Update on watching NBA.com webcasts and NBA TV

[CruzDude]

The NBA summer league in Las Vegas has three levels of watching games:

1.0 Live video viewing on your computer of game action
2.0 Live updating of game stats and data only, no video
3.0 Live HD TV viewing of designated games on NBA TV

Version 1.0 can only be viewed on computers running Microsoft windows or Vista. Video action is ok, screen a bit small but ok.

Version 2.0 can be had on any browser on any computer, Linux, Mac and Windows.

Version 3.0 requires the NBA TV package (usually within a SPORT PAK as on Direct TV, see below)

Mac OX X 10.3 and greater can also Windows XP and Vista using either VMware or Parallels virtual environments. Just did it on my Mac running 10.5.x and WinXP using VMware and worked fine and got everything. Whereas on Safari in the OS 10.5.x environment could only get nearly live stats updates and recap info.

First you can access the summer league broadcast schedule here:

http://www.nba.com/summerleague2008/...chedule08.html


Then at this link is a good discussion about computer/software requirements:

http://www.nba.com/broadband/video_faq.html#2

Bottom line is you can watch NBA.com webcasts on your computer and, for those Mac user who also have Mac TV unit, on your big screen TV. The NBA.com webcast is oriented to PC/windows but I saw the videos just fine on my Mac running 10.5.3 and using Safari. You do need Windows Media Player 7.1 or newer in any case and they recommend IE 5.5, Firefox 1.x or Netscape 7.x browsers.

Tuesdays game at 7:00pm (listed at 10:00pm but that is east coast time) vs. Portland is on ComcastSportsNet Northwest AND on NBA TV live.

Wednesday's game at 3pm vs the Mavs is NBA TV and nba.com webcast

Friday's game at 7pm vs the Warriors is tape delay at 9:30pm on NBA TV and live on nba.com webcast.

ADDED NOTE REGARDING NBA TV: If you have DirecTV you have to add the SPORTS PAK to your DirecTV account to get NBA TV along with all the comcast sports channels around the country and a bunch of other sports channels. Was $12/month but lets me see ALL summer league games. This is separate from NBA League Pass. In October when NBA League Pass starts, it includes NBA TV.

Happy to help anyone not having good luck watching Kings or other games on NBA.com or NBA TV.

 

[bajaden]

Well, I'm sitting down here in baja mexico and I got the game clear as a bell on my computer. Did a little freezing at the beginning, but then was fine the rest of the way. Do you know if Grant is going to do any of the play by play like he did last year?

 

[Gary]

Someone had that other link (in the other thread) which was 10x better than NBA.com's version of the game. The picture was good enough to put it up on my television and it looked as good as a game on cable.

edit: http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia-live/nba/11562/500_nba-liveevent_060611.asx

That was the link.. It's MUCH better than nba.com's link although it's the exact same angles.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Someone had that other link (in the other thread) which was 10x better than NBA.com's version of the game. The picture was good enough to put it up on my television and it looked as good as a game on cable.

edit: http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia-live/nba/11562/500_nba-liveevent_060611.asx

That was the link.. It's MUCH better than nba.com's link although it's the exact same angles.

I was able to watch that stream on my Mac (10.5.3, Firefox 3.0) - it just popped open a window in Windows Media Player and worked fine, no Flip4Mac or anything.

I wouldn't say that it looked as good as a game on cable, though! I didn't see the NBA.com feed, but I figured it was about the same. I had to squint and pretend in order to read anybody's numbers, and half the time I couldn't tell if I was watching Thompson or Shelden. But it was better than nothing!

Anyway, that link is pretty specific, so I don't imagine it will work again for the next game. Hopefully someone will find the right URL for the next game.

Edit: I just clicked on the link to see what would happen and up came a Hornets/76ers game in progress. So the link may be good for all Summer league games.

Edit 2: Apparently the scoreboard says "Nuggets" and not "Hornets". I could only make out the "ets" part and thought I had it right. If your cable's that bad, Gary, I apologize.

 

[Gary]

I looked at the link and that game wasn't as good of quality as the Kings game. Seriously, the Kings game was a lot better than the nba.com feed. Like 10x better.

 

[Gary]

BTW, what's with the guy that updates the player pages screwing up everyone's name?

DeAndrew Jordan?
http://www.nba.com/summerleague2008/players/index.jsp?player=deandrew_jordan

Jamon Gordon?
http://www.nba.com/summerleague2008/players/index.jsp?player=jamon_gordon

 

[CruzDude]

Guys, there is only one camera for the NBA webcast. If someone is making an illegal copy and doing some post processing then refeeding it out on some private link, you could get better, worse or nothing in any particular order.

There is only on legal feed for webcast only games, from NBA.com. It is against the law to retransmit ANY NBA TV/webcast feed without specific permission and that "other" I'm willing to bet didn't have permission. Looking at that feed tonight got nothing, on my Mac. Went to WinXP and IE and saw a blank feed screen which appears to me to have been an illegal retransmit.

 

[CruzDude]

Sunday afternoon. BIG WOW!!! now I can watch live video on NBA.com webcast on my Mac OS X on safari 3.0!!! I did correspond with NBA.com video folk about issue. Now I can watch web cast!!!

 

[TheRaven]

Guys, there is only one camera for the NBA webcast. If someone is making an illegal copy and doing some post processing then refeeding it out on some private link, you could get better, worse or nothing in any particular order.

There is only on legal feed for webcast only games, from NBA.com. It is against the law to retransmit ANY NBA TV/webcast feed without specific permission and that "other" I'm willing to bet didn't have permission. Looking at that feed tonight got nothing, on my Mac. Went to WinXP and IE and saw a blank feed screen which appears to me to have been an illegal retransmit.

Although the link Gary reposted is dead anyway now since they have changed the feed name several times, the link he was talking about wasn't from some third-party, that was the direct link to the NBA.com feed. The reason it looked better is that it wasn't constrained to the small size the NBA.com pop-up window assigns to the video. I know this because I sorted out the direct link myself like many others so that I could get rid of the tiny video size and re-size it as desired. It is a simple matter of right-clicking on the video and going to properties, and then sorting out the direct link. The video feed is the video feed, so there is nothing shady or illegal about it, though I understand the reason for concern.