I listened to the Cornell/Harvard game last night for the first time on i2sports. The sign on process was easy and the feed was excellent. As a newbie at this...my question is...should I only be able to "hear" the game or should I be able to view it as well? If so, how?
BTW, I was totally impressed with the play-by-play announcer's take on the game. I felt like I was actually there! See y'all at the game on the 27th against Caniscius and on the 3rd and 4th against Princeton and Yale. GO BIG RED!
If your question is not in the form of a joke, yes, with i2Sports if you click on "watch hockey game," you should be able to watch as well as hear it. But as you've noticed, there are some issues with logging on and so forth.
Once you're on, it's a thing of beauty, if you don't mind miserable resolution, one camera of the two that shoots half the time through netting, and no replays. It's the classic dancing bear (not Cornell BRB) situation: You're so impressed the first time you see a bear dance, you don't notice it's not dancing all that well.
How is the quality of the feed? Though I have season tickets, I was thinking about watching the MSU games this weekend and possibly the one against BC in late december. If anyone has a sample of the quality, please let me know (js429@...) Thanks!
As far as I'm aware, i2sports only does the home games; this weekend's games are at MSU, and BC is in Florida.
The Florida semis and finals, however, will be on CSTV - DirectTV channel 610. So you just need to find a willing sportsbar or friend.
Beeeej
I think we're all dying for a Webcast feed from MSU. But it doesn't appear to be in the cards.
As for the quality, to repeat a previous analogy, it's like the dancing bear. You're so thrilled the bear can dance, you don't notice until later that it's not dancing all that well. If you've seen the difference between standard-def and high-def TV, this an an even greater difference in the opposite direction.
You can tell the Cornell players from the opposing players. You can sort of see each player's number - at times. You can see the goal and the ads along the dasherboards. You can't see the puck much at all. You know there's a goal because all of a sudden you see the goal light go on and everyone from Cornell lifts their sticks in their air. The picture is a bit dark except when they zoom in for closeups. At Lynah, Camera 2 is up on the ledge near the band, shooting through the netting. There is no instant replay. The picture may freeze for 2 to 30 seconds a couple times a game and if it happens when a goal is scored, it drives you nuts. The audio is the WHCU radiocast, not that it makes a lot of difference.
That said, there is a fascinating sense of community in watching the Webcast and chatting away online about the game.
I watched the video for only the second time Saturday night. My first experience (last year) was awful - mostly a blur accompanied by commentary. But this time I was pretty pleased. The picture was pretty clear - I could usually read the numbers on players backs and see the puck. I saw every goal clearly except for the one where the cameraman got lost and was focused on the penalty box. The feed only froze two or three times and never dropped.
I still don't like paying $5 per game, but am more likely to do so after this experience. YMMV, of course.