What is your preference, Centre Ice or Game Centre

[Cat Herder]

Anyone have any preference between these two services?

I can use my XBOX to stream the Game Centre Live to my TV so both will be viewable on my TV so there is no difference that way

edit: Game Centre is cheaper by $50 total

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[Smash88]

Anyone have any preference between these two services?

I can use my XBOX to stream the Game Centre Live to my TV so both will be viewable on my TV so there is no difference that way

edit: Game Centre is cheaper by $50 total

I had gamecentre last year and it was fantastic, provided you have a VPN to be able to watch Sens games if your in the Ottawa area.

switched to hockeystreams this year since it was cheaper and it is just as good.

I'd definitely take gamecentre over Centre Ice.

 

[Cat Herder]

I had gamecentre last year and it was fantastic, provided you have a VPN to be able to watch Sens games if your in the Ottawa area.

switched to hockeystreams this year since it was cheaper and it is just as good.

I'd definitely take gamecentre over Centre Ice.

I am not in Ottawa ..I have Fibe TV here but am regionally restricted from viewing Sens games (except CBC broadcast games)

Is Hockeystreams legal? HD quality? Any way to stream over an XBOX or will I have to use my computer to stream?

 

[Cat Herder]

one more question about Hockeystreams

Any popups or intrusive ads? If not I can probably stream it over my playbook and hook it up to my TV via micro HDMI

 

[Smash88]

one more question about Hockeystreams

Any popups or intrusive ads? If not I can probably stream it over my playbook and hook it up to my TV via micro HDMI

Hockeystreams is a grey area. It's not illegal from where they stream from, but I can't see the NHL being to thrilled about it. They have been going for quite a few years now though, so it doesn't look like they will be in any trouble anytime soon..

I went with them this year as I had a friend who swore by them and it hasn't disappointed yet. you also get all the junior leagues and most of the TSN special shows, even some UFC events.

There are no pop ups or ads at all. It's been HD quality for me for all the NHL games, no lag or any issues. Some of the OHL games are pretty bad but they are usually still watchable..

The nice thing with Hockeystreams is you can try it out for a day or week and if you like it can sign on for the year and the money you spent for the trial is included in the yearly subscription.

 

[Lenny the Lynx]

Anyone have any preference between these two services?

I can use my XBOX to stream the Game Centre Live to my TV so both will be viewable on my TV so there is no difference that way

edit: Game Centre is cheaper by $50 total

I've had both, and I'm also in Toronto.

Quality/reliability wise Centre Ice is better for sure. But Game Centre is not too far off - I stream through Apple TV and the quality is pretty impressive.

But the price - that all depends on if you otherwise have cable, that's the big difference. I cut out cable years ago because I don't watch anything on it. Basic Cable + Centre Ice is like $60-70 a month. And I only ever watched hockey on it.

Now I have US Netflix ($8), VPN service ($5) plus Gamecenter ($99 for the season). So total monthly cost is a huge difference - $60-70 a month down to like $25-30. And better content for me.

 

[Qward]

My friend had hockey streams last season and I dreaded watching games at his place. I have center ice and a HD box and I am loving it.

 

[Smash88]

My friend had hockey streams last season and I dreaded watching games at his place. I have center ice and a HD box and I am loving it.

Really? I haven't had a single problem yet. Although it was only preseason.

Will see during the regular season. Hope it stays the same.

Edit: I should also mention that I cut my cable earlier this year too, so Centre Ice isn't an option for me. The price with Rogers for CI is ridiculous too.

 

[tony d]

Centre Ice for me though I watch the majority of Senators games on Sportsnet.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

I'd love to get Center Ice, but it costs $30 a month just for that package from Videotron. That would boost up my bill to around $90 per month. No thanks.

The free streams online aren't that great, but free is better than nothing. Besides, with RDS, Sportsnet, TSN/TSN2 and CBC, there's usually a game on at least 5 days per week as it is.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Gamecentre is awesome. I love being able to choose whatever broadcast team I want to listen to, and I love being able to watch the game, pause it, and come back hours later to finish the game.

I can also watch it from anywhere, apple TV at home, laptop, phone, or tablet on the road.

With a VPN there are no area restrictions on games.

 

[starling]

I was on GameCenter last season and I liked it, but those blackouts are a joke. Hello NHL, it's 2013, lots of people don't do cable anymore.
I can easily bypass blackouts using free foreign proxies but I don't want to. Until NHL stops discriminating people without cable, they won't see my money. I went with Hockeystreams this year.

BTW, on Hockeystreams you can freeze your account when the season ends and unfreeze it when it starts. So one year subscription should actually give you close to 2 seasons of hockey.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

Yeah I was really impressed with gamecenter last year. Live replays, archived games, hockey classics, 7+ minute highlight packages. I didn't know hockey streams was so reliable. Do they carry SHL, AHL and KHL games as well? I'd probably buy it and still use gamecenter on my phone to watch hockey at work

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Comcast offers only 1 HD ci channel here so I go with gamecenter nowadays. I have a chromecast too so I don't have to use the ps3 app which went downhill after the framerate was increased.

 

[costermonger]

Since all the Sens regional broadcasts are blacked out for me, I had Center Ice for years. Back when it was a flat rate for CI for the year, it was a decent enough deal - but for the last few years Rogers has refused to sell you CI alone, and forced you to sign up for the super sports pack ($35/mo now, I think) which is basically all the major league versions of CI. I just don't give a **** about the other sports, so it was a total waste.

Last year I got Game Center for the first time, and I was blown away by how good it was. Cheaper than CI, more convenient than CI, watched most of the games on my ipad, a few of them in my office.. Just better in pretty much every regard.

Now, I read a little while back that something had changed to allow regional Sens games to be viewed in the rest of Ontario. If this is true, I won't need to purchase anything to watch Sens games this year. But if it's not exactly what it sounds like, I'll go back to GC in a heartbeat.

 

[Smash88]

Yeah I was really impressed with gamecenter last year. Live replays, archived games, hockey classics, 7+ minute highlight packages. I didn't know hockey streams was so reliable. Do they carry SHL, AHL and KHL games as well? I'd probably buy it and still use gamecenter on my phone to watch hockey at work

I haven't seen any Europe leagues but they do have AHL.

 

[starling]

Yeah I was really impressed with gamecenter last year. Live replays, archived games, hockey classics, 7+ minute highlight packages. I didn't know hockey streams was so reliable. Do they carry SHL, AHL and KHL games as well? I'd probably buy it and still use gamecenter on my phone to watch hockey at work

Only AHL and junior leagues.

 

[Lenny the Lynx]

I forgot to say in my post - if you get gamecenter in Canada or USA its $150, but in other countries the price is $99.
I managed to trick it using VPN to giving me the $99 price - google it and smarter people than I can explain how to do so.

 

[Tremblay31]

Gamecenter works very well for me in Germany

ps: It is not very difficult to get around the blackout

 

[Lehner]

Problem with hockeystreams, is they only have so many HD games, half the time they wouldnt have the sens game in HD.

They would always use there HD feeds for the more populated games.

Much prefer gamecenter.

I felt ottawa always got the shaft.

 

[Cat Herder]

I've had both, and I'm also in Toronto.

Quality/reliability wise Centre Ice is better for sure. But Game Centre is not too far off - I stream through Apple TV and the quality is pretty impressive.

But the price - that all depends on if you otherwise have cable, that's the big difference. I cut out cable years ago because I don't watch anything on it. Basic Cable + Centre Ice is like $60-70 a month. And I only ever watched hockey on it.

Now I have US Netflix ($8), VPN service ($5) plus Gamecenter ($99 for the season). So total monthly cost is a huge difference - $60-70 a month down to like $25-30. And better content for me.

Game Centre Live is $150 per season

edit: just saw your second post about the VPN

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

Only AHL and junior leagues.

Good to know. Still appealing though. I love being able to follow the B Sens and WHL streams are tough to come by.

 

[Korpse]

I have had centre ice each of the past 5 seasons and purchased game centre last year when it was on for 60 bucks. Having both I definitely preferred centre ice. I used Game Center a few times but couldn't get into it knowing I have Center ice

 

[Synthetek]

Comcast offers only 1 HD ci channel here so I go with gamecenter nowadays. I have a chromecast too so I don't have to use the ps3 app which went downhill after the framerate was increased.

seriously? Fios has 10 HD channels for Center Ice.

 

[Cat Herder]

I forgot to say in my post - if you get gamecenter in Canada or USA its $150, but in other countries the price is $99.
I managed to trick it using VPN to giving me the $99 price - google it and smarter people than I can explain how to do so.

Thanks for the tip. I did not realize it was a different price if you are in Europe

Setup a free VPN like http://vpnip.net/europe-vpn to sign up for GameCentre Live then you no longer need the VPN active after that. (I just signed up for 99 )

Mind you if you are in Ottawa and want to watch using Game Centre you could always leave the VPN service active