Cornell All-Access

pfibiger · September 14, 2005, 10:25:38 PM

I have to say, $39.95 for the year, including all the audio, and video for both all home football and hockey games is definitely a step up from the previous offerings. If they end up doing some home lacrosse games as well, that'd be icing. I still think in terms of university goodwill, tis $39.95 is ridiculous, but at least we don't have to pay for 2 services to get access to home and away games, it's a step in the right direction.

Al DeFlorio · September 14, 2005, 10:37:50 PM

[Q]pfibiger Wrote:

I have to say, $39.95 for the year, including all the audio, and video for both all home football and hockey games is definitely a step up from the previous offerings. If they end up doing some home lacrosse games as well, that'd be icing. I still think in terms of university goodwill, tis $39.95 is ridiculous, but at least we don't have to pay for 2 services to get access to home and away games, it's a step in the right direction.[/q]
Agree on all counts. Just received my "confirmation" and apparently you somehow agree in the T's and C's to have the pass "renewed" and automatically charged to your credit card unless you tell them you want to cancel via email.

cornelldavy · September 14, 2005, 11:00:03 PM

40 bucks is pretty steep...when you consider that MLB charged $80 for every game of every team for the entire season (except games in your home market and national TV games, which you can see anyway). That's about 2,000 games. MLB.tv was worth it, but I don't know if this is.

Tub(a) · September 14, 2005, 11:29:04 PM

I think this is reasonable enough to purchase.

This and Center Ice should keep me happy

jtwcornell91 · September 15, 2005, 08:56:23 AM

[Q]Rita Wrote:
OUCH!!!! $39.95 for year-round all access for cornell sports and then another $20 for access to all college football on the cstv network!
[/q]

As long as this includes the hockeycam, $40 is fine by me. We paid more than that for just the home hockey video last season ($5/game or $50/season IIRC) and that didn't come with audio. I still wish there were a free audio-only service (although I would pay for the video even if there were), but I can't complain about getting more than last season for less than I was willing to pay then. And being separated from my dish for a while, I might even contemplate paying $20 extra for all of CSTV's hockey coverage, if such a thing were offered.

My problem is whether to cough up the bucks up front before seeing even a sample product. (And Kyle--I assume--and I at least are curious whether the feed will work under Linux, or if some DRM crap requires the use of Windoze/Mac.)

DeltaOne81 · September 15, 2005, 01:10:19 PM

Is there any point to DRM for streaming video? As long as you can't save it, why would you need to manage rights to view it? Log in and password should be all the rights needed... or am I missing something? If I'm right, then something that does WMV v3 - i.e. WMP 9 or newer - should suffice.

Although I'm curious if there's any money back guarantee if it doesn't work with your system or the quality is awful in the first month or so. But assuming good quality, $40 for a years worth of audio and video (I hope it'll include some lax video, since it's set up in Schollkopf anyway), isn't a bad deal. That's about $1 a week for Cornell sports.

If you're really worried, you could probably do the monthly package. You'd end up paying a little more, but that would essentially be an 'insurance premium' against crappiness.

Edit: There's only a 10 day money back guarantee for season subscriptions. So I would at least do it within 10 days of being able to view a football game, so that you can make sure at least that is working alright.

But there is a system requirement page which seems to confirm my guess of only needing WMP9 or better - https://secure.cstv.com/help/faq_system.jsp

Main info page: https://secure.cstv.com/help/faq.jsp

jtwcornell91 · September 15, 2005, 03:14:42 PM

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:
But there is a system requirement page which seems to confirm my guess of only needing WMP9 or better [/q]

WMP does not exist for my operating system of choice. I can generally view WMV, ASX, etc using xine/kaffeine, but my operating system is not even acknowledged on their system requirements page. As usual. It does, however, say "other configurations may work". I just want to check whether mine does or not.

DeltaOne81 · September 15, 2005, 04:17:00 PM

JTW, I thought you had an alternate boot option, no? Maybe not.

Basically, if you could play the XMI media from last year, you should be able to play this. If not, not.

jtwcornell91 · September 15, 2005, 05:36:18 PM

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

JTW, I thought you had an alternate boot option, no? Maybe not.

Basically, if you could play the XMI media from last year, you should be able to play this. If not, not.[/q]

I can boot in Windoze, but I don't want to. (Especially since I don't currently have the setup to send the video to my TV.) I was able to watch the XMI video in kaffeine, but for example that didn't work with the IHWC video. But I think that was a DRM issue.

Doesn't the 10-day guarantee specify "unused"? I think my experimentation to make this work (e.g., get the stream address from Windoze and try to use it under Linux) might register as "using" the service.

DeltaOne81 · September 15, 2005, 08:09:52 PM

[Q]jtwcornell91 Wrote:
Doesn't the 10-day guarantee specify "unused"? I think my experimentation to make this work (e.g., get the stream address from Windoze and try to use it under Linux) might register as "using" the service.[/q]

So it does. Damnit. Well, it better work then

, especially since I meet the Mac requirements they list.

jtwcornell91 · September 17, 2005, 10:01:17 AM

Okay, so I broke down and bought the All-Access season pass on faith. The pre-game hasn't started yet, but with a little "show info" and cutting and pasting, I was able to open a stream of the "This stream is not yet available" message in kaffeine.

Are Kyle and I the only ones stubborn enough to try to watch/listen under Linux?

Al DeFlorio · September 17, 2005, 11:06:28 AM

[Q]jtwcornell91 Wrote:

Okay, so I broke down and bought the All-Access season pass on faith. The pre-game hasn't started yet, but with a little "show info" and cutting and pasting, I was able to open a stream of the "This stream is not yet available" message in kaffeine.

Are Kyle and I the only ones stubborn enough to try to watch/listen under Linux?[/q]
No "pre-game" as of 11:05, but a two-hour pre-game show seemed more than a bit of a stretch, even though that's what's posted on the CSTV website.

jtwcornell91 · September 17, 2005, 11:35:47 AM

There is a video link up, but the stream isn't working. Can someone using a recognized OS confirm this?

Al DeFlorio · September 17, 2005, 11:41:18 AM

[Q]jtwcornell91 Wrote:

There is a video link up, but the stream isn't working. Can someone using a recognized OS confirm this?[/q]
Confirmed. The audio says audibly "will be available shortly" and the video link goes to "ready" but then shows nothing. At least the video link has appeared.

Al DeFlorio · September 17, 2005, 12:16:11 PM

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

[Q2]jtwcornell91 Wrote:

Okay, so I broke down and bought the All-Access season pass on faith. The pre-game hasn't started yet, but with a little "show info" and cutting and pasting, I was able to open a stream of the "This stream is not yet available" message in kaffeine.

Are Kyle and I the only ones stubborn enough to try to watch/listen under Linux?[/Q]
No "pre-game" as of 11:05, but a two-hour pre-game show seemed more than a bit of a stretch, even though that's what's posted on the CSTV website.[/q]
The 11:00 "pre-game" announcement has been removed from the schedule listing as of noon.