REA, Inc. Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 Anyone know if we will be able to watch the games at any time, or if we will have to watch them live? I'm sure my girlfriend would appreciated it if I wasn't positioned in front of the computer every Friday and Saturday night this winter.... although she is surprisingly understanding and supportive of my addiction. If you have the hockey package you can watch the game anytime you please because the games will be archived and automatically put into your account. If you buy the game individually you will have to watch it live. Also keep in mind that the demo is a digital recording, the live feeds and archived games will not be recorded but streamed thus making the quality better than the demo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brent_Bobyck Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 That's right. Anyone who's paid any attention to the NY Rangers in the last decade knows that money and "bling bling" does not result in a good hockey team. What does the total salary of the New York Rangers have anything to do with how a building can help a college hockey team recruit and keep their program strong for years to come. NOTHING! And if you paid attention to what I said this argument wouldn't even be happening. REA is not the sole foundation that UND's Hockey Program is built on. Have they won a championship in the new building? No. Have they had any Hobey Baker winners play in the new building? No. The building is simply a stimulant to the program. Something that will force it in the right direction for many years to come. And for those of you who think the building does nothing for recruiting; you might be seeing Zack Parise with a Golden M on his chest if that building never came about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sioux fan in phoenix Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 If you have the hockey package you can watch the game anytime you please because the games will be archived and automatically put into your account. If you buy the game individually you will have to watch it live. Also keep in mind that the demo is a digital recording, the live feeds and archived games will not be recorded but streamed thus making the quality better than the demo. Does this mean that the image quality I currently get on the demo via my dial-up will be better or significantly better when it's streamed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REA, Inc. Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 Does this mean that the image quality I currently get on the demo via my dial-up will be better or significantly better when it's streamed? The image that you see during a live game will be better than the demo. I can not guarantee, however, that the image quality will be greatly affected when you are on a dial-up connection. Remember, we highly recommend you to view the webcasts with a high speed connection for best quality. Christopher Lee Ralph Engelstad Arena Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamStrait Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 Chris, I've noticed on the dataflix website that the free demos (hockey vs. UMD & football vs. UMC) are free only to the first 300 viewers. Will they be available for purchase after the first 300, or will they not be available period? This seems to be a rather low number. I can see this being reached almost immediately, probably with just those that frequent this board. Will there also be a 300 viewer limit to the pay events? Again, if so, that would seem to be a major concern. Also, can you explain why the live (streamed) events will have better quality than the demo? Is not the demo a streamed digital recording? I understand why the current game demo is better than the original one (vs. SCSU), as the original was not a digital source recording, but I'm still not clear why the current demo does not give an accurate sample of what can be expected for the live events. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprig Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 I went through and selected the two freebees and "checked out". Not sure what will happen after 300 users "buy" these free views, but I'd guess it will cost everyone thereafter $8.95. Will add that when my dsl is running correctly and I get the full 222 kbps download speed, the example videos are decent. Unfortunately, for the last couple months my dl speed is often only 20-50 kbps, in which case the flix are not watchable. Hope the ISP cures the problems they've been having but not holding my breath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimdahl Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 I think figuring what to do if 300 people buy it is a problem they'd LOVE to have Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sioux fan in phoenix Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 Unfortunately, for the last couple months my dl speed is often only 20-50 kbps, in which case the flix are not watchable. Hope the ISP cures the problems they've been having but not holding my breath. With all the rampant violent crime & other social ills, rural N.D. has a lot bigger concerns than ISP speeds, sprig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprig Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 With all the rampant violent crime & other social ills, rural N.D. has a lot bigger concerns than ISP speeds, sprig. It took a month to get siouxillustrated across the state, data on phone lines doesn't move much faster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sioux fan in phoenix Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 Don't know about the Twin Cities & the rest of N.D., but here in metro Phoenix there's fierce competition between Qwest & Cox cable. Qwest hypes DSL packages & there are non-stop Cox commercials telling viewers the benefits of digital cable & the "slowness" of DSL. Looks like Cox cable is winning the battle. I'd probably have to shell out $30 for DSL & around $40 for a cable modem if I decided to go that route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REA, Inc. Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 Chris, I've noticed on the dataflix website that the free demos (hockey vs. UMD & football vs. UMC) are free only to the first 300 viewers. Will they be available for purchase after the first 300, or will they not be available period? This seems to be a rather low number. I can see this being reached almost immediately, probably with just those that frequent this board. Will there also be a 300 viewer limit to the pay events? Again, if so, that would seem to be a major concern. Also, can you explain why the live (streamed) events will have better quality than the demo? Is not the demo a streamed digital recording? I understand why the current game demo is better than the original one (vs. SCSU), as the original was not a digital source recording, but I'm still not clear why the current demo does not give an accurate sample of what can be expected for the live events. Thanks The 300 viewer limit was chosen as the number of free views we were going to give out for the two demos. After the 300 free views are given out, the game will sell for $8.95, similar to the rest. The number of viewers that are able to get online at one time and view a game simultaneously is much greater than 300. We plan to see how many people have signed up for a certain game before hand and adjust our bandwidth accordingly. This will allow us to up the viewer capacity for games like Minnesota. The reason why the demo on Dataflix is not internet streamed is because we have never done internet streaming of UND Athletics before so we obviously don't have that available to us. The reason why the demo is of less quality than the live stream will be is because the live feed is shot directly from REA (or the other venues) to our internet company and they put it on the web for us. The demo is dubbed from a tape. We anticipated some skepticism about the demo so that is why we have offered the two live demos that will be streamed. Christopher Lee Ralph Engelstad Arena Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamStrait Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 Thanks for the answers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedorov Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 If you buy the game individually you will have to watch it live. So if you go to the hockey game, you can't try out this service because you need to see it live. I know everyone got all excited before, but there is clearly no attempt to give any help to people that already give their money to see all of the home games. Before anyone says it, "Don't buy it then." OK, that is obviously what is for the best and what I will do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mksioux Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 So if you go to the hockey game, you can't try out this service because you need to see it live. Then order the free football preview. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedorov Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 Then order the free football preview. As previously mentioned, hockey is a lot faster than football. White (e.g., the ice or jerseys) also tends to show more pq problems as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brent_Bobyck Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 So if you go to the hockey game, you can't try out this service because you need to see it live. I know everyone got all excited before, but there is clearly no attempt to give any help to people that already give their money to see all of the home games. Before anyone says it, "Don't buy it then." OK, that is obviously what is for the best and what I will do. What are you going to do, watch the game at the arena and then go home and watch it again? REA & UND are providing this service as another way to allow people to watch UND Athletics, mainly people who couldn't before. Quit complaining about the improvements that are being made to further allow people to follow the Fighting Sioux. Some people take things for granted. If you want mediocrity, go to NDSU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OETKB Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 I have a computer that has 128 RAM, a 300+ MHz intel processor and runs on Win 98 SE with a pretty fast cable broadband internet connection. I downloaded windows media 9 and the dataflix website checker link tells me "You have what it takes to view," but I cannot get the game clip or press conference demos to work. A screen comes up, but nothing ever appears (remains black). Have you heard of this problem? What possible fixes would you recommend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimdahl Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 I have a computer that has 128 RAM, a 300+ MHz intel processor and runs on Win 98 SE with a pretty fast cable broadband internet connection. I downloaded windows media 9 and the dataflix website checker link tells me "You have what it takes to view," but I cannot get the game clip or press conference demos to work. A screen comes up, but nothing ever appears (remains black). Have you heard of this problem? What possible fixes would you recommend? I assume you get this screen: Media player (.gif ~50k) Notice how I have a slightly gray rectangle in the middle of the black and media player controls above the "standard web banner"? That means that the media player object properly loaded in the page. Notice also where I have the buffering message in the lower left of the controls? You should get a similar message when the player first loads. After it buffers to 100%, the message will change to something like "playing". Let me know if you're seeing something substantially different in your popup window. You can also check if the media player is able to talk to the server fast enough by right clicking on that gray rectangle and choosing "statistics". That will bring up a dialog like this: Stats screen (.gif ~15k) Stats advanced tab (.gif ~15k) You can also try accessing a site other than DataFlix to make sure your Windows Media Player is working correctly. launch.com has free music videos that stream over Windows Media (on the video tab) and the first time you try to view one it sends a test video to your media player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OETKB Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 Thanks for the reply! I do get that screen with the gray media player controls box, but I don't believe any "buffering" or "playing" messages appear. I'll try your idea of right-clicking to get statistics tonight at home. Perhaps I need to bite the bullet and get a new, faster CPU. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedorov Posted August 23, 2003 Share Posted August 23, 2003 What are you going to do, watch the game at the arena and then go home and watch it again? REA & UND are providing this service as another way to allow people to watch UND Athletics, mainly people who couldn't before. Quit complaining about the improvements that are being made to further allow people to follow the Fighting Sioux. Some people take things for granted. If you want mediocrity, go to NDSU. Yes, that is exactly what I want to do. I'm not going to every away game. I get bitched at for requesting a package for season ticket holders and now I get bitched at for trying to use the only option season ticket holders are given. I'm sure that REA wants money from season ticket holders to make sure the webcasts continue. There may not be enough money in just selling the service to people like Brent. Again, you have to love this negative environment where people can't try to enjoy these "improvements." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sioux fan in phoenix Posted August 23, 2003 Share Posted August 23, 2003 I'm sure learning a lot re: this webcast. For those of you who get dialup like me these were my statistical results when viewing the Sioux demo game: "The network or Internet connection is: 31.7kbps." "The content is currently being received at: 26.0 kbps." Promising thing is, I didn't notice that much skipping & REA, Inc. stated that the upcoming games would be better. My questions are: 1) Does having a fairly fast processor (2.0 GHz Intel 4 Pentium) help make up for my slow connection speeds & give me a realistic shot at seeing the game somewhat well? 2) What do "buffering" & "rebuffering" mean? 3) If I have a 56k modem, why the heck is my Internet connection a lot slower than that?? For example, I have a 56k modem, it says that my current speed is 40kbps as I type right now & when I view the demo it says that the connection speed is 31.7 kbps. Why the dropoffs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffj Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 1) Does having a fairly fast processor (2.0 GHz Intel 4 Pentium) help make up for my slow connection speeds & give me a realistic shot at seeing the game somewhat well? > No, the quality of the images are directly related to the number of frames per second which can be transmitted via your internet link. 2) What do "buffering" & "rebuffering" mean? > The video streaming normally requires much higher bandwidth than your modem can achieve. So, in order to compensate, it will try to buffer as much of the program as possible while you are pausing or viewing. It is usually a background type of task, which usually requires no intervention on your part. 3) If I have a 56k modem, why the heck is my Internet connection a lot slower than that?? For example, I have a 56k modem, it says that my current speed is 40kbps as I type right now & when I view the demo it says that the connection speed is 31.7 kbps. Why the dropoffs? > The modems will try to connect at 56k, but if the quality of the phone lines involved (and this can be somewhat random depending on your local carrier) then they will step down until they can establish a good connection. To make it even more confusing, just because you connect at a certain speed does not mean you will actually attain that throughput because of a miriad of factors. So, the demo program tests the actual throughput and tries to operate at what it estimates your actual sustainable throughput to be. So, the dropoff is probably because of this. > To do video streaming you will probably need to get a broadband connection of some sort (DSL, Cable Modem, etc.). Dial-up lines unfortunately just won't cut it. You can try to get by with dial-up, but I think you will be frustrated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sioux fan in phoenix Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Thx a lot, Jeff, for answering my questions--appreciate it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
administrator Posted August 30, 2003 Share Posted August 30, 2003 SiouxSports.com will get a portion of the revenue from video broadcast purchases made via links from this site. Live video broadcasts If you're going to purchase video broadcasts anyway, just doing so through this link or the links on the hockey and football pages will not cost you any more but will help SiouxSports.com pay its bills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprig Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 The video broadcast link on the siouxsports hockey page is a dead link, for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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