Watching Spark Sport (including launch and pricing)

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234 posts

Master Geek

#2216636 13-Apr-2019 19:12

Benoire: Just lost the stream as the interviews started annoying to say the least. App was running and chrome cast connected but pause /play didn't do anything.

Same exact point. Restarted android app, re-cast & working again.

Benoire

2798 posts

Uber Geek

#2216638 13-Apr-2019 19:14

A shield is a chrome cast ultra its just built in, has the same software as the separate chromecast ultra

Jase2985

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#2216639 13-Apr-2019 19:19

maybe so but it as there is everything else built around it its not the same and any part of that could be causing that

Benoire

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Uber Geek

#2216640 13-Apr-2019 19:23

As I've said before it is only this app that does this on both the shields in the house; YouTube, Netflix, tvnz etc. do not have this issue...

Appreciate the help however I've been through tons of testing myself as I've not missed a season of f1 in over 20 years and after spark bought the rights I wanted to ensure I had the setup ready and working for how I thought initial roll out would be.

Jase2985

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#2216643 13-Apr-2019 19:26

it doesnt matter if you have tried every other platform under the sun, it could be as simple as sparks implimentation of the casting protical, or it could be something in your shield

unless your willing to test you will never know

but heaps of other users have no issues, so the app obviously works fine.....

ockel

2031 posts

Uber Geek

#2216644 13-Apr-2019 19:29

Jase2985:

it doesnt matter if you have tried every other platform under the sun, it could be as simple as sparks implimentation of the casting protical, or it could be something in your shield

unless your willing to test you will never know

but heaps of other users have no issues, so the app obviously works fine.....

Yeah, nah. Reviews on Play store suggest that there are people complaining of clipped screen and absence of screen controls. I think that Spark have said that the majority of users have no issues. But that could be as simple as half having no issues and half having issues.

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Jase2985

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#2216647 13-Apr-2019 19:34

could be, i have no issues so the app must be fine for everyone else...

im trying to help get to the bottom of where the issue lies as there is more than one device involved it could be either of them.

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ockel

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Uber Geek

#2216648 13-Apr-2019 19:41

Jase2985:

could be, i have no issues so the app must be fine for everyone else...

im trying to help get to the bottom of where the issue lies as there is more than one device involved it could be either of them.

And there in lies the big problem. Applications run on non-standardised devices in a wide ecosystem encounter unexpected errors. Users shouldnt be required to devote time and effort to diagnose and rectify these sorts of problems.

I recall when the family flew United in the US. Needed the United App to watch inflight entertainment. Three out of four devices were incompatible with the app - the best result was a black screen when launching the content on one device. On the fourth device (a laptop) the system announced that it required Chrome to run the app - naturally the laptop did not have Chrome and in the air was not able to download Chrome to use the United inflight entertainment. On other flights the back-of-seat entertainment (a standardised controlled environment for hardware and software) worked just fine.

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davidcole

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#2216651 13-Apr-2019 19:45

Benoire:
davidcole:

Benoire: Then I lose elemts of the screen due to the screen size bugs and my laptops do not have the connections for my TV. Bluntly it is only this app that does this and all others are fine so I out my money on the app having issues rather than an android one device

Is anyone else in this thread casting to a shield? And not a chromecast? I know there are a few that are IOS to chromecast (me and tdgeek), and assume there's a couple on android to chromecast. I assume spark has testers of most of the combinations, but a shield may not be one of them given it's not sold locally in nz (just speculating possible differences).

Sheilds are sold by pbtech now and have been for a while now

This I did not know. I thought you had to import them like an Amazon fire or Roku.

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Benoire

2798 posts

Uber Geek

#2216652 13-Apr-2019 19:56

I'll also add that the issues I face happen at complete random. I had all of FP2 and FP3 running via chromecast withour failure or error... I then suffered problems casting to both shields with DRM errors and issues with the app. I'm running an Android One device (so as close to native Android as you can get without it being a Pixel) so I'd expect compliance with the Chromecast protocols to be right and no issues. I concur with Ockel that these end user issues should not be present in this manner; I should not have to troubleshoot through a fully working network and a fully working chromecast setup that is fine for every other app.

Jase2985

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#2216665 13-Apr-2019 20:31

the problem is you cant/shouldnt expect a developer to have to test on every possible device combination out there, its just not practical or possible in most cases.

if it work for most then its likely a nuance of one of the devices you are using. hence why its good to find out which device it is so someone can fix it.

saying my setup doesnt work doesnt help anyone, unless you can say my setup doesnt work and its because of this device. you shouldnt have to do that, agreed but if YOU want the experience to work for you on spark sports you might just have to do it, or go else where.

tdgeek

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#2216674 13-Apr-2019 21:34

Jase2985:

the problem is you cant/shouldnt expect a developer to have to test on every possible device combination out there, its just not practical or possible in most cases.

if it work for most then its likely a nuance of one of the devices you are using. hence why its good to find out which device it is so someone can fix it.

saying my setup doesnt work doesnt help anyone, unless you can say my setup doesnt work and its because of this device. you shouldnt have to do that, agreed but if YOU want the experience to work for you on spark sports you might just have to do it, or go else where.

I agree fully. Benoires Shield might have a glitch, that is common to his Shield and not the usual Shield. That's computers for you. Gremlins. Bad memory where the app sits, might be anything weird. Another user with a Shield who can test in parallel would be handy.

smidon

91 posts

Master Geek

#2216777 14-Apr-2019 09:38

I'm watching SS on a Sony Bravia TV, via latest Chromecast Ultra, cast from IOS off either my iPhone or iPad. I can also watch and cast via Chrome on a Win10 PC, but that's in a different room and impractical.

Since AU I've not tried to watch live so can't comment on that, I'm watching the VOD editions.

Comments re. China so far

- I watched most of Practice 1 until I fell asleep ... it was fine from a picture POV, I'm pretty sure I recall some synchonisation issues during one or more interviews but I can't recall enough to pinpoint.

- I watched Qualy last night ... again good picture mostly (99% of the time or similar) but a couple of pixely patches, and a pause as Martin interviewed the drivers at end of Qualy (others here have noted that glitch)

- can't SS delete the long dead zone (waiting to broadcast or whatever it says) at the beginning of these assets?

Overall I have two gripes ...

1) Once I start casting the cast timing gets out of synch with the IOS version - it's as though (but may not be) one of them resolutely continues to play irrespective of the control inputs (scrub, pause, etc.) I give the other. I know once you start a cast it's a separate instruction to the CC, but the user experience sucks badly.

2) Control of rewind, pause, FF, etc. is a major hassle ... cos there is no such control. I have given HDMI control to the TV remote, but that is very limited (pause, play). So I'm left trying to scrub fwd/back on an IOS device that doesn't know where it is relative to the CC - it's blind man's bluff. The use case is, child walks into TV room "blah, blah, blah" ... sh!t, pause. "Yes what?" "I can't find my ..." "Look in your room". Now, where was I? Hmm ... back 20 seconds ... argggh, I'm back 10 minutes!

My priority request to SS ... please, please, please, prioritise putting user controls into the streams, either speed based like Sky, x2 through to x30, or increments say 10 second jumps fwd/back.

Cheers Don

D.W

726 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2216779 14-Apr-2019 09:51

I had a 403 DRM error last night when I stopped casting then tried re-casting, restarting TV (Sony Android TV) and app and it was then OK.

My playback also pauses every 10 seconds or so for around half a second, but I've got ADSL so I've grown to tolerate it. Plays in the browser without issue though.

If the Shield TV is having issues, I don't think the solution is to not use the Shield TV, ideally Spark should be adding this to a collection of devices used when testing.

Jase2985

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#2216781 14-Apr-2019 10:13

D.W:

If the Shield TV is having issues, I don't think the solution is to not use the Shield TV, ideally Spark should be adding this to a collection of devices used when testing.

No you shouldn't but it might help to be able to prove that the sheild is the issue so then spark know and can fix it. At he moment his issue could be either device.

While sheilds might be good to add to the devices to test, how far do you go along that route? Test on every single Chinese Android box on trademe? With every single phone on sale in NZ? It adds a lot of cost to the testing. More technically orientated users can help out by identifying where issues lie then submitting a report on the webpage.

Spark can't test for every possible senario. The app on one device with the second Android version on another may play differently due to how the manufacturer has intergrated things.

I have no issues on my Huawei mate 9 with Android pie to a gen 2 Chromecast. Nor via chrome on Windows 10 to a Chromecast. Gen 2

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