I've been meaning to write this for some weeks now, but i have been putting it off until the the NFL season launches, so i can see the improvements they made to their service since last year. I will compare technological, financial, service and convenience aspects of both. For those unaware, i am refering to http://gamepass.nfl.com/ and they paid HQ Stream/VODs on http://www.gomtv.net/.
tl;dr - comparing many aspects of both services, no bashing
Technology:
Resolution The stream is offered in a flash application running inside the browser that is fixed to 960 x 540 (968 x 668 with interface) square pixels in window and is resized to your monitor's resolution in fullscreen. I expect them to deliver 720p in full quality settings (3mbit), but of course there is no way to confirm that as i have no access to the source.
Framerate The flash application runs at 60 fps if your pc can handle it and gameplay looks very fluid in fullscreen. Framrerate seems to suffer in window mode (tested both in WinXP 32bit and Win7 64bit) though. Of course i can't verify that they are actually broadcasting in 60fps.
Bandwidth/Codec To accomodate a wider range of internet connections, they offer stream qualities from ~400 to ~3000 kbit/sec (0.4-3 mbit/sec) with an option for the program to automatically adapt to your connection speed (if it's unstable). Since it's a closed plattform, i can't be sure what codec they are using, but from CPU and bandwidth requirements, it seems like they are using some sort of MPEG-4.
Screenshots Low Quality first
Click for full size. Click for full size.
Audio Audio mixing and leveling is flawless, but the stream suffers from very slight de-sync sometimes. The majority of the content is casted off-screen so i think this is a minor issue.
Conclusion Aside from the audio de-sync, the technology is alright. Of course more bandwidth and resolution is always better.
Resolution VODs HQ - 1280x720 (mapthesoul says they are 720p, confimed by gogatorsfoster) VODs SQ - 640x360 Stream HQ - 960 x 540 (confimed by gogatorsfoster) Stream SQ - 640 x 360 (confimed by gogatorsfoster) The VODs run in a flash application and will be resized to fit your screen in fullscreen. The Stream runs in the Gom video player which can be resized almost arbitrarily within the aspect ratio. It may very well be that the HQ VODs are 720p, but they look a little blurry for that. I may be wrong though.
Framerate Both the VODs and the Stream run in 30fps throughout both quality settings. Framerate doesn't drop when viewing in window or in browser.
Bandwidth/Codec For VODs HQ delivers ~1000 kbit/sec, while SQ goes for ~500 kbit/sec. The Strean offers ~950 kbit/sec in HQ and ~450 kbit/sec in SQ (thanks mrRoflpwn for pointing that out). Again, i can't comment on the codec for sure, but they too seem to use some MPEG-4 version/derivative as thier quality per bitrate seems similar to the NFL stream.
Screenshots Screenshots of the Stream will follow during the coming week. Low Quality first. VODs:
Click for full size. Click for full size.
Audio Sometimes player introductions don't play on the international stream and the English casters are insufficiently shielded against the korean casters and the audience. Eventhough they are technically minor to the delay on the NFL stream, they are percieved more serious because they are not remedied by the off-screen casting.
Conclusion Bitrates for the live streams are quite low but for viewing on up to 22" monitors, it should not matter that much. They could improve on some of the audio issues i think (maybe a closed booth for the casters with a big window?).
Financial:
A season subscription (purchase date to end of January) costs 250 US$ and the playoffs (in February, including Superbowl) cost 80 US$ or 50 US$ if you buy them early in combination with the . You can also only chose to follow a specific team through the season for 200 US$ by puchasing a team pass. The full package costs 300 US$, lasts from August or purchase date to end of February and includes ~235 games (each ~3 hrs) plus 24/7 NFL Network coverage.
A subscription for a GSL costs 10 US$ and lasts a month. A subscription for a GSTL costs 25 US$ and lasts 3 1/2 months. The full package including ~10 GSL and ~3 GSTL a year cost 175 US$ and get you 2.5 hrs entertainment 5 days a week.
Service:
Any subscription offers access access to the following during the time of the subscription:
VOD access to NFL Gameday and Playbook shows of the previous 2 seasons
* all games only include the games of a single team if you buy a team pass
A subscription to either the GSL or GSTL offers:
HQ stream
HQ VODs
Convenience other various things:
There are a couple of neat things Gamepass offers that you can't get on TV. Multiview let's you view any live broadcast or VOD simultaneously.
Plays lists the plays of each VOD grouped by quarters. It also includes occasioal coaches films.
Stats lists the stats of each VOD grouped by team on demand.
The application also includes a chat that I have yet to use so i can't comment on it.
Translated interviews with players and some behind the scenes footage. Also has a autoplay feature to play the VODs of a gameday/game in succession. There is no convenient season table for the GSTL and a tournament tree for the GSL or at least they hide them good.
Conclusion:
It's expensive, but you get decent video quality, awesome production and a shitload of content. If you can split the cost between 2-3 friends, it's a steal. Unfortunally, it's not availible in the US and Candada and has some restrictions in the UK.
Quality entertainment for cheap. They could improve on bandwith for the live streams and maybe restream the games for CEST and CT to draw more people to the live broadcasts. Also i dislike the mute commercial breaks .. they really should fill them. But these are minor issues imho.
Of course almost all of it is open for discussion and i would love it if someone could confirm the resolutions for the gom stream.
Interesting. Why would you want lowres 60fps streams for nfl though? seems kind of silly cos I am sure people would prefer 30fps and HD resolutions instead.
On August 06 2011 19:53 T0fuuu wrote: Interesting. Why would you want lowres 60fps streams for nfl though? seems kind of silly cos I am sure people would prefer 30fps and HD resolutions instead.
There are reasons. For sports it's always better to have more fps because you can better see the ball and distinguish the players. Also they are filming it in 60fps, if they would just leave out every other frame, it would stutter. They could resample it to 30fps, but that costs processing power to the point where it's hard to do it in real time. Also you can't just double the resolution even if you half the framerate and get the same picture quality.
I don't like american football so for me it's GOMTV is obviously a better product, on the other hand i feel that 250$ for someone that trully loves NFL is not that expensive giving the content!
GOMTV is so cheap tho, for instance i paid the 10$ for code s/a august and it's like 7€ for 1 month of toplevel games, so many games for 7€.. i know it's a excellent deal
On August 06 2011 20:10 shockaslim wrote: Its so sad that Americans don't even have the ability to watch the NFL online through their computers, but foreigners can. Damn TV partnerships.
However, I agree with what you said. GOM could beef up their vid quality, but thank god its cheap.
On August 06 2011 20:10 shockaslim wrote: Its so sad that Americans don't even have the ability to watch the NFL online through their computers, but foreigners can. Damn TV partnerships.
However, I agree with what you said. GOM could beef up their vid quality, but thank god its cheap.
I was confused for a second and thought to myself "Holy crap, I didn't know I can buy the Direct TV package as an online streaming service!" Then more logical thinking prevailed and sadness ensued.
I'm glad I'm a college football fan so I can get much of my gridiron fix for free(ish) on ESPN3.com.
I think both packages are a good deal. Each is about $200-300 for a full year of the respective competition's highest level play. Obviously the NFL is going to be far more refined on every level, but it's also going to benefit from a massive economy of scale being (I think?) the wealthiest league in the world. I think both your examples and ESPN3 are examples of what the future holds as the choice entertainment media of my generation instead of traditional television.
Interesting write-up. The price of NFL season ticket sickens me as a European, but hey i can always just check the results/highlights!
So if i would have to choose, GOM offers much better deal here. Good price for a huge amount of content, decent broadcasting times and so on while NFL is basically opposite for me, except they offer huge amount of content also.
I must say I hate GomPlayer, never had it working without problems... stops playing, reloads the stream if I alt+tab to it (really irritating when Artosis and Tasteless are going "OOOO SHIIIIIIII-" and you alt+tab and miss the moment anyway...)
Does the football thing come in-browser or some stand-alone player? That is one of my biggest complaints with Gom is the lack of live in-browser streaming tech.
As a customer to both services, I noticed one basic thing that GomTV lacks: DVR control for the live stream. It happens quite frequently that I watch the GSL, go out for lunch, come back an hour later and have to wait a few hours for the VODs. Even if the stream is still live, you cant really tune in again if you dont want to be spoiled on the games you missed ...
On August 06 2011 20:05 mapthesoul wrote: Pretty sure GOM vods are 720p.
Edited in the the OP.
On August 06 2011 20:14 Soap wrote: Don't really understand the thread, GOM production is amateurish compared even to OGN/MBC, let alone NFL.
They only really are "in business" for about a year. A streaming only channel with no big mother-company backing you up has to grow gradually. I was in the studio during the first open season and the production has improved massively since then. If they improve at the same rate until next year, they might be on OGN/MBC level.
On August 06 2011 20:23 TheAmazombie wrote: Does the football thing come in-browser or some stand-alone player? That is one of my biggest complaints with Gom is the lack of live in-browser streaming tech.
On August 06 2011 20:27 GadZ wrote: As a customer to both services, I noticed one basic thing that GomTV lacks: DVR control for the live stream.
I actually forgot to list that. Edited the OP to include it in the gamepass features.
On August 06 2011 20:23 TheAmazombie wrote: Does the football thing come in-browser or some stand-alone player?
It's in browser. Last year you still needed to install a special plugin (only for IE and FF). But this year they switched to flash so it runs in any browser supporting flash on windows. It might even run on Macs and Linux. Haven't checked that yet.
On August 06 2011 20:21 Krehlmar wrote: I must say I hate GomPlayer, never had it working without problems... stops playing, reloads the stream if I alt+tab to it (really irritating when Artosis and Tasteless are going "OOOO SHIIIIIIII-" and you alt+tab and miss the moment anyway...)
Only happens with the free stream. To me anyways, when I have a season pass it works smooth as a baby ass.
On August 06 2011 20:28 jacen wrote: They only really are "in business" for about a year. A streaming only channel with no big mother-company backing you up has to grow gradually. I was in the studio during the first open season and the production has improved massively since then. If they improve at the same rate until next year, they might be on OGN/MBC level.
They did three seasons of a BW league, are owned by CJ (the same as OGN) and when I say amauterish I don't mean it just looks low budget, but besides the issues raised in the OP, it forces a media player that fails half of the time, and we have a team manager (FXOBoSs) report he had several close calls with the flames and the team benches are dangerous to sit on.
It's a shame korean SC2 wasn't picked up by someone with more willingness to invest. Imagine GSL distributed in the west through MLG setup, for instance.
My only complain on GSL is the low quality stream which is almost unwatchable. I don't want to pay EACH SEASON (I bought the HQ for some) but I'd like to be able to watch the matchs without killing my eyes :s
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