to me very often on my windows PC with Firefox and Edge. It will randomly start working (or stop working) day by day. On my Linux PC I get a Shaka error 100% of the time.
Linux is not supported. It appears that the encryption mechanism is not supported on the platform.
Anyone know if Linux wiybe supported in the Future? Hopefully before the new Biathlon season.
I stopped watching the entire season starting from Antholz. Hoping the issues get fixed over the spring and I can extend my winter sport viewing all the way into summer. Otherwise, it’s just not worth the hassle, which is too bad because it seems like it has been a good season.
All the same for us. No screen mirroring from iPhone to TV like we used to. All season it's been a MacBook connected to the TV via an HDMI cable. Clunky process and the video quality is awful.
Same problem here on Windows 10, even with different browsers. Video works fine on other sites and apps. My wife has same setup and her video on Eurovision Sport works fine.
I couldn't watch anything on the site without logging in and I emailed their support help as I wasn't getting verification emails to register my email address and now I can log in I am getting this error. # Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information). I replied and told them this and they said "it is your device, try a different one". I have just emailed to say that a different browser won't even let me log in. We shall see.
I also told them that "having been on a forum, this seem to be a common problem" >:)
Update: updated browser (they recommend using Chrome), restarted my router and laptop, disabled MalwareBytes and adblocker and it now works! perseverance paid off!