Lake Placid TV Broadcast

Are the LP games going to be Televised? Apologies if this was already discussed -- I could not find the info here. Thanks.

NESN and the Empire Sports Network will broadcast the semifinals and final live. Comcast Sports Network will carry the final on tape delay late Sunday afternoon.

I just looked at the listings for Empire on:

www.zap2it.com

The only game listed was the final at 7:30 on Saturday. So what is real here? Will the semi's be on?

Thanks.

According to: [www.ecac.org]

the semis will be on NESN only. The Buffalo Sabres have a game Friday and it will be shown on Empire instead of the semis. The Final will be on both Empire and NESN at 7:30 on Saturday.

In Ithaca, TWC must be carrying the NESN feed - they're saying they'll have both semis Friday and the championship game Saturday night:

[twcny.com]

LET"S GO RED !!!

Ken '71

from the website in the previous message:

"Both semi-finals and Saturdays championship game can be seen live on Time Warner Cable Channel 77. "

what exactly is cable channel 77? is this only in the northeast?

RBL '98

It's Empire Sports - so it's pretty much only NY. NESN is New England sports so it's only New England. Elsewhere only if you have a satellite.

Cable channel 77 is where Time Warner Cable in Ithaca puts all manner of informercials and their coverage of occasional special events like the ECAC playoffs.

Ken '71

hmm guess i should get a tape tomorrow to tape the games!
this time i wont buy a two hour one or do whatever i did last week.

>Elsewhere only if you have a satellite.<

Can you still "dial up" or "point" tv satellite receivers? I was told by someone last year that the FCC somehow stopped this by forcing satellite signals to be scrambled, so that only the satellite providers could furnish the channels. Unless, of course, you have a super inter-galactic reverse superconducting descrambling box. What gives? How do you get broadcasts that are not offered by your satellite provider?

If it's a standard VHS recorder, it should be able to record either two hours (standard play) or six hours (extended play) on a "two hour" tape. But you've got to tell the recorder which you want. (Recording quality is better at two hours but then you miss the third period.)

Or the quality/quantity compromise speed "LP" (4hrs on a standard tape --great for hockey games barring a long ot), which is my preferred speed but not available on all VCRs.

I haven't seen a VCR that records in LP mode in ages, but most of them can still play old tapes that were recorded at that speed.

Not an issue for TiVo users. I just tell it to record the game, and the hard drive holds dozens of hours.

It's a hockey game, not The Matrix. You don't lose much with the difference between fast and slow recording speeds.

Scott asked:

Can you still "dial up" or "point" tv satellite receivers? I was told by someone last year that the FCC somehow stopped this by forcing satellite signals to be scrambled, so that only the satellite providers could furnish the channels

While it is true that more and more satellite feeds are scrambled, there is no FCC ruling dictating this. I watched the Yale QF game by pointing a big satellite dish at Satellite AMC2, KU-band transponder 13 and Laura Stange said the Lake Placid games should be on this same feed.

These coordinates give you the feed that is sourced from the game site. This is then captured by Empire and NESN, they insert local commercials, and retransmit on their channel. The only commercials I saw during the QF were AVAYA commercials, the Cornell and Yale school promos, and the ECAC LP commercials. During other commercial breaks, the camera sometimes panned until it decided what shot was wanted to come out of commercial. Unfortunately, they killed the mike, so there was no chatter from the announcers.

The following link shows what is on satellite AMC2. There are very few clear analog channels (in white, like the NASA channel). Feeds from a site may or may not be scrambled, and the feed from Ithaca was not, so I am hopeful the feed from LP will also not be scrambled

[www.lyngsat.com]


At this point, I am certain that I have told you more than you want to know.

And lately, missing an RIP third period has been significant!

My fabulous 1997-vintage RCA VCR with "Commercial Advance" records on SP, LP, and SLP. Don't think I've ever bothered using LP, though.

Beeeej

Tapes don't even say "LP" on them anymore. This is a dumb question but... can you use that setting?

My favorite moment of the ESPNews 'cast of the selection show -- a graphic showing the record of the "Cornell Crimson."

Tapes don't even say "LP" on them anymore. This is a dumb question but... can you use that setting?

On the sleeve of the Sony 8hr tape I bought to record the ECAC final:
"Recording Time: EP 8 hours, LP 5 hours 20 minutes, SP 2 hours 40 minutes"

I use LP (certainly available on the Panasonic VCR I bought in '98) because of the good comprimise between recording time and quality. That extra time sure helped in getting all of the final, BTW. Also, I own a vintage 1978 (not a typo) VCR that can't handle EP (aka SLP). I can't dub some of the '96-'97 games because of that.

The LP question depends on the brand of the VCR that you use. Since JVC "invented" the VHS standard and they never approved the 4 hour LP speed, their machines won't record at that middle speed but they will play back those tapes made on machines that do.

Panasonic machines continue to support all three speeds in recording and playback.

Most decent VCRs will record LP and all will play back. Since you need to add an additional head to record, most lower end models don't offer it. And since EP/SLP is so crappy, I'd never buy a VCR without LP recording. But that's all moot with a 181-hour TiVo