# Cycling.tv?



## Ziptie (Sep 3, 2003)

I know this has come up before, but does anyone have experience with Cycling.tv? I've read dodgy reviews in the past, but has the service gotten any better? 
Or is there a better way to watch the spring classics live? Thanks in advance.


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## northwest (Sep 16, 2005)

What pissed me off the most was that it did occasionally work. And it was a beautiful thing. Then total failure. You'll end up pulling all of your hair out. Didn't re-subscribe this year, after last year's frustration. 

And I hope that last part about actually going vs. watching it on cycling.tv wasn't a real question.


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## Dwayne Barry (Feb 16, 2003)

Ziptie said:


> I know this has come up before, but does anyone have experience with Cycling.tv? I've read dodgy reviews in the past, but has the service gotten any better?
> Or is there a better way to watch the spring classics live? Thanks in advance.


I've been with them pretty much since the beginning.

It's pure and utter sh*t, but there is nothing better if you want to watch live racing or complete coverage of racing. The real kicker is that it was better before they switched to their new interface. 

Nothing like having the ability to watch at 1200 kbps but the image keeps freezing because they're not delivering any faster than 256 or 400 kbps, which gets pretty poor quality-wise at that point.

I think they recently sold the company or something. Their customer service sucks too. I have been waiting weeks to be refunded the money I paid for cross worlds because they couldn't provide it live as promised, and they charged me twice for my annual subscription again this year. They did the same last year and did eventually refund one of my subscription charges.

Really it is incredibly frustrating but there is little alternative.


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## SlowBikeRacer (Nov 7, 2005)

Watched Paris-Nice and Dwars de ... in the last few weeks. I think I had to refresh down to a lower rate once. 
I tried watching Milan-San Remo on Verus but the 33% commercials got to me.
With no commericals, even with a few problems, you will see much more racing.


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## MG537 (Jul 25, 2006)

Ziptie said:


> I know this has come up before, but does anyone have experience with Cycling.tv? I've read dodgy reviews in the past, but has the service gotten any better?
> Or is there a better way to watch the spring classics live? Thanks in advance.


If I can give you only one piece of advice it's this.

Once you get it working, for both live and on demand races don't ever update other players such as Quicktime on your computer. And if for whatever reason you have to, don't ever set these players as default. 
I got most of my system errors once I accepted to set Quicktime as my default player after upgrading my iTunes.

I believe cycling.tv works with Windows Media Player (has to be your default) and DirectX 9 or greater.

I hope this helps in your decision making.

As others have said, it's great non-stop cycling action. The French and Belgian broadcasters are absolute masters of their technique. The Italians and Spanish still have a long way to go. The Americans (Tour of California) are amateurs by comparison.


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## iamnotfilip (Jul 9, 2007)

You can get most of the races via p2p streaming TV. You may have to install a few different players because you never know which one is carrying the stream, but Sopcast, TvAnts and TVU are probably the most common ones (along with WindowsMedia player).

And then to find the links to the broadcasts, just go here on the day of the race:
http://myp2p.eu/competition.php?competitionid=&part=sports&discipline=cycling

The quality ranges from crap to pretty decent, but most of the time I am able to find a decent feed. Best of all, it's all free.


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## Einstruzende (Jun 1, 2004)

My third year is coming up for renewal, and I'm going to finally cancel. The old grey website was superior to this now 1.5 year old version. And the sad thing is that the streaming has gotten worse.

I'm a g*****n lead programmer specializing in web apps and I often get lost in their website. Trying to find the live feeds for P-N was a major PITA. I could never stream anywhere close to what they advertise, and experienced so many freezes that I just gave up.

I swear they have less races in Premium now too. I sure hope I can watch RvV and PR this year. I could probably find them on some torrent site easier than I could watch it via a service I pay for.


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## B2 (Mar 12, 2002)

*I renewed for one more Quarter*



Einstruzende said:


> My third year is coming up for renewal, and I'm going to finally cancel. The old grey website was superior to this now 1.5 year old version. And the sad thing is that the streaming has gotten worse.


I've had similar experiences as well. My subscription ran out the day of Milan-SanRemo which I wanted to watch. At $100 for the year now, I was planning on just letting it lapse. However, after looking at the North America Gold package and dates for all of the races it includes, I'm only missing out on the Veulta and perhaps the last day of Tour De Suisse if I purchased one Quarter for $45 so I went ahead and did it. 

Generally I've had no issues with getting my setup (media player) to interface with their system. I'm using Firefox too which can at times creates issues with diehard IE programmers. What I have had problems with is their server being down or more typically only being capable of streaming at 400kbs or 800kbs when my connection is generally capable of anywhere from 6mbs to 20mbs. I have never been able to stream 1200kbs from cycling tv. The original interface was MUCH MORE intuative and generally better than than the new webpage. Although they have reduced the number of independent windows that are simultaneously open (with the new interface) it is still a very obnoxious interface just the same.

One recommendation I would make is to cancel your subscription (via Paypal) immediately after subscribing. Since it's a subscription, it will automatically renew at the end of the term if you don't. Having an automatically renewing "subscription" as the only means to get their service seems a little sneaky and even deceitful in my opinion.


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## Guest (Mar 29, 2008)

Like already stated, its gets worse as the days go by. I have a claim in right now to get a refund on my last payment to them, they have yet to ever deliver on what I pay for.


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## DRLski (Apr 26, 2003)

it stinks with their new interface, I used to love watching it, and I as well am waiting on a refund, going on 3 months now with multiple emails out.


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## Dwayne Barry (Feb 16, 2003)

DRLski said:


> it stinks with their new interface, I used to love watching it, and I as well am waiting on a refund, going on 3 months now with multiple emails out.


Sounds like we are all about to get a proper screwing. I had nearly forgotten about my cross world's refund. I did get an apologetic email saying they would refund my money for the UCI channel subscription but I've yet to receive it and that was nearly two months ago. I've yet to hear anything back in response to multipe emails about double charging me again for this year's Premium subscription and that was nearly a month ago.


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## TurboTurtle (Feb 4, 2004)

Ziptie said:


> I know this has come up before, but does anyone have experience with Cycling.tv? I've read dodgy reviews in the past, but has the service gotten any better?
> Or is there a better way to watch the spring classics live? Thanks in advance.


I never try for Live (pure frustration), but find the delayed/As Live to be excellent. A lot depends upon the feed they get (i.e. ToCalifornia was terrible), but with a good feed it's great to watch that evening or the next morning.

Also, for the reply about the differing commentators: They are always the same ones, so I don't understand.

TF


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## Ziptie (Sep 3, 2003)

Thanks for the advice. Sounds like it may be more trouble than it's worth. Perhaps I'll try elsewhere.


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## Dwayne Barry (Feb 16, 2003)

TurboTurtle said:


> Also, for the reply about the differing commentators: They are always the same ones, so I don't understand.
> 
> TF


I was trying to make sense of that as well, I thought maybe he meant the cameramen shooting the race rather than the commentators. I like those guys over Phil and Paul or Bob Roll. I didn't have anything to watch this morning when I was on the trainer so I watched the Vs. coverage of MSR, Phil has lost it.


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## alpscycling (Sep 26, 2009)

Total rip off, lousy customer service...Same problems here


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## Sylint (Jul 27, 2009)

nice bump.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

Ziptie said:


> I know this has come up before, but does anyone have experience with Cycling.tv? I've read dodgy reviews in the past, but has the service gotten any better?
> Or is there a better way to watch the spring classics live? Thanks in advance.


If you subscribe you will be in for the most frustrating experience of your life. Bar none. Nothing compares to their level of abysmal "service". Nothing. Then they double dip and nip you for payment twice. Then you have the fun of trying for a refund. Between all this they don't deliver what they promise or you think you were buying. Then their player doesn't work. Plus their site is the most user-unfriendly thing that they could devise. They tried really hard to make it un-navigable. In between all this (with the swearing & cussing) you will get a few minutes of awesomely good viewing. But, trust me, it AIN'T worth it. Run awaaaaaaaay!

Try UniversalSports.com - it's awesome.


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## Gary Squibbs (Jul 21, 2006)

*cycling tv*

a waste of money, if you wanna watch cartoons, crap, occasional cycling stuff, mostly football and other pro sports, then plunk down your hard earned dollars. Cycling tv is a zero in my book.


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## Dwayne Barry (Feb 16, 2003)

Gary Squibbs said:


> a waste of money, if you wanna watch cartoons, crap, occasional cycling stuff, mostly football and other pro sports, then plunk down your hard earned dollars. Cycling tv is a zero in my book.


I didn't even realize they were still in business. You can find live free coverage of most races via cyclingfans.com.


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## millennium (Apr 3, 2002)

Dwayne Barry said:


> I didn't even realize they were still in business. You can find live free coverage of most races via cyclingfans.com.


+1 for using cyclingfans.com to find live, free coverage online (albeit not usually in English) of most major european races, even the classics.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

millennium said:


> +1 for using cyclingfans.com to find live, free coverage online (albeit not usually in English) of most major european races, even the classics.


And the top cyclocross races too.


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## wibly wobly (Apr 23, 2009)

cyclingfans is a godsend to me. I can't see anything on TV here, so it's pretty much the only way I can see this sport.


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## Gary Squibbs (Jul 21, 2006)

*Thanks!*

I've checked it out... it is good.


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## Gary Squibbs (Jul 21, 2006)

*Thanks to all, finally!*

Cycling TV still exists because of idiots like me who plunk down money because of their claims... 

Thanks for the new sites, I've found my muse!

Ride more, everyday... we're good at it.


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