Please help NFL-starved expat!!

[shikimo]

I got my new Mini, my 22" screen, and an ADSL connection that is (barely) fast enough just in time for the NFL season. I go to YahooSports to subcribe to Yahoo GamePass so I can watch all NFL games for $239.99 (which is like 10 Euros these days ), I run the test page...and I find out that with Firefox or Safari you can only watch the videos on this crappy little 3" x 5" window with bad resolution. "To fully benefit from this service, including full-screen viewing capabilities," the support page kindly tells me, "please use Windows and Internet Explorer."

Grrrrrrrr.

Any ideas? Do I have to install Bootcamp or Parallels? I hate Windows and don't want it on my computer, but another season without the NFL...ouch. Is my new Mini (the cheap one, with just the stock 1GB RAM and 80 GB HD) even burly enough to run these programs? Should I just shoot myself, rather than watching the 5 games that will be on TV in France this year, with that same American guy who speaks the worst French ever doing the play-by-play? How do I get his job? On second thought I can't even shoot myself, as it's almost impossible to buy a handgun here. HELP!!!

 

[iBlue]

It's a long shot but have you tried the Safari debug menu? link

 

[Applespider]

I had Game Pass last year and will be signing up again. Yes, if you run it in Safari you get the small window but the resolution is usually pretty good if you have a fast internet connection. I ran mine at 1200kbps and it was crystal clear - although small. You do get used to it - and it's reasonably handy if you want to keep your fantasy stats etc up on the other side of the screen while you watch.

Running Parallels would allow you to make the screen full size though - but then even on the 1200 stream, the quality wasn't perfect.

The Debug trick doesn't work since it's some weird ActiveX component they use in IE to make the window bigger.

 

[Dave00]

"To fully benefit from this service, including full-screen viewing capabilities," the support page kindly tells me, "please use Windows and Internet Explorer."

Yuck.

Of course, the main question is, does the stream using Windows/IE have a higher resolution, or is it just magnified? If it has a higher resolution, you're better off biting the bullet and watching it via windows. If it's just a magnification issue (which I suspect), one trick you might try is reducing the resolution on your monitor. This is what I do to watch ABC shows on my iMac - reduce the resolution, and the video fills the screen. Now, it's chunky, but you can watch it from further away, unlike a (crisper) small video. You do have to make sure your menu bars aren't moved off the screen though.

Dave

 

[Applespider]

Of course, the main question is, does the stream using Windows/IE have a higher resolution, or is it just magnified?

It's magnified. I had a couple of Windows laptop users over last year and we had all three laptops going. Resolution is the same... although it is very variable depending on your download speed. The same laptop on the mid-level streams looked very chunky, on the 1200 it looked fine.

Incidentally, your Mini should be fine. I was running it last year on a 1.25G4 Powerbook without any problems and with other apps running in the background/foreground. It's really quite a nice little service - being able to watch any game and flip between the interesting ones is good. And the extra 24 hours on the archive this year is good too. One thing to bear in mind is that the $239 price runs out today and it goes up to $275?

 

[Buschmaster]

Try hold control while winding your click wheel in and see if it's worth viewing that way. It probably won't be real great, but between a combination of cranking your res down like suggested and the control zoom trick you may get it without installing windows.

 

[shikimo]

Right on people, thanks for the advice...the price does indeed go up today sometime so I should get on it. Some combination of the tricks y'all mention and compromising on screen size ought to get it done without resorting to Windows.

Go Vikings!

 

[Applespider]

Found a screen grab of the quality that I took last season if it helps