REDCast for 2009-2010

So, it looks like Cornell changed the implementation of REDCast away from the platform-independent video stream we enjoyed the last couple of years. When I follow the link this year from Linux it rolls over to [www.cornellbigred.com] which gives me a meaningless page consisting of

Showcase

Alternative content

Get Adobe Flash player

Of course, I already have a working flash player installed.

Has anyone tried to access the REDCast from a mac or other system which might violate the assumptions of bad web designers?

Appears to work fine from a mac. do you have flash player 10? (i'm not suggesting it's a requirement, or that it would fix things..just curious)

hm. Seeing the words "All Access" made me suspicious. I just looked at a couple things, and here are my observations:

1) Login from last year's RedCast still works...I think I signed up for a year in November. Archive still accessible going back to at least the spring. So that's a positive.

2) It says "All Access - Powered by SIDEARM Showcase." A search for "SIDEARM" brought me to a new flash-heavy version of the ICS website, which is the same company that has been providing RedCast for the past two years, which is a good thing, for the most part.

3) Under the About Us link: "ICS key technology is SIDEARM (Sports Information Distribution Engine with Archives and Records Management), a web-based content management solution that includes everything from press release and roster management, dynamic scoreboards, sponsorship recognition, interactive polls, SIDEARM STATS (live in-game statistics), streaming audio and video, and newsletter and recruiting components." Uh-oh. Note also the graphics bar containing ICS's logo has the phrase "COMPLETE ATHLETICS WEBSITES" and it sounds very marketing-y. And similar to how the CSTV craziness websites started going downhill.

4) Clicking on an event doesn't bring up a separate application (like WMP in Windows) to stream the event. It plays in the web browser with Flash, and on my laptop, the image is tiny despite the width of the player window (probably less than 1/3 the screen height.) Don't like. Clicking the "full screen" button doesn't take it to actual full-screen mode, but just a bigger picture in the browser with navigation buttons splayed across the bottom 1/6th or so of screen real estate. Thumbs down.

5) I'm in a hotel with sluggish internet, and it seems to play smoothly, so that's good. I wonder if performance will still be good for live events with a significant number of users all viewing.

6) "Manage my account" and "Tech Support" buttons bring up forms very quickly with your info and "submit" buttons, which is good. You can also easily edit your account information. "Key SIDEARM Staff" link on the ICS page provides email addresses.

7) About us: "ICS has a client list that includes over 315 athletic clients from around the country including Cornell University..." The home page lists 2 dozen or so schools choosing SIDEARM to "power" their websites. We've had ICS before, and it was solid, but not showy. I guess we were one of the guinea pigs to start a business model and now it's going to new, annoying levels of marketing. CSTV CSTV CSTV warning!

I'm weary.

Is tomorrow night's exhibition game (or Satruday's for that matter) is going to be available on RedCast?

ansky629
Is tomorrow night's exhibition game (or Satruday's for that matter) is going to be available on RedCast?

It appears that both games will have video webcasts.

cbuckser

ansky629
Is tomorrow night's exhibition game (or Satruday's for that matter) is going to be available on RedCast?

It appears that both games will have video webcasts.

Aw,crud. I was counting on one more weekend of sleep! GMT was bad enough but now I'm on CET...

Robb

cbuckser

ansky629
Is tomorrow night's exhibition game (or Satruday's for that matter) is going to be available on RedCast?

It appears that both games will have video webcasts.

Aw,crud. I was counting on one more weekend of sleep! GMT was bad enough but now I'm on CET...

They're exhibition games. Go to sleep and watch the archives in the morning.

Robb

cbuckser

ansky629
Is tomorrow night's exhibition game (or Satruday's for that matter) is going to be available on RedCast?

It appears that both games will have video webcasts.

Aw,crud. I was counting on one more weekend of sleep! GMT was bad enough but now I'm on CET...

Actually, you're still on CEST until Sunday morning, right? At least you get one week of CET while we're on EDT, and then you can have the same time difference you had when you were on BST.

I did manage to get it to work (turns out I had an old flash 9 plugin lying around that was getting in the way), but I share Rich's annoyance that they took something simple and convenient and replaced it with flash-heavy crap.

jtwcornell91
I did manage to get it to work (turns out I had an old flash 9 plugin lying around that was getting in the way), but I share Rich's annoyance that they took something simple and convenient and replaced it with flash-heavy crap.

The flash and the bling... isn't that what the kids today want? Something new to keep them amused and redirect their attention every 5 seconds?

(so is there an emoticon depicting a cranky old person saying "get off my lawn"?)

Rita
(so is there an emoticon depicting a cranky old person saying "get off my lawn"?)

I logged onto Redcast early to check the links, etc. The women's game is currently on the men's feed so I have a chance to preview the quality.

Image is low res but the stream is unbroken. Single camera mounted up by the press box, same as always.

Lynah lighting is no better.

Ambient mics are *very* sensitive. Excellent sound no matter where the play wanders.

There's a pause option that works, and FFW, REW that don't, even if you pause to get behind real time. I assume the latter features will work on archive only.

There's a full screen mode that I *think* may change the aspect ratio a little, making the image more square than rectangular. There's no concomitant change in resolution, so full screen renders very blocky.

All in all, nothing flashy but quite serviceable, if the stream integrity stays the same. Higher res would make full screen worthwhile, but at $70 for a full year's subscription I doubt they're working with great equipment.

This was all run on Windows XP via Firefox.

Linux Firefox tip (don't know if it applies to Windows): if the video player starts jumping around with the scrollbars appearing and disappearing, add the following to {your firefox profile}/chrome/userContent.css:

html { overflow: scroll; }

This will add scrollbars to every page, whether or not they overflow, which appears to solve this particular issue. You can probably do something specific to redcast with greasemonkey or stylish.


Observations on video quality: the video is lower resolution than in past years, but much smoother and clearer in action sequences. The codec they're using is obviously better suited to sports than whatever they've used in the past. I'd call this an upgrade in video quality, despite the lower resolution. I'd prefer to have both (better codec and higher res), but I am not expecting miracles.

Let's go Red!

Does anybody else think they need to turn the gain up?

Yes. Fuzzy.

Working well on Firefox on a Mac, btw

Sounds like they're messing with the audio, trying to fix it.

Sounds like the teacher from the Peanuts cartoons.

Audio seems very muffled and very static. And even with my speakers plugged in, the volume is very low.

Hillel, I love your cranky old man graphic!!

Terrible audio, fancy graphics

Anybody having trouble trying to purchase a subscription? I've tried two credit cards so far, and no dice.

mnagowski
Anybody having trouble trying to purchase a subscription? I've tried two credit cards so far, and no dice.

I had no problem 3 hours ago, but it was a renewal.

Garman in goal.

Doesn't everyone seem kind of "tall?"

I just purchased without issues. It's nice hearing Elie on the cowbell right now.

Picture seems much improved over years' past, and the camera person seems to be doing a better job following the action. Now if they can only work on the audio...

So for the last part of the 2nd period and now in the 3rd, the video feed has been very stop and go, and lots of freezes to go along with the muffled audio. I was just wondering if this is a "me" problem or a "Redcast" problem.

It is a new season, a new mac, my parents' internet feed.. so just wondering how much trouble shooting I need to do. Thanks.

Rita
So for the last part of the 2nd period and now in the 3rd, the video feed has been very stop and go, and lots of freezes to go along with the muffled audio. I was just wondering if this is a "me" problem or a "Redcast" problem.

I haven't had any trouble with the feed at all.

Other than the audio, the feed is great for me.

Scersk '97
Doesn't everyone seem kind of "tall?"

Yeah, same thing for me.

I restarted FireFox and that seemed to do the trick, nice flowing video.. I guess things stalled when I was moving the computer around and running the computer solely on battery power.

Neat graphics and all, but you would think they would figure out a way to have the time remaining showing along with the score and period. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Scersk '97
Doesn't everyone seem kind of "tall?"

Mike's secret summer training program.

Scersk '97
Doesn't everyone seem kind of "tall?"

Interestingly, in full-screen mode on a 16:9 flat panel everything was in proportion. The picture did seem compressed horizontally in the smaller "native" mode.

How much is RedCAST?

They make you give your name and email, and create a user name and password, before ever showing you the price of the service.

Simply brilliant.

Jordan 04
How much is RedCAST?

They make you give your name and email, and create a user name and password, before ever showing you the price of the service.

Simply brilliant.

$34.99 for the men's hockey package. I think it was ~$70.00 for the all Cornell Sports plan.

Rita

Jordan 04
How much is RedCAST?

They make you give your name and email, and create a user name and password, before ever showing you the price of the service.

Simply brilliant.

$34.99 for the men's hockey package. I think it was ~$70.00 for the all Cornell Sports plan.

Thank you Rita. Any single-game or monthly packages available anymore?

Jordan 04

Rita

Jordan 04
How much is RedCAST?

They make you give your name and email, and create a user name and password, before ever showing you the price of the service.

Simply brilliant.

$34.99 for the men's hockey package. I think it was ~$70.00 for the all Cornell Sports plan.

Thank you Rita. Any single-game or monthly packages available anymore?

Select items from the RedCast Menu....

REDCAST Yearly Subscription - $69.95
BEST VALUE! All video content and archived materials for all sports. Good for one year from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from year to year.

REDCAST Monthly Subscription - $15.95
All video content and archived materials for all sports. Good for one month from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from month to month.

REDCAST Pay-Per-View Pass - $6.95
All video content and archived materials for one day. Good only for the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew.

REDCAST Men's Ice Hockey Season Pass - $34.95

REDCAST Women's Ice Hockey Select Pass - $19.95
All video content and archived materials for selected home games (see schedule). Good for one year from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from year to year.

REDCAST Men's Basketball Season Pass - $34.95
All audio and video content and archived materials for men's basketball. Good for one year from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from year to year.

REDCAST Wrestling Season Pass - $24.95
All video content and archived materials from wrestling (does not include the Body Bar Invitational). Good for one year from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from year to year.

REDCAST Men's Lacrosse Season Pass - $24.95
All audio and video content and archived materials for men's lacrosse. Good for one year from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from year to year.

there's a women's ice hockey season pass? seriously? it's a shame how cornell is trying to swindle the parents of the women's ice hockey team.

...now let me go hide. i can hear jerseygirl coming.

it's a shame how cornell is trying to swindle the parents of the women's ice hockey team.

Who said Cornell is even making any money off of the service?

Rita

Jordan 04

Rita

Jordan 04
How much is RedCAST?

They make you give your name and email, and create a user name and password, before ever showing you the price of the service.

Simply brilliant.

$34.99 for the men's hockey package. I think it was ~$70.00 for the all Cornell Sports plan.

Thank you Rita. Any single-game or monthly packages available anymore?

Select items from the RedCast Menu....

REDCAST Yearly Subscription - $69.95
BEST VALUE! All video content and archived materials for all sports. Good for one year from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from year to year.

REDCAST Monthly Subscription - $15.95
All video content and archived materials for all sports. Good for one month from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from month to month.

REDCAST Pay-Per-View Pass - $6.95
All video content and archived materials for one day. Good only for the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew.

REDCAST Men's Ice Hockey Season Pass - $34.95

REDCAST Women's Ice Hockey Select Pass - $19.95
All video content and archived materials for selected home games (see schedule). Good for one year from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from year to year.

REDCAST Men's Basketball Season Pass - $34.95
All audio and video content and archived materials for men's basketball. Good for one year from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from year to year.

REDCAST Wrestling Season Pass - $24.95
All video content and archived materials from wrestling (does not include the Body Bar Invitational). Good for one year from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from year to year.

REDCAST Men's Lacrosse Season Pass - $24.95
All audio and video content and archived materials for men's lacrosse. Good for one year from the date of purchase. Does not automatically renew from year to year.

This is actually a better deal than in past years. Before, men's hockey + men's lacrosse pretty much = RedCast Yearly. So if you wanted the biggest 2 sports, the full package make sense. Now Hockey + Lax < full. $10 difference.

mnagowski

it's a shame how cornell is trying to swindle the parents of the women's ice hockey team.

Who said Cornell is even making any money off of the service?

Whoosh!

HUGE improvement in sound today.

Odd, RedCast refuses to take any of my credit cards.

Jordan 04
Odd, RedCast refuses to take any of my credit cards.

Maybe you mistakenly have a "Deadbeat" entry in your credit report.

Jordan 04
Odd, RedCast refuses to take any of my credit cards.

I've found paying the bill helps most of the time...

Dpperk29

Jordan 04
Odd, RedCast refuses to take any of my credit cards.

I've found paying the pill helps most of the time...

Does that also help prevent pregnancies too?

Rita

Dpperk29

Jordan 04
Odd, RedCast refuses to take any of my credit cards.

I've found paying the pill helps most of the time...

Does that also help prevent pregnancies too?

This is why forums should come with breathalyzers...

obviously I meant bill

Dpperk29

Rita

Dpperk29

Jordan 04
Odd, RedCast refuses to take any of my credit cards.

I've found paying the pill helps most of the time...

Does that also help prevent pregnancies too?

This is why forums should come with breathalyzers...

obviously I meant bill

I know, I forgot the appropriate emoticon.
But if there were breathalyzers attached to the computer keyboards, imagine how boring internet posts would be to read. . What would fuel the flamefests on USCHO?

Odd, RedCast refuses to take any of my credit cards.

You are not alone. I had the same exact problem Friday night. And in my frustration I made a small gift to the University instead.

tretiak
there's a women's ice hockey season pass? seriously? it's a shame how cornell is trying to swindle the parents of the women's ice hockey team.

...now let me go hide. i can hear jerseygirl coming.

Or Cornell is *trying* to make money off videocasts. We're seeing Cornell trying yield management.

It's possible that if all you care about is one team, then parents would appreciate that.

What I'm looking for is a one-year pass with reciprocity for away games.

It's possible that if all you care about is one team, then parents would appreciate that.

apparently only some of you got the joke - women's hockey is awful to watch.

i'd love reciprocity for away games too.

tretiak

It's possible that if all you care about is one team, then parents would appreciate that.

apparently only some of you got the joke - women's hockey is awful to watch.

I am not trying to drift this thread.

But you sir are wrong. To the casual fan of Hockey women's hockey is boring at first because it is slower and there is no hitting.

To someone who understands the flow of the game, the beauty of well executed breakouts, forechecks, power plays, penalty kills, and the other skilled portions of the game women's hockey is poetry on ice.

Dpperk29
To someone who understands the flow of the game, the beauty of well executed breakouts, forechecks, power plays, penalty kills, and the other skilled portions of the game women's hockey is poetry on ice.

At the risk of drifting this thread further off course, I make the same argument to people who think a hockey game without fighting is a boring hockey game. To them, I say what you said. The looks I get from that crowd.....

Dpperk29
To someone who understands the flow of the game, the beauty of well executed breakouts, forechecks, power plays, penalty kills, and the other skilled portions of the game women's hockey is poetry on ice.

Am I the only one who doesn't get this from watching the women? Maybe from Rebecca Johnston, but I don't see transcendent skating beauty or tape-to-tape-to-tape passes on a regular basis from any of the women's teams I've seen: in fact, whenever I see a women's game—including the best women playing hockey in the world, in the Olympics—my initial impression is not simply "slow", but "sloppy".

I'm not sure I can explain why, either, because strength (the one inherent advantage of men) doesn't play a factor in the cleanliness or snappiness of the game. Maybe women don't start playing as early as men? Maybe the coaching is inferior? Beats me.

Kyle Rose

Dpperk29
To someone who understands the flow of the game, the beauty of well executed breakouts, forechecks, power plays, penalty kills, and the other skilled portions of the game women's hockey is poetry on ice.

Am I the only one who doesn't get this from watching the women? Maybe from Rebecca Johnston, but I don't see transcendent skating beauty or tape-to-tape-to-tape passes on a regular basis from any of the women's teams I've seen: in fact, whenever I see a women's game—including the best women playing hockey in the world, in the Olympics—my initial impression is not simply "slow", but "sloppy".

I'm not sure I can explain why, either, because strength (the one inherent advantage of men) doesn't play a factor in the cleanliness or snappiness of the game. Maybe women don't start playing as early as men? Maybe the coaching is inferior? Beats me.

The obvious answer is that you don't understand the game .

I'll give you that the overall speed is slower. Once you get used to the slower game, it can be very entertaining.

And maybe you think sloppy because you are seeing more long outlet passes and trickier passes attempted?

IDK, maybe my opinion is skewed right now because I have had a weekend of watching some of the best women's hockey in the country (The #4 ranked Clarkson beat #3 UNH 6-2 and #9 BU 7-1).

Kyle Rose

Dpperk29
To someone who understands the flow of the game, the beauty of well executed breakouts, forechecks, power plays, penalty kills, and the other skilled portions of the game women's hockey is poetry on ice.

Am I the only one who doesn't get this from watching the women? Maybe from Rebecca Johnston, but I don't see transcendent skating beauty or tape-to-tape-to-tape passes on a regular basis from any of the women's teams I've seen: in fact, whenever I see a women's game—including the best women playing hockey in the world, in the Olympics—my initial impression is not simply "slow", but "sloppy".

I'm not sure I can explain why, either, because strength (the one inherent advantage of men) doesn't play a factor in the cleanliness or snappiness of the game. Maybe women don't start playing as early as men? Maybe the coaching is inferior? Beats me.

I agree with you, Kyle, and I think it's just that men inherently have better hand-eye coordination. When I was fencing, we men always complained to each other any time we had to fence women. Not because we didn't like "fighting" girls and certainly not because they could beat us (very rare). The problem was that fencing women HURTS. They just didn't have as good control of their weapons, so after a single bout, you'd be black-and-blue. You could fence (stronger, faster) men all day and never get a mark - even if the men had only been fencing for a very short while and the women had been fencing for years. The men just had so much more precise control that their "touches" were very light, whereas the women would clumsily (by comparison) just thrust their swords all over the place.

Note that hand-eye coordination is not the same thing as dexterity - women are plenty dexterous - for example, female violinists are every bit as good as the men. But there's no hand-eye coordination there - the moves are all "pre-known," and you don't have to react to something that you're not controlling.

Dpperk29
The obvious answer is that you don't understand the game .

Well, you're entitled to your opinion, but that doesn't make it "the obvious answer".

Perhaps you mean that I don't "appreciate" the women's game? Maybe so, but I also don't appreciate men's bikini competitions either, for reasons having to do with my impressions about Barney Gumbel in a jumbo thong bikini. Similarly, the things I look for and enjoy in the men's game are simply not done as well in the women's game. I'm not making a moral judgment, nor am I judging women inferior to men; but the women's game *is* inferior to the men's in the ways I care about. I suppose I could learn to appreciate it, but I suppose I could also learn to appreciate men in bikinis. I don't see the point of either.

IDK, maybe my opinion is skewed right now because I have had a weekend of watching some of the best women's hockey in the country (The #4 ranked Clarkson beat #3 UNH 6-2 and #9 BU 7-1).

One of the teams that helped form my opinion was the Canadian national team from the Olympics three years ago. I don't think they get better than that.

To someone who understands the flow of the game, the beauty of well executed breakouts, forechecks, power plays, penalty kills, and the other skilled portions of the game women's hockey is poetry on ice.

Yeah Dpperk...no. Sit this one out, etc. etc. Aside from someone as skilled as Rebecca Johnston who is an absolute beast on the ice, women's hockey just doesn't cut it. It's slow and just tough to watch. The US women's national team lost to a mediocre Minnesota men's high school team. Seriously.

[antimisandry.com]

This actually happened. And people here are pissed that Cornell lost to the U-18 USNTDP

tretiak

To someone who understands the flow of the game, the beauty of well executed breakouts, forechecks, power plays, penalty kills, and the other skilled portions of the game women's hockey is poetry on ice.

Yeah Dpperk...no. Sit this one out, etc. etc. Aside from someone as skilled as Rebecca Johnston who is an absolute beast on the ice, women's hockey just doesn't cut it. It's slow and just tough to watch. The US women's national team lost to a mediocre Minnesota men's high school team. Seriously.

[antimisandry.com]

This actually happened. And people here are pissed that Cornell lost to the U-18 USNTDP

Apparently I should have specified well-played women's hockey is fun to watch.

And you know what? if you don't appreciate the Women's game, that is fine with me, but don't disrespect the hard working women out there playing a game that they enjoy at the highest level most of them will ever achieve by saying "It just doesn't cut it." You could argue that the women playing college hockey are doing it for better reasons than a lot of the men playing college hockey. Women don't have a snowball's chance in hell of going on and playing professionally, something the men do. Men use college hockey as a stop along the way, women use it as a destination. They are working hard to represent their University, and don't deserve to be told they just don't cut it.

Let me ask you this, have you ever really given it a shot? ever been to multiple games in a short period of time? ever made an effort to understand it? You have to stop comparing it to mens hockey because it is completely different. Try it with an open mind, and you might be surprised how much you enjoy it after to adjust your perception.

Let me ask you this, have you ever really given it a shot? ever been to multiple games in a short period of time? ever made an effort to understand it? You have to stop comparing it to mens hockey because it is completely different. Try it with an open mind, and you might be surprised how much you enjoy it after to adjust your perception.

Hmm...when I was a senior at Deerfield I was a student-assistant/goalie coach for the women's teams. So no, absolutely no experience with watching or coaching women's hockey. Except that.

And you're right the Clarkson women's team is amazing. They could skate circles around the US Women's National Team. The US Women's team isn't made up of the best American women to play hockey. Everyone here knows that collegiate hockey is played at a higher level than national teams. Paul Karpowich is backstopping the Canadian (Men's) National Team in Vancouver, right?

I never attacked women for playing hockey; I said no one wants to watch it. Nice specious argument there, pal. If you want to watch hockey and the men's team isn't there, go watch the club team or whatever version of it Clarkson has. The skill level is markedly better and club hockey players play for all the reasons your noble women do. Odds are the club players receive far less funding for their effort.

tretiak

Let me ask you this, have you ever really given it a shot? ever been to multiple games in a short period of time? ever made an effort to understand it? You have to stop comparing it to mens hockey because it is completely different. Try it with an open mind, and you might be surprised how much you enjoy it after to adjust your perception.

Hmm...when I was a senior at Deerfield I was a student-assistant/goalie coach for the women's teams. So no, absolutely no experience with watching or coaching women's hockey. Except that.

And you're right the Clarkson women's team is amazing. They could skate circles around the US Women's National Team. The US Women's team isn't made up of the best American women to play hockey. Everyone here knows that collegiate hockey is played at a higher level than national teams. Paul Karpowich is backstopping the Canadian (Men's) National Team in Vancouver, right?

I never attacked women for playing hockey; I said no one wants to watch it. Nice specious argument there, pal. If you want to watch hockey and the men's team isn't there, go watch the club team or whatever version of it Clarkson has. The skill level is markedly better and club hockey players play for all the reasons your noble women do. Odds are the club players receive far less funding for their effort.

Alright fine, I get it, you have some experience with Women's hockey. Good for you. I would have never guessed it based on what you were saying.

Please explain to me where I said that the Clarkson Women's team is the best ever. Please point out to me where I said that they could skate circles around the United States National team and while your at it, why don't you point out to me where I said Karpowich is playing in the Olympics next year? Hell, you probably could point out where I said Elvis is alive and that there are the bodies of little green men from mars at Area 51 the way you are putting words in my mouth. (I do not believe either of those things)

I did say I was watching SOME of the best women's hockey in the country. I would say seeing three highly ranked teams in 2 days would qualify as SOME of the best, but by no means the best.

And frankly, no the Clarkson Club team isn't better than the Women's team here, and yes they do play it for the right reasons, and they get much less funding.

I get it, you think women's hockey is worse than watching D League (or whatever cornell calls there lowest league) intramural hockey, but that is your opinion. It's not awful to watch, frankly it is pretty entertaining. Instead of going and saying "Women's Hockey is awful to watch" why not just say it isn't your thing, or whatever instead of just saying a whole branch of a sport is worthless and awful?

Dpperk29
Please explain to me where I said that the Clarkson Women's team is the best ever.

I think it was this exchange:

Kyle Rose: I don't like watching women's hockey
Dpperk29: Try watching good teams, like Clarkson, UNH, and BU.
Kyle Rose: I've watched the Canadian national team.
Dpperk29: But well-played women's hockey is fun to watch.
Tretiak: So you think we would see better women's hockey by watching Clarkson than national teams. You're nuts.

I think that sums it up.

Dpperk29
I get it, you think women's hockey is worse than watching D League (or whatever cornell calls there lowest league) intramural hockey, but that is your opinion. It's not awful to watch, frankly it is pretty entertaining. Instead of going and saying "Women's Hockey is awful to watch" why not just say it isn't your thing, or whatever instead of just saying a whole branch of a sport is worthless and awful?

Dude, it's a internet sports forum. You want calm words like "it's just not my thing"? You should expect people to say things like "it's garbage" and "it's a waste of time". Just be glad that we're civil enough here to not use overly colorful language.

tretiak

To someone who understands the flow of the game, the beauty of well executed breakouts, forechecks, power plays, penalty kills, and the other skilled portions of the game women's hockey is poetry on ice.

Yeah Dpperk...no. Sit this one out, etc. etc. Aside from someone as skilled as Rebecca Johnston who is an absolute beast on the ice, women's hockey just doesn't cut it. It's slow and just tough to watch. The US women's national team lost to a mediocre Minnesota men's high school team. Seriously.

[antimisandry.com]

This actually happened. And people here are pissed that Cornell lost to the U-18 USNTDP

I find this result neither surprising nor discouraging for fans of women's hockey (the fact that you know of this website is somewhat more disturbing ).

How well do you think the best men's collegiate teams would do against an NHL or even AHL club? Now that I finally have a decent cable TV package, the difference in speed and skill level between the NHL and NCAA is very apparent (as if there were ever any question). And yet I am far more fanatical about NCAA hockey. So an argument based on speed and skill level doesn't always make sense.

I happen to follow both men's and women's collegiate volleyball and pro beach volleyball. Women's volleyball has a much bigger following than men's even though the men's game is much more athletic. Maybe women's hockey should be played in spandex?

Robb

Dpperk29
Please explain to me where I said that the Clarkson Women's team is the best ever.

I think it was this exchange:

Kyle Rose: I don't like watching women's hockey
Dpperk29: Try watching good teams, like Clarkson, UNH, and BU.
Kyle Rose: I've watched the Canadian national team.
Dpperk29: But well-played women's hockey is fun to watch.
Tretiak: So you think we would see better women's hockey by watching Clarkson than national teams. You're nuts.

I think that sums it up.

Except my reply about "well played women's hockey" was in response to tretiak's comment about it only being even marginally tolerable to watch good players. Obviously anyone with a sliver of common sense would figure out that the Canadian National team is the best in the business.

I will admit, my initial reactions to women's hockey were that it was slow, awkward, and boring. But after getting dragged to about 5 games by my friends, I found it to be very entertaining. All I want is for people to give it a chance if they want to, not listen to some whack job like tretiak* dismiss it like it is dog shit. If you give it a fair shake, and decide it isn't for you, that's fine.

*All whack job comments purely motivated by the assumption that tretiak was and/or is a goalie. Anyone who stands there and lets the puck get shot at them is obviously a little whacked behind the mask.

Hey guys. Get a room.

I hope I'm not beating a dead horse by adding what I think is an important point to this debate: just because women's hockey isn't a popular spectator sport doesn't mean the women should stop playing or some other such nonsense. No one, for instance, would willingly watch the hockey teams I play for unless they were a captive audience (wife, husband, child, parent, etc.), and typically there are zero spectators for our games. However, we derive value in the form of satisfaction/exercise/development from playing that IMO is way more important than whether someone else is watching or not.

Bottom line: sports are primarily about the athletes, not spectators, and if someone wants to play, they should, regardless of what anyone else thinks about their play.

I hope I'm not beating a dead horse by adding what I think is an important point to this debate: just because women's hockey isn't a popular spectator sport doesn't mean the women should stop playing or some other such nonsense. No one, for instance, would willingly watch the hockey teams I play for unless they were a captive audience (wife, husband, child, parent, etc.), and typically there are zero spectators for our games. However, we derive value in the form of satisfaction/exercise/development from playing that IMO is way more important than whether someone else is watching or not.

I've got nothing to add. You said it perfectly.

I find this result neither surprising nor discouraging for fans of women's hockey (the fact that you know of this website is somewhat more disturbing ).

actually it's the first result that pops up when you google "high school boys beat us women's team" and the electronic articles weren't working

[www.google.com]

Roy 82
For those folks who had problems in paying for the new Redcast subscription with their credit cards, did you finally have any success? What was the work around?

That's a great question. Hopefully someone here will know the answer. I tried tech support and they were not at all helpful ("Check that you have entered the information correctly" ).

Roy 82

Roy 82
For those folks who had problems in paying for the new Redcast subscription with their credit cards, did you finally have any success? What was the work around?

That's a great question. Hopefully someone here will know the answer. I tried tech support and they were not at all helpful ("Check that you have entered the information correctly" ).

I tried again today and it still will not process. I got the same answer from tech support. Not sure what I'm supposed to do now. It's somewhat sad that they won't make more of an effort when someone is asking to purchase their product.

At least for tonight, Niagara has free audio.

Jordan 04
I tried again today and it still will not process. I got the same answer from tech support. Not sure what I'm supposed to do now. It's somewhat sad that they won't make more of an effort when someone is asking to purchase their product.

FWIW, I have the same problem with one of my credit cards when trying to charge an MBTA charlie card: the machines reject it, even though I successfully use that same card to buy pretty much everything else. No explanation given by the machine, and I wouldn't even try to obtain one from MBTA management. Thankfully, one of my other cards works fine.

Archive of tonight's game is already available.

jkahn
Archive of tonight's game is already available.

Big improvement in service from even a year ago. The video didn't freeze, the camera person followed the action pretty well, the sound worked fine, the replays worked. For all the complaining we did (justifiably), I'm glad to see that Redcast has appeared to turn the corner (crossing fingers).

Jordan 04

Roy 82

Roy 82
For those folks who had problems in paying for the new Redcast subscription with their credit cards, did you finally have any success? What was the work around?

That's a great question. Hopefully someone here will know the answer. I tried tech support and they were not at all helpful ("Check that you have entered the information correctly" ).

I tried again today and it still will not process. I got the same answer from tech support. Not sure what I'm supposed to do now. It's somewhat sad that they won't make more of an effort when someone is asking to purchase their product.

At least for tonight, Niagara has free audio.

Having the same problem tonight. I will be pretty annoyed if I can't get access by Saturday night.

Have you called your CC company and asked? Do they even see the charges trying to come through and being rejected? If so, they can probably explain why. If not, you have more evidence that it's RedCast's fault.

I haven't called my CC companies. The fact that I've tried cards from all 3 major issuers (MC, V, Amex), all of which never have these problems in other online transactions, seems like a pretty good indication that the problem is on RedCast's end.

But I suppose I should make the call to the CC to eliminate that potential source of blame.

Even if it's not their fault, they may give you good info as to *why* it was rejected.

Perhaps RedCast is messing up the data & they can tell you that the CCV number came through wrong (or wasn't sent at all?)

I once had the case where I would try to pay my cell bill with my Ithaca billing zip CC, but it would never go through because the billing address for my cell account was my parents address in Ct. The zip code mismatch would cause a refusal even though I'd entered nothing wrong. Perhaps RedCast has some old information on you that they're sending through with the request (old address, etc) and it doesn't match so it's getting rejected.

Or perhaps for some reason the merchant name is setting of fraud alarms on the CC companies end, which would also explain why other things work. This is unlikely because you probably would have gotten a call, but it's not impossible.

Heck, it could be a million things, but even if it's not the CC companies' fault, they may be able to give you helpful information to track down the exact problem.

DeltaOne81
Even if it's not their fault, they may give you good info as to *why* it was rejected.

Perhaps RedCast is messing up the data & they can tell you that the CCV number came through wrong (or wasn't sent at all?)

I once had the case where I would try to pay my cell bill with my Ithaca billing zip CC, but it would never go through because the billing address for my cell account was my parents address in Ct. The zip code mismatch would cause a refusal even though I'd entered nothing wrong. Perhaps RedCast has some old information on you that they're sending through with the request (old address, etc) and it doesn't match so it's getting rejected.

Or perhaps for some reason the merchant name is setting of fraud alarms on the CC companies end, which would also explain why other things work. This is unlikely because you probably would have gotten a call, but it's not impossible.

Heck, it could be a million things, but even if it's not the CC companies' fault, they may be able to give you helpful information to track down the exact problem.

True, it's worth a call. I dread having to explain and sort this out with "Justin" or "Amanda" over in Delhi, though.

Jordan 04

True, it's worth a call. I dread having to explain and sort this out with "Justin" or "Amanda" over in Delhi, though.

Since we've been talking about ICS, I of course thought you meant Delhi, NY.

I rarely have that problem with CC companies in customer service. This isn't Dell. Marketing/activations is often international, but I haven't found service to be. YMMV.

Even if it it "why was my transaction rejected" is probably something that's mapped out on their script though.

Curious what you find out.

DeltaOne81
I rarely have that problem with CC companies in customer service. This isn't Dell. Marketing/activations is often international, but I haven't found service to be. YMMV.

Even if it it "why was my transaction rejected" is probably something that's mapped out on their script though.

Curious what you find out.

Called Mastercard and they were of no help. No sign of rejected transactions, info was all correct. CS representative had little to offer.

Decided that route was futile, and did what I should have done 2 weeks ago: Looked up ICS' website, found a phone number (the All-Access page does not have one), and explained the situation. They said are aware of the problem that they're having "with many cards," and took my information over the phone to process the order manually. They'll contact me if they have problems doing so.

They said are aware of the problem that they're having "with many cards," and took my information over the phone to process the order manually.

Frankly, they should be giving us a month of free access. I've already missed three hockey games as a result and they haven't even bothered to respond to my emails.

FWIW, I just tried my card again (I tried a week ago) and this time it worked. So they may have found the glitch.

If ICS could take the information over the phone (as I specifically asked in my e-mail) then it would have been very easy for them to let people know that.

Don't like the upcoming games vertical tabs during the broacast. I'm trying to do some work while watching and want as small a window as possible.

Roy 82
FWIW, I just tried my card again (I tried a week ago) and this time it worked. So they may have found the glitch.

If ICS could take the information over the phone (as I specifically asked in my e-mail) then it would have been very easy for them to let people know that.

I was told the glitch had something to do with having an existing "token" (subscription, perhaps?) in your account and trying to add a new one.

I too asked in my prior emails about calling or giving my information to a person on the phone; never got a response.

billhoward
Don't like the upcoming games vertical tabs during the broacast. I'm trying to do some work while watching and want as small a window as possible.

You WORK during a game???

billhoward
Don't like the upcoming games vertical tabs during the broacast. I'm trying to do some work while watching and want as small a window as possible.

Get a bigger workspace.
[twitpic.com]

For those of you watching on REDCast...

...anybody having troubles with the volume? I literally have to rest my ear on the speakers in order to hear anything, despite the volume settings on high. Did I become deaf in the last ten minutes?

It's very, very low, yes.

Molly
For those of you watching on REDCast...

...anybody having troubles with the volume? I literally have to rest my ear on the speakers in order to hear anything, despite the volume settings on high. Did I become deaf in the last ten minutes?

Same problem here.

Molly
For those of you watching on REDCast...

...anybody having troubles with the volume? I literally have to rest my ear on the speakers in order to hear anything, despite the volume settings on high. Did I become deaf in the last ten minutes?

Yeah, and be careful about that, because last night there was a similar problem and they jacked the volume up instantaneously and without any warning at one point. You really would be deaf if you were doing this and that happened.

Molly
For those of you watching on REDCast...

...anybody having troubles with the volume? I literally have to rest my ear on the speakers in order to hear anything, despite the volume settings on high. Did I become deaf in the last ten minutes?

I sent them a message a few minutes ago thru the website

Me too.

ditto. probably going to load up the harvard audio.

Anybody following at the game able to bang on the broadcast booth? Or tell the camera guy?

From that, it's relatively clear that it's a bad connection/jack.

Ouch . Too late. Anyone else think it sounds like he's fighting a sore throat?

Kyle Rose

Yeah, and be careful about that, because last night there was a similar problem and they jacked the volume up instantaneously and without any warning at one point. You really would be deaf if you were doing this and that happened.

The same thought occurred to me when I was initially checking for sound. I didn't think my thesis advisor would appreciate having to pantomime the finer details of molecular biology during my lab meeting.

Check out the response I got from ICS. Emphasis mine. LOL.

Hello,

This is a video only event. Unfortunately some of the games we are provided to stream by the host schools are audio or video only, apologies for the inconvenience.

ICS Tech

From: krose@krose.org [krose@krose.org]
Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2009 6:56 PM
To: Jeffrey Rubin; ICS Technical Support
Subject: Cornell Athletics Streaming - Technical Issue

Here is a technical issue report:

Name: Kyle Rose
Email Address: krose@krose.org
Problem: Tell the guys handling the Cornell hockey audio to turn the volume up. *SLOWLY*.