mlb.tv

by Zachary on Apr 17, 2005 11:36 AM CDT

I had a roommate over the last few seasons, and splitting the cable bill made it affordable. My roommate was also a Cubs fan, so we always tuned into the games on WGN (along with the naionally televised games on other networks).

This year, however, I have no roommate, and I no longer have cable TV since I don't want to spend $50 a month to only watch the Food Network and 5 or 6 Cubs games. I still have cable internet, and I bought a month of mlb.tv to see how it works out.

So far it's been okay. The feed looks pretty decent on fullscreen, and it's great to be able to see every Cubs game that's on when I'm not at work. But sometimes the feed gets choppy, and it's rare to go more than 5 minutes without the image freezing up for a few seconds. For some games, this is really no problem, but on other games it seems like the video feed freezes right in the middle of each pitch thrown. I haven't watched an archived game yet to see if the quality is better when it's not a live feed.

If you're thinking about getting an mlb.tv subscription, consider this a review. If you also have a subscription, I'm curious as to what you think of it. For only $15 a month, I'm fairly satisfied, even though the overall quality varies between pretty good and downright unwatchable. At the very least, I am able to watch a few Cubs games a week for a price far less than the cost of cable TV service.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

Tweet Comment 7 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

MLBTV

I've been pretty happy with MLBTV.com so far (This is my 3rd year with it). OFcourse, anything over the internet, especially streaming video, will have it's moments of being undependable, to put it nicely.

Some of the things i don't like about MLBTV is that it's hard to follow the ball after it's been hit. The clearity really isn't there. Also, it's hard to see players in shadows of a day game wether it be in the dugout or during Cub day games and the shadows stretch over Home Plate. That gets frustrating.

I think the biggest plus of having MLBTV is that unlike MLBExtrainnings, you can watch archived games or that days game starting about 5 hours after it's succession. If I could come home and watch that days Cub game on MLBEinnings, I would get that instead of MLBTV. FOr $80 a year though, I still think it's a very good deal.

by strohdkill on Apr 18, 2005 4:27 PM CDT reply actions

Another benefit

to MLB.tv is that it shows some games which simply aren't televised anywhere by combining the in-stadium camera feed with the home team's radio broadcasts. It's not anything that looks great, but if you've got Carl Crawford on your fantasy team and you just absolutely have to see that Devil Rays-Blue Jays game, MLB.tv is the only way to see the game outside of the stadium.

I find that the feed for the game is better when I resist the urge to surf the net during the game. Also, the fewer games on the better. Afternoon Cub games usually come in pretty well. If the west coast teams are mostly on the road and the Yankees and Red Sox are playing a game that isn't nationally televised, then expect big buffer congestion from 5pm to 7pm Pacific Time.

Anyone can have a bad century

by Josh Timmers on Apr 18, 2005 11:20 PM CDT reply actions

Fullscreen?

I've never been able to make the picture any bigger than the tiny picture it starts out as. How do you watch it in fullscreen?

by dirtydan27 on Apr 19, 2005 4:50 PM CDT reply actions

Nevermind

I figured out how to watch it on fullscreen. For those of you that don't know, you right click on the screen (or ctrl-click for mac's) and select "Full Screen."

by dirtydan27 on Apr 19, 2005 4:52 PM CDT reply actions

fullscreen

Yeah, on mine when I right-click it there is a "Zoom" option, and fullscreen is available under that.

by Zachary on Apr 19, 2005 5:43 PM CDT up reply actions

Forgot about.....

....how on archives how it will suddenly stop and reset every 10 minutes, which is frustrating. Thought that maybe it could be something in my settings, but It's done it the previous 2 years and I just got a new computer, and it's doing it again.

Also, when I watch an archived game, I usually haven't seen the score or anything about the game and don't want to. So now I've literally (loser) made a template for my computer screen that I'll put up which blocks out the Highlites of the game that I am about to watch on the right and to block out the progress meter on the player. I'd use full screen and that would eliminate the need of my little template (and the continuous taunts from my girlfriend) but I simply don't like the way it looks on full screen.

by strohdkill on Apr 20, 2005 1:50 PM CDT reply actions

The best thing about mlbtv.com

is the archived games. I can't tell you how many times I watched that Eric Karros homerun off of Roger Clemmons last year while I was working form home!

I don't know about your computers, but I had pretty bad resolution in the full screen format. My computer was a brand new, top of the line Dell back then, too, with all the bells and whistles. I got a much better picture on the small screen, but then got frustrated with how small it was.

I also had problems with archived games resetting every so often.

by cubbiejulie on Apr 20, 2005 9:37 PM CDT reply actions