Rugby World Cup Ramblings

[daveon]

I have a problem.  A serious one, please don't laugh.

At the beginning of September it is the Rugby World Cup, I live in a building without access to a sports channel which will show it.  Short of living in the pub night after night watching recorded games - I needed an alternative.

For the finals I'm sure I'll be in a bar, but the group games are going to be trickier.  So I've decided to try a 30 day trial of ITVN, which is an IP TV provider who carry Setanta sports.

I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but I will need to get the 200MBS powerline network adapter I needed for the home network to ensure that I have a solid connection to the internet.  Then we'll have to see what the quality is like.  If it's crap I can return the box and worry about having to go to the pub.  If it works it'll be a rather neat solution and probably the way TV should go.

I've already checked and the AV-line in port on the TV will allow me to schedule recordings from an input on that channel.  So I can record games for later.

Comments

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

have you considered a sling box and a friend with access? is it on Sky - to which we have a slingbox hooked up - on one of the non premium sports channels?

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I've double checked and the likely quality at this end will make it poor on the home TV - so I'm better off with the ITVN which is designed for TV use.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

well you're welcome to try it out from ours to see if it's good enough - especially as we'll be travelling in early September ;)

to cross the threads, I might have Entourage S1-3 somewhere...

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Does it need to be live? If you can live with 24-hour delay, MediaZone Rugby, which which I have a season pass to their regular rugby coverage, has the tournament.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I'll probably not watch the group games with a 24 hour delay - it's something I'd rather watch that night.


Plus I really want to be able to watch on the TV rather than the computer, which is my prime concern.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. I watch matches after downloading them by connecting them to the TV through the S-Video connector. (Actually the path is S-Video to composite-video converter box to video switch to television. Yes, there are lots of cables back there.)

Quality is decent, but not spectacular. I even have enough bandwidth (most of the time) to watch matches on live streaming video, although it's rare that I'm awake at the right times to watch matches live.

If I weren't going to Worldcon, I'd buy the World Cup package. As it is, I may buy the knockout matches sub-package.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted by the download option - but I must admit I'd feel happier if they'd provide details on how they encode it and the resolution.

It may be there but I couldn't tell.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

The probably don't give those details because they aren't consistent. They're somewhat at the mercy of whoever is giving them the material. I've had some games where you couldn't move back and forth; you could play it from the start, pause, and restart, but not fast forward or random access, and if you pressed stop (not pause), you had to start over from the beginning.

Try buying a single game from their ordinary ANZ or Currie Cup packages for an example of how it works.