Why do OAA and ESPN3 suck so much?

[Eric15]

Can someone explain to me in Leyman's Terms why Orange All-Access and ESPN3.com so often are total crap? I have a brand new laptop and a strong high-speed internet connection.

Why is it that more often than not, the picture is constantly buffering and is of very low-quality? What needs to happen technologically (on either my end, or on the providers end) for me to get a crystal-clear picture that never buffers?

 

[Garbs]

my guess is they do not make much money off of it

 

[SoBeCuse]

Hmmm...weird about ESPN3. Mine has been always been great with an old laptop via wireless and a strong internet connection. OAA sucks ass.

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

Agree with SoBe...I have never had one issue with ESPN3 and I have a crappy laptop with standard comcast internet..I watch at least 4 games per week on there. OAA is just a substandard product put out as an easy moneygrab.

 

[Garbs]

Agree with SoBe...I have never had one issue with ESPN3 and I have a crappy laptop with standard comcast internet..I watch at least 4 games per week on there. OAA is just a substandard product put out as an easy moneygrab.

I think he is talking about video quality and not being able to watch games consistently, and I agree with him, very rarely do you get through a whole game with good quality

 

[CuseIsInTheHouse]

I have never had an issue with ESPN3 and I use is quite frequently.

 

[HakAttack]

ESPN3 has been fine for me. I usually stream it through my XBox360, and although it may be a bit "choppy" or "blocky" at times, it's still better picture quality for me as I can't get HD where I live.

 

[Eric15]

I think he is talking about video quality and not being able to watch games consistently, and I agree with him, very rarely do you get through a whole game with good quality

Yeah, exactly. I can never get through an entire game where there aren't a few instances of the video freezing while the audio continues, then the screen goes black for a few seconds in order for them to sync up.

 

[PoppyHart]

Yeah, exactly. I can never get through an entire game where there aren't a few instances of the video freezing while the audio continues, then the screen goes black for a few seconds in order for them to sync up.

If I were to guess, I'd think it might be inconsistency with your internet provider. That is, you may be paying for 15 Mbps, or whatever, but it could fluctuate wildly depending on usage, time of day, etc... I have Comcast's 16 Mbps and get a pretty stable picture.

 

[upperdeck]

i guess the question is why do people expect stuff provided over the internet to be the same as HD tv?

ESPN3 changes the picture as it senses issues in the feed. you could be bouncing around dozens of times to get the signal , be happy it works at all for video..

its no different than watching youtube that buffers

are you using a laptop connected to a wireless router or plugged into a direct connection to the internet at the house?

 

[zeekay]

Run a test on your cable line (there are free sites online that do speed tests). You'll get a rating. Pay attention to packet loss and ping times. The bandwidth advertised by your cable company (16mbps or whatever) doesn't mean much.

If there are significant issues call your company to run tests as well. Make sure you're not opening up your wireless to others. Make sure you have no downloads running while watching ESPN3. Switch all your in house runs to good quality cables (Philips). Make sure your modem and router are relatively new models.

ESPN3 should not run with any problems or freezes. If it does it's on your end. OAA is just in general though so nothing can help there.

 

[orange03]

Because you don't have an Apple! Just kidding but not really.

 

[orangefan13]

I can't stand OAA password system. It never works right for me. I pretty much have thrown 80 dollars out because I am tired of calling them all the time because it never works.

Just like Scout ripped alot of us off.