tdgeek: It will be interesting to see how much some spend over time per month. 4 days is $60, 3 weeks is $60. 

Blurtie:
In an ideal world, if they had a month pass for say $30, even $40 (pushing it), then I probably would jump on that too.  

DizzyD: Going forward I think this is a nice service. The quality was better than some of the free services out there, but far from matched to freeview quality. Even Prime replays seem a little better. (Non HD, but smoother)
I don't think its worth the money. Its expensive for what you get. I can see the benefit, but until the problems are sorted out (With HD), and frame-rate, I probably won't be using it again in a hurry. 
The prices are OK I guess for a decent, non-interrupted Full HD feed.

DizzyD: Used this service to watch the AB game on Saturday night. 

- It did not quiet run at 720p. The sound was patchy every now and again. Picture was not very smooth. Some of the time though it did work, and when it did the picture was nice but not really up to HD standard IMO.
- 540p was much better. Sound good, Picture was also much smoother, but still not really ideal.  

Overall and considering the price it can/should be much better. I can stream Netflix and Vudu movies in Full HD quality. Why is this service not the same?

Another thing I noticed was the bad frame-rate when the camera was panning over a large area. Similar experience for those fast moving shots. It sometimes looked like something that could have been shot with an old iphone at 15frames per second. This was obviously more noticeable on my 50" LCD than my laptop display. 

I also used the service on Sunday morning to watch the Springboks game. Results were similar. At one point though it did die completely but after about 30seconds it restored itself. 

Going forward I think this is a nice service. The quality was better than some of the free services out there, but far from matched to freeview quality. Even Prime replays seem a little better. (Non HD, but smoother)
I don't think its worth the money. Its expensive for what you get. I can see the benefit, but until the problems are sorted out (With HD), and frame-rate, I probably won't be using it again in a hurry. 
The prices are OK I guess for a decent, non-interrupted Full HD feed.

tdgeek: This is the conundrum.

A) Some here say it works well, very watchable, others have issues. It would be good to see what setups/service/location worked well and what didnt

B) If person A said it was good and very watchable, person B may well say, yuk, I won't watch that. Some are more picky than others, some are used to HD, so hearing the comments is a help, but it doesnt fully answer the question of will it be worthwhile

C) The popup question is a good one, as early on it or they were temp channels, F1 in-car, F1 pitlane, then disappear until another temporary content was on. These days they are being populated with content, including V8SC. The reality is there are now SS1-7 not 1-4, but Fanpass is 1-4. That could become problematic.

tdgeek: This is the conundrum.

A) Some here say it works well, very watchable, others have issues. It would be good to see what setups/service/location worked well and what didnt

B) If person A said it was good and very watchable, person B may well say, yuk, I won't watch that. Some are more picky than others, some are used to HD, so hearing the comments is a help, but it doesnt fully answer the question of will it be worthwhile

tdgeek: 

I'm with you. Great idea, I'm ok with the price, if its at least 720p. I'd also be ok if it was 10 minutes behind live, so that buffering can insulate from most variables. The issues you advised bother me. I don't want IMAX, but I don't want non sharp, stutters, either. Possibly not a great deal can be done with motion blur (?)  Take the Jones channel. Old style TV, blurry, but smooth. Don't want that either. Yes, I'm used to HD.

DizzyD:

tdgeek: This is the conundrum.

A) Some here say it works well, very watchable, others have issues. It would be good to see what setups/service/location worked well and what didnt

B) If person A said it was good and very watchable, person B may well say, yuk, I won't watch that. Some are more picky than others, some are used to HD, so hearing the comments is a help, but it doesnt fully answer the question of will it be worthwhile

C) The popup question is a good one, as early on it or they were temp channels, F1 in-car, F1 pitlane, then disappear until another temporary content was on. These days they are being populated with content, including V8SC. The reality is there are now SS1-7 not 1-4, but Fanpass is 1-4. That could become problematic.

Need to compare apples with apples then.

Somebody watching the stream on a smaller TV will not have the same experience as somebody else watching on a larger screen.
Somebody that normally watches only replays on prime will probably also not see much of a difference. 

I am however an HD all or nothing kind of guy. 
Saying that, my wife also watched. She thought it was all fine (except for the sound stuttering now and again on 720p) 

From my experience with Sky Sports HD, the quality has always been exceptionally good. I have never noticed bad frame rates, or those flaws with the fast panning shots. 

Ideally we should be comparing this service to Sky Sports HD (with HD ticket). 
This service is sold as HD, and from my experience it does not quiet cut it. 

Don't get me wrong. The service does work. And despite its price tag, Its just not living up to itself (An alternative for Sky Sports HD).

If I had Sky Sports HD, and now cancelled my subscription for this. I would be hugely disappointed. 
So just a word of warning for those jumping ship. Make sure you test it first, and are happy with what you see. Watch a live game.
If you happy with whats on Prime and could not be bothered about the finer things, then don't bother about this post. Chances are the service will probably suite you just fine.

tdgeek:

Agree 100%.  I have Sky Sport HD, so either I'm picky or I'm used to it. I'm not sure what SS HD looks like if you dont have the HD ticket, but I'd excpect I;d be ok with that, a step down from great, to very good. I alsio hate stutters, and sync issues, although sports doesn't matter with sync issues

And no popups, that is an issue. 

However, after RWC seeing as its around the corner and F1 is still on, I will can Sky after RWC, Fanpass or no Fanpass. I'll hope that Fanpass improves, and I'll use LB and NF and the Dish FV+ recorder. Nice wee combo

Jaxson:

tdgeek: This is the conundrum.

A) Some here say it works well, very watchable, others have issues. It would be good to see what setups/service/location worked well and what didnt

B) If person A said it was good and very watchable, person B may well say, yuk, I won't watch that. Some are more picky than others, some are used to HD, so hearing the comments is a help, but it doesnt fully answer the question of will it be worthwhile

Agree.

Resolution was ok, 1080 should be a longterm target.

Framerate was an issue for me.  Not sure if this was local connection related (as in does my laptop have the grunt to display something nicely in the first place?).  May test with a DVD etc.  Resolutions selected may cause issues with the TV also, hard to know.  Traditional TV, via freeview UHF or Sky satellite etc does seem much smoother than what I was watching via fanpass, hence my comment of you could tell it was streamed.

I wonder about either local connections (especially over wifi) if there are other devices, tablets/phones etc on the wifi at the time.  Some reporting stuttering/buffering issues were hard wired though which makes me wonder if there were capacity issues from internet providers, or if there are some providers that are more suited to this service than others.  The example was when people switched from home broadband to cellular data and the service improved.  This might be something sky and fanpass/neulion want to tackle with the major providers.   Providers really need an 'Optimised for fanpass' sticker on their websites fore example.

It's a brave new world as there aren't many other local options for sports streaming, unless you go the geo unlock route.

New Lion or New Lee On?

DizzyD:

tdgeek: 

I'm with you. Great idea, I'm ok with the price, if its at least 720p. I'd also be ok if it was 10 minutes behind live, so that buffering can insulate from most variables. The issues you advised bother me. I don't want IMAX, but I don't want non sharp, stutters, either. Possibly not a great deal can be done with motion blur (?)  Take the Jones channel. Old style TV, blurry, but smooth. Don't want that either. Yes, I'm used to HD.

To be honest, when watching sport I will gladly sacrifice the higher quality for a smoother game.

I could not care less if this was 1080p. If its not smooth, its not worth it. 

Saying that though. I think when it comes to the quality, 720p is probably the lowest I would go. This should be the benchmark. 
Its 2015, I can understand the need for a 540p under very limited certain circumstances. But 360p and 240p? Are those settings some sort of bad joke?