Products · Broad category
Video players
Raised as a usability problem by 45 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 42 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Video players lack a volume controlUnreviewed
20092026- A video lacks a volume control, which is a basic usability gap2026-10-08
- Video players lack a volume control, making it hard to adjust sound2024-08-15
- Video players start at full volume and the volume button is hard to find2019-05-22
Videos will not play when ads fail, forcing refreshes and repeated adsUnreviewed
20092026- Video shows empty black boxes for 30 seconds, then ads, then stutters2017-09-28
- Video overlay forces viewers to click through ads before the play button works2017-05-11
- Videos won't play when ads fail, forcing refreshes and repeated ads to resume2015-12-14
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 43 complaints
- Audio mix is so bad the commenter had to turn it off2026-10-30
- A video lacks a volume control, which is a basic usability gap2026-10-08
- Users must hunt for separate codecs and tweak cryptic settings just to play a video2026-01-04
- Timeline preview disappears unless the mouse stays close to the slider2025-05-14
- Skimming through networked video lags while the jumped-to part loads2024-08-30
- Video shows as a static image with no play control or indication it is a video2024-08-21
- Controls can't be hidden while paused and linger for seconds after playback starts2024-08-21
- Can't hide the player controls while the video is paused2024-08-21
- Video players lack a volume control, making it hard to adjust sound2024-08-15
- HDR video plays far darker or with wrong tint compared to the SDR version2023-04-17
- Rewinding to an already-played point shows a spinner for a very long time2022-07-31
- Pressing number keys accidentally jumps playhead to random percentage, hard to recover position2022-07-08
- Seek bar sits too close to buttons, so users accidentally hit prev, next or mute2022-05-28
- Custom video players are half-baked and hostile to disabled users2022-03-21
- Videos autoplay and follow you on scroll with no option to turn it off2022-02-10
- Re-finding the start of a section to replay in video means scrubbing many times2021-12-23
- Single click pause delays and interferes with double click fullscreen2021-11-27
- No stop button, can't easily stop buffering, mini player pops open unexpectedly2021-11-27
- Many video players don't let you change playback speed2020-10-26
- Animations lag and pausing has noticeable input delay2020-06-15
- Mouse scrubbing needs moving to a scrubber, and keyboard scrubbing needs awkward combos2019-11-13
- Each player plays only one or two formats poorly, so users must hunt for the right one2019-09-25
- Repeated left-arrow skips keep landing on the same moment, unlike YouTube2019-05-24
- Video players start at full volume and the volume button is hard to find2019-05-22
- Only an mp4 video is offered, so finding slide content means scrubbing slowly on a slow connection2018-12-30
- Requiring a domain-specific app install for video is a poor user experience2018-10-24
- Video shows empty black boxes for 30 seconds, then ads, then stutters2017-09-28
- Inconsistent controls across players; cursor stays visible and shortcuts vary2017-08-17
- Video stops when user scrolls slightly and does not resume on return2017-06-17
- Video overlay forces viewers to click through ads before the play button works2017-05-11
- Video player's close element is buried under many HTML layers, hard to find2017-03-15
- Videos won't play when ads fail, forcing refreshes and repeated ads to resume2015-12-14
- Video stops unexpectedly and fullscreen cannot be exited2015-12-08
- Video player keeps breaking in every browser, parent can't be helped2015-02-20
- Scrubbing to find a previous position is slow and frustrating on shoddy connections2015-01-05
- Finding the right spot in a video requires fiddling with controls and hoping it lands2014-10-14
- Skipping or rewinding requires fiddly clicks on tiny target areas2013-07-05
- Can't seek in the video; clicking outside a popup forces restarting from the beginning2013-06-17
- Full screen button switches to OS X full screen mode, leaving second monitor unusable2013-03-13
- Interface is clunky; turning head to look around feels awkward2012-02-21
- Must click and drag to look around, unlike turning one's head2010-04-24
- Video navigation interface is extremely hard to use, with the video controls hidden behind floaty black rectangles2010-04-08
- Videos autoplay on page load and dragging the playhead back restarts playback unexpectedly2009-11-23