NHL Center Ice

[patnyrnyg]

Demand is not the same? You are misinformed. I actually had to turn away 3 people who contacted me over the summer to let them know I didn't have anything for them. Tickets are not hard to get because of the internet and the state's repealing scalping laws. This morning from my desk, I bought tickets for Rangers game in Philly, at the Coliseum, and sunday will buy for a game in montreal. 20-30 years ago, would have to call ticketmaster in philly to get those as you couldn't just call the NY ticketmaster number to get out of market tickets. And, I completely disagree about the lockouts having any impact on demand, especially in NY.

 

[Jersey Girl]

In NY I think the lockouts have < 1% to do with the blame and price has 90%

I'm sure it's a combination...

For me, I would consider buying NHL Center Ice again if the NHL would do something that showed contrition....offering it for free or guaranteeing we'll recieve HD feeds of RSN's from Canadian teams, or a game mix channel showing up to eight games at a time like the NFL and MLB has....something.

 

[haohmaru]

When I had a season sub in 1993-4 the tickets were $16/game. Those same seats are $50-53 now. 300%+ in 20 years and the $40,000.00 a year I was making then is not $120,000+ now.

 

[Oak]

Verizon Fios is doing a free preview of Center Ice through the month of January. They don't have pricing yet for the shortened season but I was told they will have it before the free preview ends.

 

[nyrmessier011]

streamo gonna be up this yr?

 

[kreiderfan20]

Cablevision also has a free preview but they don't offer the package in HD. This sucks. I could add NHL Network in HD for 7 bucks a month or try GCL for 50 bucks for the season. Anyone have an opinion which way I should go?

 

[charlie460]

GCL in NY won't let you watch any Rangers games without a VPN or Proxy.

 

[kreiderfan20]

I get the rangers on MSG. I am looking for something for the out of town games.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

Center Ice doesn't just turn your money over to the NHL solely. I was listening to Bettman yesterday on the radio and he basically said he'd love to be in the position to make Center Ice available for free to the fans but there are too many business partners involved with it (that also obviously make money with it an have employees to pay etc....). You should be happy that's it's significantly discounted, IMHO.

Boomer should have pushed Bettman harder on that point. Bettman could have offered to pick up the tab required by the providers instead of leaving that to us. If he went to the providers and said, look we ****ed over the fans a ton, and you know what long run it's going to be good to give everyone this for free for this season so the owners will cover what you feel you needed to make from these services this year.

But no, because Bettman is a dick and the owners are selfish, greedy ****ers.

 

[RGY]

Cablevision also has a free preview but they don't offer the package in HD. This sucks. I could add NHL Network in HD for 7 bucks a month or try GCL for 50 bucks for the season. Anyone have an opinion which way I should go?

I live on Long Island as well. I was going to school in MA a few years ago when I first signed up for GCL through NHL.com because i got sick of the bad feeds that were free and illegal (not that cared much about the illegal part). What I'm getting at is, when I came back home from school I kept the subscription. I watch it through Apple TV. Have one in the bedroom and I'm getting the new 1080p one for the living room which has my $5K setup.

Basically, as long as you have cable you're good with the rangers games, so the benefit to GCL is a couple hours after the game you usually can watch the rangers game in full (at least the app on my apple tv allows this) with the rangers broadcast or even the opposing team's broadcast unless it was a nationally televised game which would be nbc or cbc. I also enjoy being able to watch other teams, especially the west coast games in case I get home late from work. Plus during this whole lockout I was able to watch any game from the past season for free (which I'm not sure if NHL.com/GCL usually do that or if they were doing that because of the lockout).

All in all, it's preference. I suggest that you should make sure you have a good wireless router otherwise the connectivity will be slow. Sometimes, but rarely when I;m watching a game or rewind of a game the picture gets blurry while it tries to reload or speed up the connectivity speed so that it is back in HD quality. Also I have iO and their HD quality sucks compared to Fios. The game feeds from apple tv look much better than the cablevision feed imo.

...my two cents LOL

 

[kreiderfan20]

I live on Long Island as well. I was going to school in MA a few years ago when I first signed up for GCL through NHL.com because i got sick of the bad feeds that were free and illegal (not that cared much about the illegal part). What I'm getting at is, when I came back home from school I kept the subscription. I watch it through Apple TV. Have one in the bedroom and I'm getting the new 1080p one for the living room which has my $5K setup.

Basically, as long as you have cable you're good with the rangers games, so the benefit to GCL is a couple hours after the game you usually can watch the rangers game in full (at least the app on my apple tv allows this) with the rangers broadcast or even the opposing team's broadcast unless it was a nationally televised game which would be nbc or cbc. I also enjoy being able to watch other teams, especially the west coast games in case I get home late from work. Plus during this whole lockout I was able to watch any game from the past season for free (which I'm not sure if NHL.com/GCL usually do that or if they were doing that because of the lockout).

All in all, it's preference. I suggest that you should make sure you have a good wireless router otherwise the connectivity will be slow. Sometimes, but rarely when I;m watching a game or rewind of a game the picture gets blurry while it tries to reload or speed up the connectivity speed so that it is back in HD quality. Also I have iO and their HD quality sucks compared to Fios. The game feeds from apple tv look much better than the cablevision feed imo.

...my two cents LOL

Thanks for the feedback/opinion. I also enjoy the west coast games which is primarily what I want some sort of package for. Have a good router so connectivity shouldn't be an issue. I have MLB TV premium and I have never had an issue with connectivity. Does GCL offer a free preview to start the season similar to what center ice offers?

 

[RGY]

Thanks for the feedback/opinion. I also enjoy the west coast games which is primarily what I want some sort of package for. Have a good router so connectivity shouldn't be an issue. I have MLB TV premium and I have never had an issue with connectivity. Does GCL offer a free preview to start the season similar to what center ice offers?

I'm almost positive they have some sort of trial, but I don't think it's much. If you go to NHL.com I believe you get to try out part of a live game that is going on. They very well may be running a promotion for a week but I haven't had to look at that stuff in so long that I'm not sure. I usually pay $20/month for a season.

 

[HatTrick Swayze]

Are games that are blacked out due to location (Ranger games in NJ) available on-demand after they're completed? Or do they remain blacked out?

 

[RGY]

Are games that are blacked out due to location (Ranger games in NJ) available on-demand after they're completed? Or do they remain blacked out?

Through GCL I'm almost positive they are available a couple hours after the game, maybe more. I know they were available through my apple tv which should be the same for any streaming device that has the app for GCL. But as far as on demand through another service, I;m not sure.

 

[HatTrick Swayze]

Through GCL I'm almost positive they are available a couple hours after the game, maybe more. I know they were available through my apple tv which should be the same for any streaming device that has the app for GCL. But as far as on demand through another service, I;m not sure.

I should have specified, yes for GCL. Thanks for the reply, think I'm gonna go for it. The SD feeds on Comcast are just so bad.

 

[patnyrnyg]

Are games that are blacked out due to location (Ranger games in NJ) available on-demand after they're completed? Or do they remain blacked out?

I believe the league has a few "no-man lands". Too far from the arena to be able to get the games on their regular carrier, such as if you have MSG, but too close that it is blacked out on center-ice and such packages. I know parts of Connecticut, upstate NY were affected. Not sure if they still are and not sure about Jersey.

 

[SixGoalieSystem]

The free streams have gotten so good in sound and quality that it's as good as GCL most nights, and it is free.

Pros of GCL:

Guaranteed every Rangers game that isn't vs. Philadelphia or Pittsburgh depending on where you live, or nationally televised. (Consider this year a possible close to 25% of the schedule will fall under those 3 exceptions.)

High Quality

Archive anywhere from instantly available to 48 hours for national games.

Cons:

Expensive.

Laggy.

No Post-game shows.

You are on a 15 second to 1 minute delay and there's nothing you can do about it. (This is especially annoying for those of us following the Ranger board's GDT.)

Technical issues at times.

Blackouts.

After last year, my Dad and I decided we would never get GCL again. We had consistent high quality Streamo streams all year and the cons outweigh the pros at this point.

The bolded is basically why I'm not happy with GCL. When I can have the Pre- and post game shows with no delay and equal quality watching streamo and similar sites, GCL loses out. I don't mind paying for hockey, but the delay is really annoying, and I feel the pre- and post game shows are part of the " game day experience".

I went and bought GCL anyway, even if I'll probably be using free streams most of the time, so I guess the NHL won't care about my objections. Even so, I think they're losing money by not offering at least the same as the free streams do.

 

[KreiMeARiver*]

Hearing $60 on DTV for season. Assuming price will be comparable for digital cable carriers.

I just confirmed on the directv site that it's gonna be 4 payments of $14.99 or 1 payment of $59.99

I think I have to get it so I can watch the Oilers.

 

[patnyrnyg]

Boomer should have pushed Bettman harder on that point. Bettman could have offered to pick up the tab required by the providers instead of leaving that to us. If he went to the providers and said, look we ****ed over the fans a ton, and you know what long run it's going to be good to give everyone this for free for this season so the owners will cover what you feel you needed to make from these services this year.

But no, because Bettman is a dick and the owners are selfish, greedy ****ers.

Bettman offered too, but he wanted the money to come out of the player's share and count against the cap.

 

[FJB]

$50-60 isn't bad. A full season should be no more than $100.

 

[Trxjw]

Verizon Fios is doing a free preview of Center Ice through the month of January. They don't have pricing yet for the shortened season but I was told they will have it before the free preview ends.

Nice. Having Fios put in on Saturday in my new apartment. Will give me some time to evaluate the quality.

 

[Jackpot]

Nice. Having Fios put in on Saturday in my new apartment. Will give me some time to evaluate the quality.

You'll love the quality, internet speeds are second to none IMO.. Only downside is dedicated HD broadcast channels for Center Ice.. It was two last season, I've heard they're bumping it to five this year..But with NHL Network, MSG and NBC Sports Network games are plentiful regardless ..

 

[patnyrnyg]

With TWC, I have noticed all the Stand Def channels are now in HD. For example, 2 used to be standard cbs and 702 was high def cbs. now, 2 is also high def. Wouldn't be surprised if the same happens for center ice.

 

[Jackpot]

With TWC, I have noticed all the Stand Def channels are now in HD. For example, 2 used to be standard cbs and 702 was high def cbs. now, 2 is also high def. Wouldn't be surprised if the same happens for center ice.

If only 100% of America had an HD television. It takes the bandwidth of 3 standard def channels to carry 1 HD channel. That's why you'll usually see providers dropping a few pointless (to the majority anyway) channels before adding more HD... Need the bandwidth..

 

[Trxjw]

You'll love the quality, internet speeds are second to none IMO.. Only downside is dedicated HD broadcast channels for Center Ice.. It was two last season, I've heard they're bumping it to five this year..But with NHL Network, MSG and NBC Sports Network games are plentiful regardless ..

Yeah, I had Fios when they first installed it in the region, but then I moved into a place where it wasn't available. Was hugely disappointed to have to let it go, especially considering how bad Comcast is. Until a year ago, in my area, they didn't even have an HD feed for Center Ice. Finally they added one, but by then I had already converted to Game Center which I split with a few of my friends. However, low and behold I start running into bandwidth limits from Comcast (or "xfinity") about 15-20 days into each month and I'm forced to use lower quality bitrates on GCL.

Only downside to CI is that everytime they play the Pens, it'll be blacked out and I'll be forced to listen to their awful announcers. At least with GCL I can bounce myself through a proxy and say I'm out of market, haha.