Sky outbid for EPL rights (Premier League Pass discussion)

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961 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#880472 18-Aug-2013 11:18

Benoire: Forced to 3Mbps, however it looked like UK Sky Sports from 2005 in SD... except it just wasn't smooth. ...
As I've still got a month left on my Al Jazeera I will use that extensively but I certainly will not be revisiting PLP until they get higher bitrate streams.

Amazing that people can have such different outcomes. How long of each match did you watch?

My wife and I watched it on a 40" LCD through a laptop on HDMI - It's never going to be as good as DVB in HD but neither am I paying a fortune to Sky. If they get the 4.5Mbps stream it may get rid of the occasional problem that I did have.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

JarrodM

978 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#880482 18-Aug-2013 11:36

Have any platinum subscribers worked out how to watch the condensed versions yet?

Benoire

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Uber Geek
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#880486 18-Aug-2013 11:41

@Stablazer

The full 90 minutes as I wanted to give each stream the opportunity to shine. This was on my HTPC connected to the TV. Full wired gigabit connection, HDMI to 51" Samsung Plasma TV, discrete GPU for Live TV (capable of deinterlacing 1080i so has enough grunt for any other video decoding), SSD etc. Connection to the internet is Snap VDSL.

We are watching the same stream, the only difference must be our expectations and what we consider to be good quality. I'm used to HD videos. Have had Sky HD since around 2006 when I first got my HD TV in the UK, since then I tend to avoid none HD feeds where possible.

My biggest bugbear (apart from the stupidity of removing the most simplest way of controlling it and requiring on a friggin' browser controlled by mouse and keyboard or apps that DO NOT include Smart TVs, Google TV or Apple TVs) is that it just wasn't smooth at all. I'm quite sensitive to stutter, and this had it all over the place. In comparison, the NFL streams where fine from what I could tell.

For those that didn't have Sky or only had SD Sky, I'm sure this is fine but for me the EPL in NZ has gone backwards in time given that I support only one team and only care to watch one team and now I have to do it via a really poor method, without the comfort of a remote, and in sh!t quality.

Can you my point of view as to why I'm really bothered by the whole PLP thing at present? If they had bothered to do 'HD' from the start and released Smart TV apps I wouldn't have complained too much (except I still require Sky HD for other sports) but at present its a bastardised way to view the EPL in a lot more hassle and a significantly lower quality.

Chris

expression

236 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 13

#880502 18-Aug-2013 12:15

Just finished watching the Arsenal game on my 40" TV - I was very impressed. As I said last night, its not HD, but its better than Sky SD.

I don't have any major complaints about the system, it's great I can get up when I want to and watch a game on demand. The system has held up very well over the past 24 hours, despite PLP essentially opening the website up.

One point for improvement though, on the highlights page there is now 7 pages worth of highlights, which on the face of it is great, but most of these videos are just 20-60 second-long pieces of match action. It would be great if they could condense these into just one video for each match. If they did that and added HD I would be a very happy man.

Worth noting TVNZ's delayed game is definitely HD.

afe66

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Lifetime subscriber

#880503 18-Aug-2013 12:18

Watched the Norwich game this morning delayed on a 24" monitor as the laptop/42" tv not available.

Quality for me was fine.

Only niggle was the dropped 30s in which of course Norwich scored.

I am prepared to accept lower quality in lieu of actually watching all the Norwich games. With time I expect things will improve with higher bit rates, apps etc so I'm sticking with APL.

- am starting to wonder about keeping the sports once the Ashes finishes not interested in league at all and the All Black games are better to watch in a pub..

expression

236 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 13

#880515 18-Aug-2013 12:25

@Benoire: I also noticed the stutter, but just put it down to the fact I was using Airplay from my Mac. It didn't really bother me too much and only really occurred during scenes where the camera started panning.

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Benoire

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#880521 18-Aug-2013 12:28

@Expression: It wasn't airplay as my system is fully wired in via cat6e cabling to Ethernet ports around the house and it was very noticeable on panning.

JarrodM

978 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 152

#880529 18-Aug-2013 12:44

expression: One point for improvement though, on the highlights page there is now 7 pages worth of highlights, which on the face of it is great, but most of these videos are just 20-60 second-long pieces of match action. It would be great if they could condense these into just one video for each match.

I was under the impression that that is what they were going to do, have a condensed version of every match alongside the full match like they do on NFL gamepass.
Also in their terms of use it says "access to clipped highlights and condensed games" i'd call those 20-60 second videos "clipped highlights" but the condensed games are nowhere to be seen.

Zebbie

27 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 12

#880531 18-Aug-2013 12:48

Thanks to Tiger for the free trial. Just watched 1st half and no buffering on my slowish (5-6Mb) link but my head hurts and I feel slightly seasick.
Reminds me of those early video games.
The pitch changes colour and texture too much and I think makes the movement of players etc seem not natural.

Plp wont be getting my coin until the stream improves

JarrodM

978 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 152

#880532 18-Aug-2013 12:53

Watched some of the Liverpool game and the whole United game (both live) and this is my usage for this morning

it was about 240mb then I watched about 5 minutes of the united game just before and it went up to what it is now. So that's interesting.

richardgnz

64 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 13

#880533 18-Aug-2013 12:53

only really occurred during scenes where the camera started panning.

Which is most of the game... Left to right then right to left.... the stuttering motion was making my eyes hurt. If they can sort out the quality issues I will sign up but at the moment it is unacceptable.

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Apsattv

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#880535 18-Aug-2013 12:57

I took a look it looks like encoding issues involving processing and de-interlacing.

mind you I was more amazed to see the huge security flaws , no geo block and no sub required

dlboy

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#880539 18-Aug-2013 13:11

I used a free 24hr pass, and my overall feeling is pretty happy/impressed. The quality of the feeds are acceptable for me. (i agree it worse than Sky HD, but it not unwatchable) I will be buying the full season pass, As for me this is great, i don't watch that much TV or sports, so a full sky subscription is just not worth it for me. If you are sports fan in general then i can see that this is probably not good for you, for the footies fans out there that support a team outside of the top 6, this is great. PLP can only get better as they get more organised.

walt12

324 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#880540 18-Aug-2013 13:14

I watched Arsenal vs Aston Villa courtesy of Tiger, and apart from the awful result, the quality wasn't good enough for me to pay for it for the season. I hooked up the laptop via HDMI to a 37" plasma, laptop connected to my network via gigabit ethernet stream forced to 3000. Same jerkiness on panning and generally tiring viewing experience I had identified from the test streams.

I really wanted this to work better and to be honest, given the load which I imagine came online, they survived pretty well, but short of Arsenal TV on Sky today being in SD, it's not enough for me to sign up.

PS3 app and higher quality streams and it will tip that equation.

dwl

371 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 46

#880541 18-Aug-2013 13:15

JarrodM: Watched some of the Liverpool game and the whole United game (both live) and this is my usage for this morning
it was about 240mb then I watched about 5 minutes of the united game just before and it went up to what it is now. So that's interesting.

This seems very low unless you have dropped resolution way down. The 3 Mbps stream averages 3 Mbps so if only watching about 100 minutes that should be 3M / 8 × 6000 = 2.25 Gb. More than the FAQ suggests but not too bad and easily fit many games into typical data caps but heavy use will add up. Watch out for RSP meters that aren't real time updates or router counters that might wrap.

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