How does Eurosport player work?

peyroux
peyroux Posts: 50
edited January 2013 in Pro race
Hey guys,
I read the 'where to watch' sticky thread and am thinking about getting a Eurosport Player account for this years season. I'm looking to those who did it last year to answer a few questions and just give some general feedback. First off I'm wondering when to start my account, presumably just before the Tour of Qatar? Then I was wondering what is available to watch... I doubt very much I'll be around to watch much - if any - of the races live because of uni, so what's available after on the player? the full race with commentary? Highlights only? etc. I'm also wondering about the quality as there's no preview.

It really seems to be my only option as we don't have a tv at my uni house...
Thanks in advance for the help!

Comments

  • durhamwasp
    durhamwasp Posts: 1,247
    Ive had it a couple of times and thought its excellent value, never really had any problems with buffering or anything (my internet speed is 6mb based on speedtest.net)

    Having said that, theres more and more free streams popping up now - on wiziwig for example - so you could easily get away with not paying owt, but the quality wont quite be as good.

    Other option is a FTA sat dish, costs about £60 and you can point it at either the German or Italian stations and watch all the races for nowt :)
    http://www.snookcycling.wordpress.com - Reports on Cingles du Mont Ventoux, Alpe D'Huez, Galibier, Izoard, Tourmalet, Paris-Roubaix Sportive & Tour of Flanders Sportive, Amstel Gold Xperience, Vosges, C2C, WOTR routes....
  • peyroux
    peyroux Posts: 50
    Cheers, for that. My internet speed is pretty snazzy being based in London. I thought it seemed pretty good value but if there's no on demand service it would just be a total waste as i'll not be able to watch much live so those are the details I really need to know. Thanks for the advice on the free alternatives too
  • durhamwasp
    durhamwasp Posts: 1,247
    there should be a previous option to test the quality, but sounds like u will be fine.

    They show the same schedule as British Eurosport, so if theres a highlights package on a night time, it will also be on the player. As you say, no 'on demand' option.
    http://www.snookcycling.wordpress.com - Reports on Cingles du Mont Ventoux, Alpe D'Huez, Galibier, Izoard, Tourmalet, Paris-Roubaix Sportive & Tour of Flanders Sportive, Amstel Gold Xperience, Vosges, C2C, WOTR routes....
  • peyroux
    peyroux Posts: 50
    :evil: No on demand... eugh... hmm not sure what to do. Unless the evening highlights are really good :/
  • davesvord
    davesvord Posts: 80
    Does anyone know if it works through an xbox?
  • Turfle
    Turfle Posts: 3,762
    torrents for most eurosport races find their way onto the net pretty quickly most of the time. Eurosport Player is great if you're around for live races though.
  • Slacey
    Slacey Posts: 78
    davesvord wrote:
    Does anyone know if it works through an xbox?
    It doesn't as there is no app available for it sadly.
    Freelance Journalist
    ex-Team Cycling Plus 2011
    Three Boardmans and a Spesh,
    numerous test rigs
  • pomtarr
    pomtarr Posts: 318
    No on-demand, which is sh1t, but the highlights shows are good. I say highlights; what I mean is they just show the last hour/2hrs/1hr30mins of each race, with commentary.

    In the absence of on-demand you can pause and rewind back. I can get it to do this for 3hrs back, so if you miss the start of the highlights, or indeed the actual race, you've got a 3hr window.
    "Difficult, difficult, lemon difficult"
  • peyroux
    peyroux Posts: 50
    Thanks for the info guys. Are the highlights on a roughly the same time each day? If they're 6pm+ish then I reckon I'll pay up, an hour/hour and a half of highlights each day seems alright for 5 quid a month.
  • pomtarr
    pomtarr Posts: 318
    Times for highlights seem to vary night-by-night. Generally they're on between 7-9pm. Sometimes during the Grand Tours you get an early highlights and a late highlights around 10-11 - one will be an hour, the other an hour and a half.

    Still well worth doing despite the inconsistent times and lack of on-demand....
    "Difficult, difficult, lemon difficult"
  • forward_loop
    forward_loop Posts: 314
    I binned it last year, it uses microsoft silverlight iirc which seemed ridiculously heavy on the processor and when fed to the TV from the laptop the quality degraded substantially and the laptop hit maximum temperatures. (nothing to do with internet speed) Fine the year before with great resolution on a 32 inch

    sign up for a month only and see how it goes. -

Categories