Anyone use Bigskytv?

Grizlaw · Post by **Grizlaw** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:38 am

Hey, did anyone watch this week's Cat game on the Bigsky TV website? if so, was the quality any better than it had been?

With the Griz bye week, I did not try to use it, but I have to decide whether to subscribe before this Saturday. I really want the website to work because it's basically the only way I can see games, but the idea of dropping a hundred bucks for a product that won't work any better than it has so far just sickens me.

BigSkySID · Post by **BigSkySID** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:45 pm

You can watch clips of the Bobcat game for free at www.bigskytv.org. Click on the small screen on the main page. The quality was much better than last week. We still had some issues at first-time venues (Sacramento State and Eastern Washington). The experience we've had so far is the second time we have an event at a school, it is much better. The video and audio was good at NAU and Weber. If you order this week, you can watch this week's games and next week's games. If you don't like it, you can get your money back prior to Oct. 1
This has been a massive undertaking, and it involves folks getting things done correctly at the game site, and SportsCast Network getting things going on their end.
Internet connection speed on the user end is also important.
We are working everyday to make the product better.

Jon Kasper
Big Sky Confernece

Post by **SonomaCat** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:56 pm

I have been a huge proponent of this technology since Omega started running streaming video several years ago ... and I am convinced that the convergence of internet, TV and even wireless (Mobile ESPN is now streaming college football games to its subscribers live) is going to be upon us soon. As such, I was really interested in seeing how well the BigSkyTV project turned out.

So far, not good.

Week one ... no audio and video that froze up a lot.

Week two ... the servers were overloaded (per the email that I got back from them), and so I couldn't even access the site.

I have emailed the company asking for a refund of the $100 I spent on the package, and I haven't heard back from them yet. Until this service can prove that it works, I will have a hard time risking paying for it.

I would suggest that the service remain free until it works one week in a row. Until then, it's just too big of a gamble to sign up for me. I have broadband DSL, so I know my end isn't the problem.

I really hope they work out the kinks and make this system work. I know that projects like this can fail in about a million different ways but only succeed if everything works perfectly, so I am sympathetic to the frustrations they are certainly feeling. At the same time, I just can't donate cash to a project that doesn't deliver.