GameCenter Live vs NHL Center Ice

[haohmaru]

I'll probably fork over the extra $ for GCL as it seems less of a pain in the ass to use than hockeystreams is. Especially for use with the PS3/Roku etc... I am really intrigued by the ability to watch KHL/AHL etc... Choices... Argh.

 

[Malarowski]

Nice. Thanks for the heads up.

For what it is worth, I watched the entire last season of HS through my tablet and their app without any issue. Worked like a charm.

 

[Jabroni]

I had CI on FiOS here in Pittsburgh last season and it was alright, but not worth the money unless you can park yourself in front of the TV and watch tons of hockey. I'd much rather have Gamecenter because at least then I can watch it on my phone or tablet, as well as on my PS3 with the app (though the PS3 app is pretty lousy).

Going to give HockeyStreams a shot this year. It has XBMC support, so I can use my HTPC which is nice. They also have an API suite, so I'm going to tinker with that and see if I can do anything clever.

Maybe I'll try hockey streams. If it works with XBMC, it probably workswith Plex Media Center too. Can anyone confirm?

 

[Hire Sather]

I got GCL last year but I'll be purchasing hockeystreams this year. The fact that they have HD streams with no delay is enough for me. GCL is a joke with the 90+ second delays.

If you get hockeystreams, though... wait until October 7th or so.. whatever lines up with the regular season ending 6 months from then in April.

They offer packages of 1 year, 6 months. and lower. I can't fathom why you'd do anything other than the 6 months. Good price, and getting the year is pointless as you can't really use it much at all in the offseason.

 

[Jabroni]

Go for an AppleTV if you think you would use it for things beyond GCL. It's a very easy way to watch GCL on your TV, plus you can access all of your photos, videos and music.

ID recommend a Mac Mini. An Apple TV is just a locked down Max Mini with very little features. Might as well get the extra desktop functionality.

 

[nyr2k2]

I got GCL last year but I'll be purchasing hockeystreams this year. The fact that they have HD streams with no delay is enough for me. GCL is a joke with the 90+ second delays.

If you get hockeystreams, though... wait until October 7th or so.. whatever lines up with the regular season ending 6 months from then in April.

They offer packages of 1 year, 6 months. and lower. I can't fathom why you'd do anything other than the 6 months. Good price, and getting the year is pointless as you can't really use it much at all in the offseason.

You can actually "freeze" your account in the offseason. You basically make the account inactive so that your clock doesn't tick down while there's no hockey. Use it for six months, freeze it, use it for six more months when hockey comes back.

It's one of the coolest features of the site. You buy a year, and it really covers you for two seasons.

 

[Levitate]

Oh, theoretically with GCL you get access to their Vault, which has classic games going back to the 60's, as well as archived games from recent years

It's not every game, just memorable game (I guess). Kind of cool though

e: just now watching the Rangers play the Cannucks in '97

 

[MadHookUp]

If you get hockeystreams, though... wait until October 7th or so.. whatever lines up with the regular season ending 6 months from then in April.

They offer packages of 1 year, 6 months. and lower. I can't fathom why you'd do anything other than the 6 months. Good price, and getting the year is pointless as you can't really use it much at all in the offseason.

I think some people want to watch the playoffs. I would cancel my TV service if I went to Hockeystreams and wont have NBC etc.

 

[Hire Sather]

You can actually "freeze" your account in the offseason. You basically make the account inactive so that your clock doesn't tick down while there's no hockey. Use it for six months, freeze it, use it for six more months when hockey comes back.

It's one of the coolest features of the site. You buy a year, and it really covers you for two seasons.

Hm wasn't aware of that. Pretty good deal.

 

[charlie460]

Maybe I'll try hockey streams. If it works with XBMC, it probably workswith Plex Media Center too. Can anyone confirm?

Works with XBMC, not sure about Plex.

 

[Fanned On It]

With Game Center Live, are you able to watch games AFTER they've aired already? I'm probably going to be working a lot at night time here in CA so I don't know if I'll be able to catch the games live. Don't they have a feature where you can watch recent games up to two days afterwards or something? Any help would be appreciated because I need a way to watch my Rangers in SoCal!

 

[nyr2k2]

With Game Center Live, are you able to watch games AFTER they've aired already? I'm probably going to be working a lot at night time here in CA so I don't know if I'll be able to catch the games live. Don't they have a feature where you can watch recent games up to two days afterwards or something? Any help would be appreciated because I need a way to watch my Rangers in SoCal!

Yeah, you can do that.

 

[Talisman_52]

Yeah, you can do that.

Not entirely true. There is a several hour delay in watching the game over GCL after it has already ended. I live in CA now and use GCL through a PS3. I often get home just after a game has ended and can't watch the game until the next day. If I get home in time before the game has ended, I can't start watching from the beginning and continue watching even after the game is over. It's been really annoying. I'm tempted to go back to center ice so that I can DVR the games and watch them as soon as I get home.

Perhaps hockey streams is a better option, I'll start looking into that for myself.

 

[Fanned On It]

Not entirely true. There is a several hour delay in watching the game over GCL after it has already ended. I live in CA now and use GCL through a PS3. I often get home just after a game has ended and can't watch the game until the next day. If I get home in time before the game has ended, I can't start watching from the beginning and continue watching even after the game is over. It's been really annoying. I'm tempted to go back to center ice so that I can DVR the games and watch them as soon as I get home.

Perhaps hockey streams is a better option, I'll start looking into that for myself.

Well thats more or less what I meant anyway. Watching the game the next day, that is.

 

[Tawnos]

^^

That's all true, although it's not really the "next day." GCL usually has the games up at about 11 or so, with all of the commercials and intermissions edited out. Of course, if you go to sleep before then, yeah... next day.

 

[Clown Fiesta]

So what about the playoffs with Hockeystreams?

 

[charlie460]

So what about the playoffs with Hockeystreams?

Full coverage, both broadcasts. No blackouts

 

[Clown Fiesta]

Full coverage, both broadcasts. No blackouts

Nice, will save me from having to use my parents Dish Anywhere. My wife and I don't watch TV outside of what we can get on Netflix and of course Rangers games so we decided not to pay for cable, worked fairly well with GCL but the NBC games and playoffs were a *****. Definitely trying Hockeystreams this season.

 

[charlie460]

They're streaming MSG's coverage of Training Camp on sunday too.

 

[Clown Fiesta]

They're streaming MSG's coverage of Training Camp on sunday too.

Saw that, I'll have to get it before the weekend. We're semi limited where we live as well and my parents who have had MSG since the dawn of time can't get it anymore because they have Dish and I don't think they ever resolved the contract issue or whatever it was.

I remember we used to have those 8ft dishes and before every game my dad would send me out to move it by hand until the picture was clear haha. Funny how far things have come now, and I'm not even that old.

 

[vipernsx]

K, so I've lived out of Market and different time zone for many years now so I'll tell you what I've learned.

NHL Center Ice:
1) Not all television providers carry it. So do your research first, personally I don't like being tied to a specific provider.
2) Not all providers have NHL Network or NBC Sports so again do your homework. If it's national broadcast on one of these two stations and you're provider doesn't carry them, even if you have Center Ice, you're not going to get the games.
3) Some providers charge extra for NHL Network or NBC Sports. Again do your homework regarding channel lineups. For instance, I had DirecTV, I had to move up a package to get NHL Network, however if I ordered CenterIce through them I didn't have to move the package up to get the extra channel as it came with my CenterIce subscription. However, it did require that I subscribe to HD. (at the time HD was still becoming more popular.)
4) If you have NHL Network, NBC Sports, and CenterIce, you'll still miss some games if they're playing a local team and that team is on it's local sports channel and you don't subscribe to it. If you live in Kansas City this isn't a problem, because there are no NHL franchise there. However if you're in LA, the Kings might have broadcast rights on a local station. Sometimes if the team is Nationially broadcasts on NBCSports and locally broadcast on a regional sports network, depending on the financial arraingments with the regional sports network, the National broadcast may get blacked out.
5) How smart is your DVR? - It's nice when you can tell the DVR to record the Rangers Ice Hockey games and it does it. However, if you need to be specific with your DVR as to what channel, it quickly becomes a headache and now you need to remember to set your DVR a day or so before the game. NBCSports will have the game schedule weeks in advance though the CenterIce channels may not update until a day or two prior. What's worse is sometimes you'll set it to record and you'll get the non-HD stream when you thought you'd be recording the HD, etc.
6)If you want to stream to an appliance other than your TV, if the cable provider doesn't have an app for that, you'll need to introduce something like a slingbox or MediaPC, etc. So you can still do it.
7) In summary, know what the providers in your area, know their programming packages and know how good their DVR is.

Next is my experience with GCL

 

[vipernsx]

GCL

1) The biggest plus for this, imo, is the ability to choose a broadcast. Most games are available in HD and you can choose the home or away broadcasters. This is huge when the Rangers are playing teams like Boston, Pittsburgh, and Washington. Listen to them long enough and after a while you'll cringe when someone says Steiggy or you'll just be so sickened by Jack Edwards you can no longer enjoy the game. With CenterIce sometimes you'll have to make the decision of Do I want to watch the game in HD or do I want to listen to the Rangers announcers and at times, it's a very tough decision.

2) You can choose your home or away stream with the PC app quite easily, however depending on your device and the application on it, you loose this functionality. For example, with the Sony BlueRay players etc. that have a GCL app, you'll be stuck with what they choose, which I believe is the home broadcast and you can't change it otherwise.

3) To stream to an appliance you may need further services, i.e. streaming to an app on your TV, Roku, Blueray, etc. you need an active internet connection with enough bandwith to support HD (if you want to go that far.) 5-6meg at a minimum. Sounds trivial in a metro area like NY, but believe it or not lots of the country isn't covered as well. To stream to your Xbox you'll need Xbox Live. etc. etc.

4) Two things drive me nuts with GCL. First is the score. Now most apps let you hide the score, but not all do. IMO, there's nothing worse then starting a game at the beginning and right before you do, you see the score in the 3rd period.....UGH!!!

5) Second thing that drives me nut with GCL is, it works great to start from the beginning while the game is still in progress or once the game is ended for some time. However if you get caught in the fuzzy grey area between the game is ended and some indeterminate amount of time before the post the full game from the beginning, you're SOL and can only watch highlights. Sometimes I've ended up going to bed and watched it the next day.

6) GCL puts out apps to stream direct on appliances without any other 3rd party equipment. This works well if you want to start watching a game somewhere away from home, then when you get home you can stream from where you left off. Works kind of nice.

7) You can still get some blackout restrictions with local and national broadcast rights though that's determined by your IP address so if you're tech savy, you can manipulate. For me the biggest issue is knowing the national broadcast schedule so I know when to set my DVR.

I plan on going with GCL again this year and I'll be ordering the sports package for a month so I get MSG strictly for the preseason games. Preseason games are almost never blacked out. If you get MSG and you're not in the NY Metro area, the regular season games will be blacked out.

 

[haohmaru]

That GCL post was immensely helpful. Thanks!

 

[MadHookUp]

I just signed up for Hockeystreams and it is amazing. It has every feature that I could ever ask for, and more. I can't think of a single reason why to choose anything other than this. I dont watch TV and live in PA. I was paying $100 a month just for DirecTV so I could watch hockey. Then I also paid $150 or whatever it was for the hockey package. So I was literally spending about $1400, just to watch the Rangers and 6 games are blacked out because of the Flyers.

With hockeystreams I get all games, plus about 6 other leagues including AHL, KHL, etc. All for $110 a year, and you can pause your subscription, so after the 8 month season is over, so you really are paying about $75 for a full season. Say a game starts at 7pm and you get home at 8pm. You can start watching the game from the beginning, or you can watch it live with no delay. You can also watch the games days later on archive. You can watch it on your phone. You can watch multiple games at the same time.

If you buy the $35 Google Chromecast you can use your phone or tablet to start the stream on your TV. And it doesnt stream from your phone, the Google Chromecast does it, so having to deal with the headache of hooking up a tablet or laptop to your TV can easily be avoided. Seems like a no brainer.

I guess the only hangup people might have is that it is technically illegal. I would gladly give my money to the NHL if they offered this service, but they dont. And I am sick of paying Satellite and Cable companies $1400 a year just to watch the Rangers. Pirating has revolutionized industries forcing companies to give people what they want. Napster has revolutionized MP3s and music distribution. Cable and Satellite companies fleecing people has given birth to Hulu and Netflix. And it wont be long before there will be TV services where you can subscribe to certain channels, rather than being forced to pay for 300 channels you dont want. So order hockeystreams guilt free!

 

[Clown Fiesta]

Yeah I have a hard time understanding why it's still up, but it is and they seem to do a good job bringing you all the hockey you could ever dream of, so I'll stick with it. But keep it in mind because if it does ever get taken down I doubt you'll get your money back.