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NHL Gamecenter

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Guest Heaten

I can point out a lot of providers who say "unlimited" bandwidth, but when push comes to shove, they will not allow you to push that much. Residential broadband providers and hosted solutions may say "unlimited" but when you start pushing a lot through the provider, you will find your account suspended or canceled. True unlimited bandwidth costs are astronomical. If you knew the industry and how shared hosting works, you would understand that.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I know how the industry works and know companies that have lost hosting privileges because of excessive bandwidth when the provider false advertises, and you can find a lot of providers who say unlimited.

You are confusing shared servers to dedicated servers. But go ahead and keep on thinking that Hockeystreams.com is streaming these videos and spending their time and risking getting caught for $0-dollar profit. They are doing illegal activities to serve you, the viewer, for free. And go ahead and keep on thinking they are only charging you what it costs them in bandwidth. Lol @ how naive people truly are. Just mind-blowing.

And remind me to never do business where you "contract on the ISP side". /facepalm.

Edited by Heaten

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So I have a question for the people on this forum as well...

I also want to purchase Center Ice from Comcast.. but after reading this forum, someone just said that they can purchase Game Center Live and stream through my PS3..? My PS3 is connected to the same TV as my cable box... so what would you recommend for me? Also, what are the pros and cons for Game Center Live vs. Center Ice?

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You are confusing shared servers to dedicated servers. But go ahead and keep on thinking that Hockeystreams.com is streaming these videos and spending their time and risking getting caught for $0-dollar profit. They are doing illegal activities to serve you, the viewer, for free. And go ahead and keep on thinking they are only charging you what it costs them in bandwidth. Lol @ how naive people truly are. Just mind-blowing.

And remind me to never do business where you "contract on the ISP side". /facepalm.

Dedicated servers and shared servers have nothing to do with the conversation. Its all about the ISP. Who says I am thinking that they are only charging for bandwidth or that he is only doing it for free? I don't think anyone is that dumb, and since I never said that, you can stop drawing conclusions to try to make yourself look righteous. As for you doing business where I work on the ISP side, you are probably safe there unless you do business in MI and stream a ton of video. From your knowledge and experience, you obviously don't do that. Otherwise, you would have been down that road as I have with many customers.

I would like to have a good natured conversation with you about this if you are interested. Lets take it to PM though. The conversation is way off topic.

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So I have a question for the people on this forum as well...

I also want to purchase Center Ice from Comcast.. but after reading this forum, someone just said that they can purchase Game Center Live and stream through my PS3..? My PS3 is connected to the same TV as my cable box... so what would you recommend for me? Also, what are the pros and cons for Game Center Live vs. Center Ice?

I would only recommend it if you live outside of MI. There are local blackouts on NHL Center Ice and Gamecenter. So if you want to watch the Wings, NHL Game Center may have it blacked out in MI.

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I would only recommend it if you live outside of MI. There are local blackouts on NHL Center Ice and Gamecenter. So if you want to watch the Wings, NHL Game Center may have it blacked out in MI.

The way I understand it, when you buy Center Ice you have to have a premium sports package already, so you would have all the RSNs that show NHL games (Fox Sports, Comcast Sportsnet, MSG, etc) plus the dedicated "Center Ice" channels for just the hockey games. You also get Versus and the NHL Network, which anytime those channels are showing a game there is no "Center Ice" channel for that game, you have to watch it on the regular network's channel.

With GameCenter, you are blacked out for your local team, markets are based on the network's distribution territory not whether you actually have the network, and any nationally televised game on NBC, Versus, or NHL Network is blacked out live.

One of the main reasons that people tell me they prefer GameCenter to Center Ice is the archives, if you miss a game on Center Ice you just miss out on that game (unless you set your DVR), but with GameCenter every game is archived 48 hours after the live broadcast, and for games that are not blacked out you can start them over for 24 hours, even while the game is in progress, with no additional hardware or software. Also, GameCenter includes access to the NHL Vault, which is archives for every game since 2007-08 and several classic games from the 60's-90's, and by the end of October there are supposed to be as many as 500 classic games.

Not trying to sound like a salesperson for Gamecenter, just giving you more information so you can make an informed decision.

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FYI, I work in tech support for Gamecenter Live, feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Here is a link to the Gamecenter Live FAQs for those interested, new features for this season are home and away video, the ability to stream directly to your PS3, Roku, or Boxee. NHL Vault (archives and classic games, included with GCL subscription) will be available on Sony Bravia Blu-Ray players and the iPad.

Also, for those making mention of hockeystreams.net, don't be surprised if that site gets shut down if it hasn't already been, the NHL is severly cracking down on unauthorized streaming sites charging money for hockey, (don't worry, I haven't told them about Drumnj, he doesn't charge)

I've also being tossing up whether I should get Gamecenter for this season too and I think you may have just sold me with the PS3 feature. What software do you need to stream it to a PS3 though? Through the media server thing or?

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I appreciate the response but now realize my question wasn't specific enough to express my needs for either service.

Well the reason for me wanting to buy Center Ice was because I just love the game and want to watch as many games as possible this season. I live in Michigan so I already have FSD, Versus, and FSN+.

My concern really is quality of the games. I have no interest in watching the games on my computer. If I purchased Game Center, I would most likely stream it to my TV 99% of the time. So also in that regard, how is Game Center better or perhaps not better at all than Center Ice.

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That's great news that it's available on PS3 this year. No more hooking the laptop up to the tv. The PS3 player worked great for the similar MLB package.

Another nice thing about gamecenter is that you can log in from any computer. So if you're traveling and at a hotel or something you can still watch the wings.

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I appreciate the response but now realize my question wasn't specific enough to express my needs for either service.

Well the reason for me wanting to buy Center Ice was because I just love the game and want to watch as many games as possible this season. I live in Michigan so I already have FSD, Versus, and FSN+.

My concern really is quality of the games. I have no interest in watching the games on my computer. If I purchased Game Center, I would most likely stream it to my TV 99% of the time. So also in that regard, how is Game Center better or perhaps not better at all than Center Ice.

I have had Center Ice and Gamecenter live. Since they are almost priced the same here is my rundown of both services.

Since you already live in MI and have all channels they will show locally, then you are all set on that end and have your Wings covered. I am a hockey nut as well, and I love watching the game. I enjoyed NHL Center Ice because you get HD streams on Directv. If I had Comcast, Dish Network, or Uverse, I probably wouldn't get the NHL Center Ice package because all the games are in standard definition.

I feel the NHL Gamecenter Live is what you want if...

1. You travel and like watching the games on your computer while you are away.

2. You have a nice HDTV and don't have Directv. Almost all NHL Center Ice package games on Directv are in HD. One or two are in HD on Dish while none are available on Comcast or Uverse.

The service works well. Yes, there are hiccups every now and again, but I feel it is worth it.

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FYI, I work in tech support for Gamecenter Live, feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Here is a link to the Gamecenter Live FAQs for those interested, new features for this season are home and away video, the ability to stream directly to your PS3, Roku, or Boxee. NHL Vault (archives and classic games, included with GCL subscription) will be available on Sony Bravia Blu-Ray players and the iPad.

Also, for those making mention of hockeystreams.net, don't be surprised if that site gets shut down if it hasn't already been, the NHL is severly cracking down on unauthorized streaming sites charging money for hockey, (don't worry, I haven't told them about Drumnj, he doesn't charge)

Any more information about the PS3 streaming?

The only reason I haven't re-upped for this year is I want to take advantage of the massive TV I bought in the off season instead of watching it on my computer monitors.

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Any more information about the PS3 streaming?

The only reason I haven't re-upped for this year is I want to take advantage of the massive TV I bought in the off season instead of watching it on my computer monitors.

We actually haven't had a chance to look at the PS3 app yet, so I can't give many specifics, but the way it is supposed to work is you will download the app from the PSN store (they will charge you $10 for it) and once you have downloaded the app you will have to register it, there will be a validation code that you enter through the app to link it to your Gamecenter account for the computer, then you will be able to stream live games through your console directly to your TV, and since the video hardware on the PS3 is far superior to any media center PC, you should have a much better picture through the PS3 than you will by hooking your computer up to your big screen.

We should be getting a production app and a console to test it on early next week, so I will post more details in this thread then. Also, for those of you that have the Roku box for Netflix, there will be an app for your box that will do the same thing.

I've also being tossing up whether I should get Gamecenter for this season too and I think you may have just sold me with the PS3 feature. What software do you need to stream it to a PS3 though? Through the media server thing or?

The only software you will need is the app itself, and of course a Gamecenter account for the computer. Another bonus of the PS3 app is that you can actually be signed in on a computer and also be streaming through the PS3 at the same time, whereas if you try to sign on to more than one computer at a time it will boot one computer off.

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Guest best poster in LGW history

center ice is so much better on satellite vs cable. tons of HD games every night on dish network.

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Guest Shoreline

Hog wash. They are charging to profit on illegal pirated content. I run 11 successful (legal) websites and know how much dedicated servers cost. Two yearly subscriptions pay for the bandwidth... any other subscriptions they get is 100% profit; these guys are making a business stealing content. Not sure how anyone can defend them.

So how much active bandwidth does each consumer streaming their video use, per second? Hockey streams on their main page claims 1.8mb/s feeds. Your dedicated server link claims up to 10mb/s. If my math isn't wrong (if it is, show how), that means the 6th person who tries to stream a hockey game on that dedicated server's data pipe gets screwed. The "unmetered" part is how much bandwidth is consumed over the span of a billing cycle (1 month), and nothing to do with real time bandwidth usage. $16/mo for Hockeystreams @ 1.8mb/s for live feeds, $165/mo for 5.5 1.8 mb/s connections. $165/mo / $16/mo = 10.3 customers. 10.3 (round to 10) customers paying versus 5.5 (round to 5) customers being served. I don't see the profit generated on 2 customers. In fact, all this shows is they need something along the lines of a 1GB/s or more dedicated server and, if the math is similar to this website in terms of hosting, can only feasibly allow for streams at half the actual data rate before they even start to make a profit. Because I'm more willing to believe that the higher the bandwidth plan the dedicated server has (the layman's "buy in bulk" price saving theory), the more they will save on per/second bandwidth, it would be slightly over half the actual data rate, or less, shifting up and down on a supply curve entirely depending upon how much data consumers actually use per second versus what is advertised.

I'm more than willing to believe you run 11 websites, but I'm skeptical you actually know much about bandwidth and the economics of bandwidth/cost just because you run websites.

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Guest Heaten

So how much active bandwidth does each consumer streaming their video use, per second? Hockey streams on their main page claims 1.8mb/s feeds. Your dedicated server link claims up to 10mb/s. If my math isn't wrong (if it is, show how), that means the 6th person who tries to stream a hockey game on that dedicated server's data pipe gets screwed. The "unmetered" part is how much bandwidth is consumed over the span of a billing cycle (1 month), and nothing to do with real time bandwidth usage. $16/mo for Hockeystreams @ 1.8mb/s for live feeds, $165/mo for 5.5 1.8 mb/s connections. $165/mo / $16/mo = 10.3 customers. 10.3 (round to 10) customers paying versus 5.5 (round to 5) customers being served. I don't see the profit generated on 2 customers. In fact, all this shows is they need something along the lines of a 1GB/s or more dedicated server and, if the math is similar to this website in terms of hosting, can only feasibly allow for streams at half the actual data rate before they even start to make a profit. Because I'm more willing to believe that the higher the bandwidth plan the dedicated server has (the layman's "buy in bulk" price saving theory), the more they will save on per/second bandwidth, it would be slightly over half the actual data rate, or less, shifting up and down on a supply curve entirely depending upon how much data consumers actually use per second versus what is advertised.

I'm more than willing to believe you run 11 websites, but I'm skeptical you actually know much about bandwidth and the economics of bandwidth/cost just because you run websites.

I don't have the time to explain all the nuts and bolts aspects about servers unless you would like to pay me for my time (if so, shoot me a PM and we'll get started with training over SKYPE).

In laymen's terms:

Because something is posted on the front page of Hockeystreams.com doesn't means it's true. Use common sense... they are not streaming hockey games for virtually free. They are profiting from illegal pirated content. Robbers don't heist a bank only to steal enough money to pay for the gas in the get-away car. C'mon man, use common sense.

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heaten, as someone who also works in the web industry, you really are missing the point here. you seem to have your niche of knowledge and are not understanding at all what others are saying. its great you have 11 sites, i am sure your mom is proud, but thats not exactly something that is hard to do. sorry for the condescending attitude, its just getting really frustrating seeing you argue your point which makes no sense at all.

also, we get it; they are still streaming illegal content. no one is disputing that. people are just disputing your understanding of how much bandwidth costs.

Edited by dobbles

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Guest Heaten

heaten, as someone who also works in the web industry, you really are missing the point here. you seem to have your niche of knowledge and are not understanding at all what others are saying. its great you have 11 sites, i am sure your mom is proud, but thats not exactly something that is hard to do. sorry for the condescending attitude, its just getting really frustrating seeing you argue your point which makes no sense at all.

also, we get it; they are still streaming illegal content. no one is disputing that. people are just disputing your understanding of how much bandwidth costs.

Pure attack post with no substance. Good job providing nothing at all to the conversation.

Due to popular demand, I took some time to do a generic breakdown. An estimated cost for 55 viewers per day @ 2 games (obviously there's a lot of variables). 55 viewers can watch a total of 6-hours of game for approx $1.10 per day / cost of bandwidth usage. (though most people won't watch 2 full games per day if they have a life or family, so the cost averages about $0.54 cents per game) -- **but I'll give those who defend hockeystream's action the benefit of the doubt.

So for 55 people (who subscribe for 1 day) pay $7 each = $385 in total payment to Hockeystreams.com.. Hockeystreams' total cost in bandwidth usage for 55 viewers = $60.50 (estimated probably double to what they actually pay). Therefore, Hockeystreams just profited $324.50 in just one day (based on 55 viewers).

I'm sure Hockeystreams.com has more than 55 viewers, so I bet they profit more than $2000 daily for stealing content and reselling to you. But, go ahead and keep on thinking they don't profit anything and that they are a noble new-era Robin Hood for stealing copyrighted content and giving to the poor (who can't afford the extra monies to buy games legally).

**calculated very high and bloated bandwidth usage based on the webmaster not knowing how to preserve bandwidth and averaging every viewer to watch two full games per day.

Edited to add source to back up my calculations:

Streaming video hosting costs

Edited by Heaten

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it was an attack post because multiple posters have repeatedly pointed out where your flaws in logic are yet you continue to ignore them.

as far as that link you give, it makes me laugh reading. it gives all its benchmarks in reference to 56k connections. so i looked at the page source, it was made with frontpage version 3 which is frontpage 98. so you are looking at a website that is at least 10 years old. good luck with that though!

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Guest Heaten

it was an attack post because multiple posters have repeatedly pointed out where your flaws in logic are yet you continue to ignore them.

as far as that link you give, it makes me laugh reading. it gives all its benchmarks in reference to 56k connections. so i looked at the page source, it was made with frontpage version 3 which is frontpage 98. so you are looking at a website that is at least 10 years old. good luck with that though!

Yet you can't prove anything I claimed was incorrect (and you can't even provided a credible source to back anything up), instead you say "uhhhh, that site looks outdated to me so it's not credible, doh" LMAO! Funny how that works.

Keep attacking, it's really proving you have superior knowledge in the matter. :thumbup:

Edited by Heaten

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Guest Heaten

Hey children, do you mind taking your ***** fest somewhere else. Has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

You got it.

Anyone is welcome to contact me on SKYPE, I accept clickbank,PayPal and all major credit cards. Time is money and I charge to educate. PM me if interested.

Edited by Heaten

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Guest Shoreline

I don't have the time to explain all the nuts and bolts aspects about servers unless you would like to pay me for my time (if so, shoot me a PM and we'll get started with training over SKYPE).

In laymen's terms:

Because something is posted on the front page of Hockeystreams.com doesn't means it's true. Use common sense... they are not streaming hockey games for virtually free. They are profiting from illegal pirated content. Robbers don't heist a bank only to steal enough money to pay for the gas in the get-away car. C'mon man, use common sense.

Calling bulls*** on you again.

I checked out their streams myself, genius, looking at the bandwidth used through my own router and through looking at the stream properties via WMP of what I was streaming. That doesn't lie. 600kbps - 1864kbps.

How much bandwidth do you calculate they use per user per stream in kbps? Keeping in mind the delivered data is ALREADY compressed data (similar to the data DirecTV and Dish use for their live streams), so a further compression of it results in substantial amount of quality loss.

Two yearly subscriptions pay for the bandwidth... any other subscriptions they get is 100% profit
Hockeystreams' total cost in bandwidth usage for 55 viewers = $60.50 (estimated probably double to what they actually pay).

Two yearly subscriptions, $199. Your new mathematical philosophy, $60, for 55 users, of course.

Sorry, but your math sucks, and you can't even keep straight how much bandwidth streaming really costs, nor do your sources agree with your statements. Obviously you know your elbow from your ass on the issue which indicates you must be in sales or something that requires little actual technical knowledge. :clap:

In layman's terms: You're full of s***. Now sod off.

Anyhow, sorry 10 Minute Misconduct, I don't feel like allowing someone to blatantly bulls*** people about costs to scare them away from business. The legal issue is another one.

To the OP, in all honesty, I'd go with hockeystreams. It's been up several years now, and it is not constrained by the shoddy blackout restrictions that GameCenter or even the TV Center Ice is. My experience with GameCenter was a rather large number of blackouts as they didn't provide any Wings games beyond regional (FOX Sports Net, Comcast, MSG, etc.), which meant blackouts on Versus, NBC, FOX2, and so on. I really don't like the idea of scrambling to find out at the last minute if a game I've looked forward to or made plans for is going to be scroo'd. Hence, why I recommend hockeystreams this time around.

Edited by Shoreline

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Guest Heaten
In layman's terms: You're full of s***. Now sod off.

^ Shorline get's seriously butthurt when he get's owned. :hehe:

Still can't source your claims? Because you are clueless in the matter. Face it dude, you are fighting a losing battle.

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Guest best poster in LGW history

wow, heaten dropping some real talk in this thread. nice work.

dobbles OWNED like a slave.

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Guest Shoreline

Uh, hello, hockeystreams.. what better source for data than the very site delivering it, which is what the discussion was relating to. And why would I bother getting into a source war with you? You don't even address any of the data provided on hockeystreams and what I gave you. Simple tactic -- respond to the only part of the post without data, commence with insult and patting self on the back. Low self esteem much? Edit: Someone gave you a +1 for your post, but if you need any more of a pick-me-up, I'm available for a hug. Unlike you, I'm actually good at something I declare myself to be.

Edited by Shoreline

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www.hockeystreams.com is where it's at for me.

Granted, I didn't use it much for live game action primarily due to delays in game action/feeds being off, but that's not really a perfect science to begin with (i.e. multiple TVs at the sports bar with the same game being just a few seconds off).

Used it primarily as a backup option when other streams might've failed or if I missed a game that night.

Paid $69.99 for a 1/2 year which got me through most season, solid video quality. It's not 100% perfect as you might have a stream not have the best performance due to natural things like site traffic and people watching the games at the same time. But it's as good as it gets I think for watching online if you aren't watching a game on ESPN3.com (which is VERY SOLID quality the few times I've watched football or baseball games on there).

I subscribed again this year, I'd save a few dollars and go this route/

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