Watching Spark Sport (including launch and pricing)

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2031 posts

Uber Geek

#2208281 31-Mar-2019 17:03

smcc:

I don't know why everyone fell for the story that the first race was promising, they had plenty of issues, however, last night was exceptionally bad. I guess we were all keen to give the benefit of the doubt.

Why the benefit of the doubt? This is a telco - where internet service delivery (backbone through provisioning and adding service layers on top) is its bread-and-butter. This should be flawless out of the box.

I expected innovation - akin to F1TVPro, with multiple cameras to select + telemetry + bells and whistles innovation that broadcasting cant do. We know its possible - its already offered via F1TVPro (which we cant get, due to exclusive rights coverage owned by Spark, unless we want to use a VPN to circumvent Sparks rights).

Instead we have the internet used purely as a broadcaster, using someone elses broadcast feed on a live+replay basis. its just taken the same end-to-end product offeed by reliable satellite and replaced it with flaky internet (provided by an internet company!).

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niallm90

123 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#2208375 1-Apr-2019 07:40

Got up this morning to watch the GP before work, starting it sometime around 6.30-7am.

First of all, even though I selected watch from the start, it went to the live point so I skipped it back quickly. Then went to cast and again it went to the live point once on my Chomecast. I may have just clicked this too fast but its something that needs to be rock solid for watching sport. Luckily I didn't see the result just some a glimpse of a Riccardo post race interview, if I had seen the podium this would be rather annoying.

Secondly At around 7.20am the stream dropped down to really low quality. I have 200Mb fiber so its unlikley to be my connection. I had seen this happen a couple of times when watching the Australian GP and discovered that restarting the app helps. I went to do that and discovered the live steam had ended. Thankfully 10min later the on-demand version is up but this isn't a very user friendly experience.

davidcole

6034 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2208377 1-Apr-2019 07:41

OnDemand Asset is up now. Broadcast finished at 7am didn't it? So 35 mins, that's better than expected initially.

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davidcole

6034 posts

Uber Geek

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#2208379 1-Apr-2019 07:45

Hmm a really nice feature would be "chapter" marks in the OD asset....ie the actual start of the race etc.

For anyone playing along at home, formation lap is about 40 mins in (the lack on time code in the app makes this really difficult to judge)

langi27

675 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2208384 1-Apr-2019 08:13

Watched the race this morning, start to finish. Flawless, great quality no issues.

I'd be very annoyed if Watch from Start feature took me to the live race.

I'm not planing on watching many live races so this feature will be key for me.

gorringS

71 posts

Master Geek

#2208385 1-Apr-2019 08:14

$19.95 for what sky use to included in there sport package I would say is rip off. Sorry if think it cheaper than sky but you need look at big picture here . Sky use include all this within there sport package splitting it away from sky just created another bill ppl have pay and not any cheaper than what sky was offering with a lot more content along side it.

Benoire

2798 posts

Uber Geek

#2208406 1-Apr-2019 08:21

So I feared this would happen. I got up at 6am to watch the race, suffered the same problems as others... pressing watch from start took you to the live point after the race had finished but after some really bad words around Spark Sport I then tried skipping the stream back which worked. I was 'happily' watching the race when the kids got up after 7am and then they killed the cast from my phone to watch something else.. This meant that at an unknown lap (possibly around 30) I lost access to the live event as the event had ended and was in the wait for the VOD asset... I'm now not going to be able to watch the rest as I have to head to work and so its pointless.

I watched Melbourne and tolerated the initial issues there, but Bahrain takes it to a new level. There are clearly problems that Spark Sport have and its beyond frustrating that they are using the sport I love dearly to trial and test their service. The issue of Live to VOD is going to cause people annoyance as there is no way to continue on from where you left off when it switches from Live to VOD meaning I have to seek around, possibly seeing things I do not want to. We also need bookmarks to get skip around; Sky TV has full fast forward and rewind so you can start from the start and visually get to where you need without issue, On demand does not have that ability and so you skip blind hoping that you don't get too far.. normal tv is fine for this but sport is clearly not good.

Spark Sport, if you are reading this then you need to keep the live event running for quite sometime after the event finishes for those that are caught in the middle of it and then run VOD for starting as soon after the event finishes otherwise the live to vod issue will always be present and this to me is not an acceptable outcome when it comes to Sport.

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smidon

91 posts

Master Geek

#2208407 1-Apr-2019 08:22

niallm90:

First of all, even though I selected watch from the start, it went to the live point so I skipped it back quickly. Then went to cast and again it went to the live point once on my Chomecast. I may have just clicked this too fast but its something that needs to be rock solid for watching sport. Luckily I didn't see the result just some a glimpse of a Riccardo post race interview, if I had seen the podium this would be rather annoying.

This was my experience with the AU race and it's a nightmare (I didn't stream Bahrain this am so cannot confirm - but you have). The cast just seems to be resolutely live.

This needs to be fixed.

ockel

2031 posts

Uber Geek

#2208408 1-Apr-2019 08:22

Race highlights up pretty quickly on Youtube channel too.

And didnt cost a cent.

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"

Benoire

2798 posts

Uber Geek

#2208410 1-Apr-2019 08:23

langi27:

Watched the race this morning, start to finish. Flawless, great quality no issues.

I'd be very annoyed if Watch from Start feature took me to the live race.

I'm not planing on watching many live races so this feature will be key for me.

Yes, watch from start took me to the live point not the beginning and was very frustrating... To be honest the Kodi App seems better than the actual andoid app!

davidcole

6034 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2208411 1-Apr-2019 08:26

Benoire:

langi27:

Watched the race this morning, start to finish. Flawless, great quality no issues.

I'd be very annoyed if Watch from Start feature took me to the live race.

I'm not planing on watching many live races so this feature will be key for me.

Yes, watch from start took me to the live point not the beginning and was very frustrating... To be honest the Kodi App seems better than the actual andoid app!

It's like the start of the live stream needs a choice box - Live or Begin at the Start, before starting the stream. I could imagine that would be very frustrating.

I figured I would watch the OD stream via vpn at work (it's working great), but I've accidentally already seen the result, shouldn't stayed off news sites.

And I've already put in a feedback submission for the IOS app that there should be video time codes and some sort of chapter marks for points in the broadcast to help navigation.

Benoire

2798 posts

Uber Geek

#2208415 1-Apr-2019 08:29

davidcole:

It's like the start of the live stream needs a choice box - Live or Begin at the Start, before starting the stream. I could imagine that would be very frustrating.

I figured I would watch the OD stream via vpn at work (it's working great), but I've accidentally already seen the result, shouldn't stayed off news sites.

And I've already put in a feedback submission for the IOS app that there should be video time codes and some sort of chapter marks for points in the broadcast to help navigation.

It does on the andoid app, just doesn't work!

Al Jazeera had book marks about 6 years ago when I used that service online and they did them as they went and also before hand if they new the timings... F1 is very well timed and so SS should easily be able to insert bookmarks to allow jumping to known points in the stream, we also need some form of Live > VOD resume for continuing on if you have had issues during the live event.

Baldrick

34 posts

Geek

#2208607 1-Apr-2019 13:17

It would be good if for when watching delayed or on demand that it gives you an optioon to skip ahead 20 or 30 seconds, similar to Vodafone TV. That way you can skip through the F1 Logo when Sky Uk are in ad breaks. It is a pain trying to guess a spot to click the time bar to.

Shindig

1586 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2208619 1-Apr-2019 13:39

Subscription suspended.

Sorry, too beta for me.

The little things make the biggest difference.

Benoire

2798 posts

Uber Geek

#2208623 1-Apr-2019 13:48

Shindig:

Subscription suspended.

Sorry, too beta for me.

I'm ultimately thinking this... I need reliability for overnight events and so far I'm not convinced...

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