This is my second year and last of having the Pools player to listen to games. Also even though the price has dropped so has the quality of content. Now you can see the goals on you tube also any supposed exclusive news appear in print on News now Hartlepool united within minutes.What has finally made up my mind is the lack of quality of reception and volume of the last two games at Havant and last nights home game. I rang the ground at 7 40 to inform them and was told they would try and inform Mark Simson of the problems but he waas already on air!! He said he undestood there was a problem but it continued for nearly 30 minutes of the game when it suddenly righted itself. Several people e-mailed in with the same problem. Radio Tees did not have the problem broadcasting from the same press box either last night or on Saturday from Havant. There could easily be a sound check before the programme goes live problem solved. Anyone else with similar problems?

I opened up this thread expecting a tutorial on welding

To be honest I got PoolsPlayer as a way of listening to commentaries and watching goals, I can take or leave all the other content so paying was also a way of supporting the club a little bit.

This season it won't let me login even though they email me a newsletter every week. I can either spend ages pissing about stopping old memberships and starting new ones or I can just get what I want free of charge without any bother. I might give Pools the money another way or I might not. The way PoolsPlayer works at the moment seems like a daft way of throwing away a revenue stream.

Definitely! I just listened on BBC TEES last night as the difference in sound quality was ridiculous. I listened to the pre match build up on tees before switching to pools players, but quickly switched back due to the quality.

I much prefer the commentary of Mark Simpson as he actually seems have interest and passion in the club and what is happening on the field, but last night was just too bad to listen to.

I’m sorry to hear about the problems you’re experiencing with Pools PlayerHD – I can guarantee you it’s not for the want of trying on our part. We’re doing all we can to provide a good level of service despite being faced with some technological problems, particularly at away games.

Basically, we require an ISDN connection to provide ‘quality’ commentary but unfortunately this line is not often available at away stadiums. The choice that leaves us with is to either link up with BBC Tees at away games or use a mobile phone to broadcast my commentary.

I know that’s far from ideal but we discussed the issue in-depth during the summer and decided that fans would prefer listening to club commentary via the club website, rather than BBC Tees which is available elsewhere for free and often also updates from other games during the broadcast.

We spent time during the summer investigating how to get the best out of using a phone for commentary. I investigated several different iPhone microphones but the feedback I received was that these often don’t increase quality noticeably and can be very expensive. The suggestion was I bought a simple windshield which was what I did – and tests prior to the start of the season suggested the quality was better than expected.

I would welcome feedback from away games on the quality of coverage as so far it seems to have varied from ground to ground – I am not sure if this is a reception issue or something I am doing wrong in how I am talking in to the phone!

Last night’s issue was a mystery. We have an ISDN connection at our stadium and it was dialled in as normal with all settings as they usually are. I have literally no idea why it sounded bad for the first bit of the game and then suddenly righted itself (I didn’t change anything!) but we were in constant communication with our web hosts to try and sort the issue.

I will be in touch with them again today to try and find out the reasons for the sound problems last night because we know that it needs to be better.

In terms of goals going on YouTube – it is only the goals, on Pools PlayerHD you can watch extended highlights which is what we advertise. The goals are often out there before the extended highlights are because of a frustrating National League rule which means they can broadcast our footage of our goals filmed by our camera men before we can.

The exclusive content appearing on NewsNow – I don’t know what you mean by this but would like to know more. I have seen some examples of the local paper using this content – and it’s a subject I’ve discussed with them – but most of our exclusive content has remained that as far I know.

Sign-in problems – send me an email to mark.simpson@hartlepoolunited.co.uk and I will sort this issue for you.

Likewise, any other feedback I would always welcome. Since we dropped out of the EFL we have worked really hard to make sure the content we offer is still of the same standard but there are many, many challenges with that given the extreme change in conditions outside of the League.

This is really important income to my department and the Football Club as a whole so thanks to everyone who signs-up – I hope we can get to the bottom of any issues and keep as many of you on board as possible and encourage new subscribers going forward.

Thanks!

Does anyone else have issues with watching the videos on Pools Player were it freezes at the start and you miss the first 5-10 seconds of them?

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What the difference between a welder and a plater?

Yes, I get that quite often and also most videos just pause part way through for no reason which obviously then requires the play button to continue.