Steephill.tv & Univesral Sports

[cawright1375]

Just curious what people's experience using Steephill.tv is like. I checked out the video it had for the TdU and it seemed to be just 5 minute highlights. Do they show the entirety of the stages as shown on tv or is it more like a highlight reel like Versus?

And has anyone heard what events Universal SPorts will be covering this year? I really liked their Giro & Vuelta coverage. Although they took the video down of the stages of the Vuelta & Missouri as well as the Worlds before I could get to them.

 

[nvpacchi]

I really enjoy steephill.tv. I sought their services for the giro, vuelta, worlds, and lombardia, and they provided solid links to live streams. Most however were either in italian or spanish, but it beats not watching cycling.

Personally I hope Universal Sports drops their cycling coverage. The two stages of the giro I watched were filled with errors, mispronunciation, and a bunch of annoying Lance Armstrong talk.

 

[Tom T.]

I really enjoy steephill.tv. I sought their services for the giro, vuelta, worlds, and lombardia, and they provided solid links to live streams. Most however were either in italian or spanish, but it beats not watching cycling.

Personally I hope Universal Sports drops their cycling coverage. The two stages of the giro I watched were filled with errors, mispronunciation, and a bunch of annoying Lance Armstrong talk.

But by the end of the Giro they had switched commentators to a much more knowledgeable bloke. I thought it was quite good.

 

[El Imbatido]

Just curious what people's experience using Steephill.tv is like. I checked out the video it had for the TdU and it seemed to be just 5 minute highlights. Do they show the entirety of the stages as shown on tv or is it more like a highlight reel like Versus?

The reason the coverage was so poor for the Tour Down Under was because even in Australia we didn't have live coverage until stage 5 and 6. So because of that steephill couldn't show anything because there was no live feed.

Steephill is usually very good for live feeds. I use it all the time because i'm in Australia and we only get the TdF and Paris-Roubaix live. I also use the eurosport audio player and just turn down the volume on the live feed if it is in a different language.

But by the end of the Giro they had switched commentators to a much more knowledgeable bloke. I thought it was quite good.

I noticed that too, in Aus we got 15min highlights each night and it was of the universal feed. The only person they could pick out of the peloton was 'you know who' and they just droned on and on about him, it was like an american version of Phil and Paul. So i was very happy when they changed their commentators.

 

[Galic Ho]

Used steephill for the Vuelta and Dauphine last year. Saw most of the footage of each stage at the Dauphine. Feed didn't come anywhere near 576i or 576p quality, which is the bare minimum HD setting, but it was good enough for me to distinguish riders. Also grateful it didn't have a higher format as my quota would have gone down in massive chunks.

Streams were all live. Four channels and you pick what you like. During the Dauphine the commentator was some unrecognisable man with appalling English. Think it was Paddy. The bad Irish guy SBS had do the 30 minute Giro commentary. Chat function is available for those with accounts to talk about the race tactics. The other English channel didn't work and I hated the commentary so I switched to French. My French does not get me far. Was pleasant despite my lack of fluency. Video was also better on the French channel. Why? Don't know, it just was. There was also a Spanish channel.

Feed quality may now be HD, but I doubt it. I've been reading up tonight on average internet speeds, and unless you are in France, Sweden, Finland, Holland, Korea or Japan don't use the HD option (if it exists, I'll check). It will go through several gig in one stage broadcast. If you live in another country and live right next to the exchange and have the top ADSL package from your ISP, you'll cope fine, otherwise use the lower video settings. Nothing worse than going through all your quota in one week, or having lagging video because your connection isn't fast enough.