MLB.tv problem?

by PShwa on Apr 16, 2008 5:00 AM PDT

Okay so I got the whole NexDef and Silverlight nonsense, and its all like "oohhhh...we have TV quality" but ever since i started using this instead of the old media player, everything is very choppy. The pitch comes in at what looks like 7 frames or so instead of a smooth pitch. Basically anything moving fast is choppy. Wasn't a problem on the old media player. is anyone else having the same issue?

0 recs | Comment 17 comments

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Yes.

I had to stop using the silverlight, because the 800k in WMP looked better, and you can’t use silverlight to pipe fullscreen to a second monitor, like a tv.

<geek>

Also, the streaming in silverlight doesn’t support progressive buffering, only interlaced, so that 1200k is actually 600k, plus compression. That’s what causes the choppy look.

Just keep in mind for anyone considering getting a tv to hook up, silverlight in its present form has no DirectX (or even OpenGL) capabilities, only GDI. That means most video cards (at the very least all based on a NV or ATI chipset) will not be able to seperate the stream for output.

</geek>

by Faux on Apr 16, 2008 5:42 AM PDT 0 recs

Neat, thanks

Am just waiting to get an HDMI telly to hook up so when that happens I’ll be sure to stick with the original player rather than silverlight.

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by MarkE on Apr 16, 2008 7:23 AM PDT up 0 recs

how can I stop using silverlight?

I am not getting the option to use the old player anymore. I miss the old playyyeerrrrr haha

by PShwa on Apr 16, 2008 6:18 AM PDT 0 recs

You have to uninstall.

Preferably both silverlight and nextdef. One unfortunate aspect is you can’t install mosiac either, as it is a silverlight based app.

by Faux on Apr 16, 2008 6:32 AM PDT up 0 recs

I have the nextDef plugin running without silverlight

And I have the “feeling” that things run better with the plugin running too.
But if you dont want next Def, you dont have to uninstall it, you can just turn it off.

by Schuxu on Apr 16, 2008 7:38 AM PDT 0 recs

All the NextDef does is precache common data.

So things will feel like they are moving faster, without actually doing so. In other words, if you have a connection maxed out by your mlbtv, the nextdef wont help you, but if you are well under capacity, the nextdef will help with doing other things along with your streaming (especially torrents, which involve a flood of small connections).

I’ve found that you can install the nextdef and not install silverlight and not have a problem, but if you install both together, you have to remove both to get silverlight completely off. I also recommend reinstalling your flash player to regain its proper plugin status, as silverlight changes many of these settings.

YMMV

by Faux on Apr 16, 2008 7:50 AM PDT up 0 recs

Thank you very much for the inside

That was my most pleasent surprise, that I could still use Torrenst while watching the game.

by Schuxu on Apr 16, 2008 12:43 PM PDT up 0 recs

And...

turning Nextdef off will not change the settings involved, it just turns off the precaching aspect. this is why you have to take it off when you take out silverlight. If you want it on, just restart your computer after removing both, then reinstall the nextdef.

by Faux on Apr 16, 2008 7:52 AM PDT up 0 recs

Also, the Silverlight players UI is less useful.

When I’m watching an archived game, I like to skip ahead two minutes to avoid the commercial breaks, but I can’t do that with Silverlight because the progress bar is too small. I lack the fine control I want.

by Llewdor on Apr 16, 2008 9:36 AM PDT 0 recs

this is a common problem.

if you look at their support boards there have been a ton of users complaining about the same thing. looks like mlb.tv tried to roll out another upgrade without proper testing (what a surprise).

The consensus that I’ve seen is that 800k without silverlight and nexdef is the best way to go. You can use fullscreen mode and the picture/stream quality is far superior.

by sirbrianwilson on Apr 16, 2008 11:01 AM PDT 0 recs

Full Screen Mode

Is still not working well for me. It is mostly the 16/9 picture with right and left chopped off. Which makes only use of like 70% off my 4/3 monitor.

by Schuxu on Apr 16, 2008 12:44 PM PDT 0 recs

If you're using silverlight,

good luck. You’re going to need it.

If you’re using WMP, there isn’t really an easy way to stretch out the SD feed streams. There’s a long way, and I’ll post it if I have to, but it involved unsupported screen settings and such, and is not very fun to do, or easy to reverse after the game.

But basically, they are giving you a widescreen feed, but they letterbox (put the black bars on) it for you. All the feeds that come out of MLBTV are in the widescreen format. They just letterbox any time they use a SD incoming feed. It’s probably because you can optimize your servers to stream widescreen or standard, but not both at once. So instead of cropping the wide screens, they letterbox the SD.

One thing I haven’t found out yet, is why they don’t get all the games incoming in widescreen. I understand for small market teams, because not all broadcasts are in HD. But I could swear all the FSNNW games are in HD (not in the area, so don’t know for sure)

by Faux on Apr 16, 2008 2:26 PM PDT up 0 recs

BTW, this screws you out of screen quality.

The feed is 800kbps, but the ones in standard ratio use only about 80% of that for the action. So you’re really only getting 640kbps, and the other 160kbps in black.

by Faux on Apr 16, 2008 2:30 PM PDT up 0 recs

The optimized server settings make sense

I just cant imagine any other good reason to letterbox the widescreen pic instead of stretching it.
There is no real need to post the whole process. I do a lot of chatting during the games and very seldom watch full screen for a longer period. But thank you for the offer! (And all the inside information)

by Schuxu on Apr 16, 2008 2:52 PM PDT 0 recs