An absolutely atrocious experience so far. Unusable product. 
I have always said that outside of war and disease, there is nothing worse on this planet than alleged software "upgrades" and "updates".
They had a working NHL.tv product in previous seasons, and now they have destroyed it.
The one positive: shockingly, the subscription price was lower this season than in previous seasons (for us in Europe), because this time, it states the price directly in euros, and no 20% VAT tax was added on top of the price.
That's of little comfort, though, if the product itself is unusable.
I have submitted a complaint via the feedback form; copied below. In the complaint, I forgot to mention that it is, indeed, impossible to start the stream from the beginning if the game is already in progress. That's a huge issue as well, of course.
*****
The replay stream from last nights game Vegas @ LA is totally dysfunctional, missing large portions of the game. I verified this both in the iPad app and in the desktop stream.
The stream itself is only 1 hour 59 minutes long, which makes it obvious it misses big chunks of the game.
The first collapse comes at about the 47:48 minute mark in the stream. With about 3 minutes left in the 1st period, the stream stops, and then it continues with about 3 minutes left in the 2nd period, so about an entire period of play is not available in the stream. (Including missing the Vegas equalizing goal.)
The same thing happens with about 3 minutes left in the game, with the score 3-3. The stream collapses, and then it continued with about 20 seconds left in the game, with Vegas suddenly in the lead 4-3. So, the game-winning goal is missing in the stream as well.
Very troublesome is also that the intermission, pregame and postgame shows are all missing, even though they were available in the NHL.tv app in previous seasons. Please restore them for every game. You can cut away the commercials, but please definitely give us the intermission shows at the very least.
Absurdly, all commercial breaks are retained in full length in the replay stream, displaying a frozen image for even 15+ minutes straight in between periods.
Even this is worse compared to previous seasons, because in previous seasons, the "Commercial Break" screen was dynamic, so that you at least knew that the stream was still live and not frozen.
Now that the "Commercial Break" screen is completely frozen, you can never be sure whether the stream is still live. And, as described above, it definitely wasn't alive for large portions of last night's game.
Also, you regularly cut away the announcers mid-sentence when going to commercial breaks. This never used to happen in previous seasons.
In contrast, you absurdly kept the announcers' small-talk and prep-talk and rehearsals in the replay stream.
Overall, an atrocious experience, and if it doesn't improve, I will ask for a refund.
Thank you for fixing all the issues described above.
I have always said that outside of war and disease, there is nothing worse on this planet than alleged software "upgrades" and "updates".
They had a working NHL.tv product in previous seasons, and now they have destroyed it.
The one positive: shockingly, the subscription price was lower this season than in previous seasons (for us in Europe), because this time, it states the price directly in euros, and no 20% VAT tax was added on top of the price.
That's of little comfort, though, if the product itself is unusable.
I have submitted a complaint via the feedback form; copied below. In the complaint, I forgot to mention that it is, indeed, impossible to start the stream from the beginning if the game is already in progress. That's a huge issue as well, of course.
*****
The replay stream from last nights game Vegas @ LA is totally dysfunctional, missing large portions of the game. I verified this both in the iPad app and in the desktop stream.
The stream itself is only 1 hour 59 minutes long, which makes it obvious it misses big chunks of the game.
The first collapse comes at about the 47:48 minute mark in the stream. With about 3 minutes left in the 1st period, the stream stops, and then it continues with about 3 minutes left in the 2nd period, so about an entire period of play is not available in the stream. (Including missing the Vegas equalizing goal.)
The same thing happens with about 3 minutes left in the game, with the score 3-3. The stream collapses, and then it continued with about 20 seconds left in the game, with Vegas suddenly in the lead 4-3. So, the game-winning goal is missing in the stream as well.
Very troublesome is also that the intermission, pregame and postgame shows are all missing, even though they were available in the NHL.tv app in previous seasons. Please restore them for every game. You can cut away the commercials, but please definitely give us the intermission shows at the very least.
Absurdly, all commercial breaks are retained in full length in the replay stream, displaying a frozen image for even 15+ minutes straight in between periods.
Even this is worse compared to previous seasons, because in previous seasons, the "Commercial Break" screen was dynamic, so that you at least knew that the stream was still live and not frozen.
Now that the "Commercial Break" screen is completely frozen, you can never be sure whether the stream is still live. And, as described above, it definitely wasn't alive for large portions of last night's game.
Also, you regularly cut away the announcers mid-sentence when going to commercial breaks. This never used to happen in previous seasons.
In contrast, you absurdly kept the announcers' small-talk and prep-talk and rehearsals in the replay stream.
Overall, an atrocious experience, and if it doesn't improve, I will ask for a refund.
Thank you for fixing all the issues described above.
