Howdy!
So, I was going to come home and log into FFXIV and do my dailies on WHM because it is almost 50, but I checked my email first and read through this post on the bus.
I'm Baker! I'm turning 34 in just under a month, which means I'm a Leo. I like MMO's and long walks on virtual beaches, and I'm also the Customer Support Manager at Crunchyroll.
It's been a little while since I've posted on NeoGAF so I don't really remember how to do multi tag quoting across pages, so I'm going to respond to several prior posts here.
First off, for those of you who are having issues with the site, I really do apologize, and I'd like to do my best to help figure out what is going on. If your issue is not addressed below, please feel free to reach out to me personally at
baker@crunchyroll.com.
@Relix
- For streaming issues during peak hours. This is -definitely- a real problem that exists. I'm not an engineer, so I'm not going to act like I know what is going on, but I can tell you it is an issue we're aware of and something that we are actively working to resolve. I think that somewhere in this whole thread someone points out that our Flash player does nothing to direct you to a better server, and what I can say is that this is something that we're working on!!! We're working on improvements to the Flash player as well (although no HTML5, which makes me sad.) If you can email me I'll make sure to help out as best I can with the playback problems you're having.
@Wag
- We actually do currently support 1080p on Apple TV and Ouya. This is another area that we know we're lacking in and also something that we're working on. I'm really sorry that I have no dates as to when anything will be implemented, but I do know that it is on our road map.
@Fusebox
- PS3, PS4 and Vita have been really interesting for my team and I to support. The really great thing is that we finally have a dedicated Sony Engineer, so if you can give me any feedback on the app, any problems you're encountering I am more than happy to pass this on to him. He's been really great to work with and has really worked hard to get rid of a lot of the issues that folks encounter when streaming over Sony devices.
@Ramen
- I know you're banned, but you can turn off those emails here:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/email_subscriptions
@thepotatoman
- No, we do not throttle our users at all. The buffering window is pretty short which is something we've had to compromise on to keep the Publishers we work with happy, but we do anything like throttling. I would personally throw a shit fit and yell at folks if this happened.
@Xamdou
- Is there anything else you can elaborate on, or anything that seems like a pattern? Older content vs new?
@Brazil
- I'm sorry it's shit.
Can you give me any more info?
@Shirahava
- The PS3 app was a nightmare. I know that part of the reason that it limped along for quite a while was because of issues in communication with Sony to get a patch pushed for it, however after the whole PS3 debacle a month ago we have pushed a new, more stable version of the app. If you're inclined to try it out at all, please do! Any feedback, comments, issues you encounter I would love to hear.
@Ferrio
- I am trying to have the achievements system changed completely.
(In addition to support I also do a lot of community work for the company.)
@Dega
- Again, really sorry that you've had issues with the site. If you're still a user and want any help in improving playback, please drop me an email.
@xero273
- The dreaded Spanish Subs... T T This happens when the Spanish encodes end up finishing before the English encodes. I do not know why they tend to finish first, but they do. :/ I know that there has been thought of developing a system that prioritizes English Encodes, but the matter of fact is that we do server Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Turkish as well. (With a few other languages in the works!) This is definitely something that we're aware of and we're doing our best to figure out the best solution to it. If you DO encounter this issue, the best thing to do is wait 15-20 minutes and then try the show again. That is usually enough time for English to finish up.
@Ccrook
- How soon after the show went live did you try it out? Another issue (kind of like the one above with subtitles) is that we serve up different videos based on the device you're watching from. It is entirely possible that the video had not finished uploading so you were hitting a server, then jumping back a server to get a complete version of the episode. It can take upwards of 1-7 hours for videos to finish uploading. (For completion we're really around the 1 hour mark now, but sometimes things go a little wacky.)
@BigSkeet
- Again, how soon after the show posts are you watching? (Hunter x Hunter is the best btw.) If the video hasn't finished uploading in all resolutions it's probably going to settle on the shittiest and stream that. Again when this happens I do find that waiting another 15-20 mins helps resolve the problem.
@Kettch
- Manga is definitely a work in progress. I work pretty close with the Manga Brand Manager on a few things and I know that she would love feedback on the service. We did recently launch a completely updated version of the Manga app and the way it works on the website. So please please please send me some constructive criticism that I can send her way.
@Zee-Row
- Unfortunately at this point in time several of our apps are only available to Premium Members. We're working on a more robust Free viewing experience though... hate to be vague on that, but it should make a lot of folks happy! Most Simulcasts are available to Free Members one week after they air. If we're unable to negotiate a Simulcast time of under 7 days then we will air the show for both Premium and Free Members at the same time.
@Illusive_Juan
- You mean those 10-20 second jumps? And 'The Crunchyroll Server is Unavailable'? Guess what! I just tested a build and had several examples from one of our users and it looks like the update we're working on is going to fix that!
@moris
- That show is messed up. (And if you want to drop me an email with more info I'll see what I can do to help you out.)
@TheBatman
- I'm sorry!!! We are working on things behind the scenes. I don't know if my word as CS Manager means anything at all, but I really do have my fingers in a lot of pots and I am working my hardest to get things done. I do wish I had a magic wand so I could just fix it all. :/
@bigkrev
- We have two styles of streaming. Rtmpe on PC and then HLS on -everything- else. We're working on getting PC swapped over to HLS as well and I am PRAYING TO GOD that this is going to fix a ton of issues that folks run into. (But yeah. This can be why sometimes folks encounter tons of shit on PC and then no problems on our other supported devices.)
@nataku
- Definitely something that happens. If a cache is cold it'll more than likely stream like crap. I know this isn't ideal, but if it is, try something else and come back later and more oft than not it will play fine! We've also recently changed how long content is stored server side to avoid issues like this.
@nephilimdj
- It's awesome to know there is another streaming site out there!!! That said, I'm gonna chime in here and talk about licensing a bit.
I personally could give two shits if you use a VPN or a Proxy to access content that is not available in your country.
HOWEVER. Please please please turn it off to watch the shows that are available in your country. This is going to make sure that video views show up for their respective regions and it is going to help US make the argument to be able to expand licensing areas and bring more and more content to more and more folks world wide.
I know that a lot of countries really get the shaft, (I'm sorry UK) but we really do make bids on every show every season for worldwide availability.
@KdMgMan
- Yes and no? Buying merchandise and home release BD/DVD is good, but the profit margin is actually really really low for the Publishers / Studios. (I do not have exact numbers, but it's actually quite disparaging.
CR is $7 bucks a month for just the Anime Membership. That's like... Subway for lunch. We just had a presentation from Licensing this last weekend on what goes back into the industry and while I can not give #'s or %'s I can say that it is a fairly sizable portion.
Want to make sure that your favorite Studios/Publishers get their share? Watch their shows. Video Views are where it is at with us.
@ThreePiMatt
- I'm sorry about the quality on some shows on Android. I have been fighting to have the entire library reencoded because there are a lot of issues around this, but it's been deemed a pretty low priority.
@ohlawd
-
I think we're pretty tied to Flash.
@Halo2
- *inappropriate joke*
@Flarin
- If you want to email any feedback, comments, issues you encounter when using the PS3 app I would love to hear them!!!
@Blacksafs
- If it is right after the show goes live, just give it a little time and then try again!
@ohlawd
- We're currently on Xbox 360 and I know that Microsoft announced it so I can say we're coming to Xbox One, however I have no time line on that.
@sonikokaruto
- That's absolutely correct. We try to get the streaming rights for content worldwide, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. We will only air the content we have the license for in any given country.
@newshinycd
- One of the issues that we have with Sony products is that the Trilithium system has a slow memory leak. This has been mostly patched up, but is still lingering. We're working on that!!
As far as One Piece goes... (not a licensing issue, but look at the episode we're up to and then look at what has been released for home consumption...) I can't say much more than that but it should be pretty easy to figure out now! Also from my understanding we're going to be starting to upload new episodes at the same rate, 20-30 each Sat when the new one airs, very soon. (I will have to double check the 20-30 but this is what I know we were doing prior.)
@Necrovex
-
Email me. If I can see that your prior emails haven't been responded to at all I'll help you out AND hook you up with a 1 year membership.
@June
- Probably because you're kind of wrong? (That's my one sassy comment for this.)
@effingvic
- Again any feedback, comments, issues with Sony stuff, drop me an email.
Something that does tend to sometimes be an issue as far as Chrome goes, is their built in Pepperflash. I would try disabling that to see if it helps at all.
@Kvik
-For Android is it giving you the 'We're currently preparing this episode for your device.' message? If it does, just log out and log back in! It means the list of available media hasn't updated properly. This is something that I have our Android guy working on.
@Jintor
- A lot of this has to do with video ping. :/ I know that it goes by 30 second increments for that fill up of the orange bar. This is also something that we're working on.
@kasane
- Please please send us that delicious manga feedback. I know the Brand Manager would love to hear it.
@Elfforkusu
- Just like above, please send us that feedback!!!
@M3d10n
- Yup, there are issues. We are working on them though, I promise. Not sure if you've read up to here but I'll try to highlight them again. We're working on building out a more robust CDN selection. We're working to change from Rtmpe to HLS streaming. We're doing some massive overhauls to the player in general which will build in things like the ability to recognize if there are issues streaming and then swapping you up to a better CDN to help make sure playback is more stable. (And I do know it's an issue because I have my resolution set to 480p because it pisses me off too.) I howl about this a lot at our lead engineers and I know they're listening.
@Fbh
- Please don't use Horriblesubs.
Or if you do, open up the shows that we also have on our site and let them run in a window with ads. (Don't gotta watch.) Those views do help.
@-Horizon-
- Hopefully these issues will be resolved with some of the work that we're doing behind the scenes.
@Kite
- That Saturday.... Sailor Moon and SAO2, everything just took a huge shit. I'm sorry for the issues experienced but we're totally going to be better prepared going forward.
@Winterfang
- It seems like right now folks either have it one way or the other. PC works great and everything else sucks, or PC sucks and everything else works great. We are working towards swapping the streaming style on PC because we do find the HLS experience superior.
@sabertoothzombie
- If you want to find something new this season I would suggest Aldnoah Zero.
@ActuallyHulk
- Was this an old show to a new show? This could be the cold cache issue. :/
@andymcc
- How many shows had you watched prior to firing up HxH? And again, any feedback, comments, issues, please feel free to email me.
@chickdigger802
- What happened when you were trying to watch?
@JoeyJungle
- Yes. And that actually pisses me off a lot. It's also something I've been telling them to change for the past two and a half years. Good news though is that we actually have an analytics team and they're doing work for me on how it would not be a big fucking deal to actually give people what they pay for. I am really hoping to have that antiquated business practice axed by the end of August.
If you did end up cancelling and lost some time, drop me an email and I'll hook you up.
@Kyzer
- I'm sorry. Want to drop me an email with whatever it is that ails you?
@chickdigger802
- Free, Free Eternal Summer, Beyond the Boundary, Nichijou ((My Ordinary Life) Which is the fucking best.), Love, Chunboiadgoih and Whatever
@JulianImp
- Hello Argentina! We've been doing a lot to expand and give a better experience for folks in Latin and South America so I'm happy to hear streaming has been good! I also know we've been doing a lot to give you guys more access to the shows we're simulcasting! I think there are only a few this season that we didn't get the rights for in Latin & South America. As far as the catalogue goes, we're working on it!!!
@forgeforsaken
- Yup and this is something that we're really working to reduce / eliminate. It's a 1-7 hour window where subtitles can be unavailable which is less than ideal.
@pepperzz
- I'm sorry. If you wanna try to hash things out, please email me. This text break up really breaks my heart.
@Pandacon
- If you want help troubleshooting the PC stuff please drop me an email.
As far as Flowers of Evil not showing up (another really great show btw, it make me so uncomfortable) go here:
https://www.crunchyroll.com/acct/?action=video
And turn on 'Show Mature Content'
Sony and Apple have mature content policies.
@JoeyJungle
You can do a general uninstall/reinstall of Flash and then disable Chrome's built in Pepperflash. This is certainly something that has affected other users playback when using this browser.
GUH!
So at this point, I'm sorry for the wall of text. :/ Really I am, but I kinda just like my job a little too much to just sit back and let a thread like this go. I really want Crunchyroll to be the best, so thought I'd chime in.
TL
R
If you need help, I am the Customer Support Manager at Crunchyroll. Email me:
baker@crunchyroll.com
If you did manage to read all this, shoot me an email and I'll hook you up with a 90 day All-Access Membership (Gonna limit this to 5 though.
)
Also, if you just have any questions in general, please feel free to post them here (I'd like to keep the personal emails to gifts and help or feedback) But I'll try to be as transparent as possible.
1.5 hours later I'm missing out on XIV, but off to have dinner instead.
Folks, have fun gaming, and have fun watching Anime (where ever you watch it, preferably a legal venue.)
Best,
Baker McDonald
Customer Support Manager
Crunchyroll, Inc.
OH YEAH!
If you play FFXIV and you're on Goblin, please say hi!!!
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/character/2189879/