@cyclones22: Nah, I have to live and die with NHL.tv as it is. It's a mixed bag currently, but much better than in mid-October. Yesterday's ESPN+ broadcast via NHL.tv went fine – I believe it was shown in its entirety, including pregame (just a few minutes, though, I think, it was with Barry Melrose – unlike the full half-hour on BSW), intermission and post-game. The "Commercial Break in Progress" screen is a lot more professional in ESPN broadcasts, because it's a
dynamic screen (as on NHL.tv in previous seasons), not a static screen that makes you wonder whether the stream is frozen. There is no cutting-off ESPN announcers mid-sentence; in fact, quite the opposite: before returning from an ESPN commercial break, the screen goes
completely dark for half a second or so, so instead of worrying whether the stream is frozen, you briefly worry whether your TV set is dead.
On the whole, though, it's tolerable.
The main problem with Bally Sports West broadcasts via NHL.tv is that this season, there is zero pregame, whereas in previous seasons, the full half-hour used to be shown. I hear that for other Bally Sports channels, NHL.tv does show the half-hour pregame show, so it makes me all the more angry that for BSW for some reason, they don't do that.
At least all the BSW ads are now shown in full, so no more cutting off Jim & Alex mid-sentence when going to commercial breaks. Full intermission programming is now shown as well, and most or all of the post-game, too. You can see that there's currently absolutely no system behind it at NHL.tv – on any given night, you can't rely on what exactly you'll be getting via NHL.tv.
There is still no "Watch game from the start" button when you join a game in progress (as I often do, because the regular puckdrop time for Kings home games is at 4:30 in the morning for us: breakfast TV), but unlike in mid-October, it's now possible to scroll to the start of the stream manually, dodging spoilers as much as you can.
For picture quality, my "TV PC" (Windows) connected (via HDMI cable) to the TV set used to provide the best results in the first few weeks of the season, but for the last couple of games, I've had best results launching the stream on the iPad NHL.tv app and streaming it wirelessly, via AirPlay, to the same TV set. Go figure.
