dagies Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 http://theralph.com/webcast.htm While checking the Sioux Illustrated site this link came to my attention. This is pretty cool. I'm assuming any televised Sioux sporting event would be accessible via the webcast? Anyone have details? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimdahl Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 http://www.dataflix.com/ Looks like $9/game or $100/season. To help you decided how well it works for you, you can see a sample by watching a game or press conference at the above link. It looks like the first two hockey games will be free to help get the word out. [edit-- changed post to reflect that they did change the price from $.01 for 1st two games to free, and the URL changed; apparently it's currently under construction] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprig Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 Interesting; the HOF game and Sioux/Concordia are listed as free. Good time to try it out. The preview game of last year's SCSU/Sioux game is not too good at this end; probably the quality of my broadband connection. The preview video (Chance's End), however, is very good. Guess the HOF game will help decide whether I want to pay or not, although I may just drive to GF to see that one, if I can get in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagies Posted July 31, 2003 Author Share Posted July 31, 2003 That should be a good game to see, vs. Duloot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taz Boy Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 ...The preview game of last year's SCSU/Sioux game is not too good at this end; probably the quality of my broadband connection... No, it's the damn Huskie goal and subsequent 5-3 that causes the marginal video quality. heh, heh. taz digs broadband Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprig Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 No, it's the damn Huskie goal and subsequent 5-3 that causes the marginal video quality. heh, heh. taz digs broadband They could have picked a better portion of that game, not that I could see anything anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mksioux Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 Maybe someone with more knowledge of webcasting can opine about this. I'm not familiar with the technical aspect of it, but it just seems to me that the technology exists to produce a better picture. The quality of ESPN motion is tons better. Perhaps the picture quality is limited by the technical capabilities of WDAZ or whoever is producing the game? If so, I wouldn't expect an improvement next year. It would be nice to buy the premium package for the same price as the basic package...but to do so requires a purchase by Septemeber 15 (before I would get a chance to see the quality in one of the free games). I guess beggers can't be choosers...it's another option for those of us held captive in the Twin Cities during hockey season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimdahl Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 The quality of ESPN motion is tons better. The trick to ESPN Motion is that it doesn't stream. It puts an app to your computer that downloads video clips in the background. That way it can spend a minute or two downloading a 15 sec clip, hence the quality can be much higher than if they had to stream video to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprig Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 Jim, Does the quality of the broadcast have anything to do with it? I have broadband both at the office and at home, and since the stream is buffered, I don't get skips, etc. However, the quality of the webcast is still poor, just shadows, or very pixelated. The sample news conference is, however, very good, the hockey preview, poor. Slight difference in the office 'puter, assume slighty newer and better graphic adapter than at home, but still not good enough to watch. Bottom line, doubt that I'd watch for free, much less pay for it. Taz Boy apparently gets a fairly good picture?? What are the combos of hardware, internet speed that make this work well for someone, somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedorov Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 I think the quality is definitely lacking. When I went to the link it was $150, not $100. It says there are single games and two packages, but I only see one. I would think a package for just away games would be needed. I suppose more information will be out in a few weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mksioux Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 I would think a package for just away games would be needed. I don't see that happening because it would require REA or WDAZ to send a production crew on the road...which is expensive. What ever happened to UND's talks with Victory Sports to carry away games? I've heard both Mankato and St Cloud have inked deals with Victory. Come on...there's a way bigger following for Sioux hockey in the Minn-Dak viewing area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REA, Inc. Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 Hello Sioux Fans! I am an employee for Ralph Engelstad Arena, Inc. and I am in charge of the webcasting of UND Athletics for next season. We are excited to bring this groundbreaking technology to Sioux Fans all around the world. I wanted to clear up any questions or concerns that you might have about webcasting. We have just wrapped up fine tuning how we are offering our games over the web and have finalized the schedules. We decided that the number of games that we were initially offering just weren't enough. Ultimately, we have split the sports up into packages. Instead of the three home football games offered, we are offering all of the home games in our Football Package. The four men's and four women's basketball games that are being played at The Ralph will be put into a basketball package. But we have added the most to our Hockey Package. We came to the conclusion that the men's home games weren't enough. So we are going to include the road men's hockey games and all home women's hockey games as well. In addition to receiving the games for the package you purchase you will also receive archived games and news conferences relative to your sports package. For the all-around Sioux Fan you can purchase all sporting events on the web via our Sioux-per Pass. With this you will receive every UND game and event that is being offered. Games will also be offered on a per game basis. We have switched around our free demo games as well. It made no sense to have our free demos a month into the "webcasting season." So we have taken the free demo from the men's hockey game versus Concordia and switched it to the Potato Bowl football game versus Minnesota-Crookston. (The Minnesota-Duluth men's hockey demo will stay the same.) The Potato Bowl will be a historic game because this will be the very first live internet streamed game in UND History. This will also give you an opportunity to see the quality of the live streamed game. The demo that is on the website of last year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mksioux Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 Thanks for the info Chris. I just checked out the sample press conference and the video quality ismuch better. ...and I stand humbly corrected on the road games comment. With that new package, it looks like I may not be leaving my computer room this fall/winter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamStrait Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 Chris, I think what you guys are planning to do is great. I look forward to trying the webcast service out for the Tater Bowl and HOF game. If the quality is similar to that of the sample news conference, I can see myself using the service quite a bit, even though I'm a (non-local) season ticket holder. The addition of the men's hockey road games is a fantastic idea. If you guys can get Tim Hennessey to do the webcast play-by-play, your offering would be irresistible for nearly every Sioux fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprig Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 Yes, thanks Chris for the info and the answer to my email questions. Hope it's ok to post your answer to my "full screen" option here, in case others are interested. The Dataflix page and the official Sioux Media Player is the only way to view the games. Due to items in our agreement with Broadband Video, who runs dataflix, we can not allow any other way to view the game on your computer. Due to advertising reasons, we can not offer a full page option. We are currently trying to make a full page available that allows for the advertisements still to be seen. Realize the full page option would further decrease the image quality, but, would be nice to try it anyway. Again, thanks for the info. Does anyone know where a "discount code" for dataflix checkout might be found? Note to self: start new account- $150 - Sioux webcast (if quality is good) $2000 - new computer $unknown - better broadband provider (currently and probably forever unavailable here) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimdahl Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 When I went to the link it was $150, not $100. This inflation is getting out of hand! A few observations/tips- Though the resolution of the video is fixed (320x240) and you can't make it full screen, you can make it take up more of your screen by changing your video resolution in the display applet of your Windows control panel. At 640x480 or 800x600, the window will take up most of your screen. The video seems to be a fixed bit rate of 222Kb/s. The lowest end package of almost any cable modem service I've seen includes at least 384Kb/s downstream. If you can carry at least 300Kb/s downstream, it's unlikely that the image quality is being degraded because of bandwidth limitations. If you right-click on the video and choose "statistics" you can see if your connection is dropping frames or not. It is possible for system speed/video card quality to hamper playback because modern codecs do some pretty fancy math. The resolution of these clips are low enough that bus speed (internal communications inside your PC) is unlikely to be a problem. My nowhere-near state-of-the-art laptop (1Ghz) renders the video just as well as my desktop. Modern video codecs (compressors/decompressors) work by recording only the changes between frames. Therefore, the less motion, the higher the image quality. Even from equal quality sources (which Chris indicated these were not), a press conference is going to look a little better than a fast moving game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedorov Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 It would be interesting to see if the picture quality is improved. Even if it cannot be the full page, I would like to see it on a big screen TV. I know there are people that hook up their PC's to projection TV's. I would assume that would be wanted so people don't have to huddle around a computer monitor. It would be nice to split the costs too since it might be up to $500 by the time the season starts. BTW, I think it is weird that there is a concern about advertising when you are already paying for the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagard Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 Webcasting is a great idea. Is there any chance they will archive the broadcast and allow downloads of the games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagard Posted August 2, 2003 Share Posted August 2, 2003 Any chance of single game sales? Being a Gopher fan, I'd pay $5 to watch the Sioux when I could, but $150 is a little steep considering I wouldn't care much about most non WCHA games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedorov Posted August 2, 2003 Share Posted August 2, 2003 Being a Gopher fan... You don't know how to read what is posted or go to the link? It is $8.95 for one game. They now have the "hockey only" package back up for $99.99. Now if they only put the "away game" package up for the season ticket holders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagard Posted August 2, 2003 Share Posted August 2, 2003 You don't know how to read what is posted or go to the link? It is $8.95 for one game. Oooops! Thanks for repeating the info! Nine bucks for the Sioux and BC is easily worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedorov Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Yes, thanks Chris for the info and the answer to my email questions. That isn't fair. I e-mailed him about the away game package and he didn't respond to me. He had no problem saying no to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedorov Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 I received my answer. There will NOT be an "away package" for season ticket holders. To make a long story short, they want as much money as possible and do not care if you already pay for tickets. To be fair people with cable would probably only get the "away package" as well, but it is something that could easily be verified with season ticket holders. So, I refuse to give them any more money for the service. It is all about the bling bling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwing77 Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 Federov- Should we be surprised by that? "It's all about the bling bling." Comon! Step inside the Ralph sometime and you will realize that it is ALLLLL about the bling bling. Every bit of it. I am not sure how much money UND picked up on the REA or whether the donation covered everything, but they are out to make boat loads in that place. $325 for season tickets to a college event? That's right up there with season tickets for professional sports in some places. They even have an organ in the place that doesn't work! That place is pure profit for the REA management and UND athletics. Since you don't see the Alerus center vying to woo the Sioux hockey team to their facility for a few games there really isn't any other acts in town. No competition = high prices. So, yes, it is all about the bling bling. The students are lucky that season tickets are under $100. I wonder for how long that's going to last. Business is Business folks, it's all about the money. Everyone who thinks otherwise is either insane or communist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mksioux Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 $325 for season tickets to a college event? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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