Hides important content
We watch the downhill races on the app, often the morning after the races since we are not in the same time zone as many of the race events. The app makes it impossible to find the event half the time. The search doesn't work. Keywords such as DHI or downhill or the location of the race don't pull up the event but pull up other events lacking all keywords. The event is often not in the recent event page despite being only a few hours earlier. It can take 10-15 minutes to search around different listings to find the right activity. We use the app on our smart TV. I hope the races contract with another company that can make the event findable. If they find they have low views this season, maybe that will encourage them to have the event actually come up on searches in the future. Very disappointing.
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Give us the data you have access to!
Cheers to good and even GREAT racing coverage. EXCEPT the stream of ICI World Series XCO (and XCC) SHOULD MOST DEFINITELY INCLUDE a scrolling ticker at the bottom of the live coverage (and replays, of course). We know you have the data. We see it in your streamed cyclocross races. We see that you consistently display the placement of the top 3-5 racers and sometimes up to 10 on the left side of XCC / XCO races. We see the RFID timing stations on course. We know all racer pass these stations multiple times each lap. So give it to us! Pretty pretty please?? You know we are now paying for your stream of UCI World Series XCC and XCO whereas in the past we were streaming it for free elsewhere. That free stream included a fantastic scrolling ticker at the bottom of the broadcast. We should expect AT THE VERY LEAST, the same now that we are paying. Don’t you agree? Please, oh please start adding this ticker to the next race coming up in Loudenvielle. Thanks for your consideration and your pretty good show! Just make it excellent for us, please.
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World Champs Tab Causes App Crash
I’m in the USA, so I don’t get to watch any of the World Champs. I was surprised to see a new tab in the Apple TV app for the World Champs. When I selected that tab to see if maybe I would get some highlights or something, the app froze and then crashed. This is repeatable and also occurs if I try those steps immediately after rebooting the device.
Sadly, I see this as yet more evidence of the overall poor quality of this app. The app still does not remember the language I have selected when I watch a race replay, and it still locks up and does not respond to the remote after streaming a race for a while. I reported both of these issues months ago, and the developer apparently hasn’t made any progress in resolving them.
Sadly, I see this as yet more evidence of the overall poor quality of this app. The app still does not remember the language I have selected when I watch a race replay, and it still locks up and does not respond to the remote after streaming a race for a while. I reported both of these issues months ago, and the developer apparently hasn’t made any progress in resolving them.
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Tour de France? Not really…
First time subscriber for this product - was hoping to watch extended recaps/replays daily for the tdf. There’s a couple things wrong here with this product
- the biggest issue is very poor navigation in the site - it’s laid out so pourly, all races are just uploaded to the same location. Nothing is broken down by race…. Massive issue because it’s messy, and it’s honestly very easy to organize or create a better file tree/structure…. And yet no one has?
- when I looked today and could not find any replays longer than 3-6 mins. For the Tour de France. I can get short replies on any competitors sites for free.
- search feature is terrible - if you type in “tour de France” - nothing shows up related to the tdf.
- cost is $10 US monthly - however peacock is $5
For same race - and it’s a waaayy more professional and user intuitive product -navigating to the replay I want daily is simple.
Good luck with your product a maybe I’ll check back in the future - right now it’s a good start/prototype platform for cycling, I like the vision- just need a better user interface and structure that’s more intuitive.
- the biggest issue is very poor navigation in the site - it’s laid out so pourly, all races are just uploaded to the same location. Nothing is broken down by race…. Massive issue because it’s messy, and it’s honestly very easy to organize or create a better file tree/structure…. And yet no one has?
- when I looked today and could not find any replays longer than 3-6 mins. For the Tour de France. I can get short replies on any competitors sites for free.
- search feature is terrible - if you type in “tour de France” - nothing shows up related to the tdf.
- cost is $10 US monthly - however peacock is $5
For same race - and it’s a waaayy more professional and user intuitive product -navigating to the replay I want daily is simple.
Good luck with your product a maybe I’ll check back in the future - right now it’s a good start/prototype platform for cycling, I like the vision- just need a better user interface and structure that’s more intuitive.
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Good content, difficult to use app
I subscribed solely to watch the World Cup XC mountain bike racing.
I watch only on Apple TV. The app has been reliable with no crashes of freezes. The fast-forward function during race replays is terrible though. I know the developers said in responses to other reviews that they will address this in future releases, but as of June 2023 the fast-forward function is useless. The UI to find past races is also very difficult to use.
My one major complaint is with the actual race presentation. There are too many slow-motion replays thrown into the race. I know that sounds trivial, but the frequency with which they appear is way beyond annoying. Normally I would simply click the remote once or twice to advance 15 or 30 seconds, but that’s not possible with the app due the current fast-forward function. Not being able to skip the slo-mo segments is by far the most annoying part of the GCN+ experience. Good grief, please stop with the slow motion replays!
I watch only on Apple TV. The app has been reliable with no crashes of freezes. The fast-forward function during race replays is terrible though. I know the developers said in responses to other reviews that they will address this in future releases, but as of June 2023 the fast-forward function is useless. The UI to find past races is also very difficult to use.
My one major complaint is with the actual race presentation. There are too many slow-motion replays thrown into the race. I know that sounds trivial, but the frequency with which they appear is way beyond annoying. Normally I would simply click the remote once or twice to advance 15 or 30 seconds, but that’s not possible with the app due the current fast-forward function. Not being able to skip the slo-mo segments is by far the most annoying part of the GCN+ experience. Good grief, please stop with the slow motion replays!
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Response from developer
Hi there, thanks for the review! We're still working on updates for the Apple TV app which will improve the fast-forward function. We'll pass your feedback about replays on to the relevant teams. Thanks, Tom
Great content, faulty app
First of all, for a cycling fan it is terrific to have the race coverage that GCN+ offers. For me, it is the only reason to subscribe.
In terms of content, the version with commentators should be left in the replay. Especially in cyclocross races, I will watch the women’s race live with someone like Helen Wyman commentating and it’s Greek at and insightful. If you watch the replay, there is no comment.
The app on the Apple TV often becomes “non responsive” to the remote. You cannot stop the video and, after pressing the “menu” button on the remote repeatedly, you can exit the app but if you go back in, it is stuck. This requires a reboot of the device. Very annoying. It is a clunky app.
In terms of content, the version with commentators should be left in the replay. Especially in cyclocross races, I will watch the women’s race live with someone like Helen Wyman commentating and it’s Greek at and insightful. If you watch the replay, there is no comment.
The app on the Apple TV often becomes “non responsive” to the remote. You cannot stop the video and, after pressing the “menu” button on the remote repeatedly, you can exit the app but if you go back in, it is stuck. This requires a reboot of the device. Very annoying. It is a clunky app.
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Response from developer
Hi there, that's strange, commentary should be available for these replays. It may be that your app is defaulting to ambient sound when watching a replay, but you can change this to a commentary option via the icon that looks like a speech bubble. To help with the 'non responsive' issue, can you uninstall and reinstall the app please? This will ensure that you're using the latest version, but if you still get the issue, please contact us at gcn.eu/apphelp and we'll look further into this for you. Thanks, Tom
Good
I have two main problems with the Apple TV version of the app. First, it does not remember my chosen language, so every time I watch a race, I must reset the language to English. It seems quite stupid to me that the app cannot remember a selected language. Second, the app sometimes locks up, and will not return to the menu. Restarting the device does not always fix this, sometimes two restarts are required. Other than these issues, watching GCN coverage of bike races on my big screen TV using my Apple TV is great.
5 January 2023 Update: how about this as a New Year’s Resolution for the GCN programming team? Commit to having the app remember my preferred language by the end of February, and commit to preventing the app from locking up by the end of April? These problems are long-standing, and it seems to me that it’s past time they should have been fixed.
5 January 2023 Update: how about this as a New Year’s Resolution for the GCN programming team? Commit to having the app remember my preferred language by the end of February, and commit to preventing the app from locking up by the end of April? These problems are long-standing, and it seems to me that it’s past time they should have been fixed.
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Okay app, some features need review
UPDATE
Finally just had to delete since a sort feature couldn’t be implemented. Frustrating because this feature is the barest of bones of *any* app or platform that uses scrolling and time-based info. Ultimately not a loss since the thing is made as an ad anyway
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The functionality of the app is pretty decent, but can you please enable the ability to sort content by date in some sections? In hack/bodge, for example, I see content that is 3 months old, followed by content that’s 2 hours old, then 2 weeks old, etc.
Finally just had to delete since a sort feature couldn’t be implemented. Frustrating because this feature is the barest of bones of *any* app or platform that uses scrolling and time-based info. Ultimately not a loss since the thing is made as an ad anyway
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The functionality of the app is pretty decent, but can you please enable the ability to sort content by date in some sections? In hack/bodge, for example, I see content that is 3 months old, followed by content that’s 2 hours old, then 2 weeks old, etc.
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Apple TV still not as good as iOS app
I have very little negative to say about the iOS app. Apple TV isn’t quite there yet. The initial release this spring wasn’t usable because there was no way to FF, only 5 sec jumps forward. The new version took away the ability to jump forward 5 sec and added the ability to FF. Both functions are necessary and are present on every other streaming app I use. The Apple TV remote can handle it. Please update the GCN+ app so both functions work. As it is, I’m still having to airplay from an iOS device.
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Hopeless
***15 Aug 2022*** app fails again. I watched short highlights of stage 1 the women’s Tour of Scandinavia”, and when I went to watch stage 2, I have a spinning circle and the text “We’re just getting your content ready.” Except it’s not. Been like this all day, can’t watch anything. Quit the app, deleted the app, reinstalled the app - same problem. AppleTV a1625/tvOS 15.6
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Such promise, such an exciting prospect. Utterly useless. Constantly fails when sending from iPad to appleTV. Support is garbage - never reads a troubleshooting email thoroughly, constantly asks the same question over and over and often replies to questions that haven’t been asked or are completely irrelevant. Been trying to send helpful emails about what’s going on, in the hope that it can be fixed, for most of the year I’ve been subscribed and still no nearer to getting an answer (latest support email asked me to tell them - again - what device I was using “if” I was trying to cast. I’ve been writing for a year that the problem is with the casting). Works fine on the iPad itself and on desktop computers, but this situation is intolerable, frustrating and utterly demoralizing Interesting that the day after writing that, I am suddenly locked out of my account on the desktop computer
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Such promise, such an exciting prospect. Utterly useless. Constantly fails when sending from iPad to appleTV. Support is garbage - never reads a troubleshooting email thoroughly, constantly asks the same question over and over and often replies to questions that haven’t been asked or are completely irrelevant. Been trying to send helpful emails about what’s going on, in the hope that it can be fixed, for most of the year I’ve been subscribed and still no nearer to getting an answer (latest support email asked me to tell them - again - what device I was using “if” I was trying to cast. I’ve been writing for a year that the problem is with the casting). Works fine on the iPad itself and on desktop computers, but this situation is intolerable, frustrating and utterly demoralizing Interesting that the day after writing that, I am suddenly locked out of my account on the desktop computer
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Response from developer
Sorry to hear you're having this issue. Can you contact us at gcnapp@playsportsnetwork.com please and we'll look into this further for you. If you have a ticket number from your previous email exchanges, can you also quote this in the email please.
Like the iPhone app, Apple TV app needs work
Really like being able to stream on my phone, but the following are limitations on the Apple TV app. (It doesn’t remember your language- fixed), it only fast forwards 5 seconds at a time (in development), and the “go back to previous screen” by hitting the menu button doesn’t work (forwarded to development team).
Love that they are working on making the apps for more platforms and getting the simple controls on all of them.
Love that they are working on making the apps for more platforms and getting the simple controls on all of them.
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Great content but the app is still quite buggy
First off I really love the content and insight in the app. I am not really into the social features though. Biggest issue at the moment is that the Resume feature on playback is very poorly implemented. If you are watching a live race, stop and return to the rerun later, it gives you the option to resume which only loads the end of the rerun - sometimes showing you who the winner is!!! Next up if you resume a rerun you get a blank screen and there is absolutely no way to continue watching it. You can’t even delete and reinstall the app because it stores where you left off on the server and not the local app.
Please, please test your features before you unleash them on your users. This is unacceptable and spoils what is in general a really great app.
Another mild annoyance is that you can’t check any details about the stage while you are watching it - e.g. the route or stage profile. This used to be available in previous versions but now you have to stop watching to check these details.
Please, please test your features before you unleash them on your users. This is unacceptable and spoils what is in general a really great app.
Another mild annoyance is that you can’t check any details about the stage while you are watching it - e.g. the route or stage profile. This used to be available in previous versions but now you have to stop watching to check these details.
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Response from developer
Glad to hear you're enjoying our content but we also went you to have a good experience using the app. Your feedback is really useful to us and we'll pass this on. If you have any more feedback, we'd love to hear it! You can contact us at gcnapp@playsportsnetwork.com
Typical Experience with this App
This morning successfully watched a portion of Stage 15 of the Giro through iPhone AirPlay on my Roku. Yay! Went on an errand. Returned and attempted to resume and all I get is a black screen on my iPhone. No playback, no controls even. Spent 20 minutes trying everything I could think of, forcing app to restart, updating app, changing VPN region, turning VPN off. Trying the “includes live show” version. Nothing works. Extended highlights are available but not the race replays. Based on experience I may be able to get it to work later but for now I’m out of luck.
Airplay is also often a nightmare. This morning it just happened to be resuming playback on the app that failed.
If this app weren’t so incredibly frustrating I would maintain an annual subscription and watch classics and other content. As it is I can only stomach it to watch the Giro. Nothing else piques my interest enough to compensate for the pain of using this incredibly glitchy app. So I’ll terminate my subscription until next year.
Airplay is also often a nightmare. This morning it just happened to be resuming playback on the app that failed.
If this app weren’t so incredibly frustrating I would maintain an annual subscription and watch classics and other content. As it is I can only stomach it to watch the Giro. Nothing else piques my interest enough to compensate for the pain of using this incredibly glitchy app. So I’ll terminate my subscription until next year.
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Response from developer
Hi there, sorry to hear you're having a few issues. Can you contact us at gcn.eu/apphelp please and we can look into this for you and provide further advice.
Good for awhile
I bought the yearly subscription to this app and loaded it on my phone and my Samsung TV. I was initially impressed. I bought it mainly to watch the Tour of Italy since no U.S. network carries it. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t get some of the European classics, but I did get races I’d never seen before. The day the Giro started all of a sudden I got a content unavailable notice for any race despite the Giro and others being on the menu. I contacted customer service and was finally told the problem was fixed. Disappointedly I found out it has not been fixed. I again contacted customer service and they are ghosting me. Meanwhile the Giro goes on and I can’t access it. I also don’t know why the U. S. Is shut out of viewing a lot of the important European races. If it’s global then let it be global. Anyway, beware of this app as it seems to want to let you down.
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Response from developer
Hi there, can you email us at gcnapp@playsportsnetwork.com and we can offer more support for this. In terms of the races available, this is unfortunately due to race rights. We always provide coverage to as many places as possible, but this isn't always possible.
Real Cycling
If you have watched cycling TV coverage in the US over the last couple decades you may have been frustrated with the limited number of races available. Get this app. Buy the subscription and find out what it’s like to finally be able to watch cycling. Don’t be afraid to watch everything on replay and use the fast forward 😊
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Exactly what cycling fans want
Nearly left a 1 star because my chrome cast kept dropping. Before ruining livelihoods I checked my network. It was that. This app is fantastic. I love the timeline of races. Watching with no ads is amazing. Some rough edges but whoever is behind this knows what we want! I wish you guys success.
The technical issues continue to be a major frustration. If a race is not available in my region SAY THAT. Don’t let me look at a black screen wondering if I should keep trying.
The technical issues continue to be a major frustration. If a race is not available in my region SAY THAT. Don’t let me look at a black screen wondering if I should keep trying.
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Unusable for streaming to TV, UI problems too
This app has major problems. First of all, there is no Apple TV app so you are expected to use AirPlay if you want to watch on TV. I subscribed to GCN and had a group of friends over to watch the Cyclocross World’s. The app repeatedly disconnected from AirPlay after about three minutes of video and good luck reconnecting.
The UI is designed so that on my iPad Pro the position scrubber for the video goes under various icons on the lower right corner so you can’t adjust the time. In my case I wanted to go back to watch the entire race but in the end had to give up on this and just watch the final lap.
I run a Wifi 6 network into the newest AppleTV 4K so the issue is not the network. GCN should offer a native AppleTV app and figure out how to not have overlapping UI controls, perhaps adopt some UI testing so they might find issues like this themselves. I’ll be trying to get a refund for my subscription, I can’t recommend GCN+.
The UI is designed so that on my iPad Pro the position scrubber for the video goes under various icons on the lower right corner so you can’t adjust the time. In my case I wanted to go back to watch the entire race but in the end had to give up on this and just watch the final lap.
I run a Wifi 6 network into the newest AppleTV 4K so the issue is not the network. GCN should offer a native AppleTV app and figure out how to not have overlapping UI controls, perhaps adopt some UI testing so they might find issues like this themselves. I’ll be trying to get a refund for my subscription, I can’t recommend GCN+.
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Customer support horrible, app can stop working
My app stopped working. Could not log in anymore. Contacted customer service and gave as much detail as possible to help troubleshooting. They came back with “our developer has seen this before”. And a list of questions of how I was logging in. They gave me a 4-5 suggestion to do like deleting app, reinstalling app, logging out, turning off phone etc. I did all that several times… kept contacting them again and again and continued to get into the same responses. Finally deleted app and cancel subscription.
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It’s great right up to the point where it isn’t.
Just renewed my subscription as of a week ago and all of a sudden I no longer have a subscription on the app. I can access it on my laptop but no dice from my phone. And if things do go sideways the only customer service you get is via email during business hours. I mean, they are trying to solve my problem, they are making the effort but there is only so much you can do exchanging emails from 9 to 5. For fifty dollars a year you expect better customer service. At least a chat room. This is 2001 level customer service. Really I expected more.
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Good app, needs spoiler alerts
I used the NBC app to watch the tour. Then I discovered this app. A good VPN solves the blackout area problems. I savor every minute of the grand tours. I want to watch the whole thing and enjoy the drama of the entire tour. I don’t want to know who won the race till I finish watching it. That might be a month later. You can turn off racing news in the preferences so the home page does not show you racing news. But I started watching the Vuelta and I see the big banner ‘Roglic is the king of Spain”. I had just started stage 2. Solution: have a no spoiler tab in preferences so that when I am looking for my next stage to watch in RacecTV, I am not blasted with a big banner for a recap that displays the winner.
Funniest moment: During the TdF when Wiggins was on the motorcycle and Ritchey Porte rides by and Brad does his best Aussie accent. Priceless. Wiggins and Kelly bring such funny color to the broadcast.
Funniest moment: During the TdF when Wiggins was on the motorcycle and Ritchey Porte rides by and Brad does his best Aussie accent. Priceless. Wiggins and Kelly bring such funny color to the broadcast.
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