# Frustrated with Universal Sports



## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

I'm frustrated and confused by Universal Sports. No video seemed to be working anywhere. I've watched Silverlite stuff on USports before without problems but nothing would come up today. They also don't do any kind of notification of technical problems. Something that says that they are currently experiencing network difficulty with video would be helpful.

I'm also confused a bit by what's being offered, when, on what media, for what price. Previously their live stuff has been free, but today the 'Live Now!' tab on the left was dead. Like it didn't even go to something saying that if I wanted to watch I had to pay (which would be fine). Other screens seem to imply that I can watch individual stages for $0.99 or get a package for $14.99. They're very unclear about what is and is not in the package. The package screen lists an odd selection of stages so not sure if these stages are in the package but stages not listed will be free? Another page implies that paying for the package will also allow watching the evening broadcast online and will allow on-demand of any of the live or evening stuff. Not very clear though.

I'd gladly pay $14.95 for the Giro package if I knew what was included and had confidence that they have their act together technically so that I'd be sure of being able to watch stuff. 

Universal Sports: Please get your act together !!


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## pulser955 (Apr 18, 2009)

I'm kind of wondering the same thing. It was really nice to watch the stages last year for free. I don't mind paying. But its not clear what I'm paying for.


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

InfiniteLoop said:


> I'd gladly pay $14.95 for the Giro package if I knew what was included and had confidence that they have their act together technically so that I'd be sure of being able to watch stuff.
> 
> Universal Sports: Please get your act together !!


On-demand as well as live, IIRC. Watching now. <$1 per stage is cheap.


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## gormleyflyer2002 (Sep 12, 2005)

be nice to watch without the 8 zillion spoliers.......!!! stupid


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## bruce_wayne (Apr 30, 2010)

See yah, GoGo!


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## 4cmd3 (Jul 14, 2007)

I love how they talk through where the commercials would normally be. 
Was just waiting for one of the commentators to say something inappropriate "off-air"

The video quality wasn't the best.


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## moabbiker (Sep 11, 2002)

I'm not going to buy it simply because there's seeminly no way for me to access the replay without having the stage winner revealed to me. Ridiculous.


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## Wborgers (Oct 6, 2008)

Thrashed for about 20 minutes looking ofr a free link- none to be found- paid the $15 and had a great couple hours of viewing- free lunch appears over- will miss the Flemish commentators from the Classics but English is easier to understand


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## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

Wborgers, what all do you get with the $15? Evening broadcast online? On-Demand of live and/or evening broadcast? Commentary decent? Video/audio quality excellent/good/bad/etc? Silverlite's working OK? No technical glitches? Does the coverage start from the race start? 2 hrs from finish? 10a edt regardless of race start/finish?

Where do you click to buy it? On the main cycling page and on the USports home page there doesn't appear to be anywhere to go to even buy the thing from them.


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## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

OK, went to steephills and clicked on their link for USports $15 behind the wall link and found the purchase page. Soon after realized that along with all of the sports across the top of the page there's a tab for 'premium'. They don't exactly make it easy to buy it. You'd think that at least when you click on the 'Watch Live!" link it'd give you a purchase option (rather than nothing in my browser) and that they'd have a big bright button on the cycling page to click if you want to buy the Giro and watch it.


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

InfiniteLoop said:


> Wborgers, what all do you get with the $15? Evening broadcast online? On-Demand of live and/or evening broadcast? Commentary decent? Video/audio quality excellent/good/bad/etc? Silverlite's working OK? No technical glitches? Does the coverage start from the race start? 2 hrs from finish? 10a edt regardless of race start/finish?
> 
> Where do you click to buy it? On the main cycling page and on the USports home page there doesn't appear to be anywhere to go to even buy the thing from them.


Go to:
http://www.universalsports.com/premium/

On-demand of live. Commercial free, stage coverage starts usually around 9AM Central. Wasn't watching yesterdays TT to get a feel for commentary. Good A/V quality, without buffering problems-at least for yesterday.


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## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

Frustration growing !!!!

Purchased the package but all I can seem to watch is a replay of yesterday's TT. Any idea how I get the live coverage?


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

InfiniteLoop said:


> Frustration growing !!!!
> 
> Purchased the package but all I can seem to watch is a replay of yesterday's TT. Any idea how I get the live coverage?


Um...click on the bottom of the screen to select the Stage 2 coverage...

PS-just finished.


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## Wborgers (Oct 6, 2008)

Wow- agree the links are an unmitigated disaster- took me 10 minutes and like 3 log ins to find a link to stage 2- otherwise it was TT replay- amazing that these guys must not use their own website or they would know how incredibly lame it is for their customers- they actually make it hard to give them money- oh well - coverage was good but a really dangerous route- good luck tomorrow- you need to find the stage 3 icon and click it after logging in- good luck


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

Wborgers said:


> Wow- agree the links are an unmitigated disaster- took me 10 minutes and like 3 log ins to find a link to stage 2- otherwise it was TT replay- amazing that these guys must not use their own website or they would know how incredibly lame it is for their customers- they actually make it hard to give them money- oh well - coverage was good but a really dangerous route- good luck tomorrow- you need to find the stage 3 icon and click it after logging in- good luck


Sounds like it's regressing to the depths of Cycling.TV - if that's possible.


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## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

Started to look for the link this morning on Universal Sports that would take me to the live broadcast rather than yesterdays replay but got yanked away. Can someone tell me where it is so I can find it tomorrow.

_Don't think I've ever had so much trouble finding something, am I loosing my mind or is Universal Sports website really this bad?_


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## Wborgers (Oct 6, 2008)

Uhhhh- it is NOT you!! Very lame- but worth the hunt this morning- remember tomorrow is a rest day so no link needed 
Bill


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## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

Wborgers said:


> Uhhhh- it is NOT you!! Very lame- but worth the hunt this morning- remember tomorrow is a rest day so no link needed
> Bill


I hate rest days. During July they really kind of mess up my routine.


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## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

Googling around about bcale I ran across this on watching the giro on universal sports. kinda funny.

http://crustylogic.blogspot.com/


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

InfiniteLoop said:


> Googling around about bcale I ran across this on watching the giro on universal sports. kinda funny.
> http://crustylogic.blogspot.com/


That was as hilarious as it was sad. If we dug around some more we'd probably find that Universal is owned by the saddest, most dysfunctional business organization I've ever had the misfortune (to a power of thousands) to deal with - Cycling.Tv. How any (I'll assume) for-profit organization can make it SO hard to give them money and to navigate their website is beyond the wildest extremes of my imagination.

It will be FAR easier to learn Italian/Dutch/Belgian/Spanish and to watch the great vid sights given to us by Cyclingfans.com or Steephill.tv than to try to get an English commentary vid through Universal. And just think - last year after the GdI I e-mailed them and thanked them profusely for their coverage.


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

Mike T. said:


> That was as hilarious as it was sad. If we dug around some more we'd probably find that Universal is owned by the saddest, most dysfunctional business organization I've ever had the misfortune (to a power of thousands) to deal with - Cycling.Tv. How any (I'll assume) for-profit organization can make it SO hard to give them money and to navigate their website is beyond the wildest extremes of my imagination.
> 
> It will be FAR easier to learn Italian/Dutch/Belgian/Spanish and to watch the great vid sights given to us by Cyclingfans.com or Steephill.tv than to try to get an English commentary vid through Universal. And just think - last year after the GdI I e-mailed them and thanked them profusely for their coverage.


It ain't that hard people. Crikey, Cycling.tv is far worse.


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## thighmaster (Feb 2, 2006)

Not hard, but they practically make you memorize who one the stage before you get to watch it. Even when it was free I had my kids click away until it came up, and if it ever went small screen there was the winner. I hate stupid stuff and Usports and even though stupid, the on demand cycling.tv isn't a spoiler.


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## ewarnerusa (Oct 11, 2007)

InfiniteLoop said:


> Started to look for the link this morning on Universal Sports that would take me to the live broadcast rather than yesterdays replay but got yanked away. Can someone tell me where it is so I can find it tomorrow.
> 
> _Don't think I've ever had so much trouble finding something, am I loosing my mind or is Universal Sports website really this bad?_


When I click here:
http://www.universalsports.com/premium/index.html
it takes me to their "premium" subscription page. At the bottom is a banner with a picture link for each stage. Gotta be signed in first before clicking links. click the link to your desired stage and then the screen above changes and provides a "watch now" button. Click and enjoy.
Best of all, as far as I can tell, NO SPOILERS!! Bookmark http://www.universalsports.com/premium/index.html and only access Universal Sports from that link and maybe you can avoid spoilers.


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## ewarnerusa (Oct 11, 2007)

gormleyflyer2002 said:


> be nice to watch without the 8 zillion spoliers.......!!! stupid





moabbiker said:


> I'm not going to buy it simply because there's seeminly no way for me to access the replay without having the stage winner revealed to me. Ridiculous.


As far as I can tell, the following link should be your Universal Sports bookmark. 
http://www.universalsports.com/premium/index.html


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## Sojourneyman (Jun 22, 2007)

I spent the $15 on the Giro package, video quality is better than most other places I've found, and I do appreciate the English announcing. No problems on my end.


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## 4cmd3 (Jul 14, 2007)

Agree, click this to avoid spoilers:
http://www.universalsports.com/premium/index.html

Then log in.

None of the front-page links work for me (Error: the requested action...)
To get around this...

Click on "Cycling Sport" in the black bar (between Equestrian and Subscriptions)
then choose the stage you want

Alternatively, click on "My Library" then click on "Giro d'Italia" package under Recent products. 
It should show you available stages.


I wish that they put something in the description other than the same generic Giro blurb.
i.e. the description of each stage... but you can always go here for that:
http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/racing/giro-ditalia-2010-preview/5107-6.html


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## thighmaster (Feb 2, 2006)

Thalink is just what the docter ordered. I clicked and watched all 3 stages no problems and good quality. It is somewhat cryptic at the bottom to what stage to click on.


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## mik (Jan 15, 2008)

$15 to watch the Giro or $ O to watch the Giro on one of the links daily at cylingfans.com??? 

Not a tough choice for me


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## thighmaster (Feb 2, 2006)

Can't watch live, so the free is useless.


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## Wedz21 (Mar 25, 2010)

I put my hand up to block my view of the headlines and click on the replays at the side


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## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

I thought delta airlines had one of the worst websites in the world, but uni sports is giving them a run for their money. I'm fine with paying but they sure don't make it very easy to pay or find what you paid for. I also thought their comment today along the lines of "italians are stupid, why are they showing someone's house. give us a castle!" to be extremely unprofessional. Perhaps they could have found out what the building was before showing how big of jerks they can be.


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## rufus (Feb 3, 2004)

Is Universal offering archived coverage of each day's stage, so those of us who have to work and can't watch the live coverage, are able to see the entire stage later in the day?


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

rufus said:


> Is Universal offering archived coverage of each day's stage, so those of us who have to work and can't watch the live coverage, are able to see the entire stage later in the day?


Yep they have on-demand online. Tpday I had to disable my adblocking proxy, as they altered their streaming protocol today.


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## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

Is the DVR'd version the entire stage or the final 1 hr like live?

There's an english eurosport listed on steephill but it breaks up a lot. I've been tuning in to the flemish or hungarian broadcast occasionally until uni sport comes on. Hungarian has best image but I know a bit of flemish so...


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## 4cmd3 (Jul 14, 2007)

What happened today?
I didn't get any running commentary from Gogo and ... the other guy.
did they get the day off?

Just the sounds of helicopters and motorbikes for hours.


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## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

Very strange. I had the commentary except during the 2 minute breaks. They mix the feed in the studio and then stream it to the streamservers so everyone should have the exact same thing.


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## rufus (Feb 3, 2004)

Marc said:


> Yep they have on-demand online. Tpday I had to disable my adblocking proxy, as they altered their streaming protocol today.


I may just have to pony up the $15 then.


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## fontarin (Mar 28, 2009)

4cmd3 said:


> What happened today?
> I didn't get any running commentary from Gogo and ... the other guy.
> did they get the day off?
> 
> Just the sounds of helicopters and motorbikes for hours.



Wife and I got the same thing today when we watched it around 3:00 on replay.


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## Wborgers (Oct 6, 2008)

I can't get the replay to play- just the Levi bracelet ad and then blank-


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## fontarin (Mar 28, 2009)

We watched it a bit later after I posted, and the audio was there then. The footage had also been trimmed by about an hour, so I'm assuming we were watching the unedited version with the race start and everything. Was pretty boring without an announcer, even the not-so-good ones from universal.


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## Wborgers (Oct 6, 2008)

Cannot find today's stage- too early or does Versus have tosay for US?


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## ewarnerusa (Oct 11, 2007)

Wborgers said:


> Cannot find today's stage- too early or does Versus have tosay for US?


they seem start daily at 7:30 mountain time zone.


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## rufus (Feb 3, 2004)

Yep, that site is a serious PITA to navigate.


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## InfiniteLoop (Mar 20, 2010)

I love over on the right side of the page under latest news where it says 

"Cycling: US beats France 4-0 in hockey worlds."

They must be using studded tires...


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