edit: I just noticed the MLB site lists the speed at 350 -- and the sample quality isn't so great -- recall it being much better last year and I thought I saw speeds about twice as fast http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/help/faq_system_requirements.jsp
i don't want this post to turn in to a mac/pc thing so please refrain from the "macs suck, no pcs suck" please. i happen to use a mac. this service won't work on a mac despite the fact that the previous free version did. this is due to the fact that microsoft has stopped development on WMP for mac and never got around to adding support for the DRM that is required to watch MLS/MLB streaming video. i won't go in to the relative merits of QT vs. Real vs. WMP, needless to say there are alternatives out there that would support what MLS wants to do. what i find almost fraudulent on MLS' part is their failure to mention the windows only nature of the streams anywhere on the main page. i'm of a mind to file a complaint with the BBB. i spend $50-$100 a month on downloadble content and would buy this in a heartbeat since i don't have television. oh well i guess it's back to torrent files for now. again please let's not turn this in to a mac/pc war they're so tiresome.
oh and fwiw, the reason that MLB streams appear to be higher quality has to do with nature of streaming codecs. baseball is a fairly static sport with minimal camera movement and action compared to soccer. video encoders have a much easier time predicting the next frame in an event like that than they do with soccer where the camera is moving all the time.
was he? there's so much international footy available on the 'net for free every week, often of good quality
Are you sure of this? In the past, Safari has invoked an error that said that it couldn't play the stream, but then WMP would play the stream without problems. It's actually far better to work this way since I could resize the window to Full Screen. Are you suggesting that this won't work anymore? That would really suck ass. I ain't got a TV. The live streams lured me back into caring about MLS after losing interest for a few years; I would be upset if I couldn't watch anymore.
you know i could be wrong, and actually apologize if i am, i just re-read the FAQs which were conveniently hard to find and it mentions windows media player 9. which isn't the DRM supporting player so maybe this will work on a username/passcode scenario. i apologize profusely if it turns out i'm wrong. i've gone ahead and ordered my package anyway so i guess i'll find out saturday.
It's available in either format (WMP or MLS's own player that they've been using for the last few weeks). Or not. Here's what MLS says (emphasis mine): That makes me think it's possible, but unlikely. I would try their customer support and see what they tell you.
I'm too lazy to look it up, butI'm relatively sure Sports on Earth does both MLS and MLB. So, I'd imagine the qualities are the same.
I'm kind of suprised that there's not a caption with the disclaimer: "Actual stream will look much shittier, but thanks for supporting MLS."
Well. You can always pay $4.00 for select games. $20 for a whole season is very, very cheap. I am probably going to try it out game by game basis rather than DK. Since Sat. nite games sometimes conflict with my schedule, I'll check em out via net. Last game I saw (HD vs DC) was very good.
Get flip for mac - downloadable plug in for quicktime. It should even play in the embedded window, as it works with other things. Also the cool thing about flip for mac is that with quicktime(pro) you can save the whole stream as a quicktime movie. james
What he said - but you can also have it configured to open a stream into a seperate quicktime window too thus closing the 'web browser-esque' popup and watch more than one game at once as well. ***BUT IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm running Flip4Mac on a iMac G5 20" 2.1ghz - I think the new Intel based systems don't have a native Flip4Mac plugin 'READ not-universal binary yet'. That said I THINK I read something in the last day or two that the plugin is getting Intel Mac based loving soon. ...sidenote Flip4Mac works for me in ALL browsers I've tried Safari/Firefox/Camino. Also running the latest 10.4.6... Heck I was watching streams last season on my #3 machine (now collecting dust) in the household which was running Suse Linux 9.2 through KPlayer frontend MPlayer plugins. Worked flawlessly if you knew how to cut and paste streams. I'm just waiting to see how they deliver the realtime streams (URL) now that we pay for them.
For me it only works when using internet explorer. If using firefox I gues you'd have to cut and paste in WMP? Also MLB may use flash and not WMP. I would think MLS and MLB would use the same tech since the same company handles their web sites.
What exactly does this mean? It would be kinda hard for them to track IP's no? It would be kind of silly (and aggravating) not being able to watch games that I paid for. With increased quality of the streams this could be a great deal especially for those of us who work weekends.
Okay I guess I have my answers. This new service will have games available 24/7 right (not just live)?
when MLS did this through yahoo they did have local blackouts by detecting IPs. they also blacklisted known proxies. It's actually not hard at all to determine location based on IP address for broadband connections. it can be a bit harder for dialup, but the video isn't worth watching on dialup.
a player isn't the problem. i've had flip4mac for ages and WMP. the problem is/may be that most monetized WMP streams use the DRM microsoft introduced with WMP10, for instance the services for the EPL are all WMP10. i assumed and perhaps incorrectly that MLS would follow suit in order to protect their revenue stream. i may in fact be wrong. looking at the rather hidden FAQs they mention WMP9 which doesn't require DRM. so i'm hoping that they are going to use a login/password scenario and just assume that the low $20 price is enough to offset any potential link sharing. we'll find out later today.
MLS is so friggin' stupid: at a time when it makes sense to have the free streams to grow their audience, instead they go to the diehards and the small quick pile of cash just insipid... so much for watching the wizards from time to time
it's the same. the difference is in the level of action being displayed. a simplistic explanation, video codecs work by predicting the next frame so when you have content like baseball that uses very static cameras and have minimal action the codec is more capable of predicting and thus gets you a better picture. soccer because the camera and play is constantly moving the codecs have a harder time predicting the next frame and, again rather simplistic explanation here, increase the pixel block size so there's less to predict. there's also source material as well. even MLS games can vary drastically in quality. last weeks red bull game was horrible. it looked like they were streaming a compressed feed. so maybe MLB has a direct feed for all games. WM has fallen way behind in stream quality (imo), real, qt and flash all provide superior video. the quality could easily be improved with a more recent solution.