Hi, baseball season is less than 2 weeks away now and I am interested in MLB.TV. However, I have never been impressed with the quality on my Mac and therefore haven't bought it. Did anyone notice a difference in quality last year or from using it this Spring? If so, what was your setup (Browser, Flip4Mac?, etc.) Thanks in advance.
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Does MLB.TV work any better on Macs this year?
- Thread starter IrishDomer08
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Seems MLB will be using Microsoft's Silverlight Media Player. Mac compatible.
That's if you don't mind installing it. I did a while back while it was is beta and it worked ok.
That's if you don't mind installing it. I did a while back while it was is beta and it worked ok.
You can pay extra for an 800K or 1.2MB video feed with MLB.TV Premium.
While I wasn't blown away with the quality last year, it did what it promised and I was able to watch many Twins games without issue.
While I wasn't blown away with the quality last year, it did what it promised and I was able to watch many Twins games without issue.
What did you find lacking? I am curious. I subscribed to the premium level service last year. I may do it again this year. A few of the pre-season games have been free to watch on mlb.tv. You could give it a try and see what you think.
Twins games?!?! Blasphemy in Chicago.
How'd the Sox finish again?
I also follow the Brewers/Cubs, which probably doesn't help my street cred, eh?
That's the route I'm gonna go...again. I actually liked using Mosaic last season; for the most part, streaming quality was good, & I'll get to watch Fukudome lead the Cubs to the post-season!
Be very wary of signing up for MLB.TV. You may find it's very hard to cancel your subscription once you do. I had a trial subscription last year that, without my consent, rolled into a paid subscription with my card being charged even though I had previously attempted numerous times to cancel the trial before the cutoff date but was prevented from doing so due to "technical difficulties" on their website or unavailability of telephone customer service. It took over 2 months, innumerable telephone hours to customer support spent on indefinite hold, before I finally got the issue resolved and my money (only partially) refunded. During that time I had to open a case with the better business bureau and wrote a letter to the AG's office in the state in which they operated to voice my complaints. For the remainder of the money that I didn't get back MLB.TV, I had to file a dispute with my credit card company.
Turns out I was far from alone. There are many consumer horror-stories out there concerning MLB.TV and their shady tactics, many far worse than mine, and even a webpage devoted to the subject.
Turns out I was far from alone. There are many consumer horror-stories out there concerning MLB.TV and their shady tactics, many far worse than mine, and even a webpage devoted to the subject.
I used to buy the Sox (2004 season) games while I was at school in Canada. Canada blew for baseball, always blacked out the games including the World Series. In any case, the quality on my PB G4 wasn't bad -- ran the best though Real Media (not WM).
mlb.tv is awesome this year. they're using microsoft siverlight media player... i'm watching a spring training game of the mariners on my macbook air right now, smooth smooth picture. probably had a ton of mac user complaints because of last year. so glad they fixed it finally
I guess that depends on your definition of post season. Like for the Cubs, does that mean a few months off after their last regular season game before spring training?
How'd the Sox finish again?
I also follow the Brewers/Cubs, which probably doesn't help my street cred, eh?
Sox finished their season the same day as the Twins
But to be honest I was at US Cellular Field the day of the Twins double header when they absolutely destroyed the Sox . Was not fun. I thought I was watching a Bears/Viking game for a second when I saw the final score.
I've been an MLB.TV subscriber since the beginning and I use a mac.
I haven't been impressed with the new Silverlight player. I just did a comparison on the replay of last night's Boston/Oakland game at 800K (the best that's on offer for non-live games) and the Silverlight replay looked decidedly worse than the old-style WMV played through Flip4Mac in the Quicktime player.
Anyone else finding this?
The hassle is that, once you install Silverlight, mlb.tv no longer offers you the choice of players. The only way to get back to the old way is to uninstall Silverlight.
Has anyone found a compelling reason to switch to Silverlight?
I haven't been impressed with the new Silverlight player. I just did a comparison on the replay of last night's Boston/Oakland game at 800K (the best that's on offer for non-live games) and the Silverlight replay looked decidedly worse than the old-style WMV played through Flip4Mac in the Quicktime player.
Anyone else finding this?
The hassle is that, once you install Silverlight, mlb.tv no longer offers you the choice of players. The only way to get back to the old way is to uninstall Silverlight.
Has anyone found a compelling reason to switch to Silverlight?
I can't seem to get any Montreal Expos games any more through MLB.TV. Very odd and it really defeats the purpose of having it.
Looks like MLB.TV didn't have a great start to the season
http://www.macworld.com/article/132790/2008/04/mlb.html
I almost re-upped last night too.
http://www.macworld.com/article/132790/2008/04/mlb.html
I almost re-upped last night too.
Looks like MLB.TV didn't have a great start to the season
http://www.macworld.com/article/132790/2008/04/mlb.html
I almost re-upped last night too.
I subscribed all of last year and that article reconfirms that I won't be subscribing this year. My experience last year was that sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't and 80% of the time the audio was terribly out of sync. It's astounding to me that they considered their offering as being worth any money at all let alone $120.
I think the final straw was when they sent me an email before the playoffs last year about how great mlb.tv would be for people who wanted to catch all of the post season games. Of course it wasn't that great considering everything was blacked out.
Until I see a large number of glowing reviews, they won't see another dime from me.
Buyer beware.
Edit: From the comments in that article:
1 FPS? Where do I sign up?
Help?
So I was lucky that the Phillies played the Nats their opening series and I could watch on TV in the D.C. market (as horrid as the Nats announcers are), but now I need to rely on MLBTV like the past two years, and also like the past two years, I can't get it to work properly. I'm a premium subscriber and I've downloaded silverlight and nexdef, but the media player stays in a constant state of loading, which leaves me in a constant state of frustration. Also, i can't get the damn thing to play on my PC at work...but I'll save that problem for my IT guys to help me out with.
Any comment on what I might be doing wrong? I've tried the "customer service" in years past, but I think I'd rather be named as a steroid dealer in the Mitchell Report than talk to them again. Any help would be much appreciated.
So I was lucky that the Phillies played the Nats their opening series and I could watch on TV in the D.C. market (as horrid as the Nats announcers are), but now I need to rely on MLBTV like the past two years, and also like the past two years, I can't get it to work properly. I'm a premium subscriber and I've downloaded silverlight and nexdef, but the media player stays in a constant state of loading, which leaves me in a constant state of frustration. Also, i can't get the damn thing to play on my PC at work...but I'll save that problem for my IT guys to help me out with.
Any comment on what I might be doing wrong? I've tried the "customer service" in years past, but I think I'd rather be named as a steroid dealer in the Mitchell Report than talk to them again. Any help would be much appreciated.
Re-Download the NextDef plugin and Mosaic. They update them regularly and the auto update function doesn't work that well. With the newest versions the 1.2MB streams work and look great.
The Montreal Expos haven't existed as a team for several years now. They moved from Montreal to Washington D.C. prior to the 2005 season and became the Washington Nationals. They've been in Washington D.C. for 4 seasons and going on 5. They moved from Canada because Canadian fans were not coming to their games. Their attendance was always the worst in baseball. Many minor league teams got better attendance than they did.
I hate to be blunt, but have you been sitting under a rock for the last 5 years? How the heck can you follow a team and not know that they moved to another country and that their old stadium has been sitting empty since the end of the 2004 baseball season?
It's this sort of nonchalance that led the Expos to move to D.C. in the first place. Canada is probably lucky isn't has lost the Toronto Blue Jays as well. Their attendance has not been great since they won the World Series in 1992 and 1993.
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here, that you had a rough night last night, that you were in a rush this morning and couldn't get that cup of coffee you need to start your day, etc, because I was clearly joking.
One thing I won't give you a pass on is your complete ignorance about baseball in Canada and Montreal. Montreal was not "always the worst in baseball." You fail to mention (to be fair you probably just don't know) any of the other contributing factors involved in the Expos demise. So if you are going to talk like you know things, please back it up.
And if you want to talk about bad attendance, let's mention Washington's piss poor crowds despite new owners and a brand new stadium.
As for MLB.tv, the service is using FLASH this year, they've dumped Microsoft. It is in a beta mode during the spring, with most games using the old player, but by April, all games will be on the new flash platform. It has been awesome during the WBC.
