I couldn’t resist it. I’ve signed up for another year of MLB.TV Premium from the MLB.com website. I was quite impressed with the live streaming last year and it was only the cost ($120 for the season) that put me off automatically re-signing.
I’m happy to report I am even more impressed with the quality this year. MLB.TV Premium now offers the ability to watch streaming at 400 Kbps, 800 Kbps and 1.2 Mbps. Unless watching in Full Screen mode, I didn’t notice too much difference between the three versions, except the 1.2 Mbps stream sometimes stalled. The Full Screen option is nice, although not actually full screen. It is more like “large screen with black background”.
To get the advantage of the faster bit-rate options, you need in install two applications on the Mac: MLB NexDef, which MLB.com says “boosts the performance of your internet connection to provide improved video quality and faster streaming” and Microsoft Silverlight for “better video handling; dynamic resizing and integrated game information”.
You also have the option to install MLB.TV Mosaic, which allows you to watch up to six games simultaneously as well as track your favorite players and watch their at-bats. For MLB.TV Mosaic to work, there is a beta version of Flip4Mac which also needs to be installed. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, all I could get from MLB.TV Mosaic was a screen saying “loading…”. I had problems with MLB.TV Mosaic last year too, so I’m not surprised to be having issues with this latest version, particularly as it only became available for download yesterday.
You can check out MLB.TV Premium and the other MLB.com packages by clicking here.
Tom M // 01/04/2008 at 7:05 pm
I too re-subscribed and I have to say that, while I like the new full screen ( not entirely full) feature, I still have problems with stalling video. I need to refresh every 20 minutes or less. I have Silverlight and Nex Def installed and I run a Mac with fios cable at 3153 kbps. I know I have enough juice, is it me? Is there something I’m missing or is this constant stalling MLB’s feed?
Any light you can shed would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.
Mike // 01/04/2008 at 11:52 pm
I have around 6.5 Mbps and, like I mentioned on the post, I still stall with the 1.2 Mbps stream.
The issue could be the number of things, including:
- your machine running other apps at the same time (e.g. Skype/Adium/iTunes downloading)
- other users in general using the service (MLB.com may be be coping too well with demand),
- other technical issues (I spoke to MLB.com last night and Mosaic was having software/technical issues last night)
- local broadband usage in your location (normally, your ISP shares bandwidth across local users so lots of people using its broadband will slow down your broadband speed)
Greg // 09/04/2008 at 6:41 am
I too am having problem pausing the game on MLB. com premium using a MAC. Any solutions?
Mike // 09/04/2008 at 3:30 pm
You cannot pause a live game. You should be able to pause an on-damand (replay) game though.
Things seem to be getting better for me - I am not experiencing stalling in the 1.2 Mbps stream anymore and MLB.TV Mosaic is now working fine.