Review of Big Ten Ticket - (live streaming of games)

Submitted by aprice77 on
I went with the full package and have access to all the Big Ten teams games this year. Initially I was having A LOT of issues with streaming service. The screen would freeze but the audio would keep going or the whole thing would pause for no reason. I was using Firefox when this was happening so I switched to IE and all was resolved. This could be because of a few add-ons I have for FF but my guess is that it's just the way the page is coded. Frustrating but not really a big deal.

The actual quality of the game was OK. Not great, not horrible, just OK. I was expecting a little better than what the quality actually  was because of the web sites claim of "games with a clarity that is comparable to high definition". The archived games have a little better quality but still not getting into the realm of comparable to high definition.

Commercials and breaks in the game when they go to the big ten studios are a little weird. During would-be commercials the screen changes to a message about the game returning after the break. They put a clock on the page and show the seconds counting which seems like not a big deal but actually is because the counting indicates that the stream is still going and your feed hasn't frozen. This isn't too bad except for half time. No half time show at all just the message and the clock. I would have at least like to see the band or something. The in-game breaks to show other game highlights aren't shown either. The feed just stays on the game and pans the audience. I realize that this is because the feed is from the game and not the actual TV channel but other highlights would be nice.

The archived games are nice but not complete at all. There is no UofM/ND game or UofM/Iowa and speaking of Iowa, they only have 1 game for viewing. I'm sure this has something to do with the TV contracts, but i figured all of the conference games would be available no matter what network it was shown on.

Overall I would say that service is worth it and hopefully will only get better over time.

If anyone has questions about it, let me know.

Comments

osdihg

October 25th, 2009 at 3:13 PM ^

I use Big Ten Ticket and ESPN360. ESPN360 is definitely the better service. The video quality is much better, however when you just want to watch the game, both serve their purpose well.

formerlyanonymous

October 25th, 2009 at 5:11 PM ^

Thanks for this. I'm planning on checking out the BigTenNetwork video sometime soon. I imagine it will be much of the same.

As for the quality, I hear it adjusts to fit your bandwidth, going with something that shouldn't freeze up. It does this automatically, which may cause some of the issues. I wish ESPN360 had that option. I have to close every program except the 360 window in order for it not to screw up.