What do you use to watch nba games?

vini_vidi_vici · Post #21 » by **vini_vidi_vici** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 2:30 pm

I have every game from last season either on my DVR, or downloaded from certain forums.

I work nights at a second job, so I catch few games live anymore so its nice to live in a time where its easily archived.

scopy · Post #22 » by **scopy** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 2:31 pm

talha746 wrote:Sorry if off topic but just wanted to find out what you guys use to watch some nba games. Does NBA TV Canada show all the Raps games? I cut off my rogers tv few years ago as it was such a rip off but streaming games at a terrible quality just isnt working for me.

I have Bell Satellite, got their sports package and NBA TV. NBA TV is good cause you can get all the games in an hour, but if you want to watch all games "live" then you will need a combo of TSN and Sportsnet packages as well.

sanity · Post #23 » by **sanity** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 2:33 pm

80% of the total games I've watched in full last season have been from streams. I've actually watched games over the net instead of tuning in to the local stations because I detest our commentary crew (Leo). Wish courtsurfing was on more... or that NBA TV Canada actually televised useful stuff so it would be more convenient to watch other teams

goodjoey · Post #24 » by **goodjoey** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 2:57 pm

I used watch games on my laptop through illegal streams. It would be choppy and **** quality but it would get the job done. The only real difficulty i had was trying to figure out if i was watching taj gibson or carlos boozer dominating bargs inside (more often than not, it was both of them).

Then i got league pass. The stream quality when getting good signal (15-25Mbps) was usually great, but at larger screen sizes (27 inch cinema display) you lost a bit of the picture quality, but still very good. The other benefit was the different commentators, because they would usually be the opposing team's stream. The only drawback was the price and the fact that games would be blacked out on occasion (more so the later on in the season you got). A proxy fixed that issue (hotspot shield for me), but the ads/wait times were annoying, considering i was paying good money.

Finally I decided to get a 50inch flatscreen HDTV and got every package necessary to watch every game (+HBO because i love my thrones). The quality is the best you can get. Nothing like watching a game with your surround sound speakers blasting with an ice cold beer in your boxers in your living room with your wife making nacho supremes! I pay around $80 for HDTV in my living room and digital VIP in my bedroom. Both allow me to watch every game, but i can only watch HD games in the living room.

If you ask me, its worth every damn penny.

pkiskool · Post #25 » by **pkiskool** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 3:01 pm

TV is the biggest waste of money/time.
I haven't had cable since college.
When you have internet, you should just cancel TV.

Having said that, I use League Pass Boradband with *proxy*.
I won't go into details because of obvious reasons.
I used to watch illegal streams, but once I tried out LPBB and the 1080p HD games... there was never going back.
And for 100 bucks a season, this is a great deal.

Raps in 4 · Post #26 » by **Raps in 4** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 3:05 pm

supra2k8 wrote:
talha746 wrote:Sorry if off topic but just wanted to find out what you guys use to watch some nba games. Does NBA TV Canada show all the Raps games? I cut off my rogers tv few years ago as it was such a rip off but streaming games at a terrible quality just isnt working for me.

Online streams are getting better day by day.

Some streams during the finals were almost HD quality.

J-Roc · Post #27 » by **J-Roc** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 3:16 pm

So for the people watching on streams, is anyone using a tv 40" or up? And how is the quality?

dozendonuts · Post #28 » by **dozendonuts** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 3:30 pm

sanity wrote:80% of the total games I've watched in full last season have been from streams. I've actually watched games over the net instead of tuning in to the local stations because I detest our commentary crew (Leo). Wish courtsurfing was on more... or that NBA TV Canada actually televised useful stuff so it would be more convenient to watch other teams

I wonder if they're still going to have Courtsurfing now that the Score turned into Sportsnet 360.

Coach Smiley · Post #29 » by **Coach Smiley** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 3:47 pm

goodjoey wrote:I used watch games on my laptop through illegal streams. It would be choppy and **** quality but it would get the job done. The only real difficulty i had was trying to figure out if i was watching taj gibson or carlos boozer dominating bargs inside (more often than not, it was both of them).

Then i got league pass. The stream quality when getting good signal (15-25Mbps) was usually great, but at larger screen sizes (27 inch cinema display) you lost a bit of the picture quality, but still very good. The other benefit was the different commentators, because they would usually be the opposing team's stream. The only drawback was the price and the fact that games would be blacked out on occasion (more so the later on in the season you got). A proxy fixed that issue (hotspot shield for me), but the ads/wait times were annoying, considering i was paying good money.

Finally I decided to get a 50inch flatscreen HDTV and got every package necessary to watch every game (+HBO because i love my thrones). The quality is the best you can get. Nothing like watching a game with your surround sound speakers blasting with an ice cold beer in your boxers in your living room with your wife making nacho supremes! I pay around $80 for HDTV in my living room and digital VIP in my bedroom. Both allow me to watch every game, but i can only watch HD games in the living room.

If you ask me, its worth every damn penny.

I did the same thing baiscally, used streams for a long time and then got HDTV with a huge TV and all the necessary channcels to watch all the raps games in HD and MAN it is so much better. If you can afford it then this is the way it's meant to be watched!

Rap4Life_J · Post #30 » by **Rap4Life_J** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 4:15 pm

I live outside of Canada now, and haven't watch a single Raptors game Live. I used to DL the games from certain fourm, but what's the point if they kept on losing and you know the score already. All you want to see how your favourite Raptors players score 20 points, and you fast forward the games. That's no point of doing it!

I wanna know the URL of the Live Streams, so I can catch up the Raptors game in Live instead of DL the games. It's appreciated if anyone can share the URL with me, please PM me if you can!

Rap4Life_J · Post #31 » by **Rap4Life_J** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 4:15 pm

Oh yeah, and I use my eyes to watch the game!

shmoosicle · Post #32 » by **shmoosicle** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 4:26 pm

I've tried watching the illegal streams but the quality is so bad, I don't know how you guys do it. Half the time I can't tell who has the ball and often the the stream will hiccup. Maybe I'm just not going to the right websites.

I would gladly pay for NBA League Pass Broadband if it meant I could watch all 82 Raptor games for somewhere around $100. I know that probably won't happen for a few reasons, so I'm kind of stuck unless I want to buy cable.

carl_english · Post #33 » by **carl_english** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 5:05 pm

I use the internet to fill NBA gaming need.

Bonafide 24 · Post #34 » by **Bonafide 24** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 5:20 pm

I pay around $40-$100 a game to watch them at the ACC in the 100s section.

Season......wait for it...... Tickets

(even tho it is sseason passes, i consider some games are worth $40 (like watching Detroit live) or $100 (watching the lakers and miami come to town))

kahula_joe · Post #35 » by **kahula_joe** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 6:02 pm

pbj wrote:League Pass + VPN to circumvent black-outs

Hey man, what VPN worked the best for you? I tried using HideMyAss last year (the trial version). However whenever I would connect to a European country (to make sure the blackout doesn't apply), the connections were extremely slow.

Edit: Never mind. I see you have already answered it in another thread. I would try the Proxy this year and see how that goes.

Post #36 » by **pbj** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 6:08 pm

kahula_joe wrote:
pbj wrote:League Pass + VPN to circumvent black-outs

Hey man, what VPN worked the best for you? I tried using HideMyAss last year (the trial version). However whenever I would connect to a European country (to make sure the blackout doesn't apply), the connections were extremely slow.

I used HMA as well and you're right it's too slow.. but the trick my friend is that the blackout validation only happens when you log-in.
So what you do is..
1. Close browser (Ctrl+alt+delete and kill the process too)
2. Open HMA! and connect to random country
3. Log-in to LP
4. If you see the blackout icon is gone, disconnect HMA and enjoy the game using your own connect

There's something called OpenVPN that I'm gonna try next season which is free. I don't really know anything about it but I've been told I could use it rather than paying for HMA but I dunno

carlosrogers34 · Post #37 » by **carlosrogers34** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 6:22 pm

League Pass + Unotelly worked fine during the season. The benefit of using Unotelly is that it bypasses blackouts while still using your connection so you don't have to worry about slow VPNs. That worked until the 2nd round of the playoffs when LP changed something with their authentication. Then I had to use a method similar to pbj's above. Hopefully Unotelly will have worked out a fix in time for next season.

If you're going to buy League Pass, use a Romanian or Spanish VPN to buy the International League Pass + ASW + Playoffs package for much less than what it would cost in North America. I think it was $100 when I bought it.

Strange Clouds · Post #38 » by **Strange Clouds** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 6:51 pm

pbj wrote:League Pass + VPN to circumvent black-outs

What's VPN? I could watch Sixers games while living in Philadelphia without having to pay for cable?

pkiskool · Post #39 » by **pkiskool** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 6:54 pm

raptormage wrote:League Pass + Unotelly worked fine during the season. The benefit of using Unotelly is that it bypasses blackouts while still using your connection so you don't have to worry about slow VPNs. That worked until the 2nd round of the playoffs when LP changed something with their authentication. Then I had to use a method similar to pbj's above. Hopefully Unotelly will have worked out a fix in time for next season.

If you're going to buy League Pass, use a Romanian or Spanish VPN to buy the International League Pass + ASW + Playoffs package for much less than what it would cost in North America. I think it was $100 when I bought it.

$100 in Canada as well, no need to buy things on sketchy proxy server... I would not enter my card info on a proxy server... yikes.

Post #40 » by **pbj** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 6:57 pm

Strange Clouds wrote:
pbj wrote:League Pass + VPN to circumvent black-outs

What's VPN? I could watch Sixers games while living in Philadelphia without having to pay for cable?

The way LP works, is it checks your location when you log-in and then decides whether anything should be blacked-out depending on where you're connecting from.

A VPN routes your connection through another IP address, so it makes it look like you're actually connecting from another location. If you use another country, like Lisbon, Portugal, nothing is ever blacked-out.