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NHL.TV / Center Ice / ESPN+ Discussion - Part IV [See the warning in OP]

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Every time I watch ESPN plus, it seems like they black out the commercials.. I don't understand why the commercial timeouts is just a blank screen and silence.

Is there a story behind this?
 
JoeGarelli said:
Every time I watch ESPN plus, it seems like they black out the commercials.. I don't understand why the commercial timeouts is just a blank screen and silence.

Is there a story behind this?
Click to expand...

They insert their own commercials and some platforms the app is on are able to insert ads itself.
 
I paid for the NHL TV subscription through the app and run it on Google TV, 2 questions:

1) I live in Alberta and thought the Oilers and Flames games were going to be blacked-out? I noticed I have no blackouts unlike when I had Center Ice where the local games were blacked-out.

2) Is it me or the feed on the NHL app is darker than when I watch it elsewhere?

Otherwise, the app is amazing and I have had zero issues with quality or streaming.
 
Aud One said:
I still notice it every game I watch (Canada - Rogers NHL Live). For me though, it starts out fine and gradually gets worse during each game (sound moves ahead of video). Using Apple TV 4K and I've been sort of assuming the Apple TV NHL app is what is causes the problem. For me, it seems like commercial breaks or intermission breaks is where it gets worse. Sometimes I notice it after the 1st period, and other times it doesn't become noticeable until the 2nd intermission. I have to leave the game and restart the feed in order to re-sync it. This is pretty annoying for a paid service. I contacted Rogers and created a ticket (they responded to tell me it was fixed) but 2 games later it's still happening. I haven't tried on any other device yet but I would like to for comparison.

Can anyone else confirm a similar issue?
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No issues like that with my Roku or my Apple iPad but the Roku isn’t perfect either . If a game is in progress sometimes the white scorebox will give away the score . If I’m watching a game live I will watch on my Roku but if I don’t want to know the score I generally will watch on my IPad .
 
awfulwaffle said:
Just curious, why not? It's super cheap, just skip starbucks for a day.
Click to expand...

#1 Don't do Starbucks! :)
#2 I'm not cheap. I just don't have a modern TV. Yup, I still have a 25" big box of a TV. I do plan to upgrade it this year though. So there's still hope for me :)

P.S. I just noticed you're in Dallas. I have family in Holliday, TX just outside of Wichita Falls.
 
I found ESPN+ to be disappointing last week I signed up for a year and started to watch a game. right from the start it was constantly buffering and by the third period I would get an error saying unable to play video and I would restart it and it would be a minute and a half further into the game. No other streaming apps have ever even buffered on my fire stick 4k.
 
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So, I don't know if I'm missing something here... but about a 6-10 times while watching a game full screen on mobile, I get a blue button/advertisement across the entire portion of the screen for an upcoming UFC fight, NCAAF game, whatever... there's no option to close it - in fact, it doesn't even prompt you to click it, it's just a big blue button that you can't get rid of.

You have to click it and leave what you're watching... then go through the process of finding the game you were watching on their live listings, which already takes several clicks to get to.

And to make matters slightly more annoying, whatever the event they're advertising is ISN'T even live... or HOCKEY.

And the game I was watching isn't even in their live listings, so this time I had to go to the NHL app, then click Watch, which takes me back to the ESPN app and fires up the game......... where I already was.

This is probably the worst UX experience I've ever seen on a modern mobile app.
 
Canada-wise, anyone have SN360? I subbed to Game Centre last year but the Flames were blacked out because of the archaic ass CRTC. I thought about getting SN360 since SN owns the rights to the Flames.

Do I need cable TV to sub? I'm afraid that I'll pay for a sub and then have to wait 48-hours to watch a game.
 
I am surprised ESPN hasn't done anything to improve their service a little under 2 months into the season. I'm sure they are hearing the complaints, but it's almost like they don't care. I know NHL.TV wasn't all that great, but I still think it has been a downgrade from last year to this year and the reason why it's cheap is because they lost a lot of features, things people actually found useful.
 
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I Hate Blake Coleman said:
Canada-wise, anyone have SN360? I subbed to Game Centre last year but the Flames were blacked out because of the archaic ass CRTC. I thought about getting SN360 since SN owns the rights to the Flames.

Do I need cable TV to sub? I'm afraid that I'll pay for a sub and then have to wait 48-hours to watch a game.
Click to expand...
Just as a note, regional blackouts are an NHL policy and have nothing to do with the CRTC.
 
Has anyone experienced issues watching through their Playstation? I find I get much smoother streams through my PS4 versus casting but whenever I try to watch through my Playstation it doesn't seem to recognize my subscription. It works on my phone & desktop but not the Playstation, this only started happening a week or so ago.
 
In The Netherlands we are, starting in the current season, dependant on ESPN Player for our hockey. A service that is, frankly, not very good. I would love to lodge some complaints with them. Apparently ESPN in London, UK is responsible for the player, but apparently they do not even have a phone number. There is no contact information apart from a physical address. So weird for a media company of that size.
 
DutchHockeyGuy said:
In The Netherlands we are, starting in the current season, dependant on ESPN Player for our hockey. A service that is, frankly, not very good. I would love to lodge some complaints with them. Apparently ESPN in London, UK is responsible for the player, but apparently they do not even have a phone number. There is no contact information apart from a physical address. So weird for a media company of that size.
Click to expand...
ESPN reminds me of the famous response by a crusty telephone operator in a popular comedy show in the U.S. many years ago: "Well sir, of course we know, but we don't care...we're the phone company."
 
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Defender219 said:
Has anyone experienced issues watching through their Playstation? I find I get much smoother streams through my PS4 versus casting but whenever I try to watch through my Playstation it doesn't seem to recognize my subscription. It works on my phone & desktop but not the Playstation, this only started happening a week or so ago.
Click to expand...

No issues here aside from some buffering once or twice a game. Make sure your app on the PS is up to date, and maybe reinstall it if there's still an issue.
 
DutchHockeyGuy said:
In The Netherlands we are, starting in the current season, dependant on ESPN Player for our hockey. A service that is, frankly, not very good. I would love to lodge some complaints with them. Apparently ESPN in London, UK is responsible for the player, but apparently they do not even have a phone number. There is no contact information apart from a physical address. So weird for a media company of that size.
Click to expand...

What are your main complaints? ESPN player is not perfect but I wouldn't say I'm disappointed in the service either. I seldom watch the games live though, maybe if you do that there are more problems with buffering and overall quality?

Since I always watch on replay the next day I like the fact that the commercial breaks are edited out altogether, something NHLTV couldn't be arsed to do in all those years.
 
Westlander said:
What are your main complaints? ESPN player is not perfect but I wouldn't say I'm disappointed in the service either. I seldom watch the games live though, maybe if you do that there are more problems with buffering and overall quality?

Since I always watch on replay the next day I like the fact that the commercial breaks are edited out altogether, something NHLTV couldn't be arsed to do in all those years.
Click to expand...

Actually the commercial breaks were cut out of replays in 15 or 16 but when the nhl wanted to be more like the mlb app commercials stopped getting cut out. It is stupid and annoying AF but hit the skip 30 secs button 4 times and youll be right where u need, on aps with out skip ahead the fast forwarding is certainly annoying and doesnt work properly
 
Westlander said:
What are your main complaints? ESPN player is not perfect but I wouldn't say I'm disappointed in the service either. I seldom watch the games live though, maybe if you do that there are more problems with buffering and overall quality?

Since I always watch on replay the next day I like the fact that the commercial breaks are edited out altogether, something NHLTV couldn't be arsed to do in all those years.
Click to expand...

The editing out of the commercials is certainly a positive. In general I do think we took a bit of step back from NHL TV. My main complaint is the lack of 'smart' support by ESPN. There are no apps for Android TV, Apple TV, smart-TV's. Since I prefer watching the games on my living room television this means I have to airplay streams from my phone to the TV. That leads to issues a few times every game, where the stream suddenly stops and have have to find my phone again to reconnect. It happened three times during the Maple Leafs vs Avalanche-game that I watched yesterday.

I find having to cast streams in general not a very pleasant experience. There is a reason these smart devices were invented, they make life easier. I would not nearly use Netflix and other streaming services as much if I had to find the stream on my phone and cast it to the TV. The same is true with de ESPN Player. I do not watch nearly as many games as in pst years because I cannot start the stream from my remote while watching TV and scrolling the apps to find something new to watch. I am basically just watching all the Maple Leafs-games, because they are appointment games for me. I rarely tune into random games.

There have been more technical glitches. There have been quite a few Canadiens games that have no commentary track at all. The game sound is there, but the talking heads and commentators are silent. Some would find that a blessing, it should be an audio option, but it clearly is a fault.

The inclusion of pre-game coverage and intermission analysis seems to be very random. Especially on Sunday mornings I like to really sit down to watch the coverage and for many years we got the full Hockey Night in Canada-coverage. I miss that.

But the fact that a modern media company that holds media rights worth many billions cannot be bothered to develop an app for my Apple TV that can be used outside North America is dumbfounding. It really is not that expensive to develop. I would love to express my displeasure about that to the service I am paying for.
 
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DutchHockeyGuy said:
The editing out of the commercials is certainly a positive. In general I do think we took a bit of step back from NHL TV. My main complaint is the lack of 'smart' support by ESPN. There are no apps for Android TV, Apple TV, smart-TV's. Since I prefer watching the games on my living room television this means I have to airplay streams from my phone to the TV. That leads to issues a few times every game, where the stream suddenly stops and have have to find my phone again to reconnect. It happened three times during the Maple Leafs vs Avalanche-game that I watched yesterday.

I find having to cast streams in general not a very pleasant experience. There is a reason these smart devices were invented, they make life easier. I would not nearly use Netflix and other streaming services as much if I had to find the stream on my phone and cast it to the TV. The same is true with de ESPN Player. I do not watch nearly as many games as in pst years because I cannot start the stream from my remote while watching TV and scrolling the apps to find something new to watch. I am basically just watching all the Maple Leafs-games, because they are appointment games for me. I rarely tune into random games.

There have been more technical glitches. There have been quite a few Canadiens games that have no commentary track at all. The game sound is there, but the talking heads and commentators are silent. Some would find that a blessing, it should be an audio option, but it clearly is a fault.

The inclusion of pre-game coverage and intermission analysis seems to be very random. Especially on Sunday mornings I like to really sit down to watch the coverage and for many years we got the full Hockey Night in Canada-coverage. I miss that.

But the fact that a modern media company that holds media rights worth many billions cannot be bothered to develop an app for my Apple TV that can be used outside North America is dumbfounding. It really is not that expensive to develop. I would love to express my displeasure about that to the service I am paying for.
Click to expand...
Ah I see. My Philips tv uses android and I could download the ESPN player app through the Google Play store. Does that option not exist for you? You may need a gmail account. The app can be a bit clunky at times but usually works ok
 
The responses here to ESPN make me glad I stuck with DTV Center Ice, even though I miss some games.
 
So, is there anywhere to stream NHLN games after the fact or are those just lost if you miss them?
 
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