Some users have been experiencing problems with the Comedy Central video players. A common complaint is that when a user pauses the player, it does not continue to download. This is primarily due to the current player having a cache that has turned out to be a bit too small for some Internet connections. We are aware of this, and are taking steps to correct it in forthcoming versions of our video players.
Some users have had an issue with our video player in which the ads play, but the shows do not. The viewer sees only a “buffering” or “initializing” alert for a few seconds, and is then presented with the next ad. While this problem occurs on a limited basis, we do appreciate hearing from you when it does.
Comedy Central has a team of people working to resolve these issues. We will update fans as soon as we have an ETA for the next generation of video player.
106 comments:
I am getting the ads and not the videos more often than not and it seems to be getting worse. I can see about one video in any show. I also get audio from one or sometimes more than one video at the same time playing without any picture. It is a tribute to the show that I keep trying.
I have exactly the same problem that the previous user has posted. This has been going on for the past 3-4 months. I have roadrunner and use firefox for my browser. IE helps a bit, i.e. the first video plays. Subsequent videos have the same problem.
Same exact problems, and then some:
1) see mostly ads, rarely show clips
2) first clip usually plays fine - but after that things go haywire, pretty much 100% of the time
3) if I select ANOTHER clip (besides the first clip), it sometimes plays SIMULTANEOUSLY (in a broken-up way) with the first clip
4) For years I have tried to watch Comedy Central clips, never successfully.
I have been trying for long time to get the comedy central videos to play. They never used to work on my old XP machine nor my new Vista on FF3 or IE7. It just shows initializing/buffering and just skips to the next clip. Even the ads don't play!
It's amazing how bad is the comedy central web page and how little it has improved over the last months. It has never worked for me, I can't watch a single video. How this crappy web page is maintained is beyond me. They should take lessons from youtube and stop being so damm incompetent.
As the host of The Daily Show I can assure you we are well aware of the video player awfulness. It is a horrid player being maintained by incompetent morons.
While we know that NO OTHER WEBSITE would allow this to continue more than a day or two before fixing it within ONE HOUR, we had such an assine group that they cannot be bothered to fix if for YEARS!
NO OTHER WEBSITE DOES THIS ON THE ENTIRE INTERNET!
In conclusion, we don't care about who watches the website, who thinks what about our internet performance, or what you think at all...that is why it has been CONTINUOUSLY BROKEN for YEARS, and will be for the future. WE JUST DON"T CARE.
Ditto. The viewer is a piece of crap. I have never been able to view a single video. I get 2 minutes of "buffering..." and then a invite to watch more CC videos (yea, right). It was so much better when you could watch Comedy Central shows on YouTube.
yeah the videos never play for me either... occasionally i get the ads... seriously what the hell is up with you jokers?
Well actually the player worked pretty well for me until a couple of days ago. You must have changed something, since I didn't. :-)
Now whenever I access your page with Firefox, it crashes immediately. Opera doesn't crash, but cannot play your videos either. Do I have to upgrade the Adobe Flashplayer? Currently I'm using Version 9. Btw I'm using Linux.
The DailyShow & Colbert report were working for me before 12:00 today now at 23:00 both sites are not displaying any video or audio. Something with the servers must be casuing problems.
From
Kayvan Novak
With my windows xp machine and firefox the daily show is working. But whith my usual system (ubuntu 8.04) this whole comedy central crap isn't working any more.
Damn you, you lazy american people. Go to work and fix it immediately.
greetings from Siberia.
I have been trying for a couple months to download videos and only can see the ads. I no problems with any other site. Please fix immediately!
I finally got the whole episode player to work and suddenly during this past week 8/21/08 it suddenly won't work anymore. I used to have these same issues as your prior commenter with the clips as per below. Now I get nothing!
I thought it was Windows update svs pack III screwing things up but now I see it's just you guys - as usual. PLEASE fix your site.
1) see mostly ads, rarely show clips
2) first clip usually plays fine - but after that things go haywire, pretty much 100% of the time
3) if I select ANOTHER clip (besides the first clip), it sometimes plays SIMULTANEOUSLY (in a broken-up way) with the first clip
Comedy Central folks.. please, please.. just get yourself an official YouTube channel so that we can all live in peace. You are missing out on viewers.. can't you see that?
Yikes, glad I Googled ["Comedy Central" cannot videos] and found this. We DVR all of TDS and Colbert and watch lumps of shows at once, so I've never needed to watch vid on the site. But I got an email today SCREAMING at me to go watch the Sarah Palin Gender Card vid, and I tried. I get nothing, on FF or on IE7, and figured it was my irresponsible and promiscuous browser tweaking. Apparently not.
So this response from Comedy central was posted in April 2008 but still there is no resolution. What's going on CC? We are loosing our sense of humor about all this!
As someone else here said... glad I Googled the situation.
I'm running Fedora 8/Firefox 2.something/Flash 9, and none of the site's videos will play. All I get is a white box where the video should be.
Other Flash content from other sites seems to work fine.
I've been away for a few months, but the same config used to work earlier this year... say as late as April '08.
When I noticed it not working, I updated the box's software and even uninstalled/reinstalled Flash. No-go.
Please fix.
In Firefox, I get a "Get Flash Player" thingie, even though I already have the most up-to-date version installed. In IE, I just get solid black. I never used to have this problem before. What's the deal?
I googled this site too. I can't watch the videos on Firefox anymore but on IE it usually works. I use vista 32 and the newest version of Firefox and Flash Player.
Would be nice if Comedy Central could get themselves a working video player.
How many people have to complain about your site not working before you fix it? Since August I cannot view any CC vids (see just a white panel) despite the lastet flash installed on firefox, Win. XP. Tried all the workarounds still no vids will play, requested tech support with no results. WTF!!
I'm having same problem as Anon. above. A white screen, even with latest update.
my biggest problem is with the controls.... when i click pause and then try to click play again the controls do not work,,,, its always paused.... then when i try to click the volume the control disappears....
can you fix this for me.... this is sloppy and makes me feel like flash writers have no care about stephen colbert and john stewart.... maybe you are from india and do not like the humor that we have here but i do.... please fix asap... it has been broken for the entire time i have been watching it....
fire people, now, i am seriously pissed off at this stupid shitty network.
keeps telling me to download flashplayer I already have the latest version of flashplayer!!
Arg I want to watch the dailyshow!!
Why do this guys even bother uploading videos that nobody can watch, comedy central sucks, Jon, i hope you are getting paid enough to let your name be associated with this crappy website runned by shitty incompetent turds.
Incompetence will never cease to amaze me.
I recently got a brand new MacBook Pro, and one thought was "Well, maybe NOW I can watch CC vids!" Nope. Flash is installed and works like a charm everywhere else, but CC just tells me I need the latest player.
I am not able to get cable; I just want to watch the highlights. How can this channel be so cool in every other way (or so I hear) yet so lame that they can't fix this one stupid issue?
It has been months and videos in firefox still don't work.
So happy to know I'm not alone. So sorry to hear the chances of my ever getting to view Stewart or Colbert from home (no cable here) are pretty much nil.
I love comedy central and all their shows but the website is a joke.. Video has not worked for ages and it is a disgrace if you ask me. I am actually pissed that I cannot share great videos with some of my less educated friends
Come on guys you really need to get your act together. The videos worked for a while and now nothing. Cant see sweet fuckall!!! Please fix this mess, I need to get my fix of the Report!!!
Really? This thread was started in May and still I am told to upgrade my flash player despite the fact that it works with every other flash-centric site I visit? What did you do to so badly break your own website? Amen to many of the comments above.
(Ubuntu 6.06, FF 2.0, Flash 9r48)
I had the following problem for a week now:( I love watching CC online and I am oversea so this is the only way I can watch it!!--> Some users have had an issue with our video player in which the ads play, but the shows do not. The viewer sees only a “buffering” or “initializing” alert.
my player stays black although it says that "video is playing" below it. No "initializing" words just a little black box in the middle of my sad little screen. Oh woe is me! Oh how I miss the days of watching endless amounts of jon and steven. Without a tv what is a girl to do?
Jon, Steven, I decided to denounce the damning and set free those souls who have cast doubt on your humor due to Internet crisis!
Do I miss you!? Yes! Do I think like everyone else that it sucks and is extremely frustrating when you take satire out of thousands of people's lives? Yes! People it's going to be okay! Remember what c.c. stands for? It stands for comedy!!! Laughter! So enough with the cursing just accept that you will have to be creative and make Jon puppet shadows and write down new classic one liners yourself.
I will wait patiently. Are you with me? Isn't it worth it?!
me too. it's not working. can i has fix?
Isn't it obvious to everyone by now that they are either unwilling or incapable of fixing the problem. They're probably waiting for one of us to figure it out and fix it for them for free.
Wow this blog has been on for half a year and only one page of posts? And none of the troubles mentioned fixed already?
I can also never watch a darn show without the vid freezing all the time. And you state that the current Flv player has to little cache? Fool someone else dudes. Video is cached on the client side aka the memory of the users' computer.
But since a single show takes up something like 100Mb data traffic, you're probably just tempering the data drain so you guys don't get broke on your own succes!
A great feature though (you'll call it a bug I guess) is that the player lots of the time skipps all the ads. The player tries to connect with the ad server which doesn't succeed and then just goes on with the show, no Tivo needed!
Btw also irritating is that the adds never freeze and are of much better quality. In screen resolution that is..
Given the ridiculous history of this post, I feel I may be wasting my time. But please, someone--how on earth do you expect to make money from schmucks like me watching your advertising if all we get is black boxes of doom instead of the funny?
Like many people, it worked for me until about 2 or 3 weeks ago, but then it all just died, and no amount of re-installs, different browsers, cache enlarging does any good. Meanwhile every other video site I've visited on the 'net works fine.
C'mon, y'all. Bring back the funny.
I used to be able to see the vids. I don't know what changed but for months I have not been able to. My brother in the same house on the same connection can. I have updated every browser every driver every program I can find and still can't see any of the video. I can't find any source anywhere for what the basic requirements are to run or what the media player used is. I am just in the dark and I can't find any help.
See this thread.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6360046
When I try to watch the videos, firefox starts taking up 100% of my computer's CPU. I get audio, but the video freezes.
Dear Dailyshow.com,
I give up. Every week or so, I am tempted back here with promises of Jon Stwart's witticism, only to spend yet another 20 minutes surfing the web trying to figure out why the hell EVERY OTHER FLASH-BASED VIDEO PLAYER ON THE ENTIRE INTERNET WORKS JUST FINE BUT NOT YOURS (yelling as in original). So, screw that. I'll live without my Daily Show jones. Other funny sites at least have consumable content.
Pathetic simply pathetic
Wow this has been going on for a long time it seems. Apparently Comedy Central doesn't care...I'll be e-mailing them this blog in case they don't know about it for some reason.
Hey Comedy Central:
Hello! Anyone home?
I've been getting the show, but it pauses every 3 seconds for 4 seconds. Which would be fine if it kept things in the buffer, but no, everything is gone the instant I see it.
Sucktastic.
(Windows XP, Firefox, updated Flash player that works fine everywhere else)
18 months and it still sucks.
I don't get it. Up until about 2 months ago it was fine. Then I could watch a video occasionally, but now nothing...initializing, buffering, and then I am offered the option to replay the video.
Umm...what video? It hasn't played, how can I REplay it?
On another note, what is this thread? Is anyone reading it.
By the way for all you haters, you realise this is a free service right? I mean I know it is frustrating not being able to watch TDS but they don't really care since you are not paying for it.
Yes we are paying for it, same way TV has always been paid for-commercials. Its not like we are trying to watch an HBO or Showtime special.
Comedy Central...please please please just put your shows back on HULU. I know there is now conflict of interest since Comcast bought NBC, but you have had issues with your video player for over two years now. It buffers and freezes constantly while other times plays an entire show without a single problem. Makes people want to put their fist through the screen, know what I mean?
I'm having the same issue now. It was fine for about a year up until a month ago. My internet speed is faster than ever, so I know that isn't the issue.
I'm never able to watch the Daily Show on the website. I see the first commercial for "Newcastle Brown Ale", which plays fine. Then a commercial for a Comedy Central show starts playing, which plays for a few seconds, then stops for a few minutes, then plays for 2 more seconds, then stops for a while, etc.
Did you guys fire the people working on this problem or what? This has been happening for a looooooooooooong time.
What helped a little for me was to go into Firefox Tools/Options/Applications tab and make sure that "Flash Video" is always played by Firefox. Also make sure that JavaScript is not blocked and you have Flash Player 10 installed. I tried switching to the Shockwave for Director plug-in(Ver. 11) but that was not seen by this site.
I don't know if it would help to set the Windows File Type but that might improve performance in IE. Have not tried it.
If you can't figure out how to get this stuff working why not put the videos back on Hulu where it does work?
Endless player problems. First 2 ads then no video. Sometimes audio playing twice. SouthPark page crashes I.E> repeatedly. Get it together Comedy centrqal or go back on Hulu. This is 2010.
I just gave up my cable tv subscription and started trying to watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report online for the first time this week. After getting nothing but ads for two days, I finally googled "can't watch videos on comedy central" and it brought me straight here--where I see people have been experiencing these problems for over a year and a half. I'm very disappointed.
Huh, I thought it was just me--my Internet connection is a cellular one and it isn't as high-speed as real broadband. Infuriating trying to watch tonight--video took 5 minutes to load 1 minute of viewing (but hey, the ads keep right on coming, 3 or 4 cycles for 1 minute of viewing). You folks REALLY need the YouTube style of viewer that allows the full video to buffer and then be watched. Really. I mean it.
Wow, this entry was written in 2008 and still nobody can f*cking watch your show online? I imagine cave men banging rocks on keyboards somewhere in your IT department. I really like the Daily Show, but I give up trying to watch it.
everytime i try to watch a comedy central presents video it jumps to the next clip instead of letting me watch the one i clicked on none of them ever load... but it lets me watch the commercial in the beginning.
you video player is garbage, I'm fed up. I'd rather torrent the videos than put up with the god damn buffering. BTW, thanks to the negative association with your video player, I puke at the sight of a wheat thins.
This issue has been going on for over 2 years judging from the comments here! Get your SH*% together Comedy Central!
I also just gave up my cable tv subscription. In attempting to watch my beloved "Daily Show", commercials interrupted the stream eight different times... and after each time.. it forwarded to the very end of the episode. Absolutely infuriating when you're trying to relax after a long day of work.
Please fix this problem - invest money into a competent IT staff or work with a third-party website (HULU). This is a huge disappointment.
What is up Comedy Central. The video's are still not loading after the "Advertising" is complete.
Come on Fix it !!!
We are trying to get everyone that is having issue with the player into one FB group so we can show CC that they are screwing a large portion of their audience.
PLEASE JOIN AND TELL A FRIEND!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Comedy-Centrals-Video-Player-Sucks/161697387188862
I have stopped watching Daily Show and Colbert due to video problems! PLEASE go back to HULU or fix the buffering thingy!
please check out this new facebook page and help us help you.
http://www.facebook.com/comedycentral.support
I used to get the ads and no videos. Now even the ads don't run. It's been going on for several years now. Why can't this be fixed? (Mac OSX, running Safari)
you guys are freaking brilliant. Somehow you get money to host ads on players that don't even work. Well played sirs, well played. *claps*
The problems are back. It plays the first block, but then skips to the end, or plays the first 2 blocks, and then skips to the end. Fast forwarding doesn't work if you're going from one block to another. It's a pain.
TEST YOUR STUFF (with all versions of Flash) BEFORE PUSHING TO PRODUCTION!!!!!!!
I thought I had malware or a virus, i thought it was a windows issue or my internet so I did a clean install of windows and still have issues, i finally decided to search good to know its not me or my system was starting to get very frustarated well still am, I've never seen so many comercials one after another after another after another then a few seconds of video clip and then it puts commercials again then all of a sudden Im at the ending of the episode...WHATS GOING ON???
Does anyone know why I can't hear any videos from the Comedy Central website? My computer works for all the porn I watch, why not this site?
I have found that if I get the embed code from Comedy Central, pull out the URL and paste it into my address bar, then I can see the video. I noticed that the Comedy Central embed code sets very few flash variables compared to what YouTube sets. I wonder if there is a problem with default values or some such. In the meantime, you can still see the videos with a little additional pain. I won't embed Comedy Central videos in my blog until they fix this problem.
3½ years gone since and the player is still one of the shittiest on the net. Fair enough, its not like media is your main business. Ill be on a torrent site if you need me. Just remember to travel forwards to the year I am in.
It's 2012 and Comedy Central's video player is still garbage.
April 27 2012, I am so frustrated with the Comedy Central Video player. It is so inconsistent. Sometimes it is watchable. Sometimes I'd rather needle my eyes with a rusty fork.
watching videos on comedy central is a pain in the ass. It will play the vid for a couple seconds, then pause, buffer for two minutes, restart from the beginning, play a couple more seconds this time, pause, buffer, than repeat from the beginning. this goes on and on - its really impossible to watch a video. nightmare.
I see nothing but the commercials.
After returning from first break (ads) it freezes buffering. Been doing this for a while using multiple browsers and flash versions. Typically I wait all week and to watch the first parts and then bail when it frezzes. Missing much content, but frankly tired of dealing with it. Would love to be avble to watch entire shows.
The fact that videos are still unwatchable via the iPad after 4+ years of this issue -- the same device for which you all have created text-based apps -- I believe has nothing to do with an inept development team, but rather some revenue issue. Complete malpractice on your part Comedy Central. Whatever the real issue, this is unacceptable. If you can't or won't keep up with technology demand, get out and let others more capable deliver. Your brand has been fully solidified as archaic.
By the way, my comment above (that CC dated 3/9/12 1:07 PM) was actually posted on 9/2/12). Maybe you are technically out of your league after all.
2012. What's changed? Not a goddamn thing. Noone has these issues but you, Comedy Central. Hire some professionals, please.
I think you still have the issue of your videos not buffering satisfactorily. Videos stop every few seconds or sometimes skip ahead. I think it is related to high traffic times on your website. Please fix it.
This blog post was started over four years ago and buffering on your videos is still a problem. DO SOMETHING! I WANT MY STEWART/COLBERT!!
The CC video player is still a nightmare to use.. I can guarantee it will crash at least once, and ads will often play over and over if everything doesn't crash first.
Anyone at CC listening, or have you all moved on? This thread is now FIVE YEARS OLD and there's STILL no way to buffer or otherwise improve watchability of any of your shows online?
Kinda shameful, isn't it?
oh comedy central, why do you give us only pain and no sugar ?
oh comedy central, why do you give us only pain and no sugar ?
Player still sucks. I asked my friends to see if I was the only one having issues and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM has given up on trying to watch videos on comedy central sites. ?????
Over four years later and the problem still hasn't been fixed. I'm watching the Colbert Report and the same commercial just played 5 times in a row, then a short show segment, then the same freaking commercial three more times. This isn't acceptable. The company thought that suing over illegal downloads and YouTube postings would direct all traffic to the official website site but if watching the show legally is this miserable people wont continue to do so.
Hello? Does anyone at Comedy Central read this page? over 4 years and no resolution...
I'd be happy to watch CC videos on CC's website instead of YouTube, but I've never been able to get the videos to play on my Macbook Pro! So, back to YouTube.
FIX THE GODDAMN PLAYER ALREADY!! TOTALLY FUBAR FOR YEARS!
IN FACT THE WHOLE WEBSITE IS JACKED!
Bomb. Terrorist team. Great Satan. Guns. Money. Bomb.
There. Now maybe someone from the Department of Homeland Security will be alerted to this thread, and hopefufully will synchronistically be a personal friend of Stewart. These video player issues are annoying and have gone on far too long. Simply trying to view your show is an expensive time sink and you are losing viewership. Bomb.
I've been having the same problem on and off for years.
I remember PeerGuardian causing issues with my internet on my university campus- so I just tried download AppCleaner and uninstalled PeerGuardian opened up firefox to DailyShow's full episodes and it works perfectly. damnit
Check your computer for any peer blocking programs (you dirty pirate)
<3
I thought my recurrent streaming issues were caused by browsing the cc website from europe, thanks for the information on this page, the issue is clearly on the server side.
can somebody from cc at least configure the streams so that buffering on the client uses more than 30KB?
this would probably help
WOW so this happens since 2008 and they STILL didn't fix it???????
But... I used to watch these videos without problem, a couple of years ago. Now I can only see the ads!
FIX IT!!!!!
Since 2008, wow- this is supposed to make you get cable right? Watching CC on the web is like talking to someone with perpetual hiccups.
Piracy is fundamentally a customer support problem, this is a prime example. Off to pirate bay. See you in hell.
Wow, this is still a problem. I can see the first segment before the ads, and then nothing else plays. I'd like my eyeballs to count on comedy central's site, not hulu or even worse places that I don't want to visit.
Used to work occasionally, now all I get is ads then buffering forever.
.. issues since 2008 eh? guess I'm talking to myself.
It's still happening. It's 2014 for gosh's sakes!
I'm an expat living in New Delhi and am heartbroken that Comedy Central is no longer available online.I miss the Daily Show and other programs mightily. Now I have only NPR streaming for all of America that I miss.Why have you stopped access? At first cliking on play and getting nothing seemed like a temporary server issue, now I know it is intentional. Heartbreaking.
Not sure if the Dev's are just inept or do not actually care, but it's been 6 FREAKING years and NOTHING has improved. In fact, I'd say it has gotten worse. 2/10
It took me 15-20 minutes to watch a 6 minute clip because of the buffering.
This never happens to me on youtube, why on earth is it happening here. Why don't you just use youtube?
Is anyone doing anything about these issues? I have no problem watching videos on any other website but every time I try to watch a clip of The Daily Show, not only does the video stop after a few seconds, but it freezes my browser! It also doesn't matter which browser I use, I've tried Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Each one of them freezes after playing about 30 seconds of a clip.
I live abroad and until this week I was able to stream video clips of The Daily Show. There were many problems (like the ads playing but not the video, slow buffering when the video did play, and sometimes the video cutting to play more ads and then start over), which made it somewhat tedious to watch, but in the end, I was able to watch. Not anymore.
The player works ok some days for me, but for a lot more i can only watch the first part (and the commercials, of course). Could you just take 5$ from me or something and give me access to a commercial-less version of the player, please?
btw, i installed adblock just because of you guys
After seven years the CC flash video player is still awful. It sucks way more CPU than the YouTube player and does not allow any manual control over bandwidth/resolution. Even while paused it sucks maximum CPU. What is wrong with the decision making process at the Comedy Central site? Give up and embed YouTube already! They know what they're doing!
Almost 2016 (12/23/2015) and the video player still doesn't work.
The ads play fine, but the show is a black screen with the audio.
Maybe Comedy Central has branched out into radio programming?
I'd better get the old telegraph out of storage, because this is
the direction Comedy Central is moving. Even worse, this comment
site appears to be the stone wall we are to address out comments.
(My former employer had such a wall and we were encouraged to
talk to the wall about any ideas, suggestions, problems, or complaints.
Viacom owns this company, maybe there is someone in the home office
who is supposed to be minding the store? I'd guess it was Wally from
the Dilbert cartoon. Hello? Anyone out there listening?
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