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shaner
Premium Member
join:2000-10-04
Calgary, AB

shaner

Premium Member

[Hockey] Centre Ice doesn't cut it for me

So, Centre Ice is on Free preview right now. It should be free for the season, but I digress. Anyways, I thought I'd be able to catch the Leafs-Isles game.

Nope. Not on Centre Ice. Not on TSN or TSN2 or SportsNet either. But hey, Centre Ice is giving me BOTH the Home and Away feeds of the Blues-Predators game. BTW, those sweaters the Blues are wearing tonight are absolutely amazing. I want one. But, what I really want is to watch the Leafs.

So, since there's obviously no guarantee the NHL is smart enough to broadcast Leaf games outside of Toronto, forget it, I'm not buying it.

I understand the whole rights argument, trust me, I get it. I bet I could watch every Phoenix or Columbus game this year on Centre Ice, but not Leafs.
shaner

shaner

Premium Member

Oh I see...it's a LeafsTV game. Lame.

BTW again, I cannot believe how many empty seats there are in Florida tonight.

twizlar
I dont think so.
Premium Member
join:2003-12-24
Brantford, ON

twizlar to shaner

Premium Member

to shaner
Its on center ice for me.
Mont
join:2006-05-02
Saint-Leonard, QC

Mont

Member

I have the leafs on game on center ice.

BigSensFan
Premium Member
join:2003-07-16
Belle River, ON

BigSensFan

Premium Member

said by Mont:

I have the leafs on game on center ice.

I think if you live in Leafs territory that you have to watch it on Leafs Tv ... I am in Leafs territory and it is blacked out for me (not that I want to watch it anyways )

shaner
Premium Member
join:2000-10-04
Calgary, AB

shaner to Mont

Premium Member

to Mont
said by Mont:

I have the leafs on game on center ice.

Wierd. I can't find it anywhere. I even looked to see if the channel was locked out in my guide or something. It's just not there.

BigSensFan
Premium Member
join:2003-07-16
Belle River, ON

BigSensFan

Premium Member

who is your service provider? I see it on my Bell Fibe TV (cant watch though)

shaner
Premium Member
join:2000-10-04
Calgary, AB

shaner

Premium Member

TELUS Optik TV. I'd be surprised if this was a provider issue. Centre Ice should be the same for everyone.
shaner

shaner

Premium Member

Okay...wait a sec...they sucked me in.

»www.telus.com/content/tv ··· -ice.jsp

For $50, how can I go wrong?

dirtyjeffer0
Posers don't use avatars.
Premium Member
join:2002-02-21
London, ON

dirtyjeffer0

Premium Member

yea, a few of the "sports guys" at work have the Rogers Super Sports pack...it's $36/month, but it's ridiculous...i mean seriously, how on Earth can you possibly watch that much sports...have you seen that before?

NFL Sunday Ticket
NHL Center Ice
MLB Extra Innings
NBA Season Pass
OHL Action Pak
NCAA Basketball and Football

shaner
Premium Member
join:2000-10-04
Calgary, AB

shaner

Premium Member

Holy crap...that's a lot of sports.

dirtyjeffer0
Posers don't use avatars.
Premium Member
join:2002-02-21
London, ON

dirtyjeffer0

Premium Member

yea, i know...and most of those sports kind of overlap a little (not all on at the same time, or at least for a very limited time), so there is always something on.
vue666 (banned)
Let's make Canchat better!!!
join:2007-12-07

vue666 (banned) to shaner

Member

to shaner
It was on Center Ice in Halifax. Not sure if it was a Leafs or an Islanders broadcast as I was too busy enjoying the Blues-Preds game to channel surf....
vue666

vue666 (banned) to dirtyjeffer0

Member

to dirtyjeffer0
said by dirtyjeffer0:

yea, a few of the "sports guys" at work have the Rogers Super Sports pack...it's $36/month, but it's ridiculous...i mean seriously, how on Earth can you possibly watch that much sports...have you seen that before?

NFL Sunday Ticket
NHL Center Ice
MLB Extra Innings
NBA Season Pass
OHL Action Pak
NCAA Basketball and Football

What no NASCAR? LOL

rodjames
Premium Member
join:2010-06-19

rodjames to shaner

Premium Member

to shaner
It's called Blackout, and it's got nothing to to with Bell, it's got to do with the NHL being a bunch of money grubbing bastards.
Mont
join:2006-05-02
Saint-Leonard, QC

Mont

Member

Im in Montreal with Fibe TV and it was on channel 1426 NHL 1, the broadcast was from Leafs TV.

There is 10 SD and 7 HD channels on Fibe TV , if you get the same amount of channels with Telus then the game should have been on the guide.
booj
join:2011-02-07
Richmond, ON

booj to rodjames

Member

to rodjames
said by rodjames:

It's called Blackout, and it's got nothing to to with Bell, it's got to do with the NHL being a bunch of money grubbing bastards.

The TV stations are the ones that demand games be blacked out to users in their region who do not subscribe to their services, not the NHL.

Gamecentre live + unblock-us FTW.

rodjames
Premium Member
join:2010-06-19

rodjames

Premium Member

I'm sorry, I believe you are mistaken

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl ··· ing)#NHL

eweazel
join:2008-12-09
Etobicoke, ON

eweazel to shaner

Member

to shaner
Yup, Gamecenter plus Unblock-us = no blackouts.

Styvas
Who are we? Forge FC!
Premium Member
join:2004-09-15
Hamilton, ON

Styvas to booj

Premium Member

to booj
said by booj:

said by rodjames:

It's called Blackout, and it's got nothing to to with Bell, it's got to do with the NHL being a bunch of money grubbing bastards.

The TV stations are the ones that demand games be blacked out to users in their region who do not subscribe to their services, not the NHL.

Gamecentre live + unblock-us FTW.

I was looking at that (already have Unblock-US). I checked out the free Highlights section, though, and found the video pixely. It's no worse than watching a game on the CBC website, but for a service I'm paying for I'd want to know that I'm getting high quality picture.

If Centre Ice is only $50, though, that's the same price as game centre and guaranteed picture quality. Hmmm...
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000

Member

said by Styvas:

said by booj:

said by rodjames:

It's called Blackout, and it's got nothing to to with Bell, it's got to do with the NHL being a bunch of money grubbing bastards.

The TV stations are the ones that demand games be blacked out to users in their region who do not subscribe to their services, not the NHL.

Gamecentre live + unblock-us FTW.

I was looking at that (already have Unblock-US). I checked out the free Highlights section, though, and found the video pixely. It's no worse than watching a game on the CBC website, but for a service I'm paying for I'd want to know that I'm getting high quality picture.

If Centre Ice is only $50, though, that's the same price as game centre and guaranteed picture quality. Hmmm...

Gamecenter Live is eons better than the CBC website. Gamecenter's highest bitrate is 4500 and looks to be about 720p in resolution (HD). CBC only airs crappy SD quality feeds?

I think Centre Ice looks better than Gamecenter, but gamecenter gets a little bit better every year, and you do get the flexibility to use proxies to circumvent the blackouts.

I'm actually thinking of using GameCentre this year as I really like the choice I get in the away/home feeds. I also find GameCenter looks better on my Xbox than on the PC. The PC seems to use a lower framerate which makes a pan of the ice look unsmooth.

Styvas
Who are we? Forge FC!
Premium Member
join:2004-09-15
Hamilton, ON

Styvas

Premium Member

I would say that I agree that the quality is higher than watching a game online (e.g., CBC website). However, as the cameral pans quickly, I find the quality goes downhill fast. That might be more about my setup than the actual digital feed, but it's still less than satisfactory for me (even if my situation is atypical). At least the Centre Ice feed is the equivalent of a regular TV feed without that panning problem.
booj
join:2011-02-07
Richmond, ON

booj

Member

said by Styvas:

I would say that I agree that the quality is higher than watching a game online (e.g., CBC website). However, as the cameral pans quickly, I find the quality goes downhill fast. That might be more about my setup than the actual digital feed, but it's still less than satisfactory for me (even if my situation is atypical). At least the Centre Ice feed is the equivalent of a regular TV feed without that panning problem.

After Gamecentre for a few days I think that quality is a bit better than cbc's streams on average.

Apparantly if you are using an app box like Apple TV/XBOX/PS3/Roku it's a less choppy signal. I think I suffer a bit using an old laptop as my media centre.

My one complaint is that when I fullscreen the video stream, its letterboxed even though it shouldn't be. Flash doesn't let me resize it to fit an HDTV screen properly. I think the experience is slightly better on dedicated devices.

That said the discounted $50 price for this season has made the experience pleasurable... or maybe it's just the Sens record so far

Styvas
Who are we? Forge FC!
Premium Member
join:2004-09-15
Hamilton, ON

Styvas

Premium Member

I was viewing the free content on an AppleTV.
NefCanuck
join:2007-06-26
Mississauga, ON

NefCanuck to shaner

Member

to shaner
I ponied up for the Gamecentre Live last night ($50 for the season) and I justified it as a birthday present to myself

Ran the app on an iPad3 with Retina display using a 25/7 Bell Fibe connection and gotta say I was impressed by the video quality (watched CBJ/COL then SJS/PHX)

I'm assuming that even if I used unblock-us now and tried to watch the games on my PC, I'd still get whacked with the regional restrictions, or am I wrong?

Now whether it will look as good on the PS3 to my HDTV is the next step that I'll be playing with this weekend, I think I'm glad I added the 120GB overage insurance to my account cause I'm gonna need it)

Regarding the Leafs games, looks like your only on line option is when CBC is broadcasting them, which is odd since the Leafs used to offer a streaming option to watch their games.

NefCanuck

Styvas
Who are we? Forge FC!
Premium Member
join:2004-09-15
Hamilton, ON

Styvas

Premium Member

said by NefCanuck:

Now whether it will look as good on the PS3 to my HDTV is the next step that I'll be playing with this weekend, I think I'm glad I added the 120GB overage insurance to my account cause I'm gonna need it)
NefCanuck

Let me know how it looks. I'm very curious if you find motion to be problematic like I have on my ATV. On the other hand, it could be that the quality of the free highlights is less than that of the games themselves, since they are no charge to watch.
NefCanuck
join:2007-06-26
Mississauga, ON

NefCanuck

Member

said by Styvas:

said by NefCanuck:

Now whether it will look as good on the PS3 to my HDTV is the next step that I'll be playing with this weekend, I think I'm glad I added the 120GB overage insurance to my account cause I'm gonna need it)
NefCanuck

Let me know how it looks. I'm very curious if you find motion to be problematic like I have on my ATV. On the other hand, it could be that the quality of the free highlights is less than that of the games themselves, since they are no charge to watch.

Will do, I'll also see if I can get the PS3's web browser to display the CBC games on Saturday night (But I'm not optimistic on that particular point, the PS3 web browser is a steaming pile of chicken poop)

NefCanuck
booj
join:2011-02-07
Richmond, ON

booj to NefCanuck

Member

to NefCanuck
said by NefCanuck:

I'm assuming that even if I used unblock-us now and tried to watch the games on my PC, I'd still get whacked with the regional restrictions, or am I wrong?

Unblock-us will let you watch the blacked-out games as well. Works for me.

I heard that the PS3 app wouldn't be ready until February... not sure though.

dirtyjeffer0
Posers don't use avatars.
Premium Member
join:2002-02-21
London, ON

dirtyjeffer0

Premium Member

correct me if i am wrong, but i think those unblock (hide DNS) services add a bit of lag?...maybe that accounts for some PQ issues?
booj
join:2011-02-07
Richmond, ON

booj

Member

said by dirtyjeffer0:

correct me if i am wrong, but i think those unblock (hide DNS) services add a bit of lag?...maybe that accounts for some PQ issues?

It adds a little latency, but only to video sites. Unblock-us is able to handle full quality streaming from most sites I have tried (netflix,bbc, etc).