Download Quality options disappearing

Ive been wanting to download some of my favorite premium shows of the past for a while, and figured I might want to get a move on with all the current goings on. Started yesterday and everything was fine, but today the option for anything below "High quality" seems to have disappeared overnight, and in some cases HD is now the only option, even though the other qualities are still viewable in the player or by editing the links.

Is this a temporary hiccup or are things working as intended? Personally I have no use for anything above medium quality, and would like to keep the GB size of everything manageable, but I know that for some with poor or capped internet, being able to only download videos in HD is a bummer. As I said, the videos are still there in other qualities, but downloading them through the dropdown menu is much easier than other methods.

Thanks!

I'd like to know this as well. Was thinking about downloading some stuff and the higher qualities are overkill on the file size.

@atheistpreacher: @the_patriarch: Hey this definitely isn't intentional and I'll see what's going on. I think there's something wrong with the encoder.

@rorie Thanks so much, Rorie!

I have been downloading Metal Gear Scanlon Videos. Today @ 1:25 central I downloaded Metal Gear Solid 4 Episode 3 in HD. At 2:00 I went to download episode 4 and there was no HD or High quality, only Medium and below. HD and High options were also gone for Episode 3 then when I went back and looked. It looks like the whole Metal Gear Scanlon archive is only Medium or lower now even though they were available in higher qualities before 1pm today.

Also, looks like all episodes of TNT are only showing Low and Mobile

Looking around a bit, I think maybe all content from before 5/9/19 is missing the HD and High quality options for downloads?

@rorie: Looks like the API is only returning the low_URL for some reason. Example from 13 Deadly Sims:

<low_url>
<![CDATA[
https://[full URL removed].mp4
]]>
</low_url>
<high_url/>
<hd_url/>

Hey all, the download quality options should be restored now. If there are any specific videos that still have issues just post a link here and we'll check it out.

@panicswitch: I'm still only seeing up to Medium on the site (tested on Thirteen Deadly Sims Ep 8/9), and only the low_url is filled in on the API (Sims Ep 9, Xbox One Launch part 1).

It could be a caching issue I suppose, so I'll try again later, but I've cleared my local cache and hadn't previously attempted to access Sims Ep 8.

Thanks for taking a look at this.

Links to videos:

https://www.giantbomb.com/shows/thirteen-deadly-sims-episode-08/2970-11494/premium-video

https://www.giantbomb.com/shows/thirteen-deadly-sims-episode-09/2970-11479/premium-video

https://www.giantbomb.com/videos/xbox-one-launchtacular-part-01/2300-8260/

Does not seem to be fixed. Examples

https://www.giantbomb.com/shows/kerbal-project-beast-part-01/2970-12790

giantbomb.com/shows/oculus-rift-launch-lineup-part-01/2970-12655/free-video

Pretty much any video before a certain date is still this way.

@panicswitch: Still only medium, low, and mobile options available when I try downloading 13 Deadly Sims.

I am having this issue as well. It's happening now on the Giant Bomb website when I try to download Steal My Sunshine. I can't download higher than Medium quality. But if I try to play the video on the website it appears to be higher than Medium quality.

And on the Video Bomb app I can't select anything higher than Medium for playback.

I'm also only seeing medium and mobile

Part 01 (giantbomb.com)

Yeah, it's not fixed at all. Nothing above Medium.

Thanks for providing examples, we found the issue and are working on a fix now. Will update when we have it resolved.

Looks like you've got examples already, but Endurance Run: Persona 4 doesn't have any of the URLs filled out.

A temporary workaround for anyone that is willing to do the leg work:

You can tweak the download URL for the video you are trying to download

For example if you downloading kerbal project beast part 1:

The highest listed URL is

vf_kerbalspace_11182015_1800.mp4

If you tweak the last chunk of the filename you can pull the higher quality versions

vf_kerbalspace_11182015_2500.mp4 -- not very common

vf_kerbalspace_11182015_3200.mp4 -- common 2015-2018

vf_kerbalspace_11182015_4000.mp4 -- available on most videos 2013-2019

This issue should be resolved now. I was able to see HD and High options return on 13 Deadly Sims, Beast in the East, and a few other shows from this time.

Just a note on videos from 2015 and earlier (i.e. Metal Gear Scanlon season 1 and 2 at least). Those shows will show with HD, Medium, and Mobile. That is due to the old threshold we had for video bitrates. We have higher bitrates now so what was a low bitrate in 2015 is now the same as a mobile in 2022. Nothing has changed with these videos, just how they are mapped in the options dropdown.

@panicswitch: Thanks for getting that fixed!

@panicswitch: Thanks for getting this fixed! It all looks good to me.

This has made me notice there is a slight discrepancy between the player and the download options (at least on older videos - using MGS Pt 1 as an example) - the HTML5 player quality options of HD/High/Low map to HD/Medium/Mobile on the downloads list. Not a huge deal, but it looks a little odd.