PSA: ESPN App Stream was Awful for Michigan Game
There have been people talking about wanting to cut the cord and I used a Firestick to stream today's game to my TV with the ESPN App via Direct TV Now.
It was horrible.
(1) I missed over half a dozen plays due to the stream freezing. I have 70MBS so it is unlikely that my internet is too slow.
(2) When the game camera was zoomed out to show a large portion of the field the picture quality was very blurry to the point where I often couldn't tell where the ball was in air on passes and field goal attempts. Continually throughout the game the picture quality was changing and even pulsating, which was an eye sore. Only had HD quality when the game camera was zoomed in for some reason.
(3) Twice seemed to lose service.
(4) The ESPN app played the same commercials over and over again. I saw the "Alabama-FSU Taylor Swift" commercial at least 30 times.........I am traumatized, even teeny boppers can't take that much TS.
I am going to probably go to Dish as I can't take the constant poor quality of streaming with the ESPN app. Just thought I would share my experience as many have talked about this as a possibility.
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:48 PM ^
It was horrendous for the KSU game as well. I saw some twitter stuff and I guess there multiple games with streaming issues. ESPN was supposedly "working on it".
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:50 PM ^
it was that way last year as well. i was hoping they had improved it in the last year, but doesn't sound like that's the case.
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:51 PM ^
I thought it was bad Thursday night as well. It's bad for Bama/FSU right now.
September 3rd, 2017 at 1:13 AM ^
But wait........some posters on here have told me cutting the cold is better than manna from heaven, and I've made the biggest mistake of my life by paying an extra $20 a month for legit high quality cable....
/s
September 3rd, 2017 at 11:51 AM ^
youtube tv was great, better than Dish even and only $35 and has all the sports channels. the espn app sucks, no bandwith.
September 3rd, 2017 at 9:02 AM ^
Yeah, it was bad for me Thursday as well. In fact, I put the VPN on and watched a stream from the UK...if you can't get your streaming service to work, we're going to find alternative ways to watch.
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:51 PM ^
same here thru ps vue/fire tv. spotty at best, but I didn't think it was awful. certainly any worse and I would have been upset.
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:53 PM ^
fortunately it was on ABC so I didn't have to use watchespn. but yeah, it has been unusable lately. spend more time watching the spinning buffer than the osu game the other day. And it's not on my end, fs1 streams just fine.
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:53 PM ^
I cut the cord and was using a ESPN login through my PS4 with 50 mbps speed plugged directly into the PS4. I'd get like 30 seconds then freeze play for 6 seconds, freeze, then cut ahead. I was chatting with my cable company online after the first quarter to have my cable turned back on.
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:56 PM ^
and I didn't have any issues.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:39 PM ^
I watched the first half and the first few of the second half on my phone (Verizon) with minimal issues.
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:57 PM ^
I watched on sling and it was fine. I tried Vue previously and it's awful compared to sling imo.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:12 PM ^
Interesting. I used both Sling and Vue last year, and Vue was far better. Today I used Vue and had no issues.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:26 PM ^
Me too. Vue was great today although I seemed to be 30 seconds behind cable.
September 3rd, 2017 at 12:12 AM ^
I'm tempted to go back to cable. After wifi and sling it's not that much of a savings
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:58 PM ^
I fucking hate that app. I have it on ethernet with 180Mbps down internet, checked on the multiple devices and it buffers constantly. Tried to watch Wisco last night but it was choppy and buffered. Went over to watch Buttgers on FoxSports' app and it never buffered and ran at 1080p all night. Fuck ESPN
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:00 PM ^
My personal opinion...cutting the cord is awesome for everything EXCEPT live sports.
I cut the cord the day after the Super Bowl and literally got cable back yesterday. I watched the NBA finals on the ESPN and TNT apps (and I'm a sports fan, but not a HUGE NBA fan) and instantly knew it wasn't going to fly for college football season.
I hate cable and wish I could get U-Verse, but it's better than anything live streaming on the Firestick.
When I'm just watching TV, it's doable...but no way I was going to go through football season by streaming. It's just not worth it for me.
September 3rd, 2017 at 5:54 AM ^
U-Verse sucks. Do. Not. Get. It. Ever.
I lose signal constantly. I was so frustrated watching the game yesterday. Looking around on the net, losing signal seems to be a common issue with U-Verse
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:00 PM ^
I streamed part of the game over cellular data and had no issues
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:03 PM ^
Cutting the cord is overrated. Shit like that happens.
Relying on data transmissions through internet is a high risk, low reward proposal.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:15 PM ^
I'm paying $45/month for 4 months compared to $100/month for 12 before cutting the cord. That's more than $1000 in savings. I'd call that high reward.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:37 PM ^
Id pay $1000 for gaureteed high quality football for four months. Plus its way easier to switch between multiple games on a TV.
September 3rd, 2017 at 12:07 AM ^
and basketball for those of us who cant miss a UofM game
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:56 PM ^
Are you paying for internet?
It ultimately boils out to being pretty damn close. The miniscule savings that result from streaming does not match anything remotely close to the quality of satelitte/cable
September 3rd, 2017 at 12:12 AM ^
You think he'd cut the internet if he wasn't interested in sports?
September 3rd, 2017 at 2:32 AM ^
Do you honestly see internet access as optional? Regardless, while it may be for you it is not for me (and I mean that literally, my job requires it).
Virtually the only live television I watch is college football, which is why my savings is so drastic. If you need live TV year round I'm sure your savings won't be as significant as mine, but to call $1000+ a year minuscule seems disingenuous.
September 3rd, 2017 at 10:09 AM ^
Because I watch other things live.
September 3rd, 2017 at 10:44 AM ^
I'm not comparing the situations, I'm illustrating that your assertion (that the cost of cord cutting is pretty close to the cost of traditional television) is not universally true.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:04 PM ^
If part of your strategy for cutting the cord is saving money by using someone else's password for access to apps or HBO or Showtime, etc. I've got news for you, that is going away very soon. The technology has already been patented and you will not be able to access other people's cable services from a device or television for much longer.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:18 PM ^
Counterintuitively, the fact that it's been patented may mean you won't see it for a while. Companies don't like paying patent licensing fees.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:06 PM ^
Mine was awful too. I use a Roku SmartTv and it was almost unwatchable. I saw more of the loading screen than I did the game. I talked to many of my cord cutting buddies and it was the same.
It's definitely on ESPN side and its a bandwidth issue. I hope they get it resolved soon. FoxSportsGo was flawless for me tho, so that encourages me for those games.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:06 PM ^
If it makes you feel any better, the FoxSportsGo app seems to run much better, and I think we have a decent number of games on Fox this year. ESPN seems to have struggles on "high traffic" games.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:41 PM ^
Too many mgobloggers hate espn so that had to make tough cuts
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:08 PM ^
Mohu Leaf HD antenna will be your best friend for games on ABC, FOX, NBC, CBS.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:17 PM ^
yep, that's what I use.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:11 PM ^
cut the cord in favor of youtube tv and I have to say I have had zero issues. I have multiple games being recorded and anything I watch is perfect, I can't think of any moments of buffering or anything... I am very happy with the service. Many of the sreams are even 1080p compared to the 720 I was getting with cable. I have no regrets.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:23 PM ^
I watched the game with YTTV as well. Crystal-clear, no lag, freezing or artifacts. The wife complemented me on making a good decision.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:29 PM ^
make sure you head over to the google store and get your free chromecast if you haven't yet.
September 3rd, 2017 at 12:09 AM ^
Also will endorse YTTV. Picked it up last night. Offers all networks, ESPN/2/U, 2 FoxSports channels, BTN.
September 3rd, 2017 at 6:41 AM ^
There is always a smattering of live games and yesterday's didin't disappoint. Buffered only a few times. Much better than trying to stream from some illicit offshore site that will probably hack all of my accounts.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:10 PM ^
I'm watching games on my laptop with Hulu and have enjoyed them trouble-free.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:11 PM ^
Much like the rest of you, I had the same problem.
When watching the Thurs night game, I actually was able to swap to the overhead field camera that didn't have commentators on it and it WASN'T choppy. All other feeds were choppy though. So it doesn't appear to be the entire app itself but certain feeds. Assuming too many people watching? Either way, trying to use the app tonight is all but pointless.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:14 PM ^
Google "cfb streams Reddit"
there's a guy there who puts live streams on YouTube in hd 60fps that you can stream on your Chromecast. that's what I've been doing for cfb this weekend and it's been absolutely amazing.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:29 PM ^
Same here. Both of the big games on the same stream all night.
September 3rd, 2017 at 12:15 AM ^
Yeah, there are lots of streams there. I had the BTN2go international package the last couple seasons but hope to avoid it this year. Playing games there has often been as shitty as what ESPN sounds like. And sometimes I've had to wait longer to watch games on the BTN package than it took for a torrent to come up. If a multimillion dollar company can't get me better service than some dude at home in New York just doing it for nothing, then fuck them.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:14 PM ^
Choppy as hell for me. Watching Bama vs FSU on it and it sucks.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:17 PM ^
They need to hire "Pied Piper" to fix this
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:36 PM ^
I had the same shitty experience with WatchESPN on my home PC. Terrible. I thought it was my internet connection (Comcast). I had my iPad and used the ESPN App and it was better, not sure why, but not great. And, as others have said, the current stream of Bama/FSU is absolutely horrible.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:31 PM ^
Ordered/used YouTube TV today and found it to be very solid all game and even used the DVR feature. I've used Sling for the last 2 years and found it to be very frustrating at times (same basic wifi and device set-up as today so the variation would seem to be the streaming service) and typically just used it for sign-on on WatchESPN because they didn't seem to have the freezing problems I encountered w Sling. So if it is available in your area I'd recommend YouTube TV - worst case you try it and hate it and cancel during your 30-day free trial period.
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:33 PM ^
Good to hear it wasn't just me. I was ready to upgrade my internet speed. Was almost impossible to watch the Bama FSU game. Signal dropped almost every play.