Cable For Live Sports Only - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

flamesrule_kipper34 · 08-21-2013, 01:25 PM

Hey everyone,

I'm a Shaw customer for internet and cable, and recently with the add of netflix into our home I've noticed that we watch TV virtually nill right now with the availability of programs on Netflix.

My question is if I were to want to severely reduce how much I pay for TV/internet (which is about $100/month) right now, and I'd want to ONLY have enough channels to watch The Flames during hockey season on TV and not online (TSN/TSN2, Sportsnet, CBC), what are my options and how much would it cost me?

I can ask Shaw themselves, but just wondering if there are any CPers that have done this and what it's costing them...thanks in advance!

Rathji · 08-21-2013, 02:04 PM

I figured it out a couple weeks ago, and my package would drop about $20 a month to cut everything but Internet from my package, so it really wasn't worth it

bossy22 · 08-21-2013, 02:37 PM

I use an OTA antenna and get CBC for hockey night in canada. I don't miss the sports though. At first I did. Now I just put HNIC on. It's like when I was a kid. I just need my dad yelling at me to go play outside.

oilyfan · 08-21-2013, 05:12 PM

If Hockey is all you are concerned about then this is your way:

- Drop everything but Internet
- Buy an Apple TV ($110) and hook it up to your TV
- subscribe to NHL gamecenter ($199) for season
- get unblockus to get out of the blackout ($5 a month)

voila, all televised hockey games for the season

TheSutterDynasty · 08-21-2013, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oilyfan

If Hockey is all you are concerned about then this is your way:

- Drop everything but Internet
- Buy an Apple TV ($110) and hook it up to your TV
- subscribe to NHL gamecenter ($199) for season
- get unblockus to get out of the blackout ($5 a month)

voila, all televised hockey games for the season

And what do you do for playoffs?

WilsonFourTwo · 08-21-2013, 05:20 PM

^ota cbc hd ftw!

flamesrule_kipper34 · 08-21-2013, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oilyfan

If Hockey is all you are concerned about then this is your way:

- Drop everything but Internet
- Buy an Apple TV ($110) and hook it up to your TV
- subscribe to NHL gamecenter ($199) for season
- get unblockus to get out of the blackout ($5 a month)

voila, all televised hockey games for the season

Thanks for the response,

What's the quality of NHL Gamecenter, is it the same as full HD on Cable, and would 20Mbps Shaw Internet suffice for it?

Also is the $199 for Gamecenter including playoffs or?

Thanks!

bluck · 08-21-2013, 06:39 PM

But but but NFL is starting!

Russic · 08-21-2013, 07:10 PM

Gamecenter does not include playoffs

TurnedTheCorner · 08-21-2013, 07:11 PM

No problem for Flames fans for the next few seasons!

ken0042 · 08-21-2013, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluck

But but but NFL is starting!

Once again NFL is available on CTV and City OTA in HD. You would lose the TSN games on Sunday and Monday night.

If TSN were to ever decide to start broadcasting OTA in major markets, that would certainly help a number of people pull the plug.

oilyfan · 08-21-2013, 11:04 PM

No playoffs on gamecenter unfortunately. CBC has a lot of playoffs so maybe use an antenna as suggested or stream online?

To answer the quality question, Gamecenter is very good quality HD, it will automatically adjust quality to match the connection speed. And yes 20mbps Internet will be more than sufficient. I use 50 but I have had 20 before without problems.

Anduril · 08-21-2013, 11:21 PM

Gamecenter is certainly viable considering the savings and amount of hockey you get to watch.
Only issue I had with it is then quality. When you have a solid Internet connection the best you can get isn't quite the same as what TSN and CBC offers unfortunately.

I'm not sure about what the regular season is generally like but during the shortened season with their discounted price, the beginning of the season was a gong show in terms of stability.

Biggest bonus I think is the fact you can watch hockey on the go.

oilyfan · 08-21-2013, 11:31 PM

I agree, the start of the season was very bad. It took them a week or so get things figured out, maybe because the season started unexpectedly but I am not sure that's how it is every time. I know I thought that the quality was very good after the first week.

sclitheroe · 08-21-2013, 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anduril

Gamecenter is certainly viable considering the savings and amount of hockey you get to watch.
Only issue I had with it is then quality. When you have a solid Internet connection the best you can get isn't quite the same as what TSN and CBC offers unfortunately.

I'm not sure about what the regular season is generally like but during the shortened season with their discounted price, the beginning of the season was a gong show in terms of stability.

Biggest bonus I think is the fact you can watch hockey on the go.

I watch all my sports online now (NHL and MLB), and I agree, it's not quite the same as a cable or satellite HD feed - there's something not quite right about the framerate, which is apparent during the camera panning. I wonder if its a very slight difference in the FPS being used - 29.97 vs 30 fps, or some such nonsense.

That being said, you get used to it very, very quickly - my friends notice it right away, but I don't anymore (and honestly, it's not that big a deal)

In terms of early season gong show stability, that's par for the course - I don't think NHLGC has ever launched a season without issues. MLB, by contrast, is rock solid all the time.

In terms of watching on the go, this varies - if you are in-market, and at home on wifi, UnblockUs will definitely allow mobile devices to function, regardless of the location information their GPS is feeding them. In the old days, you could use VPN in conjunction with location services turned off while out on 3G or LTE and get around blackouts, but not anymore - both NHLGC and MLB At Bat require that your location services on your device be enabled. That being said, watching games on an iPad via LTE from anywhere is pretty awesome, other than occasional hiccups or bandwidth drops - spent many bus rides home catching games.

Tinordi · 08-22-2013, 12:18 AM

There's a reason why cable companies are buying up sports franchises and cable channels with high carriage fees for cable companies dominate sports coverage. Live sports is the last hook for many to continue to pay the cable racket. You'll never get adequate competition to the cable monopoly on sports with out major changes to public policy.

nfotiu · 08-22-2013, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

I watch all my sports online now (NHL and MLB), and I agree, it's not quite the same as a cable or satellite HD feed - there's something not quite right about the framerate, which is apparent during the camera panning. I wonder if its a very slight difference in the FPS being used - 29.97 vs 30 fps, or some such nonsense.

That being said, you get used to it very, very quickly - my friends notice it right away, but I don't anymore (and honestly, it's not that big a deal)

In terms of early season gong show stability, that's par for the course - I don't think NHLGC has ever launched a season without issues. MLB, by contrast, is rock solid all the time.

In terms of watching on the go, this varies - if you are in-market, and at home on wifi, UnblockUs will definitely allow mobile devices to function, regardless of the location information their GPS is feeding them. In the old days, you could use VPN in conjunction with location services turned off while out on 3G or LTE and get around blackouts, but not anymore - both NHLGC and MLB At Bat require that your location services on your device be enabled. That being said, watching games on an iPad via LTE from anywhere is pretty awesome, other than occasional hiccups or bandwidth drops - spent many bus rides home catching games.

I tried the GC for a week last year on a ps3, and while the picture was certainly acceptable, the frame rate wasn't. I don't think I could get used to it for hockey. Baseball is fine. HD framerate is generally 60 fps, whereas 30fps is a lot closer to film's 24.

I wonder how long they let people get away with UnblockUs? As some point, the sports rights holders or teams will see it as a threat that they'll try to stop.

Russic · 08-22-2013, 09:11 AM

I would question if UnblockUs is a big enough threat to spend attention on. Tech-minded people are using it, but I wonder if enough are using it to the extent that it's making a dent in profits.

nfotiu · 08-22-2013, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russic

I would question if UnblockUs is a big enough threat to spend attention on. Tech-minded people are using it, but I wonder if enough are using it to the extent that it's making a dent in profits.

That's probably the case for now. At some point, it will probably get their attention, though.

WilsonFourTwo · 08-25-2013, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamesrule_kipper34

What's the quality of NHL Gamecenter, is it the same as full HD on Cable, and would 20Mbps Shaw Internet suffice for it?

Also is the $199 for Gamecenter including playoffs or?

I've run Gamecenter and MLB.TV on my existing 10MB service without any issue.

The games run on the TV while I surf stats/internet/etc on the laptop. Unless Gamecenter requirements have drastically changed (I didn't sub last year) 20MB service will be absolutely sufficient I assure you.

As for NHL playoffs.....sorry, no dice. But CBC over the air is obviously terrific in glorious HD.

If you're cutting cable completely, these streaming packages are terrific. If you're keeping basic cable though, you get better value spending the extra simoleans on a cable sports package.