Watching Spark Sport (including launch and pricing)

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2031 posts

Uber Geek

#2212793 8-Apr-2019 13:02

Only 4 days til the sessions start for the Chinese Grand Prix - and yet its not listed as upcoming on the Spark Sport website.

Similarly the FIH hockey for Wednesday is missing - and the NZ games for the FIH hockey at the weekend arent listed as upcoming either.

Cmon Spark, even Sky can tell me whats coming up in the next week sportwise. https://www.sky.co.nz/-/this-week-on-sky-spo-1

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205 posts

Master Geek

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#2212847 8-Apr-2019 14:13

tdgeek:

Interesting.

Not streaming pictures just audio?

Don't have the pre post session banter?

F1TV's picture quality is probably better that SS (Less skipped frames and Jitter) ??

I find SS using my chosen platform to be great. Butter smooth 1080p. No video is a no go. Not going pre post banter is a no go, SS has this also. Picture quality? SS is butter smooth. My issues are just the ads, thumbnails to FF, the actual feed is great. I dont do jitter, and for my chosen platform , no jitter

To Clarify:

Not streaming pictures just audio? - that happened on F1TV for only 1/2 of one session (F2 Race 2), all other sessions for the weekend were fine. (this was 1 problem compared to the multiple problems spark sport had over that weekend, including missing the start of the programming for most sessions, Several streams failed on Saturday, including F2 Race 1 and FP3, they only stood up a good copy of F2 Race 1 several days later)

Don't have the pre post session banter? - F1TV only covers the actual on track sessions - it doesn't have the pre-session build up or post session analysis that is part of the skyuk programming used by Spark Sport. (They do have a couple of stand alone programmes hosted by Will Buxton over course of the weekend). Note you also don't get to see the SkyUK cutaway pictures (e.g. over to Karun in the pitlane, or Martin at trackside), however you obviously still get them talking about what you can't see in commentary (they use the FOM World Feed). F1TV doesn't have Ad breaks.

F1TV's picture quality is probably better that SS (Less skipped frames and Jitter). - I stand by this (I am on UFB 100/20). Although the single frame picture quality is generally great I did notice dropped frames quite frequently on the Spark Coverage (Not a full cutout but several frames dropped it results in some jittery on screen movement as it realigns with the audio). The way they handle this is quite good, so it's not overly obvious to the viewer as the preserve the frame before those that are dropped. This was less evident on the F1TV coverage.

Don't get me wrong, I want the Spark Sport offering to be good, I like the SkyUK coverage they use, and will watch it because of that, However in my experience they still have work to do to improve the quality even more. Saturday with them for Bahrain was not a pleasant experience, especially given they didn't have clean copies of the streams that failed to stand up as On Demand content for hours or even days after the event. I don't like the anxiety of "will it work" and "will the on demand content be available" if I don't want to be awake in the middle of the night.

c0ld

234 posts

Master Geek

#2215757 12-Apr-2019 14:11

Updated the spark sport android app last night. Has now broken my ability to cast to chromecast, displaying DRM licence issue. All other apps still casting fine. Tried clearing app data / reinstalling but no improvement. Live & archived content all affected.

Just spoke to support chat and they advised a known issue on the latest app version and they're working on it. If you haven't updated the app recently I'd advising turning off auto update until it passes version 0.3.2. Not to say all android devices are affected but probably not worth the risk with it being a race weekend...

EDIT: Seems casting from browser (Chrome) on W10 giving same issue. Again, only spark sport affected. Can only guess it's a DRM casting issue on their back-end somewhere.

Benoire

2760 posts

Uber Geek

#2215763 12-Apr-2019 14:19

damn thats annoying, mine updated last night and I chrome cast it as there is no other way for me to get the content on the screen, where is the QA spark?

c0ld

234 posts

Master Geek

#2215777 12-Apr-2019 14:26

For a lot of people their free trial is about to expire and they'll be suspending payment in the knowledge things aren't working well / at all depending on their setup. Best thing Spark could do is extend the free trial period to ensure they still have a good pool of beta testers.

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
12999 posts

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Lizard Networks

Subscriber

#2215794 12-Apr-2019 14:38

Benoire:

damn thats annoying, mine updated last night and I chrome cast it as there is no other way for me to get the content on the screen, where is the QA spark?

I've spoken to my fellow testers that work on this.

They tested this in the build before it was published, but unforeseen issues have obviously come up.

As a Software tester, i feel for the guys, this is literally the worst nightmare.

That's about all i can say on the topic.

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Senecio

2676 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#2215804 12-Apr-2019 15:00

I've suspended my subscription. To be honest I had no intention of keeping it. I only subscribed to try it out.

bbunnys

321 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2215821 12-Apr-2019 15:16

I’ll be keeping my subscription for now. As race is good time to watch live.

But when in Europe and I get up at 5am to watch replay and if it doesn’t work or be online by then. I’ll be canceling.

Benoire

2760 posts

Uber Geek

#2215828 12-Apr-2019 15:29

I'm in a similar position, I'll keep this going for this month (prefer it to be free as I'm not convinced spark have this sorted a la the app issue) but to be honest I'm not that confident in the live to VOD issue as I've stated before.

stuker

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2215839 12-Apr-2019 15:42

Watching Chinese F1 Practice 1 live on iPad using Spark Sport App and lost coverage twice.

- "General playback error. An unknown error occurred (-11800) 1300.

Restart of app required.

Some good news is that Airplay to Apple TV worked fine.

tdgeek

29588 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#2215874 12-Apr-2019 17:00

stuker:

Watching Chinese F1 Practice 1 live on iPad using Spark Sport App and lost coverage twice.

- "General playback error. An unknown error occurred (-11800) 1300.

Restart of app required.

Some good news is that Airplay to Apple TV worked fine.

What time?

I had it playing, also on iPad (direct not Airplay/CC) It was playing in the background till 3-25pm, then I had to go. Played fine, no issues.

I raised an issue, that at 1-45pm it was Not Ready Yet (or whatever the app said) and also On Now, but it wasnt able to be played. It started a few minutes later.

c0ld

234 posts

Master Geek

#2215876 12-Apr-2019 17:06

Chromecast kind of working again on OD content. It casts and plays (yay) but if you try skipping to a different time it just starts playing the content right from the beginning. As such if you want to skip you have to stop casting, navigate on your mobile device to the desired time slot, then start casting again.

Let's see if live FP2 starting shortly is fixed too.

EDIT: Able to skip OD content whilst casting now. Experience seems to change from one minute to the next. Doesn't ooze confidence when you're hoping for a seamless live stream.

Lostja

239 posts

Master Geek

#2215881 12-Apr-2019 17:16

Practice 1 OD on Chromecast, there is something wrong with the volume but at least I found some content to watch after skipping part I don't know how long of Sky test screen and a continuous beep. Not a great experience..

tdgeek

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#2215882 12-Apr-2019 17:36

Lostja: Practice 1 OD on Chromecast, there is something wrong with the volume but at least I found some content to watch after skipping part I don't know how long of Sky test screen and a continuous beep. Not a great experience..

I just tested this based on your post. It starts from the start. Plays, volume is normal. What platform are you watching on? I was on an iPad but tested this just now on a Mac laptop, Safari. All fine

c0ld

234 posts

Master Geek

#2215883 12-Apr-2019 17:39

tdgeek:
Lostja: Practice 1 OD on Chromecast, there is something wrong with the volume but at least I found some content to watch after skipping part I don't know how long of Sky test screen and a continuous beep. Not a great experience..

I just tested this based on your post. It starts from the start. Plays, volume is normal. What platform are you watching on? I was on an iPad but tested this just now on a Mac laptop, Safari. All fine

For me personally I'm finding things seem to be broken one second but then working the next.

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