Copa Libertadores 2018

Glad to see it’s back!

 

Good news.

 

Weird watching now and they keep going to commercials during match. Anyone else watching now?

 

Looks like Fanatiz has added all Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana games to their service. Redundant for me, as I already have Fox Deportes on TV and subscribe to Fox Soccer Match Pass, but thought I should pass the info along. For those in the USA, Fanatiz offers all Argentina Superliga games (including Boca and River), all Chilean primera, Chilean Cup, and now Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana for $10/month. Games are available live and on demand.

 

That’s awesome how reliable are the streams?

 

I haven’t really used it that much to give more than a general audit, but when I’ve tuned in to the odd Boca match, it seems to be working ok. The video quality isn’t stellar, but maybe it’s improved? I did a couple of minutes of the same copa Libertadores game streamed on match pass and Fanatiz and it looked pretty similar on my desktop, so maybe it’s more source dependent than anything. Fanatiz is on iPhone and android and on an actual computer, but still no appletv or roku, which they say is coming.

 

Thanks

 

I subscribed to Fox Soccer Matchpass for a couple months. I liked the range of coverage and on-demand service. The quality was not up to ESPN3/Watch ESPN and the on-demand didn't last long enough for my tastes (esp. with Libertadores and Sudamericana).

I just subscribed to Fanatiz after seeing the banner on Soccer Action's blog. Quality is better than Matchpass since there is a 1080p option for many games. I assume Matchpass is 720p but that 720p was not accurate since quality seemed to be somewhere between SD and HD for my eyes. I like that Fantiz has a long on demand period. They still have Argentina league games that are a few months old. And I like that Fanatiz is focused on Latin America. I've been waiting for an NGSN replacement. My main concern about Fanatiz is that they list scores all over the site. In fact, when you choose a game to watch on demand the score is listed in the selection window. Some people don't really care about spoilers but for me it's a less enjoyable experience if I know the result. I emailed them just now to explain that the list of spoilers is not a feature of any other streaming service (ESPN and Fox most notably) and they should save the spoilers for a results and standings page (although who knows why a streaming service needs a results page).

 

I’m thinking of cutting the cord and this sounds perfect for my Argentine needs in League and SA cups. Only thing no app to watch via tv on fire or Apple TV yet.

 

When did you subscribe to matchpass? Since they changed from foxsoccer2go to matchpass, with the roku and AppleTV apps, the quality has dramatically improved. The games are full hd on the same quality as FSgo. As far as the on demand period, I’m seeing copa libertadores games as far back as June. Champions league on demand goes back to August 2016.

I frankly find Fanatiz (which I also subscribe to) to be subpar quality on a large screen tv. Hopefully this is fixed when they get their connected devices apps ready.

I did stream a few minutes of an on demand Libertadores game on my desktop on both Fanatiz and matchpass, and they were roughly the same quality. Maybe a little better on Fanatiz, but usually these companies have the connected devices apps stream at a higher bitrate than over the web, and I usually watch on a tv rather than on a computer. So hopefully the roku and appletv apps come out soon.

 

I still have the matchpass sub. It's about to expire. I watched Libertadores and Sudamericana via Matchpass when games were delayed because of World Series games (I think that was the delay) because Fox always edits delayed CONMEBOL games on Deportes. This was via a Roku, ethernet connection, 75mbps internet package, and on a plasma hd tv. Quality was nowhere near as good as ESPN3 or Fox2Go. I'll have to check again, although my roku is currently unplugged since I switched to an android box to add iptv. Right now I only have a matchpass phone/tablet app running on the android box. I'm doing the same with fanatiz and the test of Independiente-Central looked better than matchpass, but I'll check again on the Roku. My last check of the Roku only listed the finals for each tournament (Sudamericana and Libertadores).

 

Was watching Bundesliga (Dortmund-Freiburg) and some FA Cup (after the Dortmund game ended) on matchpass, and it looked immaculate. Easily broadcast quality, if not better. Although, the sideline camera on the Libertadores matches seems a little softer than the Bundesliga or FA Cup, this might be more of a problem with the source than a limitation with matchpass. Games are definitely HD. Pics were taken on my iPhone of my plasma tv. (Libertadores game was Olimpia-Wanderers.)

Can’t really compare to Fanatiz, since it’s not even airplay enabled. I get Fanatiz on my tv via airplay mirroring, so that adds another element, and not apples to apples. But I do see some tiling on Fanatiz on fast moving plays or when they show the crowd on my computer that I don’t see on matchpass. (Used to see the same on early FuboTV, but I think they’ve since updated their video tech.)

I was the first to criticize foxsoccer2go. It did the trick on my 13 inch laptop to watch the games at my office midweek, but the 2400 kbps bitstream didn’t cut it on a big screen tv. But very happy with the quality on matchpass via roku or appletv, which has allowed me to cancel fox soccer plus.

 

Matchpass looks great on the computer and just fine being cast via Chromecast, but the quality on the Roku app is inconsistent. It seems to take about a minute or two for the "HD" quality to kick in, and every time I watch an archived match that minute or two clock gets reset whenever I fast-forward through a stoppage in play.

 

Yeah, Roku seems to take 45 seconds to a minute to go to full quality for me. I see this not only on matchpass but on Netflix and other apps as well. AppleTV takes only a couple of seconds to hit HD. But my experience with roku is that it’s pretty stable once it gets to max quality. (AppleTV also stable.) except, as you say, if you do any trick play you have to wait again for it to achieve full quality again (whereas on AppleTV it take only 2-5 seconds).

 

I have about 30 seconds before Roku kicks in with top quality, but luckily for espn3 that is during a commercial and for matchpass that was during general stadium shots for libertadores. I haven't used matchpass for anything else other than the random europa league game here and there.

Back to my concern about on demand. Currently on the apk that I am running on my shield, I only see games from Thursday on matchpass. Do y'all see games from Tuesday or Wednesday (e.g., the Vasco match or the Santiago Wanderers match)?

 

I risk my three year old killing me if I stop shimmer and shine (don’t ask) on the tv right now, so I can’t check roku or AppleTV, but I def see those games on the iOS app.

 

One other thing in terms of matchpass v. fanatiz. I pulled up Oriente Petrolero v. Jorge Wilstermann as a comparison. I would say that there is some pixilation on the Fanatiz stream during fast camera angles (or digital blocks) and the matchpass looked better. But the fanatiz had commentary and the matchpass only had stadium sound, which is crazy since fanatiz uses the Fox feed. The other downside to fanatiz is that they have only secured rights to game action. So there is no pre-game for these matches, including showing line-ups. The stream starts at kickoff, shows nothing during half-time (although the stream is not edited to cut out that nothing) and then starts again when players are walking back to the pitch.

For me this is the biggest problem with chord cutting: There are a lot of different services but none does what I want: on-demand, full broadcast, HD quality, commentary, and no fu**ing spoilers. Those 4 things aren't a lot to ask. It's not like I need multi-language commentary, surround sound, red button stats, or some other high end options. I have tried an iptv option but it's similar song and dance that I described above: different packages, some with some channels in hd and other packages with other channels in hd but not a single package with hd from Latin America (including Brasil). There just does not seem to be a perfect solution and perfect is really a low bar in this case.

 

FYI, just plugged in the roku again and I see the same thing that I see using the android apk on my shield: 3 on demand games only (all from Thursday).

 

I just checked on the roku and all the games are there. Maybe you’re having difficulties navigating through the app? You have to go to Libertadores and then change the month. I’ve taken some screen shots. Apologies in advance if your app just isn’t working for whatever strange reason and these don’t apply to you.

 

Thanks for that tip. I had no idea that I could scroll through different months. I thought what I see is what I get, since there was no scrolling for Europa League or for uefa WCQ but Libertadores and Sudamericana only showed a few games last season. I appreciate the tip.

 

Works well on the FireTV when you sideload it. I think you could also Airplay/Chromecast it...

 

Here is a perfect example of the problems:

Univ de Concepcion-Vasco
Fanatiz: Commentary but spoilers on screen when selecting the match and no pre-game with lineups
Fox Deportes: Commentary but edited 10 minutes for no reason other than to show commercials pre-game and half-time that people will skip instead of putting ads on-screen as is common in Colombia, for example, that can't be skipped.
Fox Matchpass: Only stadium sound

 

Fanatiz posted on facebook or twitter (or both) that they're working on an update to the app (website as well?) enabling one to hide scores. They also posted that they expect to have connected devices apps (did not specify which connected devices) by the end of the first quarter of the year.

 

That's good news because I think Fantiz will be the keeper for me. I sent the matchpass folks an email asking why so many games are stadium sound only and they said they don't have commentary. Duh. Maybe that was part of the deal with Fanatiz. I'm not interested in Stadium Sound options since I tend to spend 50% of the time listening rather than watching given work stuff. I get why matchpass uses stadium sound for 2Bundesliga, where feeds are coming in German. But it makes no sense why matchpass would cut Spanish commentary when that commentary comes from Fox and is used on almost all Fox Deportes broadcasts. Anyway, that will be that for me with matchpass even if the quality is a touch better and they do show pre-game.