2006 Webcasts Unwatchable?

[Justin]

Am I the only one who found the division web cast feeds unwatchable? I know that NASA does a lot of volunteer work to make the web casts happen and that their is a lot of production in the championships but the feeds I found of each division were simply unwatchable. The two or three feeds I watched were a single fixed camera feed that looked like it was hung from the very tops of the Georgiadome, I couldn't even distinguish robots and the balls were maybe a pixel in size. Perhaps we are spoiled by regional web casts, which is what I was expecting for the divisions, with multiple cameras and on field cameras. This is too bad because I ended up not watched anything since I wouldn't have been able to tell what was going on and I have to believe that many parents, and teams who couldn't go tuned in finding the same thing.

Curious tho hear other's thoughts....

Justin

[Tim Delles]

Justin,

If you just recently checked the website then yes the webcasts are unwatchable because there is currently no feed.

However if you checked them during the day and couldn't get it then I have a question. Are you using Firefox?

earlier today i was and am still unable to access it using firefox, i have to use internet explore to open the mirror. You may wanna try doing this if you are a firefox user.

[Justin]

Originally Posted by Tim Delles

Justin,

If you just recently checked the website then yes the webcasts are unwatchable because there is currently no feed.

However if you checked them during the day and couldn't get it then I have a question. Are you using Firefox?

earlier today i was and am still unable to access it using firefox, i have to use internet explore to open the mirror. You may wanna try doing this if you are a firefox user.

Let me clairfy I had no technical problems watching the feed. It was just the setup of the feed that I found disappointing because there was only one camera and you couldn't make out what teams were playing, etc.

Justin

[Jherbie53]

Right now they only use one camera thats locked in one position. They should have at least two people on cameras tomorrow, at least I think they should. Then it will be like a regional, with one right by the field and one up in the stands.

[Tim Delles]

Yes normally they have 2 people taping from the floor and the one in the stands. It will be much better tommorow. even though it will still be as hard to see who is playing, but atleast there is a public match list tommorow.

[Drake]

Originally Posted by Justin

Am I the only one who found the division web cast feeds unwatchable? I know that NASA does a lot of volunteer work to make the web casts happen and that their is a lot of production in the championships but the feeds I found of each division were simply unwatchable. The two or three feeds I watched were a single fixed camera feed that looked like it was hung from the very tops of the Georgiadome, I couldn't even distinguish robots and the balls were maybe a pixel in size. Perhaps we are spoiled by regional web casts, which is what I was expecting for the divisions, with multiple cameras and on field cameras. This is too bad because I ended up not watched anything since I wouldn't have been able to tell what was going on and I have to believe that many parents, and teams who couldn't go tuned in finding the same thing.

Curious tho hear other's thoughts....

Justin

The Problem is that the competition runs on a skeleton staff for the practice day. When the actual matches start tomorrow there will be several camera men working alongside with someone who will direct which feed feeds into the web cast. You should find tomorrow, and Saturday to be better.

[Justin]

So I have to issue somewhat of a mea-culpa...it occurs to me as I read back over this thread when I was writing it I thought it was Friday O:-) OOOPS!!!

Justin

[Lil' Lavery]

I found that the RealMedia stream had a much more clear picture (not all pixelated) than the Windows Media Viewer (heh, go figure a Windows product fails ). Also, I bet that it will be much better tomorrow anyway. Can't wait to watch the intense competition!

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I found that the RealMedia stream had a much more clear picture (not all pixelated) than the Windows Media Viewer (heh, go figure a Windows product fails ). Also, I bet that it will be much better tomorrow anyway. Can't wait to watch the intense competition!

I had the exact opposite - the RealPlayer version was constantly "communicating", but the Windows Media feed was perfect and never once faltered.

[Hiteak]

I had both on so I could watch another field at the same time, and they seemed equal in pixelation and communication to me.

[Eric Scheuing]

Mine's fine. I had problems at school though.

[Michelle Celio]

I prefer the windows media version. But I have both running so I can watch two fields. I think they need to figure out a way so you can watch all the fields at once...Or maybe you can and I'm just missing something.

Yesterday I found it hard to watch Archimedes because of the audio quality, anyone else have this problem?

[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

I had the exact opposite - the RealPlayer version was constantly "communicating", but the Windows Media feed was perfect and never once faltered.

Yeah I had no problems using windows media player to view the webcast which I used on friday, saturday i used real player and boy was that a headache between the audio and the visual constantly going out and coming back then speeding up and going out and coming back and it would repeat, WMP did not have that problem at all - ok maybe one or twice it coughed but it wasn't like it continued. I do have one complaint to make however - NASA Broadcast, year after year yeah people volunteer their time to make the broadcast possible but at the same token year after year NASA just doesn't seem to get the picture that an event may have to overrun the time alotted for it to originally being aired (e.g. a program is 2hrs long but for some reason it runs a for a half hour longer or an hour longer but the host channel decides to chop the program and start the next in line) This is a fine example of Race Car Events in which get rained out, Baseball and many other outside sports as well that get rained out. Is their informative yet boring program that follows after FIRST that important that they must chop FIRST just to air it, Yesterday I missed the last few qualifying rounds which was not a big deal but today I missed the final matches and awards all because NASA felt they're boring yet informative program was more important then FIRST . They have they're own channel for a reason so that they can extend an airing program if needed. Maybe its shear laziness to just say okay you can a have a half hour more - Oh well enough venting - time to get ready for work - in shory I find they'er webcasts a lil more reliable then they're broadcast only b/c they don't cut they're webcast as quickly as they do they're broadcast.

[Donut]

Originally Posted by mtaman02

Yeah I had no problems using windows media player to view the webcast which I used on friday, saturday i used real player and boy was that a headache between the audio and the visual constantly going out and coming back then speeding up and going out and coming back and it would repeat, WMP did not have that problem at all - ok maybe one or twice it coughed but it wasn't like it continued. I do have one complaint to make however - NASA Broadcast, year after year yeah people volunteer their time to make the broadcast possible but at the same token year after year NASA just doesn't seem to get the picture that an event may have to overrun the time alotted for it to originally being aired (e.g. a program is 2hrs long but for some reason it runs a for a half hour longer or an hour longer but the host channel decides to chop the program and start the next in line) This is a fine example of Race Car Events in which get rained out, Baseball and many other outside sports as well that get rained out. Is their informative yet boring program that follows after FIRST that important that they must chop FIRST just to air it, Yesterday I missed the last few qualifying rounds which was not a big deal but today I missed the final matches and awards all because NASA felt they're boring yet informative program was more important then FIRST . They have they're own channel for a reason so that they can extend an airing program if needed. Maybe its shear laziness to just say okay you can a have a half hour more - Oh well enough venting - time to get ready for work - in shory I find they'er webcasts a lil more reliable then they're broadcast only b/c they don't cut they're webcast as quickly as they do they're broadcast.

The television station has some ground here. FIRST went close to 2 hours beyond when they said they'd be done, and NASA TV stayed with them for 1 hour after the program was supposed to end. They could have cut it right at 5 (2 my time), but let it run well past it's alloted time.

Maybe FIRST should start telling NASA they expect the program to run 9-6 instead or something? They always go at least an hour beyond when they expect to be done, so I really don't see the harm in doing it.

[Steve S.]

Originally Posted by Donut

The television station has some ground here. FIRST went close to 2 hours beyond when they said they'd be done, and NASA TV stayed with them for 1 hour after the program was supposed to end. They could have cut it right at 5 (2 my time), but let it run well past it's alloted time.

Maybe FIRST should start telling NASA they expect the program to run 9-6 instead or something? They always go at least an hour beyond when they expect to be done, so I really don't see the harm in doing it.

Actually, if you look at the agenda, they were supposed to end at 6 but went to 7