Gone are the days of starring at the radio to listen to the game or reading the newspaper for baseball information. My son will not be able to reminisce about Sunday’s and being excited about turning on WWOR to catch the Sunday Mets game because we can’t get SportsChannel for the weekday games. That was the real game of the week! Oh yea, that baseball almanac someone got you for Christmas last year, just recycle it. It’s way quicker to find the information you need by searching a site like “BaseballReference.com”, instead of going through the table of contents of a book.
Access to baseball is everywhere. On our phones, tablets, computers TV’s. If you have these kind of technologies, then you can connect. Since technology is moving so fast these days, I thought it would be a good idea to explain some of the services I’ve been able to try, and discuss their Pro’s and Con’s.
MLB Extra Innings: “Early Bird costs are $215.00 for DirecTv, or $179.00 for Cox, Comcast, Time Warner and other cable providers. The one thing that I noticed from the cable providers, is none of them label the service is being available in HD. DirecTv’s is in both HD and SD, and that is probably why there is a cost difference. Get up to 80 out of market games, and access to both the home and away teams broadcast (sorry GKR, when LA is playing our boys I’m listening to Vin).
This was the only TV service available until this year, when MLB decided to have it’s cake and eat it too.
MLB.tv: Premium service for $124.99 or $109.99 for the standard package. Both packages allow you to watch live out of market games on your computer. What’s the $15 dollar difference? The premium service allows you to stream games onto your TV (list of supported devices below), iPad and Smart Phone. You also get free access to the “MLB atbat” (normally $14.99) phone and iPad app where you can get live scores and listen to radio broadcasts of all the teams, plus pitch by pitch game cast. _________________________________________________________________________
I’ve had the MLB Extra Innings service for 9 years up until this season. I started with Cox’s offering when I used to live in RI and have had DirecTv’s version for 7 years now that I am in NH. I cannot say enough how much I love DirecTv, especially for sports. You will not get better picture quality anywhere. I can record five games at a time with their DVR service, pause a game and send it to another TV. They also have some in game menu’s where you can retrieve stats and scores, but I’ve always felt it was a little clunky and slow.
This year with the state of the team and my work/life balance, I was having a hard time justifying the $215 this year. The cost used to be $125 at the start and it has gone up in price every year. A couple months ago I caught wind from some of our commentors about MLB.tv and it’s low price point. In researching it I learned that they were adding TV streaming this year, so I had to check it out.
Over the last few days I have been testing the service on my Motorola Android X phone, iPad 2 and Samsung Plasma 1080p TV via my XBOX 360 to get the streaming access. Service on my 2 year old smart phone is what I expected, the picture quality was not great, but if I want to check something out quickly or am stuck in the airport, it is fine. The iPad is stellar. Picture quality is fantastic, and I can also swipe my fingers to display statistical menus and hide them again. Streaming on the TV is great as well. Not as good as the DirecTv feed, but close. HD was crystal clear and the up close or slow moving shots may have been better than DirecTv. The picture just seemed brighter. Where DirecTv has the edge is during the action, but the difference isn’t that noticeable. Where the streamings lower frame rate fails, is when a player is throwing the baseball. You can almost see 2 baseballs at the same time on the throw. Players running and sliding still looked clear though and there was no noticeable latency. The menu system also worked well. Using my XBOX to control the action I can click a button to get scores, or to select another game. Switching between games took about 5 seconds to load the new one. Probably the best feature is NO COMMERCIALS! Just a blue screen saying it’s a commercial break with peace and quiet. I didn’t bother testing it on my PC. I build my own and my 3 year old setup probably still has better specifications than many new models hitting the market, so it’s not really fair to make suggestions off that equipment. I stream games from ESPN all the time and it looks great.
One other thing to keep in mind, is your internet connect. The bigger the pipe, the more you can stream. I currently pay Comcast for 20mg service. By the time it goes though my router and divided up through my TV and other devices, I am getting 14mg at my computer during heavy volume.
For me I was sold once I saw it on the iPad. To be able to watch a game outside on a nice evening, or next to the wife while she watches “So you think you can dance” this summer is going to be really nice. Paying $100 less to access the same games on multiple devices with no commercials, really doesn’t put up a fair fight to the Satellite and Cable providers.
DirecTv and other providers have a free preview until 04/15. Unfortunately MLB.tv does not have a preview option. So if you are interested, do a little research and figure out what works for you.
For a list of MLB.tv supported TV streaming devices goto: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?product=mlbtv&affiliateId=MLBTVREDIRECT#premium_connected
For more information regarding DirecTv’s extra innings package, goto: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/sports/mlb
To test your internet connection speed, goto: http://speedtest.net/
8 comments
Steve from Norfolk
4/8/2012-12:36pm at 12:36 pm (UTC -4)
MLB.tv doesn’t have a preview period, but they offer a free game every day. It may not necessarily be your team, but it’s a good way for you to see the picture quality and other features of the service.
The thing I really like is that all games are archived, so if you miss a game, you can watch it later without having to remember to set your DVR. If you want to watch a game from an earlier season, it’s there too, back to when the service started.
You can also pay monthly, instead of having to pay a lump sum at the start of the season. I live in Virginia, so this is my only option for watching Mets games – Cox has MLB Extra Innings, but they only carry the home broadcasts. If the Mets are on the road, I’m stuck with the home announcers. Who wants to watch the Mets without our buds Gary, Keith, Ron, and Kevin?
I’m sold – give it a try!
saltygary
4/8/2012-12:52pm at 12:52 pm (UTC -4)
Thanks for the added info Steve, that’s great.
One other point that I just thought about with MLB.tv that I am hoping they will fix. When you rewind you don’t know how far back you are. On opening day, I rewound at least ten minutes and after a half hour passed I saw the excitement about Wrights hit, and I completely forgot that I was back in time There was no meter to tell me how far back I was so I just kept hitting the fast forward button until I got there.
Prismo
4/8/2012-1:06pm at 1:06 pm (UTC -4)
I use mlb.tv and I tried it out on my PS3 yesterday – it was amazing. No lag (which was the case last season) and only 20 seconds or so behind the “live” game. Also, the quality is amazing – I’m not sure it’s quite HD, but hell if I can tell the difference. I have a 40″ 1080p screen, and I think it looks great.
It also lets me listen to the radio through my phone if I have to be at work during a game, which CAN be laggy at times, although stopping/starting the stream has fixed that every time.
I do wish I could watch the post-game (the feeds cut off at the first commercial break after the game ends), but it is what it is!
saltygary
4/8/2012-1:28pm at 1:28 pm (UTC -4)
That’s a great point about the post game. For DirecTv you can purchase the sports pack that is about $10-$12 a month and you get all the local sports channels. So I see everything on SNY except the game. If you get both the SNY and the baseball package you don’t have to use different channels. I can keep it on SNY without interruptions.
gategem
4/8/2012-7:22pm at 7:22 pm (UTC -4)
“I build my own and my 3 year old setup probably still has better specifications than many new models hitting the market, so it’s not really fair to make suggestions off that equipment.”
Salt I didn’t realize you were a computer geek. What do you do for a living?
saltygary
4/8/2012-7:52pm at 7:52 pm (UTC -4)
I’m a project manager/trainer with a software company. By no means can I code, but I’ve always have had an easy time sticking circuit boards together. It’s really quite easy at this point. Now you essentially just have to buy the right piece to stick in a slot.
saltygary
4/8/2012-8:01pm at 8:01 pm (UTC -4)
That being said I needed to run into work and catch up on some stuff before I run off to vacation again next month, and streamed MLB.tv off the network today. I believe the office has a 100mb setup through Comcast. It did have a sputter every once in a while. I was running a couple intense SQL Scripts that lasted 20 minutes, but they didn’t take up too much of my computers resources.
That machine has a crappy video card since we don’t need much for graphics, just need to run multiple monitors. (3 people in the office have 4 monitors, and I refuse to go past two so it doesn’t take up too much space on my desk). And I believe it’s only a dual core processor with 4gb. Both my work and home pc’s are the same age and my home is probably 4 times as powerful. I want to upgrade my video card because it’s a dual GPU card and is a little too glitchy for my blood. I should of gotten two single GPU boards. The rest probably doesn’t need to be touched for another 2 years.
srt
4/8/2012-8:44pm at 8:44 pm (UTC -4)
This is great info – especially those out of the SNY viewing area. Luckily, I’m in the SNY area, which comes with my cable package. Which, by the way, does not impress me when it comes to the HD feed.
So those games on WPIX, did you all with DirectTV lose those games?
You know what really frosts me? I would purchase the MLB app for my Android phone for when I’m not at home but Mets and Yankee games both blacked out. Can’t even watch even if I wanted to pay.