Master Index of Archived Threads


MLB.TV

A Boy Named Seo Apr 03 2006 05:12 PM

I'm on it again for the 4th year in a row, but it seems like this year you can't choose between using Windows Media or the Real player. I thought Real looked so much more crisp the last couple of years and will be bummed if I'm stuck win Windows Media. Anyone else on MLB.TV? If so, do you know if this is the case?

A Boy Named Seo Apr 12 2006 11:47 PM

Why MLB.TV blows By A Boy Named Seo I don't know if anybody else bought the MLB.TV package, but I did for the third (or fourth?) year and this year, it blows. 1) You can't choose between Windows Media and Real Player. I sent two emails to their customer service last week asking about this and they ignored them both until today. The email I got today just referred me to the FAQ, which is an outdated version from last season, and says to send my hardware, OS, etc., if I can't find my answer there. That kinda pissed me off. The Real encoded feed always looked more crisp and less blocky than Windows Media and I'm bummed because the Windows Media feed doesn't look any better this year than previous years. 2) It varies, but more times than not you get a feed and there are no graphics on the screen. None. No score, no inning, no ball/strike/out indicator, nothing. The hitter comes up to bat and no stats are displayed. Same for when a new pitcher comes in. Nada. Going out to a commercial, you don't even get the score or who's batting the following inning. It's very damn annoying. It's been that way on the feed for the Nats network, SNY, the DBacks game on FSN and some others. But it was fine on the Indians and Phillies feed tonight. So far for me, it's been about 70/30 no-graphics. Makes no sense. EDIT: Now I've got all the on-screen graphics for the DBacks/Rockies game on FSN Rocky Mountain. Makes no damn sense whatsoever. 3) More annoying than no on-screen graphics is when they cut to a highlight from the night before, you get the audio, but not the highlight. You always see the replay of a play that just happened, but if it's a highlight of a play from yesterday or earlier in the season or any time other than 10 seconds ago, you don't see it, the camera just stays focused on the field. 4) You don't get the local commercials any more. They cut to a blue screen advertising MLB.tv and MLBlogs (whatever those are) and it says "Commercial break in progress". Not a huge deal, but sometimes it's cool to see the local commercials from the various markets. In short, MLB.TV sucks BHMC and I can't get a dish in my apartment and I have a baseball addiction so I'm stuck with it. The end.

TransMonk Apr 13 2006 12:14 AM

I'm on MLBTV for the first year after 5+ years of their audio program. I hate the disconnects during key points of the game, but that's where we're at with streaming video at this point. It usually crashes and I lose 15 seconds at a time 3 times during a three hour game, so in the long run I can live with that. I don't mind not having the graphics up, it's kind of old school...I keep a copy of the Gameday open anyway, so if I need stats or batting orders they are right there. What I don't understand is how they choose which team's broadcast to go with. It seems to me they would play the home team's broadcast for every game, but it seems to be random. And during the big blue screen for commercial breaks, I take a peek at the IGT. I will agree that MLB.com's customer service is a joke. They auto-renewed my audio for the entire season even after I sent an email requesting that it be cancelled for this year because I was going to purchase their more expensive video program. The toll free number on their website has been busy during all business hours this week and they haven't answered repeated emails. I never got to experience it through Real Player, so I guess I don't know what I'm missing.

A Boy Named Seo Apr 13 2006 12:22 AM

Yeah, I don't know how they pick which feed they're going to go with. I dig how you can choose home or away team's broadcast with radio, but with TV, it's completely random and always has been. Tonight, I even started on the SNY feed, and then it cut out (I got this DirectTV-ish "To order service, call 1-800-blah blah blah..." message on-screen) and when they got it worked out, I was on the Nats feed. If both are available, let me choose damn it!

duan Apr 13 2006 01:11 PM

hey, what kind of connection do people have that are using mlb.tv. I'm out of my main house at the moment (it's being gutted) so I don't have NASN any more and I can't get digital tv in the one I'm staying in for another 2 months or so. That means watching baseball would have to be done by the 'net. I've dsl at home, but I'm a little unsure as to whether it'll all be worthwhile.

TransMonk Apr 13 2006 01:20 PM

I have DSL...it's more than enough. MLB TV runs at 350k/sec or 400k/sec.

holychicken Apr 13 2006 01:23 PM

]1) You can't choose between Windows Media and Real Player. I am on year 3 or 4, can't remember. I have always used real player however, this year, the picture seems to be the best. I don't get as much of the pixelization when there is a lot of movement that I got in the past. I have no complaints about the picture quality. ]2) It varies, but more times than not you get a feed and there are no graphics on the screen. None. No score, no inning, no ball/strike/out indicator, nothing. You hate that? I love it! It is so much nicer to have a big non-cluttered view of the game. Free yourself from your crutch! ]3) More annoying than no on-screen graphics is when they cut to a highlight from the night before, you get the audio, but not the highlight. You always see the replay of a play that just happened, but if it's a highlight of a play from yesterday or earlier in the season or any time other than 10 seconds ago, you don't see it, the camera just stays focused on the field. To me it appears that they just have a sound feed and a video feed and there is no syncronization. Many-a-time I have wanted to see a replay, they are talking about it but it is just showing the pitcher or something. ]4) You don't get the local commercials any more. They cut to a blue screen advertising MLB.tv and MLBlogs (whatever those are) and it says "Commercial break in progress". Not a huge deal, but sometimes it's cool to see the local commercials from the various markets. Yeah, I totally agree with this. The camera used ot just stare out on the field when you didn't get the local commericals. . . now that stupid screen comes up. I liked the no commercials things because you felt like you were at the game (sort of). But the blue screen commercials really suck.