The OFFICIAL online game thread.

[Zion 93]

Okay, I received the DirecTV Supercast as a gift, and I must say: it rocks (and I'm BARELY a football fan).

That being said, we're about midway through the free Center Ice preview, and I need to make a decision:

I am transferring soon, so I will have to get something to watch the games ONLINE.

Which package should I get? NHL.com's Center Ice package? Hockeystreams? Someone else?

Please state your opinion and why, please:

[evilmrt 636]

I bought a one-day pass to Hockeystreams for the opening game in Sweden, and I was disappointed. The feed kept going down, and I would repeatedly have to reload it. My connection is stable and more than adequate, so I blame it on the service. You might want to give it a try yourself, or try the official NHL Gamecenter online, which you can't try for a day (not from what I see), but you can try for a month without long-term payment.

I am not impressed by the online offerings for the NHL. They are certainly behind in this department, and overcharge big time. The offerings from the NBA and MLB are more impressive and cost much less.

[Guest mindfly]

I just have experience from two options that are available for europeans

ESPN360

+ Probably the best picturequality for europeans

-Bad support and customer service

-Expensive

-On-demand delays

-no pre nor post game show, no intermission report, no interviews, no commercials instead of this it's black-out and puts you off the game

Hockeystreams

+You get help right away, easy and safe with payments via paypal

+A bit cheaper than espn360

+Games get uploaded to archive (on-demand) minutes after games are finished.

- Not the best quality but its always 29.9 fps and easy to follow, however the HDPlus streams are probably the best streams out there.

-Not exactly legal website but its secure.

I doubt that these options are the best for north americans.. it's probably the centerice you get to your TV in 720/1080p HD

Edited October 11, 2009 by mindfly

[jmad 18]

I bought Gamecenter last year and renewed my subscription this year. It's more expensive, I paid 160$ or so and last year I paid something like 120$ for both baseball and hockey packages. That was a great deal.

The quality is better this year than last. It's not as good as HD through cable, but it's certainly better than SD TV. If your connection is slow you can choose a lesser quality if you need to. It isn't a perfect feed. I watched the Wings-Caps game this weekend and had to refresh the page once as it froze and it probably buffered twice throughout the game. It picks up right where it left off though so you don't miss anything. You can also rewind and pause which is kind of nice if you need a sandwich or something. It's also a little choppy, but much better than hockeystreams.

you can watch 4 games at once, or picture in picture. I plug my laptop into my big screen and it works very well.

Of course, you only get out of town games and no national games so if you live in range of FSN or whatever plays the Wings games, it's not the choice for you. I live in chicago so it's perfect.

Oh and you also get the between period coverage but not the commercials. I think that's great, I hate commercials.

[tinyhockey 0]

well I have had hockeystreams for 2 years and have never had a problem and I have the HD Packege with them

plus this year you will get more hockey

with hockeystreams you will get every 2010 winter olympics hockey games

and there are other things you get to and more then other web site

and if people do have some problems there are 3 or more people online and will help asap

I would get hockeystreams

- Live Pre-Season Games

- Live Regular Season Games

- Live Post Season Games

- Live NHL© All-Star Game

- Live NHL© Draft

- Live NHL© Player Awards

- Live Olympics

- Memorial Cup

- Archived Games

[rage 24]

Can't you find all the games on a free live stream somwhere usually?

Edited October 12, 2009 by rage

[Zion 93]

Yes, but I'm looking for HD quality, no hassles and an affordable price. The season will end before we go overseas, but I'm looking for something I can continue to use for the next few years.

[bonan78 1]

I work for NHL GameCenter, in technical support. If anyone reading this thread has specific questions about it, please PM me, as I see incorrect information posted in here already (the one month option, for example, which does not exist).

[Guest CaliWingsNut]

Keep in mind that with NHL's online option, basically everything post-season is blacked out.

Edited October 12, 2009 by CaliWingsNut

[drumnj 459]

I would stay away from hockeystreams; they have some questionable business practices aside from taking profit away from the NHL. Not to mention there is the possible chance they will get shut down, they have admitted being an illegal operation and being protected by country law or lack thereof.

I would say go directly to the source, it's a pretty good service and their new pause/rewind feature is nice. It's great quality that can be viewed on a connected TV and rarely has any problems. Just keep in mind that if you travel you will be blacked out for whatever local team you're near and pray that Versus/NHL Network isn't showing the game you want to watch. Although I'm sure some will disagree, but why not support the NHL since you do enjoy hockey and the Wings (who are a part of the NHL ). I know it probably doesn't make any difference in regards to the Wing's profits, but I'm all for supporting the league...even though it's being run by an ignorant little elf.

[dat's sick 1,002]

I would have recommended Hockeystreams a few months ago, but so far this season it's been ******* terrible.

And the people running it never seem to want to believe that anything is wrong with the site. Even if 50 people are all saying they have the same issues with a stream, they keep insisting the problem is on the user end.

I'd stay away from it if I was you. Sadly I've paid for like 6 months of it.. :/

Atleast they have archives, that's a very good feature.

[NGKEIB 32]

I would have recommended Hockeystreams a few months ago, but so far this season it's been ******* terrible.

And the people running it never seem to want to believe that anything is wrong with the site. Even if 50 people are all saying they have the same issues with a stream, they keep insisting the problem is on the user end.

I'd stay away from it if I was you. Sadly I've paid for like 6 months of it.. :/

Atleast they have archives, that's a very good feature.

You can download good quality matches with no adbreaks free from nhltorrents.com, so I wouldn't say that the archives feature is a plus. I'm satisfied with streaming (for free) those games that I feel like staying up to watch (and I usually never have trouble with quality etc., I find that sopcast + good streamer + fibre-optic internet = win), and download those that I don't feel like staying up to watch, and watch them the next morning (without checking scores, of course).

[Guest mindfly]

I would have recommended Hockeystreams a few months ago, but so far this season it's been ******* terrible.

And the people running it never seem to want to believe that anything is wrong with the site. Even if 50 people are all saying they have the same issues with a stream, they keep insisting the problem is on the user end.

I'd stay away from it if I was you. Sadly I've paid for like 6 months of it.. :/

Atleast they have archives, that's a very good feature.

What problems did you have? I have watched all the wings game with no problem and also some other without problem, 2 times the hdplus streams have been buffering but then i changed server that wasn't as overloaded.

Edited October 12, 2009 by mindfly

[dat's sick 1,002]

You can download good quality matches with no adbreaks free from nhltorrents.com, so I wouldn't say that the archives feature is a plus. I'm satisfied with streaming (for free) those games that I feel like staying up to watch (and I usually never have trouble with quality etc., I find that sopcast + good streamer + fibre-optic internet = win), and download those that I don't feel like staying up to watch, and watch them the next morning (without checking scores, of course).

games take a long time to download from nhltorrents, atleast in my experience, so I do think it's a plus to just be able to quickly stream old games. it's just easier and you don't have to use up disc space.

What problems did you have? I have watched all the wings game with no problem and also some other without problem, 2 times the hdplus streams have been buffering but then i changed server that wasn't as overloaded.

I actually haven't streamed any of the Wings regular season games yet (watched 2 in stockholm, 1 archived and 1 on viasat), but most other games I've tried to watch have had a ton of buffering and freezes. And not just on HD, but on HQ as well. I know it's not my internet and I'm definitely not the only one who has had issues. Even increasing the buffer to like 30 seconds or more didn't help.

[P. Marlowe 748]

I've also experienced some buffering with Hockeystreams this season. I haven't yet singled out what the problem is though as it can also be my connection or computer. I've read that Hockeystreams has just updated its infrastructure.

[tinyhockey 0]

I would have recommended Hockeystreams a few months ago, but so far this season it's been ******* terrible.

And the people running it never seem to want to believe that anything is wrong with the site. Even if 50 people are all saying they have the same issues with a stream, they keep insisting the problem is on the user end.

I'd stay away from it if I was you. Sadly I've paid for like 6 months of it.. :/

Atleast they have archives, that's a very good feature.

well I have No Problems with Hockeystreams and this is my second year and I have the HD and I get No buffing problems at all. I have 5 mg internet

so the problem could be your end

[tinyhockey 0]

I would stay away from hockeystreams; they have some questionable business practices aside from taking profit away from the NHL. Not to mention there is the possible chance they will get shut down, they have admitted being an illegal operation and being protected by country law or lack thereof.

I would say go directly to the source, it's a pretty good service and their new pause/rewind feature is nice. It's great quality that can be viewed on a connected TV and rarely has any problems. Just keep in mind that if you travel you will be blacked out for whatever local team you're near and pray that Versus/NHL Network isn't showing the game you want to watch. Although I'm sure some will disagree, but why not support the NHL since you do enjoy hockey and the Wings (who are a part of the NHL ). I know it probably doesn't make any difference in regards to the Wing's profits, but I'm all for supporting the league...even though it's being run by an ignorant little elf.

'

just to let you know that Hockeystreams has been around for over 3 years with No problems

there are alot mor problems with that NHL Game Center, that the people there do not know how to fix it

[evilmrt 636]

well I have No Problems with Hockeystreams and this is my second year and I have the HD and I get No buffing problems at all. I have 5 mg internet

so the problem could be your end

I doubt that. The game would run fine until the 3rd period with no buffering...and then only play for 1 or 2 minutes at a time afterward. I have no problem streaming much higher quality video from other sites.

Also, thanks for the heads up on Gamecenter not showing the post-season. Thats a deal-killer right there.

[dat's sick 1,002]

well I have No Problems with Hockeystreams and this is my second year and I have the HD and I get No buffing problems at all. I have 5 mg internet

so the problem could be your end

Doubt it. A lot of the time it works fine, most of last season I had no issues at all.

The other day I had two games on at the same time. Both HD streams, one working perfectly and the other buffering and freezing constantly (every couple of minutes). So it must be something with the streams or the site.

[tinyhockey 0]

Doubt it. A lot of the time it works fine, most of last season I had no issues at all.

The other day I had two games on at the same time. Both HD streams, one working perfectly and the other buffering and freezing constantly (every couple of minutes). So it must be something with the streams or the site.

well to tell you I have No prblem with buffing at all with watching my game son Hockeystreams

so for you saying I Doubt it, well that is wrong

[Blood On The Ice 15]

I use hockey streams and I too have no problems. I come home from work and 4 am and love having the ability watch the Wings game that I missed the night before, because I was working.

[Jedi 1,865]

I used Hockeystreams last year on 2 levels, and received mixed results.

I had the regular season on the standard def level. Had no problems with it. The picture was a bit blurry, but it was easy enough to see what was going on, and I was pretty satisfied with the service. Very very rarely would I have any issues with buffering or choppiness, I'd say maybe 5-10 games out of the full season. Oh, and they seem to be about 45 seconds to a minute behind real time, so if you're browsing LGW, make sure you avoid the GDT, as you may get some spoilers coming in.

For the playoffs, I upgraded to the HD package. That's when my issues started. The HD package looked great. Very clear, no blurriness or pixelation or anything. However, because the stream size for the HD feeds is a much larger size stream, even at 60 seconds of pre-buffering (the max that Windows Media Player allows), I would get maybe 3-4 minutes of play before it would have to rebuffer. And it always, ALWAYS started re-buffering right as we took a shot (or, that's what it seemed like to me!). More often than not, I would just switch back to standard def, because it was almost always an uninterrupted feed.

Overall, HockeyStreams was a satisfactory service, and I would use them again (though, my moving plans for the end of the month has put a hold on any kind of subscription service for the time being). But just be aware that while they are good, there are some definite limitations.

[Zion 93]

Thanks for the inputs, guys. I'll keep investigating.

[Doggy 130]

FYI everyone, tinyhockey seems to be affiliated with hockeystreams in some way. Take his testimonial with a grain of salt because it isn't anywhere near as perfect as he makes out.

[P. Marlowe 748]

I used Hockeystreams last year on 2 levels, and received mixed results.

I had the regular season on the standard def level. Had no problems with it. The picture was a bit blurry, but it was easy enough to see what was going on, and I was pretty satisfied with the service. Very very rarely would I have any issues with buffering or choppiness, I'd say maybe 5-10 games out of the full season. Oh, and they seem to be about 45 seconds to a minute behind real time, so if you're browsing LGW, make sure you avoid the GDT, as you may get some spoilers coming in.

For the playoffs, I upgraded to the HD package. That's when my issues started. The HD package looked great. Very clear, no blurriness or pixelation or anything. However, because the stream size for the HD feeds is a much larger size stream, even at 60 seconds of pre-buffering (the max that Windows Media Player allows), I would get maybe 3-4 minutes of play before it would have to rebuffer. And it always, ALWAYS started re-buffering right as we took a shot (or, that's what it seemed like to me!). More often than not, I would just switch back to standard def, because it was almost always an uninterrupted feed.

Overall, HockeyStreams was a satisfactory service, and I would use them again (though, my moving plans for the end of the month has put a hold on any kind of subscription service for the time being). But just be aware that while they are good, there are some definite limitations.

I've experienced similar stuff, but the problems almost completely disappeared when I bought a faster connection. My former connection was behind its time anyway and the one that I have now isn't even nearly the fastest one out there.