Verified purchaser
Gumlet? More like Gumletdown
Wow. For all of the hype around this tool, I have to say...it does NOT deliver.
Remove all of the other cons of the platform in terms of lack of real customization, etc. that have been mentioned in other reviews, but as far as the core of the product goes, it's pretty sad that it struggles to deliver.
I was just taking the highest tier for a spin to evaluate, just to see what the fuss is all about. I have 800mbps for internet, not the best, but certainly not the worst. Even though I uploaded a 4K video that loads perfectly fine on YT, I can't even stream 1080p reliably on Gumlet. Don't even get me started on the bitrate...it's so bad. Things that are crisp and clear and fuzzy and jagged. Short of going into a coma and waking up 6 months later, I would never see the end of my 3:47 4K video. And I'm not even embedding this content on a site yet, this is just straight from the horse's mouth.
Unlimited this. Unlimited that. Full HD this, 4K that. Seems to be a lot of false promises and promotion of a product that really fails to deliver. Once again, that's just the core functionality too. That's before you get into any of the other shortcoming of the platform. Seems very disingenuous to even charge as much as they are for these plans when the most basic functionality is so flawed. I would NEVER deploy this on a client site because it would just lead to too much friction. The bounce rates of content would be insane and if I were to deploy this in an LMS behind a pay wall? Yeah. Good luck. Just point me to the Stripe invoice for all of the refunds and transaction fees I owe them, because no one is going to tolerate these load times, especially on a guaranteed slower connection.
Divyesh_Gumlet
May 9, 2024Hi SapphireWolf,
Thank you writing a review to share your experience with Gumlet. I apologize for the inconvenience caused during your first experience wi Gumlet.
I will not deny any issues you faced with the 4k video you uploaded.
However, all the issues arise due to the unusual testing parameters rather than any lack of Gumlet’s transcoding, compression or streaming technology. Allow me to explain it in a few points.
>> Source video
The 3:47 4K video you used to test Gumlet was downloaded from YouTube using some plugin. It was already highly compressed with the AV1 codec by YouTube. AV1-encoded videos are already 50% smaller than standard videos.
>> Input Video Bitrate
Due to AV1 compression, the video input already had a very low bitrate of 8 Mbps. Which is way low than industry recommended 40 Mbps bitrate (https://www.openreel.com/blog/bitrate-video-solutions-overview/)
There is no room left for Gumlet to reduce the bitrate any further without affecting quality.
In fact, YouTube recommends that you upload 60 Mbps video for them to do any compression. (https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en#zippy=%2Cbitrate)
It is essential to upload high-bitrate videos to any platform for them to have room to work on the compression.
>> Output Video Bitrate and Codec
Gumlet does not output video in AV1 because it is not supported on any Apple devices: https://caniuse.com/?search=av1.
Also, you had only selected the H264 codec, which usually has a 2x bitrate of AV1. However, Gumlet’s transcoding engine encoded your video at only 1.2x bitrate.
If you had uploaded a regular video to Gumlet, which you recorded on your own, we would have reduced the bitrate of that video by 30-50% at least.
Additionally, you can enable Per-Title-Encoding setting with just a click to improve bitrate even further.
>> Streaming
The video works well on YouTube because thousands of viewers near you have already streamed it and hence cached it with the CDN.
If you upload any new 4K video on YouTube or any other video platform, it will inevitably buffer on the first streaming.
On the first stream, the video comes out of the storage and gets cached on the CDN server near you. It means the first-ever stream of the video will be janky on any platform.
We tested the Gumlet processed video once it was cached on the CDN, and we were able to stream it in 4k on a 40mbps 2.5ghz WiFi connection.
>> Video Analytics
Gumlet does provide detailed analytics for all embedded videos. That means you can easily monitor all of the performance metrics. I encourage you to try out a couple of your own videos on your website or LMS to observe the video performance parameters.
As always, we will always be available over chat and email support to help you deliver a flawless video streaming experience.
I hope you would give us another chance by uploading one of your usual videos.
Thanks,
Divyesh