mlb.tv technical help question

[KingMoore]

I'm having a problem with MLB.tv, and this seemed like as good of a place as any to get some help. For some reason, my embeded player doesn't look like it should. Rather than having the video, and then the blue controlls underneeth, there is like a big black box extending beyond where the video should be covering some stuff up, and then the video is inside of that but smaller.

I have a widescreen laptop, so maybe this has something to do with the issue? Just wondering if anyone else has had a problem like this before, and if so, any ideas on resolving it? The mlb.com website doesn't help, and contacting their support has been futile. Here is what things look like for me:

http://www.circulargenius.com/images/mlb_tv.jpg

Also, if anyone knows a way to fight buffering problems (any way to downsample to a lower kb/sec???) that would be great too. I am watching from New Zealand, and I am fearing things are going to be near unwatchable :(.

Thanks a lot in advance for any help. MLB.com support (and website in general) are really lacking.

[Espen1978]

Check to see what version of Windows Media you have. When I signed up yesterday, they told me that MLB.TV is having compatability problems with Version 11.0 for the media player. Check and see to make sure you have either version 9 or 10.

Hope this is a start.

Do you know if the Tigers game is even available today online, or is it a national telecast?

[KingMoore]

i can get all the games, because I am outside the US. Not sure about you guys.

I appear to have WMP 10. I had this problem all of last year as well, I just ignored it and watched on my desktop where I did not have the problem. Now all I have is my laptop though.

[Yoda]

Do you know if the Tigers game is even available today online, or is it a national telecast?

I'm pretty sure all games are availible.

I'm not sure how to answer your question, KM. I would do as ESPEN suggested. After that, I'm clueless. I'm pretty sure the size of your monitor isn't the issue though. It looks like a media player problem. If you have version 11, I think there's a link on Microsoft's website to downgrade.

[Yoda]

I appear to have WMP 10. I had this problem all of last year as well, I just ignored it and watched on my desktop where I did not have the problem. Now all I have is my laptop though.

Hmmm... that's odd. I would try to install a different version of the media player then. Maybe upgrade to 11, see if that works. If not, downgrade it back to 10. I do know that version 10 had several different releases. Maybe the version of 10 that you have just doesn't work with it. Upgrading and then downgrading may fix your problem.

Also, does this happen with anything else? Or is it just a problem with the games?

[Espen1978]

I'm pretty sure all games are availible.

Last night i tried watching the Cards/Mets game just to see if it worked and it said, "Due to national telecast restrictions, balh blah blah"

I think if the game is on ESPN or Fox nationally, then it becomes blacked out on MLB.TV

I know for sure that I can't watch the Rays or Marlins on MLB.TV because of blackouts.

[KingMoore]

Sunday night games and Saturday day games are always blacked out because fox and espn have exclusives. Besides that, games that you are deamed in the market of (even if you can't get it on tv!) are blacked out. I'm pretty sure just cause it's on ESPN does not mean it's blacked out. It is really dumb sometimes though. Last year I lived in North Carolina and couldn't watch any Nationals games, even though our cable didn't carry them....

As for if my problem happens with other things, yeah sometimes it does. I will try upgrading/downgrading maybe that will work. :-/

[atomicrod]

Couple of quick suggestions.

1. Right click on the image and check the how large of a percent it is. Your's is possible downscaled to 50% or something, you can up that for a larger picture.

2. There are buffering options there also when you right click. You can expand the amount buffered which helps sometimes with slow connections, the larger the amount buffered the smoother video can be and it can compensate for blips in traffic.

3. Looks like from the picture you are using IE7, I know that many sites are having compability issues with it at the moment. If all else fails and you want to try something, download Firefox and see if you get the same problem there.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you are still having problems and I'd be happy to help in any way.

[Blue Square Thing]

Hmmm... that's odd. I would try to install a different version of the media player then. Maybe upgrade to 11, see if that works. If not, downgrade it back to 10. I do know that version 10 had several different releases. Maybe the version of 10 that you have just doesn't work with it. Upgrading and then downgrading may fix your problem.

Also, does this happen with anything else? Or is it just a problem with the games?

Downgrading WMP is *bloody* hard work! :-( Took me about a day to get back to v.9 which, for whatever reason, I need to get anything through MLB audio.

Iirc the version of the embedded player you get through IE is slightly different from the version you get in Firefox - with, I think, Fox being slightly easier to do things like right clicking to change properties and such - so Fox may well be worth a look.

Looks like the Kiwis are beating Bangladesh in the cricket btw... :-)

Ian

[KingMoore]

hey what do you know, firefox works. i didn't even think of that, thanks for the suggestion. it was becoming a major pain because the window was covering up some of the buttons i needed to click to actually watch the game :).

Now looks like the problems I have are just that the video is too choppy and buffery to watch :(. Does anyone know if there is a way that i can have it download the whole game to watch (assuming i'm not watching live)? Without having to pay for it? I was hoping I could just press pause and it would download... That doesn't seem to work though.

ugh, I REALLY wish mlb offered a lower bandwidth stream. I'd even take 56k at this point.

one funny thing that works is i can set the play speed to slow, it then shows the game at half speed but it doesn't buffer. hello 8 hour baseball games :)

[KingMoore]

I set my buffer size to 3000 seconds. Will see if this helps :D

[DrWho17]

hey what do you know, firefox works. i didn't even think of that, thanks for the suggestion. it was becoming a major pain because the window was covering up some of the buttons i needed to click to actually watch the game :).

Now looks like the problems I have are just that the video is too choppy and buffery to watch :(. Does anyone know if there is a way that i can have it download the whole game to watch (assuming i'm not watching live)? Without having to pay for it? I was hoping I could just press pause and it would download... That doesn't seem to work though.

ugh, I REALLY wish mlb offered a lower bandwidth stream. I'd even take 56k at this point.

one funny thing that works is i can set the play speed to slow, it then shows the game at half speed but it doesn't buffer. hello 8 hour baseball games :)
Are you using a proxy (I presume you are to get the games out of country). If so try a different one. You might also want to check out sopcast/tvants type programs, they also stream MLB in a different way (P2P), which may or may not give you a better stream.

[Corky]

Looks like the Kiwis are beating Bangladesh in the cricket btw... :-)

Ian

Big deal. Don't those Bangladesh guys only get to eat about once per month? I don't see how they could possibly have any energy for sports.

Semi-related: When my wife was over in Seattle seeing one of our daughters last month she was taken to an Ethiopian restaurant. Boy are there some possibilities for comment there. I think they would fear taking me there for the chance of an incident. Must be very small portions. Very small. Ya get a speck of dirty rice and a twig for dinner.

[KingMoore]

Not using a proxy... ugh i just wanna watch the games. I guess I may be audio only. I really wish there was a way to like... hit pause and let it load up the whole game.

[KingMoore]

What's this SOPCAST thing? I have never heard of it? Can I watch games that have already happened? Or only live?

[Blue Square Thing]

Big deal. Don't those Bangladesh guys only get to eat about once per month? I don't see how they could possibly have any energy for sports.

Semi-related: When my wife was over in Seattle seeing one of our daughters last month she was taken to an Ethiopian restaurant. Boy are there some possibilities for comment there. I think they would fear taking me there for the chance of an incident. Must be very small portions. Very small. Ya get a speck of dirty rice and a twig for dinner.

Kiwis thrashed them in the end. Good young team though Bangladesh - in 4 years time they could have a hell of a team. Beat India who are massive. The whole region is a cricketing powerhouse.

I think you're probably stereotyping based on periods of severe food shortage for some people in some areas of the world. It's rare that entire countries and/or entire populations suffer at the same time imo. It would be a bit like me assuming you guys all suffered from losing houses as a result of Katrina I think.

Ian