[Xbox + Windows 10 App] The Giant Bomb Video Player, now with live streams!

Hey duders!

I'm proud to announce the new release of the Giant Bomb Video Player for your Xbox One and Windows 10 devices, featuring:

• Live streams! Watch Unprofessional Fridays or Murder Island as it's happening!
• More video sorting options in the "Shows" tab

Get it here! Or find it by searching for "Giant Bomb Video Player" on your Xbox!

Featuring...

• All that hot, fresh, kid-tested Luchadeer-approved premium content if you're a subscriber!
• Playback position syncing between the site and the app!
• It's every Giant Bomb video. Did you want something else? Let me know!

Find a bug? Send me a PM on the site, submit it through my feedback form, reply to this thread, or harass me on Twitter. Whatever works.

But that's not all!

I'm excited to keep adding to this app based on what you guys want. Maybe you're an old GameSpotter who misses the GameSpot Ice site skin and you want a nice cool blue version of the app. Maybe that person doesn't exist, and I'm the only one who remembers GameSpot Ice. Who can say. But what I can say is that I'm not done with this thing! I'm super proud of this first release and am eagerly looking forward to what's coming up next!

Release History

Verison 1.1.11 - The Lockdown Update (Current)

< >
Have a great E3, duders!

Verison 1.1.10

• Optimized UI for TV screens and other minor tweaks
• Added ARM package

Version 1.1.7

• Hotfix build to fix an issue where pressing B on a gamepad to navigate backwards switched Xbox users to the previous app they were using (likely the dashboard)
• Added an image for Unprofessional Fridays

Version 1.1.6

• Playback position preview in the main menu
• Improved support for the Xbox One Media Remote
• Minor UI enhancements
• Fixed video category images

Version 1.1.5

Some pretty big features for everyone:

• Watch live broadcasts of premium Giant Bomb content!
• New "Shows" sorting of videos, allowing easy access for Bring Your B-Game, Demo Derby, Beast in the East, and more!
• Refresh button added to home page

Plus some enhancements and fixes for PC users:

• x86 verison added for people with older CPUs
• Arrow keys can skip around video, and escape toggles full screen
• Display should no longer go to sleep or lock during video playback
• App cache clears itself every 24 hours, as opposed to waiting for Windows every 30 days

Version 1.1.4

• Public release!
• Better gamepad control of video playback

Version 1.1.2

• Video playback position is saved and synced with the site
• Better video player controls

Version 1.1.1

• Beta release!

ok suddenly I am vastly more interested in the Xbox One being able to use the Windows App Store

Fantastic stuff! Downloading it now.

@spencer: The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. Thank you kindly for your work.

Just downloaded it now, thanks for your work!

Yay! This is one of the two Xbox One media apps I've desperately been waiting for.

(The other being PBS)

Soooooo rad! I've been wanting something like this! Thanks!

@spencer: Also, thanks for making it "play anywhere" ?

Very cool, thanks a lot! Ive been watching a lot of giant bomb on YouTube on Xbox one lately but that didn't haven't any premium content. This is a great idea.

Wow, awesome. Going to try this out today. Thank you.

Any playlist support? Something to make binge watching the endurance runs simpler? I watch them on YouTube now but would rather watch them without ads

Oh diiiiip! I can use my Xbox again.

Utilizes the saved position for continued watching (is that part of the API?), so this is basically the best thing ever.

My only recommendation would be to look into adding support for the new Compact Overlay feature in the Windows 10 Creators Update. Basically it allows you to have an OS level picture in picture mode. This is how Beam works, for example. You can see the implementation I'm thinking of by using the Movies & TV app (it calls it mini-mode, I think).

Sweet, been looking for a handy way to watch premium videos on my TV, now it's simple.

As someone who watches most Giant Bomb content on my Xbox One and had been using Microsoft Edge up until now...umm...thank you so much. If I weren't already a subscriber I would subscribe to the site just for this, since it's something I've wanted for a long time.

EDIT: Apparently this is an UNOFFICIAL app. Dude was this just something you did in your spare time as a community service? If so you deserve even more thanks. I mean it's appreciated either way but...

Amazing work.. now to have something similar for PS4..

And where is the PS4 app? I always knew Giant Bomb was biased towards Micro$oft. Follow the money.

Good idea! I'll put it on my potential features list for the future.

Yeah, they added that API call just a couple weeks ago. I hope all of the GB apps update to use it soon.

And good idea! I didn't notice that when I was reading through the Creators Update SDK notes.

Yep! I've been on this site since day one, and it's cool to have a way to contribute to the community.

Sony doesn't have an open app submission process like Microsoft does, so I'd need to go talk to some business people to make it happen, which would be weird given that I'm not a CBSi employee. The app is open source though, so if someone else wants to do it, go ahead!

Just installed it and unfortunately getting the message "Error: Unsupported video type or invalid file path". Tried reinstalling it and no luck :/. Not sure what to do on my end that may be causing an issue.

Edit: I should say thanks for putting in the work and effort on this. Seems like a really awesome feature!

@spencer: Yah sadly I know I was just musing aloud.. wishful thinking and all that. Great work on the XB1 side of things though.

@jiggajoe14: Oh no! What steps did you get to seeing that error message? Is it just one video or all of them? Where's the error message popping up?

@spencer said:

On Windows 10 every video (and I've tried both premium and non-premium videos) I click on I get this:

http://imgur.com/FwJamnl

Did download it on the xbox and runs buttery smooth there for me though :)

@spencer:

Excellent work man! I don't normally venture on to these forums that often but came to say thank you after downloading the apps after noticing both Giantbombing and DanRyckert using the Xbox app online. Good advertising right there.

Anyway, I've already been using the other Giantbomb Win10 app by Ryan Fairfax(Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft) and waiting on the Xbox One support. (Been happily using Edge in the meantime anyway)

Looks like you've beat him to it on that front! Bravo!

Video playback syncing works great ?

I just wonder...

Would you be able to include an audio podcast section and have it run as background audio?

I currently use an Xbox App called 'Podcasts (beta)' for my giant/beastcast needs while relaxing with Elite Dangerous or Forza for example.

Would be a nice extra feature of your app if possible?

Thanks again

@jamesversuslife: Thanks! And podcasts are a good idea, I hadn't thought about background audio. I'll add it to my list.

@jiggajoe14: Thanks for the screenshot. That's a weird one; I'll see what I can do about getting that fixed.

I'm applauding @Spencer right now.

@spencer I just saw this and immediately downloaded it to my Xbox. This is sooooo fantastic! Thank you so much! It's GREAT!

So happy that I don't have to use the Edge browser anymore. Thank you so much!!!

@spencerDuder, thank you so much for working on this. Looking forward to watching the long(er) form content from the comfort of my bed instead of a PC monitor, haha. And to think, I was debating getting a Roku to only really use the GB app on there but now I don't need to! Thanks again and great work!

Great app from what I've used, the videos seem to load faster and run smoother even than on the site for me. Nice work.

Cool, just what I needed, thanks Spencer (Phil?) <3

I'm also impressed that the app knows my saved video position in a QL I watched half of a week ago. Didnt know that was account based.

This is fantastic! Instant pinned app haha!

Yeah, for some reason they didn't talk about it AT ALL. I'm not a dev, so unfortunately I don't know of any documentation or references to get you started.

Awesome stuff. I've had one minor issue where hitting 'back' has taken me back to the login page and I've had to login all over again but otherwise enjoying it so far.

Great stuff! :-)

Shame that the categories are different from the website, but I presume that's just what the API gives you, so probably nothing you can do about it.

Back to catching up on Beast in the East :-D

@spencer: Awesome! I've been wanting to do this for a while now and just never had the time. Thank for beating me to the punch!

... though, if it's open source, maybe I can still contribute. Hit me up if you ever need help with anything!

Oddly enough this is basically the only thing I use my xbone for these days. Glad I don't have to use edge anymore!

Thanks so much, this is awesome! It looks like you did the hard part of getting the videos to play in full resolution with good audio, and moving around is snappy, so it's already better than 90% of the xbox one apps out there :P Now I can finally retire my Roku, because this works so much better.

@jeevespleez: Haha, thanks. If I need to go off the grid, you'll be on my short list of caretakers.

You rock, that is all.

Well, this sure was an instant download on my Xbox once I saw this post! Thanks a lot for this, been using Edge on the Xbox to watch some through the browser, but this is a million times better. Awesome work!

@spencer Hey, I'm using the app on Windows 10 (1703, OS version 15063.138) and it looks like it caches the videos in my localappdata folder. Not sure if this is intended but they start to take a bunch of up space.

For some reason the windows 10 built in disk cleaning tool (cleanmgr) can detect the that there is stuff taking space but it doesn't clear it... Not sure what's going on there... If your gonna cache the videos somewhere at least do it in the regular temp folders where they can be found by software in an easy way.

The huge folder is at %localappdata%\Packages\48398SpencerGuy.GiantBombVideoPlayer_5e90v0qz5ghw6\AC\INetCache . It looks like it's empty but it contains 6 gigs almost of videos for me.

Maybe make them show up under %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\ instead, this is where cleanmgr sends me if i try ti view the files it finds. Or add some thing that clears em up after finishing the video? Not sure how windows app handles this stuff.

Anyway, this app is pretty cool.

@forcen: I'm definitely not doing any manual caching within the app. Whatever's going on in that INetCache folder is being done by the Windows platform. It does look like an appropriate place for caching though; all UWP apps are sandboxed.

I did some research into this, and it looks like this folder should be automatically cleaned up by Windows every so often. I saw a Microsoft developer say there's a 30 day window, but I'd expect that to be dependent on the amount of available disk space (probably more regularly purging the cache when space is limited).

I'll keep an eye on this, though. Giant Bomb's videos are huge, so this obviously has a large user impact if this cache isn't being cleaned up. Thanks for alerting me to this!

@spencer: Looks like the only manual way for users to clear this is to delete all the saved "data" for the app and that's not convenient at all. It's so weird that cleanmgr can detect that it is taking up that much space but it can't delete it.

I will add this as a custom thing to CCleaner in the meantime, thanks for looking into this. If it gets cleaned up by the PC by itself then maybe it's fine, unless you watch an entire 1080p endurance run in one day or something.

The app should be able to handle if that folder gets manually emptied right? Guess Ill find out.

that goddamn login drawing of Jeff made me throw my xbox out of the window

too close to 4/20 for that kind of imagery

Just wanted to say a big thank you to the author of this app. I was sceptical of using it since it was "unauthorized", but with the bombcast not on YT yet, and I being home sick, I downloaded the app to watch it on my Xbox, and it just worked perfectly. Easy setup, excellent quality and no issues streaming. All in all, a great app.

Thank you for this great app. That drawing of Jeff at the start always spooks me though.

@spencer I don't know if this is a problem with the API but I'm trying to search for the Cities Skylines QL and getting zero results. Searching for Sim City brings up nothing as well.

Also, Metal Gear Scanlon 4 - Part 14 comes up as an "unsupported video type or invalid file path". Again, don't know if that's something you can fix on your end, but thought I'd bring it up.

@spencer Hey just wanted to pop in and say that I tried the app on my pc recently and it's working flawlessly now. Not sure what changed but it works so thanks!

@spencer: @forcen: I was starting to lose more and more data from my SSD and had no idea why. I knew Overwatch updates weren't THAT big. I finally figured out that this app was the culprit (it was over 30 gigs).

The slightly more user friendly way of clearing app data is by going to Settings -> Apps -> Giant Bomb -> Advanced Options -> Reset. You'll have to sign back in when you do this.

I would highly recommend pushing out some sort of update to notify current and future users of this problem until (if/when) a permanent solution can be found.