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MLB TV on the Mac

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nyc310

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 7, 2006
11
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Last season, MLB TV allowed users to watch live games via RealPlayer. However, it seems that the current version of MLB TV has eliminated Real Player support, leaving subscribers with the sole option of watching live games in Windows Media Player.

By comparison, the quality is horrendous and the stream is constantly rebuffering. I wanted to know if there are any alternatives to this and/or other ways of making the viewing experience more tolerable.
 
Flip4Mac is marginally better, but the tradeoff is that you can't watch the games in full screen mode without upgrading to QuickTime Pro.
 
I have MLB.tv and I was also wondering if I could use real player. I have a MacBook and since Windows Media Player isn't a Universal App yet, I have to load it in its own program rather than in Safari. This works out great though, because I couldn't figure out how to do full screen on my friends PowerBook.

I wonder why they took out Real support.
 
I'm thinking about it too - and I also have a MacBook Pro. So I have to install Windows Media Player 9, but does it work properly? What is the quality like?
 
Last season, MLBTV was fantastic. All things considered, the realplayer video stream was very good -- sitting roughly 7-10 feet from the screen, there was no significant difference between the realplayer stream and a television feed. However, as I indicated in the first post, WMP is drastically inferior and, between the poor quality of the stream and the constant rebuffering, makes the games painful to watch at times. It's still four days away until the start of the season, so I'm holding out hope that MLB rolls out an alternative by the start of the season. BTW, the FAQ on mlb.com hasn't been updated in about three years, but to my knowledge, realplayer support has been eliminated in this year's package.
 
How does the blackout issue work? I live in NYC, will I be able to watch Yankees games?
 
No. If you live in NY, you won't be able to watch Yankees or Mets games, as they are televised locally.
 
just out of curisoty, do they determine the blackout region by your billing zip code (ie: can I watch Yankee games if I am away in LA [even though my hometown is NYC])
 
nyc310 said:
Last season, MLBTV was fantastic. All things considered, the realplayer video stream was very good -- sitting roughly 7-10 feet from the screen, there was no significant difference between the realplayer stream and a television feed. However, as I indicated in the first post, WMP is drastically inferior and, between the poor quality of the stream and the constant rebuffering, makes the games painful to watch at times. It's still four days away until the start of the season, so I'm holding out hope that MLB rolls out an alternative by the start of the season. BTW, the FAQ on mlb.com hasn't been updated in about three years, but to my knowledge, realplayer support has been eliminated in this year's package.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Where did you hear or read that Real support was dropped this year?
 
Last season, there was a "Preferences" feature that allowed you to choose between Realplayer and WMP. I noticed that the Preferences option had vanished for the World Baseball Classic games, so I emailed MLBTV and the response was that realplayer support had been dropped from this year's package. A bit disappointing, as PC users are fully taken care of with a usable version of WMP and Mac users have to put up with a version that hasn't been updated in three years.
 
vgoklani: Blackout restrictions are determined by your IP address/actual location. Last year, I watched Mets games from Massachusetts, even though my billing address is in New York.

To those who are considering a subscription: I would recommend it, especially if you are an out-of-market fan. You can always subscribe for a month to get a feel for the package and then make a final decision.
 
nyc310 said:
Last season, there was a "Preferences" feature that allowed you to choose between Realplayer and WMP. I noticed that the Preferences option had vanished for the World Baseball Classic games, so I emailed MLBTV and the response was that realplayer support had been dropped from this year's package. A bit disappointing, as PC users are fully taken care of with a usable version of WMP and Mac users have to put up with a version that hasn't been updated in three years.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. That is disapointing news.
 
need help playing games on MLB.tv

I just signed up for MLB.tv, I used it last year on my PC and it worked fine but I can't get any games to play on my Mac. I've tried only playing archived games, I've tried using both Firefox and Safari and using the Flip 4 Mac plug-in as well as the WMP plug-in. Any suggestions on what's wrong?
 
Re: the question above: did you try unchecking multicast and UDP under protocols in the WMP preferences? You probably did, since you have to make the same change on the PC side. But that's the one thing that occurs to me.

More generally: thanks for confirming that Realplayer support has been dropped (I was hoping it was just a spring training thing). That sucks. Here's another method for watching WMV in full screen (or resizing however you like):

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050524173509986

But the quality of the stream remains much crappier that Realplayer.
 
Pretty much every season since I moved from Texas I've contemplated subscribing to mlb.tv so I could watch my Astros. Now I've got a little extra cash in the bank, and I'm thinking about it again.

Important questions:
1) Does viewing the stream through Quicktime with Flip4Mac suck? I'm on a cable connection, and I'd like to have some decent quality stream going on.

2) Can I only watch games live or can I go back and watch a game later on that evening? (a lot of times, I'd like to watch the game much later on...like at midnight or 1am).

Thanks...
 
OH MY GOD IT SUCKS !!! I have to use WMP to watch MLB.tv now and I can tell you it sucks, just wasted $100... the stream stops every 5 seconds, the sound and video are terrible, and I can't watch full screen.

STUPID JOB MLB.tv for not allowing RealPlayer anymore
 
I definitely sympathize with these complaints -- MLBTV was awesome last year and the WMP feed is not as crisp. I don't think the problem is the feed itself, but rather that the technology to play the feed (WMP) hasn't been updated in years. The quality is much better on the PC. Sucks that Realplayer isn't supported. However it seems more tolerable doing the following: D/L Flip4Mac and the widget linked above (allows you to watch QT in full screen mode). I just watched a few innings, sitting roughly 6 feet from the screen (15" PB) and the quality was good, even in full screen mode.

Re stevietheb:
1) Quality is reasonably good. Not quite as good as last year with realplayer, but much better than I thought it'd be. Obviously its not HD, but if you no other means of following your favorite team, it's a worthwhile investment.

2) Yes. Games are archived pretty quickly.
 
I used the Realplayer streams last year. I'd rate them an A-. The WMP streams, I'd rate a D-.

I purchased the season ticket through Dish this year due to the lack of support for Realplayer.
 
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