New KHL Webcast Subscriptions

[Faterson]

***darn ******* spoilers. That KHL.ru video site is so awful you can't avoid spoilers even if you activate that "hide spoilers" switch. If you're joining a game in progress, they will prominently display the current score. I have tried for 5 or 6 most recent Slovan games now to start watching the game from the beginning while it's in progress, but it's useless, KHL.ru will just force you to notice the current score. **** them.

 

[hansomreiste]

Also it's kinda funny when KHL webcast service is asking for such prices meanwhile Dynamo Moscow are showing their game on their official youtube channel absolutely for free for those who feel dirty about watching laola/sopcast streams.

That's an old post and I am not even sure if you'll see this but still, why would anyone feel dirty about watching games on laola1.tv? Isn't it official? Personally, I would not be such a fan of KHL but for laola1.tv. Thanks to them, I was able to watch maaaany games throughout years, and now I occasionally buy subscription/single games on KHL.ru as well. I have no idea what's KHL's approach towards this but in my opinion, it may be the best thing they have ever done to let laola1.tv stream their games.

Free ice hockey games, around 10 of them a week, of a top-tier league without commentators? Of course I will watch KHL then, why shall I pay for anything else? Without laola1.tv, KHL would fall.

 

[Acallabeth]

***darn ******* spoilers. That KHL.ru video site is so awful you can't avoid spoilers even if you activate that "hide spoilers" switch. If you're joining a game in progress, they will prominently display the current score. I have tried for 5 or 6 most recent Slovan games now to start watching the game from the beginning while it's in progress, but it's useless, KHL.ru will just force you to notice the current score. **** them.

Have you made it known for their support team? It's clearly a bug, they should fix it.

 

[Faterson]

**** them. The play-offs are here and the streaming for the CSKA vs. Slovan game doesn't work!!!! First there was only picture (in crappy quality) without sound, and now the entire site has collapsed with the error message:

"This website is under heavy load."

****, ****, ****!!!!!!

 

[Faterson]

Picture is back (in bad quality, and freezing), but still no sound at all. Unable to log in to the site at all on the iPad.

 

[hansomreiste]

**** them. The play-offs are here and the streaming for the CSKA vs. Slovan game doesn't work!!!! First there was only picture (in crappy quality) without sound, and now the entire site has collapsed with the error message:

"This website is under heavy load."

****, ****, ****!!!!!!

Pick a free VPN quickly in a few minutes and go watch it on laola1.tv, it's much better than KHL's official stream. Moreover, they stream almost all Slovan games.

Yesterday, both in order to support KHL in my own ways and to be able to watch every game, I bought a play-off subscription. However, the quality is really bad and the stream is problematic. Normally, with my connection, I can watch any stream at 480p and if nobody else is using the internet, even 720p. I watched over 100 regular season games on laola1.tv with maybe only one or two little lags. Now, on KHL Video, Lokomotiv-SKA lagged and stopped for more than 20 times in just one period. The funny part is, all these happen in 240p. Sure, my connection is not the best but come on, 240p and lag?

 

[Faterson]

Same here... Fiber Internet, but it keeps freezing, jumps down to 240p at times, and there is no sound at all.

 

[Faterson]

On something like the 20th attempt, the stream finally loaded for me on the iPad, and so far it's been perfect, including sound.

 

[hansomreiste]

On something like the 20th attempt, the stream finally loaded for me on the iPad, and so far it's been perfect, including sound.

Glad to hear that! I gave up on trying and accepted the fact that I spent 1500 roubles for no reason. I will watch whatever laola1.tv streams, because I simply cannot watch anything on KHL Video section. I watched one and a half period of Lokomotiv-SKA and decided to switch to Jokerit-Torpedo on laola1.tv when it became unbearable... And voila, not a single freeze since then. Moreover, this is with my brother on PC downloading something. So, KHL video doesn't work properly even when I am the only one using internet. On the other hand, I can watch laola1.tv streams smoothly even when someone is downloading.

Anyway, let's say, I "supported" KHL by buying their product. That's my only consolation. I hope laola1.tv will stream finals as well, otherwise I am screwed.

 

[Faterson]

They are two different technologies – Flash on the PC (wasn't working today), and the mobile stream, which didn't have a single glitch, very smooth picture and sound. However, it took me a good half-hour until I was able to log in to the site and launch the mobile stream. Before that, I kept seeing that error message captured in the screenshot above. For future play-off games, I'll try watching them via the mobile stream as the first option.

 

[malkinfan]

I tried clicking on a video link and the KHL website would give me the error due to traffic overload page. At least a lot of people were interested in the PO. Like hansomreiste said, I went to Laola and watched the streams high quality no glitches.

 

[Acallabeth]

Maybe their servers would not be as overloaded if not for the genius decision to start all games at the same time.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Maybe their servers would not be as overloaded if not for the genius decision to start all games at the same time.

You are a real go-getter aren't you? They hate people like that in KHL marketing department. Good marketing is for p*ssies, good people watch 4 games at once on radio, preferably Brezhnev-era VEF.

 

[Faterson]

It's ****ed up again on the PC/desktop. The CSKA vs. Slovan game loaded and played fine during the anthems and until about the 30th second of the game. The sound then totally disappeared, just like on Sunday. Then the picture dropped to 240p on this fiber optical line. And a couple of minutes later, the picture disappeared entirely, and even restarting the browser doesn't help – the stream now won't load at all on the desktop/PC.

Again, the iPad stream is working fine, although with a few minor bufferings here and there.

I submitted a bug report (in my bad Russian) about this on Sunday, but got no reply. This is usual – they used to reply to bug reports in previous seasons, but I've never heard back from them this season, other than the automatic receipt confirmation for the bug reports submitted. You are also unable to consult any bug reports you have submitted previously, etc. In short, KHL.ru's support system is just as ****ed up as their streaming. I'm going to submit another bug report today, but they probably just ignore them, so it's unlikely to help.

 

[Faterson]

Just an alert for anyone who hasn't received the email message from the KHL today:

KHL webcast subscriptions for the 2016/17 season went on sale today.

It appears the price structure is even better this year than in previous seasons:

OLD SUBSCRIBERS:
* all games of your favorite team: 2000 roubles (= around €28 = around $31)
* all games by all teams: 4000 roubles (= around €56 = around $62)

NEW SUBSCRIBERS:
* all games of your favorite team: 2500 roubles (= around €35 = around $39)
* all games by all teams: 5000 roubles (= around €70 = around $78)

I think this is very much new for the upcoming season: that a subscription to see all games by all teams now costs exactly twice as much as the subscription to watch just your own team. The "all games, all teams" subscription used to be more expensive in previous seasons. As such, I was happy to purchase the "all games, all teams" subscription as an "old subscriber", opting for the hassle-free PayPal payment option, which added a low PayPal fee of a couple of euros to the purchase price, so it appears I paid €57.73 in total. Highly recommended, despite the glithes and non-broadcasts we're likely to encounter in the course of the season, as reported earlier in this thread.

You can purchase the subscription here:

http://video.khl.ru/page/subscription_page

 

[hansomreiste]

The prices are very good but I will not buy anything before having LOTS OF positive feedbacks regarding stream quality. Last season, I bought a play-off subscription only to have commentators, with which I did not even watch 15mins of hockey, simply because it was too laggy with low FPS. While I couldn't get official KHL streams to work properly even on 480p, I watched them all on laola1.tv on 720p. If I recall correctly, you (Faterson) had the same problem with an internet connection much better than mine. KHL have been making good steps forward and I hope they also took care of this thing.

By the way, the price I am given for all-games subscription is 4999 RUB. Obviously, play-off subscription does not make me an "old" subscriber. Luckily I will only need 4998 RUB to buy it since I have 1 RUB left from previous purchases but hey, I am not an old subscriber. I'd feel less degraded if my dad disowned me. I AM AN OLD SUBSCRIBER. How come am I not?! Subscription is subscription. Why exclude play-off? Damn.

 

[Rigafan]

The prices are very good but I will not buy anything before having LOTS OF positive feedbacks regarding stream quality. Last season, I bought a play-off subscription only to have commentators, with which I did not even watch 15mins of hockey, simply because it was too laggy with low FPS. While I couldn't get official KHL streams to work properly even on 480p, I watched them all on laola1.tv on 720p. If I recall correctly, you (Faterson) had the same problem with an internet connection much better than mine. KHL have been making good steps forward and I hope they also took care of this thing.

By the way, the price I am given for all-games subscription is 4999 RUB. Obviously, play-off subscription does not make me an "old" subscriber. Luckily I will only need 4998 RUB to buy it since I have 1 RUB left from previous purchases but hey, I am not an old subscriber. I'd feel less degraded if my dad disowned me. I AM AN OLD SUBSCRIBER. How come am I not?! Subscription is subscription. Why exclude play-off? Damn.

I encountered the same issue with the lagging streams. I also watched most games on Laola1! However I've still subbed now to a 1 team pass just to support the league. I also sent an email complaining why isn't the page in English yet? You click the english link and it takes you to the main KHL page. Still work to be done but it slowly gets better.

 

[Vicente]

Is there some app for PS4 for KHL?

 

[Rigafan]

I got a reply from the KHL Video guys about my English translation...

Hello!
We work on the translation.
Thanks for your letter!


--
Ваша заявка #322649.
С уважением, команда Webcaster.pro.

 

[Faterson]

I've still subbed now to a 1 team pass just to support the league.

That is partly also my motivation. They are making progress every year with the webcasts. Slow progress, but it's there. The new, simplified price structure is very nice: you want to see your own team? Pay X. You want to see all teams? Pay twice as much. It makes it a lot easier to get the full subscription now, and if only for this (for making the full subscription more affordable), I felt it was the right step for me to renew my full subscription for another season.

I encountered the same issue with the lagging streams.

My experience from last season was that iOS streams sometimes tended to be very bad, but desktop streams were mostly fine. For the same game at the same time, trying to watch it on the iPad did not work, while watching it from a Windows computer connected to my TV set did work. Last season, KHL.ru still did not have a dedicated mobile interface for watching the webcasts (unlike NHL.tv), let alone a dedicated mobile app, and that may be one of the reasons why mobile streams were so buggy sometimes. Perhaps they will further revamp and improve the webcasts interface (on desktop and/or mobile) before the first puck-drop this season.

While I couldn't get official KHL streams to work properly even on 480p, I watched them all on laola1.tv on 720p.

But laola1.tv does not give you the option of watching a game in "delayed live" mode, or from the games archive, right? That is another big reason for me to subscribe to KHL.ru – not only due to the (enormous) time-zone shifts, I frequently just don't have the time to watch games live, and it's super-convenient to be able to start watching a game whenever you're finally free to do so.

 

[hansomreiste]

But laola1.tv does not give you the option of watching a game in "delayed live" mode, or from the games archive, right? That is another big reason for me to subscribe to KHL.ru – not only due to the (enormous) time-zone shifts, I frequently just don't have the time to watch games live, and it's super-convenient to be able to start watching a game whenever you're finally free to do so.

laola1.tv has the option to "rewind" for premium users - I am not sure if this includes saving games to watch later, though. Premium membership is only 5€ a month so it's not a big deal either. Personally, I want to switch to KHL webcast simply because they have commentators and as you guys have said, it's always nice to "add some salt in soup" as we Turks say, meaning giving a hand & supporting. Being exposed to Russian commentators every day is a great exercise to learn Russian for me as well.

I hope they'll fix things up this time. I will probably buy one or two games to test it first and if everything is OK, then will go for a full-time subscription. Though I am not sure if transactions through KHL website is possible in Ukraine, for obvious reasons. They banned KHL TV not long ago.

 

[hansomreiste]

Seriously, what kind of joke is this? I have 10mbit (I know it's poor by European standards but way more than average in Turkey - our "standard pack" almost everyone has is 3mbit) yet KHL web lags even at 360p. When used by a single person, even 3mbit is good enough for a smooth 480p. With the one I have, I can watch 720p 60fps videos without lag. What do I have to do to watch the game I want legally on KHL? Sacrifice virgins? Get a computer at Google headquarters?

Just as I was typing this, it automatically set the quality at 1080p when it can't even handle 360p properly. Fantastic.

 

[ult]

That is more complicated than that. It depends on where the server is, routing to your location, packet loss, your provider and so on. For example I have 100 Mbit/s, and can watch 3-4 1080p twitch streams simultaneously, but sometimes youtube will buffer every 5 seconds on a 360p video. And sometimes 4K/60 fps will work flawlessly. Go to the options (gearbox on the right side of the screen) and increase the buffer size from 20 to 60 seconds. Maybe it will help.

 

[Exarz]

It seems like Kunlun's games aren't region blocked. Both their games have been available in Sweden

 

[ult]

It seems like Kunlun's games aren't region blocked. Both their games have been available in Sweden

Wait, what streams are you talking about? The paid ones? Why would they be region blocked?