Question for Direct TV NFL package users

TJV

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I hate streaming stuff off the internet for several reason as an option: 1) buffering 2) actually finding a legal site 3) watching it on my PC monitor sucks.
You may already know this but I connected my laptop to my flat screen via a HDMI cable and it worked very well (to watch Badger BB games not broadcast on TV). My laptop is relatively new so I honestly don't remember a problem with buffering and the picture was great.
 

El Guapo

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So HRE (or anyone else for that matter), how do you like the NFL GameRewind? I'm thinking about getting that $29.99 option to watch just the Packers. Seems reasonable since I'm not always around to watch the games live anyway. As I understand it, for a regular Sunday game you have to wait until the Sunday night game ends at 10/11pm and then you can watch the Packers, right? How well does it stream? I don't have a super fast connection so I'm wondering if I can download it or have to steam and deal with buffering issues.
 
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HardRightEdge

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So HRE (or anyone else for that matter), how do you like the NFL GameRewind? I'm thinking about getting that $29.99 option to watch just the Packers. Seems reasonable since I'm not always around to watch the games live anyway. As I understand it, for a regular Sunday game you have to wait until the Sunday night game ends at 10/11pm and then you can watch the Packers, right? How well does it stream? I don't have a super fast connection so I'm wondering if I can download it or have to steam and deal with buffering issues.
I subscribed again for Preseason and Game Rewind this year. These are excellent products and I say that having no affiliation with the NFL.

A few comments:

It's advertised as high def and it looks high def...very clear and crisp. Consequently, it's probably sucking bandwidth. I happen to have a fairly high speed connection through a cable provider (Time Warner Cable with the standard speed option) and experience no buffering.

In point of contrast, in a previous year I bought into a bootleg low def feed at a time when I lived in a rural area with no cable or DSL. I was forced to settle for a slow satellite internet connection, from Wild Blue at the time. Under those conditions the buffering was so bad as to be unwatchable. So, it comes down to "it depends". If you have satellite internet, fuggetaboutit. DSL might work, but I think you'd have to try it to know. There can be a lot of variability from one DSL connection to another...you might get higher or lower than advertised speeds based on location relative to the switching station. I'd think if you get a clean high def feed from other sites (maybe find such a thing on youtube to test it out) you might be OK.

The web site says, "Coming soon: view downloaded games on your tablet or mobile device while on or offline." When or how that might be I could not say.

Otherwise, it has a lot of nice features: http://gamerewind.nfl.com/nflgr/features.jsp

Until Game Rewind offered "coaches film", Pro Football Focus was operating without it. With it, you can see the game the way the "professional" analysts do.

Yeah, Game Rewind is blacked out when other NFL games are being played. Besides Sunday, I seem to recall being blacked out a Monday night. I would expect Thursday night to be the same.
 
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Packerfan0220

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Last year was my first year with direct tv and I got the nfl package for free for new users. I have it set up for an auto renew so I can see all the games again this year. But...... does that also include preseason games? And.... will I get the games even if I have not finished paying for it in full, as I am doing the installment plan.

Just a slight fyi, you don't have to pay full price for NFL ticket, I called them every year for past 5 years and they always gave it to me at half price with the online stuff as well. This year I told them I was looking to cancel direct tv because it was getting to expensive and they gave me nfl ticket at no cost and took $50 off my bill. Just figured I would let you know if you want to try and knock a few bucks off the price.
 

Powarun

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I stream a LOT, actually all my live TV is streamed. Most connections need around 2meg for the hidef stuff, and a wired (ethernet) connection is preferred as wireless can have issues that can be a pain to troubleshoot. If your computer is relatively new it should be able to stream a game just fine, along with connecting it to a TV, and while DVI and HDMI are very nice, I noticed if I connected a desktop to a TV with VGA I get a better fullscreen picture without any black bars. I know this has something to do with digital rights or something, too lazy to search the details. These are just tips.

Also yeah business's are charged a ton for certain channels for select programming.
 
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HardRightEdge

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I stream a LOT, actually all my live TV is streamed. Most connections need around 2meg for the hidef stuff, and a wired (ethernet) connection is preferred as wireless can have issues that can be a pain to troubleshoot. If your computer is relatively new it should be able to stream a game just fine, along with connecting it to a TV, and while DVI and HDMI are very nice, I noticed if I connected a desktop to a TV with VGA I get a better fullscreen picture without any black bars. I know this has something to do with digital rights or something, too lazy to search the details. These are just tips.

Also yeah business's are charged a ton for certain channels for select programming.
As an FYI, under the right circumstances a hard wired connection is not necessary.

Last season I used a new notebook computer with a wireless connection via a new $70 Belkin N router...no problems at all with the NFL site's streaming. In fact, since buying this equipment in May 2013, I cannot recall a single instance of buffering pauses from any source. I should note that in my household there is rarely more than one device at a time accessing the router.

NFL.com recommends an internet connection with a minimum 2.0 Mbps, as you suggested, for "highest quality video":

http://preseason.support.nfl.com/Vi...9&SPID=44851&DB_OEM_ID=22900&ATCLID=205437547

My experience is based on an advertised 15 Mbps speed which often runs at about half that.

Note the computer requirements are not particularly robust.

Here's a way to test one's download speed: http://www.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/

For the less technically inclined, divide the result by 1000 to get Mbps (megabits per second).
 
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Powarun

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HardRightEdge - You are absolutely right, I do speed tests all the time from wireless connections and usually can get over 2mb, I usually average 30mb on a 60mb connection, though usually I'm not even 10 feet away from the router, and it deprecates from there :( I only recommended a wired connection since there are a lot less problems, other computers connected, interference, lag, wireless problems. I work for a cable company now and test their modems constantly, and am just giving what I felt was the best advice for streaming. Also personally I have had difficulty streaming games over wireless in my bedroom, which is across the house, ran an ethernet cable and the problem disappeared. What really sucked it always did it during the game and not during the commercials.
 

El Guapo

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What really sucked it always did it during the game and not during the commercials.
Thanks for all of the responses guys.

Powarun - they don't do commercials in HD most of the time, so the signal was probably easier to stream than the game.
 

Powarun

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Thanks for all of the responses guys.

Powarun - they don't do commercials in HD most of the time, so the signal was probably easier to stream than the game.

Never thought of that one, thank you. I just figured that football has a lot of movement in it. Though at the time of myself streaming sling box from my job we had upstream problems, and we'd have upstream spikes whenever something crazy happened in the football world. People posting to twitter and Facebook, which when tied to the lag of the game could also explain it.
 

PackerfaninCarolina

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You know I just wondered something. Does FoxSportsGo broadcast NFL regular season games in the local Wisconsin markets? I noticed it pretty much has live 24/7 feeds of Fox Sports 1 and 2, and games on the Fox College Sports channels and occasionally regional Fox Sports channel coverage, but I wonder if the local Fox channels in Milwaukee or Green Bay are included on the Fox Sports Go app when a Packer game is on.
 
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I_am_smoked_cheddar

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You know I just wondered something. Does FoxSportsGo broadcast NFL regular season games in the local Wisconsin markets? I noticed it pretty much has live 24/7 feeds of Fox Sports 1 and 2, and games on the Fox College Sports channels and occasionally regional Fox Sports channel coverage, but I wonder if the local Fox channels in Milwaukee or Green Bay are included on the Fox Sports Go app when a Packer game is on.

Probably not , they don't miss a trick when it comes to taking our money . :cry:
 

PackerfaninCarolina

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Testing the Fox Sports Go on the 49ers Chargers game right now and it's actually working.

However, this is a national television game and it's preseason, so that may not work when it comes to regular season local Fox affiliate games. Worth a shot to test though I guess.
 
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I_am_smoked_cheddar

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Testing the Fox Sports Go on the 49ers Chargers game right now and it's actually working.

However, this is a national television game and it's preseason, so that may not work when it comes to regular season local Fox affiliate games. Worth a shot to test though I guess.

Welcome to the Forum !
 

Packer Fan in SD

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Testing the Fox Sports Go on the 49ers Chargers game right now and it's actually working.

However, this is a national television game and it's preseason, so that may not work when it comes to regular season local Fox affiliate games. Worth a shot to test though I guess.
In San Diego Fox Sports Go says Directv doesn't support it but they will notify me if Directv ever gets it.
 

PackerfaninCarolina

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Yeah, I got U-Verse and I'm using the WITI Milwaukee one. But I'm curious to see if that will cover regular season games since that's a Packer affiliate Fox station.
 

Packer Fan in SD

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No clue on u-verse, but local guy trying to sell me on it, says they have NFL ticket and fiber optic internet. How do you like it and does it have Sunday Ticket? I told him the only way I change is getting Sunday Ticket, since I will not miss my Packer games.
 

Beebe82

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"Time Warner doesn't have a cap and AT&T does, but the cap is 250 GB a month for U-Verse, which I have never gone over and I use quite a bit of Internet with streaming HD. If you do go over, they warn you first, and then if you go over again they charge you $10 for every 50 GB you go over, which isn't bad at all IMO."

This attitude is a big problem, and trust me this is not a personal attack but rather a comment on the digital services industry as a whole. ATT, Time Warner, Verizon, etc. get tens of millions of dollars in govt subsidies each year to enhance their infrastructure and do nothing to improve speeds, service or product offerings. The wired connection from your cable operator is at 100GB per second but they throttle you to almost 10% of that and ask you to upgrade for using more bandwidth and data. LTE offers wireless speeds far in excess of what you're currently getting but all of the cellular providers limit customers and then announce a new offering like xlte (marketing fluff) and expect you to pay twice as much for 1/4 bump in speed. I love america and vote at every chance I get but the US needs seriously look at our technological infrastructure policies and start enforcing some of the contracts we have in place with the telecommunications companies. Europe, in this case, has it right and their consumers are far better off for the heavy regulation that is placed and enforced on these industries. If for nothing else, think of your fellow packer fan far from 1265 who just wants to watch Eddie Lacy bulldoze into the end zone for a TD.
 

PackerfaninCarolina

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No clue on u-verse, but local guy trying to sell me on it, says they have NFL ticket and fiber optic internet. How do you like it and does it have Sunday Ticket? I told him the only way I change is getting Sunday Ticket, since I will not miss my Packer games.

It doesn't currently have Sunday Ticket, but if the deal to purchase DirecTV by AT&T goes through, it might pick it up, with a few caveats. AT&T made an offer to do this, but the DOJ is reviewing this right now according to this article.

http://nypost.com/2014/08/25/att-agrees-to-conditions-with-feds-in-48-5m-directv-purchase/


What I was using was not Sunday Ticket, it was Fox Sports Go, it's a new thing from Fox over here at www.foxsports.com/foxsportsgo . It's kinda like WatchESPN where you sign in using your TV/Internet provider and you get access to live sports feeds coming from the Fox Networks. This would include at least national broadcast sports events on local Fox channels. Like I said I used this to watch the preseason game with the 49ers and chargers last Sunday and it came from Fox 6 in Milwaukee. I was just wondering if Packer games, which are only broadcasted in the Wisconsin markets or local markets of their opponents would be available on this.

Now with Fox Sports Go, it's not exactly a substitute for Sunday Ticket, I believe it only picks up the Fox channels in your local markets.

Now say if you lived outside of Wisconsin but had a TV provider that carried Fox Sports Go, you may be able to get a Wisconsin Fox channel if you got a Wisconsin IP address and made it think you were there, but that's not something I feel I can discuss here without bending or breaking the rules. Plus like I said, I don't know if this works for non-national TV games. It worked for the NFC playoffs and Superbowl and now preseason, but regular season may be different.

And U-Verse isn't the only provider carrying Fox Sports Go

I believe Comcast Xfinity, Time Warner Cable, Suddenlink, Optimum, Bright House, WOW, and COX also have it, they have a list of providers at their site.
 
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HardRightEdge

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PackerfaninCarolina -

I believe you have that right.

I'm in the Buffalo area and I just signed in to Fox Sports Go with my Time Warner Cable password for free.

A cursory review of today's program lineup shows the same stuff being broadcast on the Fox Sports 1 channel on cable. I see only one broadcast per time slot, and needless to say I did not see the Packer/Chiefs game listed for tomorrow.

If I recall correctly, DirecTV paid in the neighborhood of $1 billion over some years for the exclusive rights to broadcast out-of-area NFL games live with the Sunday Ticket. I don't believe there's any other legal way to get those games.
 
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gatorpack

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I just called to cancel DTV and got $40 dollars off my bill and sunday ticket max for free! Plus all the movie channels free for 3months and I didnt even ask for it. Only thing is you have to agree to another 12 months if you want the sunday ticket free.
 

Phil Lattin

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Last year was my first year with direct tv and I got the nfl package for free for new users. I have it set up for an auto renew so I can see all the games again this year. But...... does that also include preseason games? And.... will I get the games even if I have not finished paying for it in full, as I am doing the installment plan.
You won't get preseason unless you live in an area that normally airs the games but the installment plan still gets you every game.
 

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