NBA League Pass Broadband

So I am thinking about buying this. I have never seen it first hand so I wanted input from anyone that has had it.

- How is the quality?
- How is the stream? I have a 12 Mbps download connection, it should be enough for it but I dont want it to be choppy in any way.
- Are there blackouts? I am pretty sure nationally televised games (espn TNT) will be, but anything other than those?
- Is the broadcast always from the home team? So am I always gonna hear home team announcers?
- Are pre-season games included? Summer League?
- Is any of the quality in HD? This would be a big bonus for me it would be, since both my monitors are HD.

From those of you who have had it, any cons? Would you recommend it? Is it worth it?

Any input helps, thanks.

[QUOTE=Kobe681]So I am thinking about buying this. I have never seen it first hand so I wanted input from anyone that has had it.

- How is the quality?
- How is the stream? I have a 12 Mbps download connection, it should be enough for it but I dont want it to be choppy in any way.
- Are there blackouts? I am pretty sure nationally televised games (espn TNT) will be, but anything other than those?
- Is the broadcast always from the home team? So am I always gonna hear home team announcers?
- Are pre-season games included? Summer League?
- Is any of the quality in HD? This would be a big bonus for me it would be, since both my monitors are HD.

From those of you who have had it, any cons? Would you recommend it? Is it worth it?

Any input helps, thanks.[/QUOTE]
- Quality is crystal clear.
- The stream, for me at least, takes about a minute or so to get going fully, but I have a rather slow computer and after that it isn't the least bit choppy.
- Local blackouts apply.
- I -think- the announcers are from the home team, but I honestly don't remember too well, sorry.
- I don't think pre-seasion games are included. Summer league games aren't.
- Games can be selected in HD.

yeah dude, it was beyond worth it. you can watch up to three games at once and switch between multiple games with VERY little to no waiting time. it is absolutely worth the price! :cheers:

[quote=Quizno]- Quality is crystal clear.
- The stream, for me at least, takes about a minute or so to get going fully, but I have a rather slow computer and after that it isn't the least bit choppy.
- Local blackouts apply.
- I -think- the announcers are from the home team, but I honestly don't remember too well, sorry.
- I don't think pre-seasion games are included. Summer league games aren't.
- Games can be selected in HD.

yeah dude, it was beyond worth it. you can watch up to three games at once and switch between multiple games with VERY little to no waiting time. it is absolutely worth the price! :cheers:[/quote]

Awesome, awesome, awesome. That's exactly what I was looking to hear. Thanks. Do you remember how much is was last season? The price is not up yet for this season.

I had it last season. And I paid somewhere around 100 USD for regular season + playoffs. Note, I'm using it out of Sweden, might mean something (for stream), might not.

- How is the quality?
OK. They added a HD alternative later on. Dont get too excited about that tho its not like your HD TV-game.
MLB.tv was, last time I used it, better by miles in picture quality.

- How is the stream? I have a 12 Mbps download connection, it should be enough for it but I dont want it to be choppy in any way.
Probably is, I think where you are geographically (right word?) is more important. I got 100Mbit both ways. However, I got lagged from time to time. So their server is not in Sweden, get it?

- Are there blackouts? I am pretty sure nationally televised games (espn TNT) will be, but anything other than those?
For me no blackouts at all. Ill guess you live in the states so you already know whats up.

- Is the broadcast always from the home team? So am I always gonna hear home team announcers?
Its not. I think I saw some Celtic games on away-teams TV channel.

- Are pre-season games included? Summer League?
Summerleague def no. Pre-season cant remember.

- Is any of the quality in HD? This would be a big bonus for me it would be, since both my monitors are HD.
I mentioned the HD option above, dont loose your pants about it.

- From those of you who have had it, any cons? Would you recommend it? Is it worth it?
Yes, one HUGE con. Now this might be different from US and Europe. The archives runs in loops. That means you cant select to watch a game anytime. You look at their schedule to see when they start looping a game and must follow those times to watch. Sucks.

Otherwise, its really sweet to be able to stream every game played online (bout time too its not the 90's anymore!) Well worth the $.

just tried to order right now...

so first i fire up internet explorer, make sure i'm logged into my NBA 'all-access' acct, select "league pass broadband" and it redirects me to the [url=http://www.nba.com/leaguepass/index.html]league pass[/url] page. i'm ready to order broadband, and... there's no "order" button or any relevant links to follow! WTF?

so i fire up firefox, do the same thing, and get to the broadband page, even though FF says it's trying to redirect me back to that first useless page. the new page says [b]"$20 - race to the playoffs package"[/b] and i see a "buy now" button, so i hit that. the next page asks me to select payment, so i choose "paypal", check the subscriber agreement and hit "place order". the site then hangs up for the next four minutes and eventually returns to that page. i try it again-- same thing. WTF #2.

so i backtrack a little and find the [url=https://account.nba.com/services/sib/flow/static?view=subscriberAgreement]subscriber agreement[/url]. now it's starting to look like the $20 fee is not really 'one fee to the playoffs', but is a series of monthly or even weekly recurring fees. WTF #3. i mean, if this is the case, why doesn't it say right on the LP page what you're getting for $20, exactly??

so i comb the NBA site and the LP FAQ for details and contact info and eventually get redirected to the NBA store. i see the 800 number, call that, and eventually a rep tells me that they don't handle that, and that i need to send an email to "leaguepass" at NBA, etc... no "WTF" this time, just a deep sigh.

so tell me... is it really worth these headaches when NBA games are already available free online...?

Can i stream the games on my hand held mobile device ?? i.e Iphone,Palm Pre or Htc touch pro ??

Certainly worthy buying. I will get it again and it is very good value for money. Certainly considering how much the normal league pass is.

so does anybody know if it's $20 for LP broadband for the whole season, or is that just the monthly fee?

Can multiple people sign into the same account simultaneously?

[QUOTE=gigantes]so does anybody know if it's $20 for LP broadband for the whole season, or is that just the monthly fee?[/QUOTE]

Thats $20 for last years playoffs. They haven't updated it for this year yet. Just wait a few more weeks for the full season package to be available. You cant buy it yet.

[QUOTE=TheGrassIsGreen]Can multiple people sign into the same account simultaneously?[/QUOTE]

Last year..yeah.

[QUOTE=arkain]Thats $20 for last years playoffs. They haven't updated it for this year yet. Just wait a few more weeks for the full season package to be available. You cant buy it yet.[/QUOTE]
cool... thanks... repped. that's better info than their lousy help desk gave me.

so any idea what the price will be?

[quote]Last year..yeah.[/quote]
really?? seems hard to believe.

i notice, for example, that they track your IP and black out games according to your location... meaning that if you log in from another area, games will potentially be blacked out even though you usually get to see them.

How many megabytes does a game take up? 1 gig each? Or is it more like a standard movie download of about 700mb?

[QUOTE=plowking]How many megabytes does a game take up? 1 gig each? Or is it more like a standard movie download of about 700mb?[/QUOTE]
well, it's a stream, not a download... so if you want to record it, you can set your video capture software to make it whatever size you want.

[QUOTE=gigantes]
really?? seems hard to believe.

i notice, for example, that they track your IP and black out games according to your location... meaning that if you log in from another area, games will potentially be blacked out even though you usually get to see them.[/QUOTE]

yeah they do that, but once i had the app running and streaming, i could just log in another computer and there was no system in place to like log me out one place if i logged in somewhere else, so as long as i started streaming a game, then i could log on another place, thats why i split the cost with my buddy for the league pass, saved lot of money.

i am sure alot of other people did that too, so nba might crack down on it and find a way to avoid that from happening this year.

Are they not offering it right now? I tried buying it yesterday, but I keep getting this error. Do they show preseason games?

[QUOTE=gigantes]well, it's a stream, not a download... so if you want to record it, you can set your video capture software to make it whatever size you want.[/QUOTE]

A stream is a download, just a temporary one. It still uses your bandwidth.

[quote=shlver]Are they not offering it right now? I tried buying it yesterday, but I keep getting this error. Do they show preseason games?[/quote]

Its just not available yet. Just sign up for the email notice and when its ready for purschase they'll let you know. Ive been checking my email everyday so I can buy it.

The blackout thing is dumb. I live all the way out in Vancouver, BC but I can't even watch any raptor games if I had league pass broadband.

[QUOTE=Kobe681]Its just not available yet. Just sign up for the email notice and when its ready for purschase they'll let you know. Ive been checking my email everyday so I can buy it.[/QUOTE]
ok thanks.

[QUOTE=Beebo]The blackout thing is dumb. I live all the way out in Vancouver, BC but I can't even watch any raptor games if I had league pass broadband.[/QUOTE]
You don't get them on tv?

[QUOTE=OneMoreSucka]You don't get them on tv?[/QUOTE]

I don't have the channels. :cry: So I gotta rely on torrents and online streams.

I hope NBA steps up to the plate and matches what MLB has been doing. We need an iPhone app to stream games, and also acces through tv set top devices like the roku thing and the appletv. Xbox access would be nice too.

Quality last year was watchable, but they really should be able to bump that up.

Here's a question that I'm dying to know. I am in college, and I'm currently living in the residence halls. Is it possible to buy league pass at my home (which is in the same state) and then watch the games broadband at the residence hall? Thanks in advance.

[QUOTE=LA_Showtime]Here's a question that I'm dying to know. I am in college, and I'm currently living in the residence halls. Is it possible to buy league pass at my home (which is in the same state) and then watch the games broadband at the residence hall? Thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]

Yeah man, when you sign up for broadband, its your NBA insider account that gets signed up, not your IP. So you can log in from ANYWHERE and watch em. Be it your residence hall or Hillary Clinton's c[B]u[/B]nt.

[QUOTE=arkain]A stream is a download, just a temporary one. It still uses your bandwidth.[/QUOTE]
of course it still uses bandwidth, but that wasn't the guy's question.

also, i disagree about a stream being a download. it's not the same thing as a cached whole file, for example, which you can extract from places like youtube with a browser extension. with long streams like the NBA serves, the same block of memory gets over-written every minute or two, so there's no download file to salvage other than perhaps a 1-2 minute fragment AFAIK.

this is why people use things like fraps or camstudio to archive the games and then share them as torrents.

i think the league pass is better, i mean im only paying $140 bucks for all year and the playoff, i can watch any team i want (lakers, cavs, celts) .Im usually at work when the game starts so i hit record on my DVR, and i like to watch on the flat screen rather than a PC monitor(i also tried to watch a live stream of an NBA game and hook up my PC to my TV and the quality was really crappy, since i get HD from direct tv, i notice the difference). I think if you have the cash its worth it, if not i wouldn't mind broadband.Haven't had a blackout for the last 2 seasons:cheers:

Its on sale now.

5 payments of $29.99 or 1 of $134.99

You also have the option to follow only 7 teams throughout the season for just $89.95



Honestly, for 135, i think I might as well get NBA league pass from my cable company. It includes the broadband account as well.... I think its 189 right now.

Edit: its actually only $170 with Time Warner.

So I just ordered the choice one as well. Where do you go to pick your 7 teams or whatever?

Just ordered mine :cheers:

Broadband is quailty even better this year from the looks.

[QUOTE=adamcz]I hope NBA steps up to the plate and matches what MLB has been doing. [B]We need an iPhone app to stream games, and also acces through tv set top devices like the roku thing and the appletv. Xbox access would be nice too. [/B]

Quality last year was watchable, but they really should be able to bump that up.[/QUOTE]


This is what i've been asking for. So i take it you can't stream from mobile hand held devices :mad: :mad:

Streaming on your phone isn't worth it. It kills the battery so goddamn quick.

how much $ is it? I might get it instead of normal this year, but my internet connections sucks, so i prbly wont.