# Universal Sports and the Giro



## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

As of right now, they seem to be having trouble. I was stuck on a page that only loaded the US logo. When I finally got here:
http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?CLIP_ID=132808&_MODE_=EVENT&db_oem_id=23000
all we see is a Giro test pattern, but there is italian audio.

Let's chaulk this up to last minute problems.

Anyone one the TV sched?


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

SWEET!
They now have video running and showed a group of handicapped/otherly-abled riders heading up the ramp. they were all decked out in TT garb. i saw a one-legged guy and a tandem. pretty cool that they do this before the start of the race.

(btw, i just read they plan on starting coverage around 1 hour before the start, so maybe they did this as a technical cushion.)


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## doctor855 (Dec 27, 2008)

cant watch it on tv though? or is it not going to be on television just the internet????


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## bauerb (Jan 18, 2006)

seems to be internet only. TV is showing cyclecross now


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## doctor855 (Dec 27, 2008)

bauerb said:


> seems to be internet only. TV is showing cyclecross now


ah ok didnt know if i was in a weird area that wasn't airing it. anyway to get an english feed for audio?


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## wsriii (May 23, 2006)

I'm at the site and I get nothing after the little promo runs. Just blank screen and no sound.:mad2:


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## moabbiker (Sep 11, 2002)

Running smoothly now, showing taped stuff though. Editing could use some work.


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

wsriii said:


> I'm at the site and I get nothing after the little promo runs. Just blank screen and no sound.:mad2:


i was getting that, too, when i clicked the banner. when i drilled down to the cycling/giro page, i got the link to work. try this:
http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?CLIP_ID=132808&_MODE_=EVENT&db_oem_id=23000

still on pre-race, which is neat. they just showed all the tewm intros. first down the ramp should be columbia highroad.


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## asdasd44 (Apr 24, 2007)

I was getting the blank screen with Firefox, works fine with IE.


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## RkFast (Dec 11, 2004)

Working for me. TV is at noon ET for two hours.


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## JaeP (Mar 12, 2002)

DTV signal is down here in Sandy Eggo.


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## bauerb (Jan 18, 2006)

highroad just started the TT. where else but italy would they show full coverage daily with no commercials? amazing


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## doctor855 (Dec 27, 2008)

RkFast said:


> Working for me. TV is at noon ET for two hours.


ah cool...


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

high road is on the "highroad" badged giants. when is scott supposed to deliver the non-tri aerobike?

and where is uzzie? i planned on running commentary with him. hes probably still trying to get his trek aero in the trainer.


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

highroad still altogether, but looks like they might drop one.

here comes the all-english speaking squad of garmin


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## thechriswebb (Nov 21, 2008)

ok, problem solved. i had the same problem; wouldn't work with firefox but IE is ok


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## wsriii (May 23, 2006)

*IE NOT Firefox!*



asdasd44 said:


> I was getting the blank screen with Firefox, works fine with IE.


Yes, thank you. Works fine with IE but not with Firefox. Go figure!

Thanks again.
Bill


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## thechriswebb (Nov 21, 2008)

wsriii said:


> Yes, thank you. Works fine with IE but not with Firefox. Go figure!
> 
> Thanks again.
> Bill


yep; i had the same thing


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## bikeboy389 (May 4, 2004)

Also appears to work in Safari, for the Mac users.


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

slipstream is dropping a rider it looks like


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## that guy again (Jul 14, 2008)

Working in Safari.


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## pdainsworth (Jun 6, 2004)

Working fine with Firefox for me. Just had to click the "watch now" icon at the top, center of screen.


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## bikeboy389 (May 4, 2004)

And there's absolutely nothing in the way of commentary, right? That's what I'm getting. As annoying as commentators can be, I'd like there to be SOMETHING. Even if it's just in Italian.

I watched a good portion of the Tour in Irish a couple of years ago, and it was still OK. But this? This is just helicopter sounds. Weird.

OK, now I'm suddenly getting a British announcer. Universal Sports really need to get their sh*t together. Oops. Sounds like a Scot, actually.


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

they now have english audio.


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## merckxman (Jan 23, 2002)

*English came on now*

...on US (on internet)


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## thechriswebb (Nov 21, 2008)

yay! audio

Columbia in first over garmin


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## Sojourneyman (Jun 22, 2007)

Garmin.


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## Wondering Nomad (Jul 3, 2006)

Is the streaming coverage just for today or the entire race?


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## Patti (May 20, 2008)

Wondering Nomad said:


> Is the streaming coverage just for today or the entire race?


It's every day! 

Patti


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## moonmoth (Nov 8, 2008)

Sojourneyman said:


> Garmin.


Ouch! I'm sure JV "no more Mr. Nice Guy" is not happy with his team, right now.


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## jsedlak (Jun 17, 2008)

This feed, while great quality, seems to break up a lot. It also is killing my internet line. Drops it from 12mbit down to just 1mbit.


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## B2 (Mar 12, 2002)

*Disable Adblock*



wsriii said:


> Yes, thank you. Works fine with IE but not with Firefox. Go figure!
> 
> Thanks again.
> Bill


You need to disable Adblock for Firefox to work.


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## JohnHemlock (Jul 15, 2006)

It's also on TV if you have Universal Sports, although not live. Ch 250 in Denver on Comcast.


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## thechriswebb (Nov 21, 2008)

Thank you Universal Sports for live (and on demand) coverage of the Giro. I didn't expect it, but I got English commentary as well (not sure if it will continue throughout the race, but still). 

I didn't think that I was going to be able to watch it, but Universal Sports came through.


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## Mersault (Jan 3, 2005)

I got it over the air on free digital TV through my plain old antenna, it's channel 4-4 through my digital converter box here in Los Angeles. Amazing!, same day tape delay coverage over the air of the Giro. I don't care that's it tape delay, since I'd record it anyway. Guess I'm changing my view on digital TV signals.

Here's their schedule, it looks like they'll show the giro coverage 3 times during the day.

http://www.universalsports.com/EPG/tv.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&SPID=13408


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## JaeP (Mar 12, 2002)

Never got to see the live feed on Universal Sports but I did see the 2hr replay! Yeah for Universal Sports channel.


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## wsriii (May 23, 2006)

*Thank You Universal Sports*

I was able to watch and hear the commentary. I enjoyed it and was glad to be able to see it. I look forward to watching more. Thanks again to both persons who told me to use IE and how to get Firefox working.

Bill


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## Mapei (Feb 3, 2004)

I haven't watched it all, so I don't know what traps lie ahead, but I seems to have been able to access their Video On Demand of the first stage.

Bravissimo Universal Sports!


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## gh1 (Jun 7, 2008)

Thanks for the heads up, the Universal coverage online was nice. Right before I started watching this morning I got this in a mapmyride.com email. Makes zero sense.



> Versus—the U.S. Television home of the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Cyclsm Sundays—and MapMyRide.com—the internet's premier provider of online mapping and training tools for cyclists—are excited to present 3 separate Challenges in connection with the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia!


Home of the Giro? wtf?


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## thechriswebb (Nov 21, 2008)

gh1 said:


> Thanks for the heads up, the Universal coverage online was nice. Right before I started watching this morning I got this in a mapmyride.com email. Makes zero sense.
> 
> 
> 
> Home of the Giro? wtf?


?????????


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## thechriswebb (Nov 21, 2008)

The Giro has never had the demand in the US that it has this year. Maybe VS has realized that they messed up this year by not carrying it. Now that Universal Sports is getting our vote, they are probably trying to do something to win us back over.


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## teoteoteo (Sep 8, 2002)

As per the Universal Sports Twitter they have engineers working on the Firefox issues, they were recommending IE or Safari until then.. 

Also, feed had no Audio early on as instead of waiting for announcers to be on air they chose to put raw feed on and show more coverage. I suspect things will tighten up over the next few days.


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## Mapei (Feb 3, 2004)

I'm one of those rare fans who likes the lack of commentary...even though the commentator is quite good. I like just hearing the ambient noises. The helicopters. The occasional shouts from the team car. The crowd.


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## SwiftSolo (Jun 7, 2008)

Yes, thanks OP for the heads up. I got it on channel 5.2 and it was great. Lance looks pretty good for this stage of his recovery!


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## moabbiker (Sep 11, 2002)

The online coverage was great. I didn't think there would be any live commentary since that was specifically mentioned in the news release it would be excluded. Nice bonus. Huge difference from Versus coverage; and the commentator was way better than Phil and Paul.


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## Sojourneyman (Jun 22, 2007)

http://www.universalsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&SPID=13044&SPSID=105620

There's where you can find it on demand, just found that out. Just so long as I can avoid the spoilers, I guess I won't have to wake up at 8.30 everday


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## lonestar_shawn (Oct 15, 2008)

Hmmm, what am I doing wrong? I go to the above link and choose to watch Stage 1. I see the intro video fine, then it goes to a screen that says "2009 Giro D'Italia Stage 1" and it just sits there. I'm using IE. It acts like it's playing a video - I can see the seconds ticking away in the bottom right corner of the screen, but the screen never changes.


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## Dead Fingers (Oct 16, 2008)

gh1 said:


> Thanks for the heads up, the Universal coverage online was nice. Right before I started watching this morning I got this in a mapmyride.com email. Makes zero sense.
> 
> 
> 
> Home of the Giro? wtf?


I got the same thing. LOL


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## enac (Aug 24, 2007)

I am just happy I don't have to listen to that annoying guitar harmony VERSUS theme song, and a Saab commercial every five minutes. But it is annoying that Universal Sports doesn't have an HD feed.


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## Adjudic8r (Mar 11, 2007)

lonestar_shawn said:


> Hmmm, what am I doing wrong? I go to the above link and choose to watch Stage 1. I see the intro video fine, then it goes to a screen that says "2009 Giro D'Italia Stage 1" and it just sits there. I'm using IE. It acts like it's playing a video - I can see the seconds ticking away in the bottom right corner of the screen, but the screen never changes.


Just fast forward a few minutes. The coverage will pick up there. :thumbsup:


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## bigpinkt (Jul 20, 2006)

:thumbsup:


enac said:


> I am just happy I don't have to listen to that annoying guitar harmony VERSUS theme song, and a Saab commercial every five minutes. But it is annoying that Universal Sports doesn't have an HD feed.


Exactly, The number of commercials on Versus can be overwhelming at times. The commentator is pretty good as well. 

Looks like I am not going to work much for the next 3 weeks, glued to the internet


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## tron (Jul 18, 2004)

Can someone tell me when Universal is replaying these on thes West Coast? I have looked all over and I cannot find it. The next step will be figuring our how to tivo certain periods of time versus shows.

I think I got it 9 am?


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## pacificaslim (Sep 10, 2008)

They replayed it from 6pm to 8pm pacific time and will do so again at 9-11pm I believe.


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## DIRT BOY (Aug 22, 2002)

You can also paste the URL into Windows Media Player. I bookmarked in in FF so it's easier:

http://www.universalsports.com/shar...DB_OEM_ID=23000&USE_THIS_STREAM_ID_ONLY=&KEY=


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## Gnarly 928 (Nov 19, 2005)

Yeah, the Universal Sports coverage--Thank you, Universal!

It's coverage is a world above that crap the VS channel has been spewing, unchallenged, for a while. Last "Cyclism Sunday" I watched on VS, they had very little actual coverage of the cycling. About a 90/10% ratio of ads to bike racing.

I watched the TOC on the race webcast, being away from Traditional TV until the last day. That day I watched it real time on my computer and then went to a friends house who had VS and a big plasma TV....VS coverage was laughable, even when compared to the somewhat amature Amgen TOC webcast. VS presented us with a couple of hours of crap with mostly advertising and fancy fluff touting their own network..Maybe 10 mins of actual racing.

I hope the availability of alternate sources of cycling race coverage will wake these people up..the ones who think they can take out huge $ returns and give us very little actual bike racing in return. I mean, we pay for the cable or Satellite service, we watch network promotions, we watch tons of adverts. and we get maybe a few minutes per hour of actual interesting racing...while everyone in the TV Biz..rakes in the cash..Screw that, now that we have another option. 

Don Hanson


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## zosocane (Aug 29, 2004)

I'm not complaining about the coverage -- we thank Universal Sports for saving us -- but the announcer needs to discern riders a bit better. How the announcer thought that was DiLuca (and not Petacchi ) powering away from Cav was strange.


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## BarryG (Jul 5, 2004)

Excellent streaming video quality on Universal's Web site, although the English announcer seems surprisingly unable to name the riders we're watching or update us on KM to go to finish - helps to watch the cyclingnews live ticker.


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## jhamlin38 (Oct 29, 2005)

universals coverage is better than vs, the video quality on the net is way way better than cycling tv. 
i knew that wasn't diluca, and thought it was kinda funny they called him diluca. Since when does DiLuca ride a bike larger than 52 cm.


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## Gnarly 928 (Nov 19, 2005)

I enjoyed seeing Cavendish get 'worked'.in today's sprint He seems (from the public stuff I have seen) a bit cocky and kinda swaggers a bit, but Petachi (sp?) kind of blew him away today. It looked like Mr. "Fastest man in the World" first got a bit complacent, having himself in perfect position to win the sprint from 1/2 k out, and then when Petachi went past him, he tried to match speeds but from overhead, it looked like Petachi just rode on away...or maybe Cave-in-dish just gave up.

Excuse me for sort of dissing a rider who everyone seems to think is marvelous...I just like to see that kinda great bike racing..


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## cking17 (Mar 8, 2002)

Agree - needs better editing... but THANK goodness we are seeing at least something (in the USA) via the web. Having no TV coverage this year absolutely s_cks. If anyone does hear of TV highlights on NBC, etc. let us all know.


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## zosocane (Aug 29, 2004)

BarryG said:


> Excellent streaming video quality on Universal's Web site, although the English announcer seems surprisingly unable to name the riders we're watching or update us on KM to go to finish - helps to watch the cyclingnews live ticker.


How the announcer called DiLuca on the sprint around Cav was bizzare. It couldn't be DiLuca because (i) the LPR guys was tall and (ii) DiLuca already fired off his bullets trying to animate a break in the final 4 km. It was obviously Petacchi and he couldn't figure it out.


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## ti-triodes (Aug 14, 2006)

Is anyone picking it OTA in the NY area on channel 4-4? Looks like I'll have to run out and get a roof antenna.


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## kbiker3111 (Nov 7, 2006)

ti-triodes said:


> Is anyone picking it OTA in the NY area on channel 4-4? Looks like I'll have to run out and get a roof antenna.


Yeah. 

I run Cablevision without the box and I get basic, so its almost the same as an antenna. 4-4 comes in great and I get the Giro!


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## moonmoth (Nov 8, 2008)

jhamlin38 said:


> universals coverage is better than vs


I agree it is good but wouldn't go that far. The on-the-air picture (via cable) is clearly of lower quality, and no, I'm not talking anything about HD or video-elitism. 

The announcers are missing just a little of the background chatter than we normally get from Vs, and they are just slightly slower to identify riders. 

Not complaining.


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## tom_o (May 6, 2004)

US's coverage (compared to not having anything), is great! :thumbsup:


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## ti-triodes (Aug 14, 2006)

kbiker3111 said:


> Yeah.
> 
> I run Cablevision without the box and I get basic, so its almost the same as an antenna. 4-4 comes in great and I get the Giro!



Thanks. Looks like I'll be climbing on the roof this week!


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## tkavan01 (Jun 24, 2004)

I just discovered i get the US channel, i am stoked, coverage is absolutely awesome, talking is about strategy and the race, and not rambling about rider back stories about when they take dumps.

i wish us would cover the tour


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## fast ferd (Jan 30, 2009)

I still prefer Phil and Paul over Universal's announcers. By far. Universal's duo is over-explaining the basics too much. I try to watch the racing and ignore them most of the time, but what's up with phrases like "He's attacking off the front!" and "You always never see him do that!" And Versus seems to carry sharper pictures on their programs.

Good aerials and some good interviews, particularly Lance post-stage 2. This looks like a great Giro in the making. Italy's scenery is breathtaking, too.


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## cheddarlove (Oct 17, 2005)

I ordered RAI on DISH and recorded it. I have no clue if it was live or not but there were no commercials and even though I don't speak Italian, I understood the names of whatever riders they were talking about and I certainly understood the finish when Cav got dumped at the Line by Pettachi! Awesome finish!
Ciao!!


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## king of Norway (Jan 10, 2002)

If you don't like the universal commentary...you can mute it and listen to the eurosport commentary from sean kelly and the other guy.. they seem way better than the universal guy.. you can access french, italian or the uk eurosport commnetary from the cyclingfans.com and steephill.com websites.. the trick is to synch them as there seems to be a few seconds delay on one or the other. good luck


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## kbiker3111 (Nov 7, 2006)

ti-triodes said:


> Thanks. Looks like I'll be climbing on the roof this week!


uh oh.


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## glovemtb (Mar 23, 2007)

So far, everything has been better than all the years of OLN tour coverage I watched. 
Less commercials, more camera feeds, etc.
....oh yes, and free !


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## culdeus (May 5, 2005)

I guess I'm not smart enough to find the streaming video link on their site.


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## nc_biker (Aug 11, 2006)

Anyone know of any iphone compatible video feeds?


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## clipz (Aug 28, 2008)

its working with omternet explorer for me but not firefox


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## Ken in Vista (Feb 10, 2005)

moonmoth said:


> I agree it is good but wouldn't go that far. The on-the-air picture (via cable) is clearly of lower quality, and no, I'm not talking anything about HD or video-elitism.
> 
> Not complaining.


I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices this. I'm watching via Cox Cable and the video looks like it's VCR quality.


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

i agree that the announcers are not that great. i hate hearing them constantly say say "the tee-tee-tee" when talking about the team time trial, "tee-tee" when talking about time trial, and "kay- oh- emm" when talking about king of the mountain. the only good thing i was able to pull away was the former racer saying "with a downhill finish, they spun out at 53/11." still makes me think i could do better than these guys. but chances are they are sitting in a booth in NYC or LA watching the thing.

the interviews seem more organic. especially the interview with levi after stage 1. the interviewer seems a bit green, but the interviews US has been airing seem to give more personality to the rider.

as far as the lack of HD signal, are they even getting the feed through HD? remember, we only get the feed the Giro makes public. US and VS just work with eth official broadcast signal.



fast ferd said:


> I still prefer Phil and Paul over Universal's announcers. By far. Universal's duo is over-explaining the basics too much. I try to watch the racing and ignore them most of the time, but what's up with phrases like "He's attacking off the front!" and "You always never see him do that!" And Versus seems to carry sharper pictures on their programs.
> 
> Good aerials and some good interviews, particularly Lance post-stage 2. This looks like a great Giro in the making. Italy's scenery is breathtaking, too.


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## Patti (May 20, 2008)

clipz said:


> its working with omternet explorer for me but not firefox


It worked fine for me with Firefox the first two days. Today I couldn't get it to work with IE or Firefox. I finally gave up and found a UK eurosport stream on http://www.cyclingfans.com 

I hope they get the issues worked out.

Patti


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## Mosovich (Feb 3, 2004)

*no problems..*

with IE..


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## Edgecrusher (Jan 12, 2006)

US is working off the RAI feed, so they are at the mercy of RAI TV.
It's not US's fault for the picture quality. The announcers are doing a decent job
as well, no more stumbling than Phil does ( I like Phil btw). More technical details
are always a plus in my view. 

For US's FIRST Grand Tour- theyare doing fine. If you go back to VS first TdF 
coverage, it certainly wasn't as polished as it has been in the past couple of years.
Expecting too much too soon, will do nothing but let you down. 

The fact that we can watch the Giro every single day- 3 times a day on US TV is amazing. 

Now we have two grand tours on tv. Send US a note to say thanks...for the coverage! They have the broadcast rights until 2012.





weltyed said:


> i agree that the announcers are not that great. i hate hearing them constantly say say "the tee-tee-tee" when talking about the team time trial, "tee-tee" when talking about time trial, and "kay- oh- emm" when talking about king of the mountain. the only good thing i was able to pull away was the former racer saying "with a downhill finish, they spun out at 53/11." still makes me think i could do better than these guys. but chances are they are sitting in a booth in NYC or LA watching the thing.
> 
> the interviews seem more organic. especially the interview with levi after stage 1. the interviewer seems a bit green, but the interviews US has been airing seem to give more personality to the rider.
> 
> as far as the lack of HD signal, are they even getting the feed through HD? remember, we only get the feed the Giro makes public. US and VS just work with eth official broadcast signal.


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## UniSports (May 8, 2009)

*Need video help?*

Visit our video help website!
http://universalsports.tv/Video_Help.html
Goodluck!


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## rocco (Apr 30, 2005)

It worked in Safari for me earlier today but now it wont.


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