Anyone use MLB.TV premium with ATV?

map1978 said:

Was looking into doing the monthly version to test it out. Wanted to get some feedback from people who just picked it up or used it last year.

Would be nice to watch my NY Mess since I'm down in Florida now.

Would the quality been better with the new ATV?

So far I love this ATV...my first

Thanks to all who give helpful input

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It's great. Since I'm 2000 miles away from Chicago, I can watch all of the Cubs regular season and spring training games. However, spring training is not in HD, so I can't comment on the picture quality of the regular season yet. I do kind of wish there was an overlay that you can apply that provides various stats etc.

I got the MLB package which includes all ios devices as well as any other streaming device such as ROKU, boxee, etc. I have had it for the last few years and 1080p streaming on the other devices was better than the 720p streaming on the ATV2. Now that the ATV3 streams in 1080p, it should be just as good. MLB streams at a higher speed than NHL and thus the quality is better. NHL HD streaming IMO is not very good.

First thing I did when I got to Japan was order to watch Pelf implode on the mound! It is great and the price is a bargain for how many games you can see. But I felt the video quality lacked often. Not always hd and u had a lot of issues with games not starting or stopping half way through. I could see no difference between streaming from my MBP or via my ATV not iPhone.

The playoffs and WS were flawless so maybe they fixed it? So far spring training games look great.

Interestingly the NFL Gamepass package blows MLB away, the video quality is just amazing, I am hoping MLB caught up this year.

Anyway for an out of market fan the package is worth it.

I ordered the service last season for the first time and I can watch all Yankee games. The service is for the most part great but there is the occasional city that's camares are not up to snuff and then it will stream in SD.
But for the most part I never had issues with the streams itself I think it's worth it and enjoyed the service and a lot less than the directv price.

I've not been having very good luck with it during Spring Training. I watch the games on my PS3 and there's very little skipping/stopping, but on my ATV2, which is plugged in via Ethernet, stops every ten seconds or so. I'm not sure what the problem could be.

JTStarkiller said:

I've not been having very good luck with it during Spring Training. I watch the games on my PS3 and there's very little skipping/stopping, but on my ATV2, which is plugged in via Ethernet, stops every ten seconds or so. I'm not sure what the problem could be.

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MLB has gone to adaptive streaming this season. It's affecting a lot of older devices including ROKU, Boxee and ATV. It's even affecting the ATV3. The colors occasionally invert for a short time, i.e, blacks turn white.

Anyone from EU here? i just sign up on mlb.tv and got a free game preview
SD@TEX on PS3 and it's horrible! it's like a free streaming site quality( lol maybe because it'a a free preview?) Recaps looks little better but far away to enjoy a game.
i have a stable 10 mb connection.
How different is ATV from PS3? any feedback?

Asclepio said:

Anyone from EU here? i just sign up on mlb.tv and got a free game preview
SD@TEX on PS3 and it's horrible! it's like a free streaming site quality( lol maybe because it'a a free preview?) Recaps looks little better but far away to enjoy a game.
i have a stable 10 mb connection.
How different is ATV from PS3? any feedback?

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It's near the end of spring training. Most of the networks broadcasting those games are likely in the process of transferring all those HD cameras to the MLB stadiums and only leaving behind SD cameras for the remaining spring training games. Opening day is this week, and getting the stadiums ready is in full swing.

It looked pretty good last year and so far this year, the picture quality seems to be a little bit better, but unless something has changed recently, I believe mlb.tv tops out at 720p. I can't seem to find any concrete info on the bitrate or resolution of their streams.

MLB.tv doesn't stream 1080p on any device. 720p is the max.

machpost said:

It looked pretty good last year and so far this year, the picture quality seems to be a little bit better, but unless something has changed recently, I believe mlb.tv tops out at 720p. I can't seem to find any concrete info on the bitrate or resolution of their streams.

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On the ROKU forums it was stated MLB is using adaptive streaming this year to reduce buffering issues.

machpost said:

It looked pretty good last year and so far this year, the picture quality seems to be a little bit better, but unless something has changed recently, I believe mlb.tv tops out at 720p. I can't seem to find any concrete info on the bitrate or resolution of their streams.

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I do agree this year the picture does look better. In fact it is a lot better.

Can you do anything for free on MLB.tv, or is it paid-only?

pilot1226 said:

Can you do anything for free on MLB.tv, or is it paid-only?

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On most days, they do have a Free Game of the Day that you can stream on a computer or iPhone/iPad without a subscription, but in the past these free games haven't been available on the Apple TV.

pilot1226 said:

Can you do anything for free on MLB.tv, or is it paid-only?

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While it isn't free, I did sign up for the $2.99/mo radio broadcast. I've watched a couple Free Game of the Day's on my Apple TV. I'm not sure if you can watch those games on the Apple TV for free.

Thanks for the responses!

The highest resolution mlb.tv offers is 960x540 at 29.97fps with a video bitrate of 2200 mbps. This is not "HD" if you consider HD to start at 720p. It is not bad quality by any means but it doesn't come close to your cable providers feed. I don't know why they don't up the resolution to 1280x720, then they would at least be providing what they advertise. To be honest, I think the reason they do this is because most channels are broadcast in 1080i, and 960x540 is exactly half the resolution. It's the easiest, but also laziest way of encoding, but they probably feel most people won't care or notice the difference.

StinDaWg said:

The highest resolution mlb.tv offers is 960x540 at 29.97fps with a video bitrate of 2200 mbps. This is not "HD" if you consider HD to start at 720p. It is not bad quality by any means but it doesn't come close to your cable providers feed. I don't know why they don't up the resolution to 1280x720, then they would at least be providing what they advertise. To be honest, I think the reason they do this is because most channels are broadcast in 1080i, and 960x540 is exactly half the resolution. It's the easiest, but also laziest way of encoding, but they probably feel most people won't care or notice the difference.

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Looks a lot better than last year. On the MLB site it states you need 3000 kbps download for HD video. Also it is true 720p. Read this article from 2009:

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2009/03/mlbs-hd-video-using-3mb-stream-h264-full-720p-at-1280x720.html

Also on the Roku forum:
http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=48751

Would upgrading to the latest (2012) ATV help with picture quality and/or stuttering? I know that mlb.tv doesn't stream in 1080p, so the increased resolution isn't a factor, but would the faster processor make a difference?

Alright, a few days ago I mentioned that I wasn't getting great service during Spring Training (I realize that those games were in SD only -- it was mainly just buffering and skipping and whatnot), but holy cow. I'm watching the Twins and Orioles now and the picture looks remarkably better! Playback is smooth, no skips or loss in quality. The app isn't nearly as cool as my PS3 one is (with the event timeline and everything), but when just simply watching games, I prefer it on the Apple since it's much quieter.

What a relief!

JTStarkiller said:

The app isn't nearly as cool as my PS3 one is (with the event timeline and everything), but when just simply watching games, I prefer it on the Apple since it's much quieter.

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There's a press release somewhere out there from MLB announcing MLB.tv for 2012 that mentions interface enhancements coming to the app on Apple TV, but with no specifics. Hopefully they'll add the interactive line score stuff.

Oh nice. Very cool. Looking forward to that.