Either way, it was filler programming. Like the loss of the C-USA and minor Tennis tournaments, I don't think many people will miss it
Moving this where it belongs: beIN Connect 4 seems to be AWOL on Sling. The channel is there but the guide says "no data" and the channel can't be accessed. Was wondering if this was a problem on Fubo and other providers as well.
Seems to be back up. I think Connect 4 had the U de Chile-Internacional match on Tuesday (although scheduled at the wrong time).
Well, I did an A <-> B with Sling and Fanatiz. Sling's broadcast of Flu-ULC Sudamericana on CONNECT 5 had no sound. Fanatiz had sound. So the sound problem is either what BeIN sends to Sling or what Sling does with the audio portion of the feed. Sling looks *way* better than Fanatiz so Sling needs to get its act together. As discussed in the Fanatiz thread, subscribers have been complaining about image quality for quite some time and Fanatiz just blames the provider. That's obviously not the case when we can A <-> B.
And one more update on my last post about the craziness of BeIN, which might not be BeIN's fault. I'm currently watching the Velez match from Tuesday night. I started with Sling, since as I posted above, the image is usually clearer. But CONNECT 4 on Sling had the problem that others have probably seen: massive digital waves across the screen that make the match unwatchable given the repetition of those problems. But when those problems don't occur the image looks better than Fanatiz. Fanatiz didn't have that same problem, just the regular lower quality issues with Fanatiz. It makes no sense to me how the same feed can then have such a massive problem with one provider and not the other. Bizarre.
And one more continuation of this annoyance, which I'll share because only someone on this board will be able to comiserate. I chatted with a Sling CS rep today. I explained the problem that Sling's Connect channels often don't have sound or have problems with the image. BeIN and BeIN Espanol are always fine. Additionally, I explained to the CS rep that Fanatiz doesn't have the same problems with no sound or these image problems. The CS rep (of course) blames my setup. Then I finally get her to check the channel. She sees (or hears) that Vasco-Oriente has no sound. But proceeds to tell me that this is one-off and BeIN is responsible. Again, I explain that Fanatiz also has BeIN and no problem. Although in this case, I am only speculating since Fanatiz hasn't added the VOD for this game yet. I tell the rep to check out the Fluminense match on CONNECT 5 from Tuesday. The rep tells me she hears sound. I push her to confirm that she's watching CONNECT 5 and she f***** replies that she's watching the highlights on BeIN Espanol. Good god I miss the days when I could call tech support at DTV and actually speak with someone who had technical expertise. Now it's a land of idiots working in CS for DTV, for ATT, for Sling, for Fanatiz. All of them want to blame the user, who 90% of the time is probably more tech savvy than these fools. And when I'm dealing with them (and I'm probably mid-level skills with tech) is 100% more tech savvy.
Yep, they all want to you go through all the troubleshooting steps you already did, or you know are irrelevant to the problem at hand. Had a similar problem with Spectrum, which lost the SAP audio on BeIN Espanol a few months ago, I gave up after a few tries with a few different CSRs, only to see it started working again a couple of weeks ago. Also went through the same drill with the problems Sling had with BeIN Connect 4 over the weekend. Had the same issue with losing the SAP on BeIN Espanol about 4-5 years ago when it was still Bright House before the Spectrum takeover and there was a BH employee who went by BHTechExpert on DSL Reports that was always very helpful and he diligently worked to get it fixed (it took a few weeks). Sadly, he was out of a job after the takeover (probably made too much $ and was older) and now all we have these days are the minimum wagers reading from a script.
I had the same good fortune at DTV. Somehow I dumb-lucked and got a reply from a DTV engineer. Of course, I saved that email address and when there were problems with DTV-exclusive CL or Europa games, I could email him directly. He even helped solve a problem with NTEL by putting me in touch with someone else there. I had dealt with DTV general tech service about NTEL for months and this guy's engineer contact solved the problem in one week by contacting NTEL's engineers.
I've noticed the last couple of weeks (and this weekend as well) that the early weekend morning La Liga & Saturday & Sunday morning Ligue 1 matches they took away from Connect and moved to Xtra are back on Connect (often simulcast with Xtra), so thank goodness some semblance of logic (or loudness of complaints) prevailed.
I miss being able to complain about BeIN screwing up its schedule, or not showing the right match as that means there were matches to be shown.
Haha. And what about those Xtra shows that are popping up on my DVR's todo list lately. I just delete them before they record, assuming they really can't have anything meaningful to cover, right? Even the Belarussian league finally shut down didn't it??
I canceled my Sling sub tonight. I emailed BeIN pleading that they dip into their 10+ year (?) archive and show something besides Real, Barca, and PSG league games. No luck. I get that they lost rights to a lot of leagues but now would have been the time to show some of those matches that only ended up as 90in30, such as WCQ or showing games that they never aired before CANQ, CAF WCQ, or CAN U-23. The usual, thanks but no thanks email. I get it, these are niche. But what Barca fan is going to watch a Barca league game for the 20th time? European TV networks are showing old Euro matches in HD, classic WC matches in HD and we've got Fox showing 2018, BeIN showing garbage, and Univision in love with 60 minute highlights. Luckily I still had Colombian and Ecuadoran playoff games on the DVR to keep me busy these past two weeks.
That would require them knowing that those leagues are still playing. Which is asking a lot from a group of people who know nothing.
I havent watched Bein once since everything was cancelled, and like you was holding up hope that would schedule some interesting replays, instead of games from last couple of seasons. I am unsure how rights work and if they have access to all of La Liga's/Ligue 1's back catalog. I would have enjoyed Ray and Phil commentating on games from Dream Team era Barcelona, or pretty much anything from Real Madrid/Valencia/Deportivo La Coruna from turn of the century. Maybe they dont have access to that stuff, who knows. I have been enjoying Fox Sports 2 showing the Bundesliga Milestones episodes. Yesterday I watched the one about Werder Bremen winning the double in 2004. I forgot how chunky (and good) Ailton was in his prime.
Bein has mostly been showing recent classic matches but a couple weeks ago I did catch some Real-Barca matches circa 2006 ish.
Bein crapped out on Fios just before the kickoff of the Austrian Cup Final that they decided to show tape delayed at 8pm ET instead of live at 2:30pm. 30 minutes after it disappeared, it's still not back. Not sure what's going on.
Interesting decision by beIN. The English Audio can be heard in two different forms: 1) Regular- with some sort of manufactured crowd noise that is kind of faint but still audible... 2) SAP with what is actually heard on the field. Sorry to those who just want an option to mute the announces. Not available.
EXCELLENT! That is exactly what I was positing in the NBC Sports thread that they might be able to do for the EPL matches. I would try #1 but I'm 90% sure I would find #2 is for me.
I a;m surprised that while everyone is duscussing the audio enhancements, I was more struck with the digital filling of the lower level of the stadium, at least in one of the camera angels (the effect would be gone when they went to a show of the end zone. Ever sincde I saw a Lig MX game where, at halftime, a Toyota rose up, breaking the ground at the center of the pitch. I knew that the effect applied in the La Liga match was relatively simple (I believe an already widespread use of the technology is to to send different ads to the message boards depending on the tv market targeted). Speaking of beIN, I have a question for those receiving the channel via Verizon Fios. When I try to sign in to Connect and I pick the Verizon box, I first get the normal fios login, followed by a Fios error page, stating: To watch beIN Sports, you must subscribe to a FiOS TV package that includes beIN Sports, such as Ultimate HD or Sports Pass. I do have Ultimate TV and get the beIN and beIN-E channels withiout problem; While I have already put in a trouble call to Verizon, I am curious if this is a widespread system problem, or if I am just the lucky one.