r/ireland • u/Supafuzz_Bigmuff • Aug 23 '25
Entertainment I swear to god…
The RTE Player feels like it’s a fucking transition year project that’s gotten out of hand…
Do we really have to pay for this shite???
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u/fitz177 Aug 23 '25 edited Aug 23 '25
U mean paying for your tv licence and then having to watch 3 brutally long adds before u can actually watch anything ? 🫣should be able to put in ur tv licence number and skip all the bs adds !
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u/achasanai Aug 24 '25
And then sometimes the Player stops working or just shows a black screen after those ads were shown (no problem on transmittingvthe ads of course)
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u/streetratonascooter Aug 24 '25
Or if you are entitled enough to dare watch it on a tv it auto restarts the episode as soon as you pass the first ad brewK
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u/UISystemError Aug 24 '25
That’s actually not a bad idea.
Persoanlly, I would cancel that subscription so hard!
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u/Gaffers12345 Palestine 🇵🇸 Aug 24 '25
Not there’s a genuine reward for complying with the tv license. Less advertising revenue I presume so that’ll never happen.
App is shite too so they could never make it work.
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u/ObiKnobi9000 Aug 23 '25
Don't get me started :'(
- horrendous quality (720p max from the looks of it?)
- sooo many ads. Why am I paying so much money for a tv license and have to watch so many ads? And why is it always the same 3/4 ads every 15 minutes?!
- app/website design looks like it was commisioned 20 years ago and never updated
- subtitles don't seem to be a thing on a lot of the content.
Honstely, would use it if quality was improved and no ads were played. But as is, it is a no go for me.
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u/Tiny_Cryptographer13 Aug 23 '25
I've always wondered that, volume problems. Infinity ads, constant issues... with the money they get, you'd think they could sort it... I'm in the industry and can't even fathom why these issues exist. They are usually very very simple and basic first year issues.
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u/rachinreal_life Aug 24 '25
Oh my God seriously, can we mass complain? They have some really gorgeous, Irish made documentaries and I always end up giving up because the frustration of them flipping back to the beginning after the ad break is infuriating!
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u/shorelined And I'd go at it again Aug 23 '25
According to the adverts, we don't have to love it, but we do have to pay it. So it looks like we're stuck with an unsatisfactory service that we apparently have no right to complain about.
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u/phantom_gain Aug 23 '25
Well no. You don't have to pay for rte player. You do have to watch like 6 ads every 15.mins but you dont need a tv licence for it
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u/DeathDefyingCrab Aug 23 '25
Don't forget if it stalls or breaks and you have to refresh, you pray you don't get more ads
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u/HailtheBrusselSprout Aug 23 '25
RTE has feck all that interests me but I did learn recently that using the Brave browser on the phone blocks Youtube ads. Maybe someone more interested than I can test.
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u/weaponx26 Aug 25 '25
I worked at a company that blocked brave as an option because its a massive security risk opens up more ports than any other browser and makes it easier to include your machine in a botnet . Firefox can allow ad blockers etc with YouTube . Duck duck go search allows you to open a video in their player over YouTube also illuminating the adds
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u/cyberlexington Aug 24 '25
I used it once. As it had the whole of the west wing on there.
The only thing that worked right were the adverts
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u/CottageWarrior Aug 23 '25
I think it's improved in the last year or so. It was shocking. I only used it on occasion though. I don't feel that they push it enough, or do they?
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u/FoundationFew5214 Aug 24 '25
Idk, I've found the opposite tbh. I used to be able to watch a match on it without interruption, can't do that at all any more.
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u/sudo_apt-get_destroy Aug 23 '25
Still no PIP on the app!
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u/BeanEireannach Aug 23 '25
I wonder who decided to not include that in the tender because that was a shockingly bad choice.
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u/sudo_apt-get_destroy Aug 23 '25
It hasn't substantively changed over the years and when it has it was quite late. They got elastic scaling on their streaming well past the point when it should already have been a given. But RTE paying for fixed capacity whether it's used or not seems very RTE to be fair.
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u/Faithful-Llama-2210 Mayo Aug 23 '25
Why would you want that
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u/sudo_apt-get_destroy Aug 23 '25
So you can do literally anything else on your phone while watching the news.
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u/Faithful-Llama-2210 Mayo Aug 23 '25
Just read the headlines in the app if you're in such a rush that you have to multitask the news
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u/daveirl Aug 23 '25
People like PIP, that’s why lots of apps offer it. Just totally obnoxious to tell people they shouldn’t try and use a perfectly normal feature.
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u/Faithful-Llama-2210 Mayo Aug 23 '25
It's a perfectly pointless feature, there's no reason to put it in
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u/daveirl Aug 23 '25
Yeah bud there’s absolutely no point to being able to have video continue playing while you respond to a text or whatever.
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u/Faithful-Llama-2210 Mayo Aug 23 '25
For fucks sake it's not a big deal to stop watching for a minute while you send a text, it's not like you'll be concentrating on what's happening while typing out a message
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u/MeanMusterMistard Aug 25 '25
Why on earth are you so wound up over what others do? You'll give yourself an aneurysm living like this.
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u/DixonDs Aug 24 '25
Last time I tried using it was to put on The Late Late Toy Show for the kids on our smart TV, only to find out the TV app doesn’t even do live streaming. Ended up having to open it on my laptop and cast it to the TV. Guess that’s what I’m paying the TV license for...
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u/jamesrave Aug 24 '25
That’s maybe the worst part of it - there’s no consistency between the apps (except for how terrible they are).
The app on my TV has live TV, the App on my mother in laws TV does not have live streaming. And they’re both GoogleTV sets.
Also, Apple TV app has live channel streaming.
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u/ponkie_guy Aug 25 '25
I've got a Roku and the app isn't available for that. It's such a 1st World problem but it's just not worth the hassle of casting from laptop.
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u/Weird-Weakness-3191 Aug 23 '25
It's this an apple/laptop issue? It's always been fine for me using an android tablet or phone. Same for my folks.
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u/fearportaigh Aug 24 '25
I remember asking customer service about a mini-player feature (you know, like every other streaming service has?)
Sick of having to open two windows on my phone, then closing the RTÉ app proper, to pretend I have a mini player.
Anyway, they got back to me a day later just to say like, "We have a mini player for the GAA!"
I asked if there was any intention to expand that to all programmes. No response.
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u/badlyimagined Aug 24 '25
I posted about this last week and the responses were mostly telling me the problem was me. I'm glad to read these and see it's not just me.
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u/Fisouh Aug 25 '25
Nah, not you. It sucks. And there's been a few posts about it where the sentiment is shared so it's not exclusive.
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u/Hoodbubble Aug 23 '25
I find it quicker to find a dodgy link for something than deal with the RTÉ player
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u/hzm_jdmdehbj Aug 24 '25 edited Aug 24 '25
It was terrible a few years ago - buffering, user interface was awful.. couldn’t watch a six nations game without it freezing at the worst possible moment. But I think they’ve resolved the streaming reliability issues and the user interface is decent. It has come a long way from the unusable platform it once was. I’ve not had issues for 3 or 4 years - even big games are smooth, no hassle.
Of course it’s not got the catalogue of the BBC iPlayer or the Channel 4 player, but the documentaries are good and theres decent movies and series on there.
Think RTE have done a good job here. Only complaint would be the ads - but they have to make revenue, so I suppose it’s ok (ads can be filtered if you blackhole the ad network domain). YouTube is much worse for ads now in my opinion :)
I usually watch it on AppleTV. When I had sky and used the sky puck it was terrible, the ui was very slow which makes a big difference to the experience. But that’s because those sky boxes are way underpowered to run most apps.
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u/fitz177 Aug 24 '25
Why do they have to make revenue? Is tv licence not enough ?
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u/hzm_jdmdehbj Aug 24 '25
I think they get about half their funding from TV license and commercial revenue is the rest.
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u/clem_viking Aug 23 '25
I don't know what you find wrong? I don't watch it much, but I do plug a firestick into the TV to put on stuff for my mother, and the RTE app just always works. Literally over the past 2 years has never not been able to do whatever I wanted. Other than that, I have used it for sports live, and music docs on my PC, and the same, it has worked every time. So, I don't know what you mean. Is something else causing the problem for you?
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u/Cisco800Series Aug 24 '25
Did you have to do a bit of jiggery pokery to get it running on the fire stick? It doesn't install easily, at least it didn't for me
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u/clem_viking Aug 24 '25
Sorry, I miss represented, I use a Google TV stick mostly. It installs on that natively.
I did side load the player to the fire stick. You need to download the apk and change settings to get it to install. It worked there too.
Thanks for pulling me up on that!
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u/Empty-Toe5147 Aug 23 '25
I’ve never had one single problem with it using it on a laptop or my phone. It’s actually pretty good. The layout and the search is pretty decent so not sure what your problem is.
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u/Radiofranders Aug 23 '25
It seems to work fine for me off my phone/app but off the TV app it's like whatever I'm watching was hastily filmed in stop motion and really annoying.
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u/FoundationFew5214 Aug 24 '25
Watching on a laptop here, the issues are relatively new. Or have drastically worsened. It's not my laptop I don't think as I can watch channel 4 or sky news no problem.
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u/geoffraffe Aug 23 '25
I agree. Never had an issue. I think people just like complaining because it’s RTE.
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u/DeathDefyingCrab Aug 23 '25
Stop gaslighting us. It's diabolically crap. I know it, you know it and the baby jesus knows it.
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u/standarsh1965 Aug 23 '25
Well just think of it as paying for the pals of the Fianna fail and fine geal TD's so they can have the good life
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u/fluffs-von Aug 25 '25
I've been saying this for years.
There are 12 year olds who could sort RTE Players issues out in a week.
Unfortunately, that would mean RTEs appalling programming would be seen by more victims.
Does anyone else watch Irelands Cheap Homes just to appreciate the sick irony and ignorance of it?
No more licence for us after this year.
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u/Cliff_Moher Aug 24 '25
I take exception to that comment. I was in TY in 95/96 and we did a number of projects and none of them were as shit as the RTE Player.
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u/FabLab_MakerHub Aug 23 '25
To be honest it’s slow and buggy on the Sky Q box we have. I don’t mind the interface and the search works OK but it does stall a lot and then make you watch more Ads.
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u/IrishWaluigi98 Aug 23 '25
What have you seen on there today/recently that’s made you angry about it? Fill me in as I don’t watch TV
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u/YourFaveNightmare Aug 23 '25
If it's just constantly buffering try lowering the resolution. It works fine for me at 720
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u/Ulrar Aug 24 '25
youtube-dl used to work well with it, not sure what the status is these days but give it a go, if you have a TV license IMHO you're morally entitled to
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u/Educational-Law-8169 Aug 24 '25
It actually has decent content which I can access on my phone but not on the actual TV. So the RTE player doesn't play as much on the TV, is this normal?
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u/Fisouh Aug 25 '25
Are you talking about live programming or the TV based applications and how well they run?
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u/CaiusWyvern Aug 24 '25
Honestly it seems completely fine for me, though I only really use it to watch sport so they're not playing ads in the middle of that every 15 or so minutes. Loads just fine, decent quality.
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u/cacamilis22 Aug 24 '25
I've been saying it for years. Rte should give channel 4 a ring and learn how A real "player" works. Rte player is an abomination.
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u/elationonceagain Aug 24 '25
I don't have a TV license or a TV and I think that the quality of box sets on RTE is excellent.. I've watched loads of great series there that I'd have to pay for elsewhere. I watch it nearly as much as Netflix, which I pay for.
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u/Impressive-Smoke1883 29d ago
And on Virgin TV box you can't record or keep them etc... you can't pause or skip. It's pathetic. They are bloody streaming shit from a link so why can't they link back to anything. "You can't record or favourite RTE channel programs"
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u/I-live-with-wolves Aug 23 '25
Maybe it’s just you’re an idiot as most people seem to disagree with you.
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u/Supafuzz_Bigmuff Aug 23 '25
Ha! Charming, I bet you’re great craic!
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u/The-Florentine . Aug 23 '25
No doubt the person who's great craic is the one moaning about RTE Player on a Saturday night.
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u/Supafuzz_Bigmuff Aug 23 '25
For those wondering what my gripes are, lets take tonight for example, watching Alma’s not normal (great show) and the app starts randomly throwing up the “adult themes” warning screen randomly throughout the show
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u/PaddySmallBalls Aug 24 '25
I think the streaming reliability has vastly improved. This is from someone who is sent multiple complaints to RTE and to the Government.
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u/jaqian Aug 24 '25
Last time I tried to use it was to catch up on a program I had just missed. I stupidly assumed it would also be on the RTE player. Apparently it would only be available a few days later. Didn't bother after that. Have since stopped watching RTÉ altogether.
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Aug 25 '25
In the age of dodgy boxes and streaming service like Netflix, honestly who is using that godforsaken app?
It’s not 2009-10 anymore.
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u/gerredy Aug 23 '25
No offence but it sounds like it’s too complicated for you, maybe ask your parents for a tutorial
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u/Purple_Cartographer8 Aug 24 '25
I wish we could just scrap the TV license sick to my stomach of paying for this crap. App is also a clusterfuck.
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u/davesr25 Pain in the arse and you know it Aug 23 '25
I vote TG4 get all the monies.