I really don't care about MLB but every time I scroll by that screenshot I chuckle more and more. Something about it being the Bluejays and Redsox and the geefy looking characters with the ballcaps just makes me laugh.


THE
IT AINT ART
BUT IT'S FUNNY
AARDVARK

I went for the 5-day free trial of MLB.tv, and I think I'm going to stick with it. Yes, the picture's not great, but there's the chance to see every single game (except for Baltimore and Washington games, which are blacked out here), wherever and whenever I want. The "condensed game" option is great, too.

The game in Detroit today was cancelled due to Too Fucking Cold Out. Being made up 9/10/07.

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey"]Here's my problem: since Extra Innings was going to fucking charge me $14.95 a month (or whatever it was) throughout the entire off-season if I didn't call them up and complain, they are definitely, like prostitutes, in "one time charge" territory. [/quote]

Whoops! I see what I did. I fucked up. I meant that MLB.tv was going to charge me throughout the winter. I did not get Extra Innings last year. My mistake.

I don't actually have cable, just that dish, so I had already made my bed with MLB.tv (which I threw fifteen bucks down for, for the month of April, on Opening Day). I dunno, I don't need the quality video. I have been getting out of work just before 7:00 MST lately, so MLB.tv will work better for me as I would be able to just turn my laptop on and catch a few innings when they are in Toronto after everyone leaves.

But this is great that cable has access to Extra Innings. Cable would love to create a monopoly, so it's good that people can get dishes. Likewise, there's nothing magical and wonderful about a satellite dish: if Directv had a monopoly on something I'm sure they'd be just as big assholes. MORE, it is great for you as you'll actually be able to see the games, now. (That's actually the #1 biggest thing about this, of course).

I saw something flash by on Google.com/ig the other day that said that Selig pulled down 14.5 million dollars. For the love of Christ, I'd do everything wrong for a lot less and the All-Star game would have ended in one of a dozen other scenarios, including Home Run Derby and Player Wife Lesbian Fuckfest Exhaustathon, rather than a "fucking tie."

I still can't figure out what's going on, but it seems it's ended after one king-hell sized fuckaround. Extra Innings will be carried on cable... And I'm sure at least 3 people in Allen H. "Bud"'s office are going to try to make themselves out as heroes over it. Whoever said that thing before about the guy from the past being told how shit works now and thinking the Soviets would be in charge was absolutely right.

So... Will you get Extra Innings now, Robb?

K, they announced something, but I no longer can tell what the fuck is going on. And I think I've stopped caring.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2792214

What else is there to watch in the summer?

[quote="Bugs"][quote="Ice Cream Jonsey"]Yeah, I think I'll end up running a line from the computer/laptop to the TV if I go with MLB.tv. Which will look GREAT, all four pixels they give us will be sharp as hell.[/quote]

Is it that bad? Because the demo looks OK, and they have that premium streaming video this season with 700k intstead of 400k or some such...[/quote]

Well, let me ask you something, Bugs. Does the following look OK? Because this is a screen capture I did last year of an early game in the Blue Jays - Sox series.

[img]http://www.videogamecritic.net/images/2600/homerun.png[/img]

Some people may be OK with that. For me, it was really an eyesore. I can't go back to that.

...

... OK, for real: yeah, I've heard that they have upgraded their stream or something. For me, it was never the bandwidth, it was the image quality. I rarely got hiccups: the picture just looked like shit. Not that I expect that any company run by Bud Selig to be on the cutting edge of techno-terms. Bud could have Extra Innings shot at 1280x1024 and tell us all that he gigafied the megs with three thousand extra Koala Pads.

Here's my problem: since Extra Innings was going to fucking charge me $14.95 a month (or whatever it was) throughout the entire off-season if I didn't call them up and complain, they are definitely, like prostitutes, in "one time charge" territory. But coming up with the whole amount locks me in for the season, and to be frank, the Jays sort of quit on that late west coast road trip. For years the fans and organization was all, "HOW HOWWWWW CAN WE SPEND LIKE NEW YORK AND BOSTON!?!!?" Well assholes, you lost out on the wild card spot to fucking Minnesota, a team that would be the Jolt Country Twins if we simply bothered to take up a collection. That infuriates me. I don't know how you get to be in second place and still be a bunch of quitters, but the 2006 team figured out how.

...

OK, I still haven't actually replied to you. Sorry. Yeah, if they upgrade their systems I'll bet that it's very watchable. It kind of sucked last year, but not because of the stream speeds, only because of the picture. Wouldn't surprise me if they addressed it. I'd say, "Go for it!" Ultimately, I'll probably convince myself to pay the one-time charge and get the season's worth of access.

Oh, they black out local games, so if a team moves to the Carolina market any time soon, yer fucked.

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey"]Yeah, I think I'll end up running a line from the computer/laptop to the TV if I go with MLB.tv. Which will look GREAT, all four pixels they give us will be sharp as hell.[/quote]
Is it that bad? Because the demo looks OK, and they have that premium streaming video this season with 700k intstead of 400k or some such...

Well, judging by news articles it looks like it... might be official? Jesus Christ, MLB can't even handle a fucking announcement properly.

This really grinds my gears.

Yeah, I think I'll end up running a line from the computer/laptop to the TV if I go with MLB.tv. Which will look GREAT, all four pixels they give us will be sharp as hell.

Oh, this is just great. Some rotten little deputy of Allen H. "Bud" Selig's signed his name to this piece of shit press release published in the USA Today last week. http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070216/cm_usatoday/wemeetfansdemands

It starts with this gem:

[quote]We offer the following assurances to our fans: Any deal for the Major League Baseball's Extra Innings subscription package, when concluded, will in no way affect a single fan's ability to watch games of his home club in his home market.[/quote]
Yippee! My ability to watch, uh... Duke Basketball is in no way affected! Again, they're pissing off affluent fans who have moved to another part of the country and want to watch their favorite team.

There's so much more, but this little nugget draws my ire as well:

[quote]a subscription package of out-of-market games will continue to be available to a broad segment of our fan base through either MLB Extra Innings or MLB.TV, its broadband counterpart.[/quote]
Awesome. So if I want to watch the Jays, but not nail a fucking salad bowl to my townhouse, I get to come home from a full day of sitting in front of the computer just to... sit in front of the computer for three more hours.

Somebody needs to drive to Tim Brosnan's house and hurl a football or NASCAR tire through his window and flush that asshole out with a can of mace just for putting his name to such a wondrous piece of inane bullshit.

At least with time travel you could watch the Mets....

And not a pizza dish on the roof..


Windows Vista is NOT compatible with itunes, how messed up is that? I want to back to the caves and ber skin clothing


THE
OLD OLD OLD
SCHOOL
AARDVARK

LOCALLY. The paper and radio champion Time Warner cable, like they are a local fucking business. They won't even acknowledge dish.
The cable company started a minor riot some time ago by not including Mets games in their stupid fucking package which takes 40 seconds to change a channel cause ITS DIGITAL BHWRFHWFH@#$(TH@#$!!

Thinking nobody would care, about all the terrible Mets fans here scrambled to get Direct TV, then Time Warner got the Mets back and who knows what ensued.

The point, why I weep for the future. We got beams from space and cables lining the ocean floor. Instant this and instant that. If you told a guy in the 50's how amazing this technonlogy would turn out he would have shit his pants. If you told him how TV ended up working he would probably think the Russians owned it.

I have no hope for future gadgets. Look at how they fucked up cell phones, Video Football games and TV to the point where you can't really have what you want ever and not cause it isn't feasible, its cause dickwads with Marketing degrees exsist.

You could come from the future and tell me they have time machines in 2012. I would yawn and probably shoot you in the face. Cause time travel is probably the coolest thing besides finding an Alien in your backyard... YET IT WILL SUCK! There will be competing Time Travel Companies, stipulations, laws and outright GAYNESS that will ruin it.

[quote="Bugs"]Oh, and fuck that. I'm not switching all my media shit around to get ass-raped by another company. I'm perfectly happy getting ass-raped by one company for my teevee and intronets. Maybe I will investigate this mlb.tv of which you speak.[/quote]

Our six month trial for Comcast cable modem service is up, so it's back to $56 a month for the fucking Internet. I *am* looking to switch all my media shit around so I can get ass-raped in six months by someone else. What choices do I really have? New IP addresses mean I can troll Wikipedia all over again, with a fresh perspective.

Oh, and fuck that. I'm not switching all my media shit around to get ass-raped by another company. I'm perfectly happy getting ass-raped by one company for my teevee and intronets. Maybe I will investigate this mlb.tv of which you speak.

Did he leave.... ...[i][b]FOREVER?[/i][/b]

If my brother finds out that John Kerry is involved in this it just might make him post again.

If someone said that the money that the MLB gets is going to the bottom 15 revenue-producing teams then GREAT. But it's not so who gives a fuck if the MLB lines their pockets more than they already do. Well, the owners, but besides them.

I understand your frustration. I had a guy install my dish to my townhouse to get the Saints games and then nail the wire to the townhouse exterior when living in Fort Collins. I actually got a letter about it at one point and they said they were going to take the dish down themselves. I called them about it and asked if I could put it in another location ... they said sure... I said I'd get right on that... I didn't quite get around to it... they forgot about it. Then I got out of that apartment complex. (Not solely for dish-fascism, but that was definitely one reason why.)

I made a tripod for it when I was in the apartment in Longmont. OK, my dad made the tripod, I just gawked. It fell over when Dayna and Pinner were watching the Lakers the last time they made the finals and the thing never recovered. It fell over a hundred times after that, damaging the dish pretty well. But I was still able to get the Saints games.

I took said dish to the house and try to bolt it to the deck. It did not work well. Directv says they have this deal where they will send a guy out for a free installation if you move. It took two hours of calling them and getting hung up upon but ultimately it did work. The guy professionally installed it and I'll never have an issue again. I love it.

I guess what I am saying is: if there really is no way to get the dish on a tripod or in a cement bucket then it fucking sucks and I feel bad for you. MLB.tv is okay, though. Not perfect, but OK. I'll be going that route this season as the shitty resolution the games are in go great on a laptop.

It looks as if MLB Extra Innings will be heading to DirecTV exclusively next year. And John Kerry is taking up the fight against it. Great.

See, I don't think it's a good idea for MLB to limit the audience to DirectTV subscribers. What about people like me that live in a rental property, make MAD BANK, but can't put up a dish?

I think I should just move to Toronto.