Live streaming on ctvolympics.ca

[HeaTransfer]

Just a note for everyone. I was checking out the the live streaming on the ctvolympics.ca site and it's excellent. The women's biathlon presentation (no commentary, no commercials) is terrific.

PQ is very good too. With a good Shaw connection, the top-quality stream looks wonderful, full-size on my 19" monitor (looks like the software will automatically adjust quality depending on your connection).

I think this would be a very good way to follow all of a sport that might not warrant full-time continuous broadcasting from ctv/tsn/rsn (stuff like cross-country skiing or biathlon).

[googler]

I am also very impressed by the online streaming, no issues thus far. It adjusts quality based on connection speed, so no buffering or anything like that, and in full screen with a good connection, it looks to be nearly as good as HD. Silverlight seems to be doing a good job for this type of stuff.

[HeaTransfer]

some more cool things:

The streams have a "key events" button... the Canadians end up being highlighted so you can quickly jump to them. I suppose for stuff like hockey, goals would be "key evented".

It looks like the entire stream is buffered and available for at least the duration of the event. I missed Jenn Heil's run on freestyle skiing but jumped back on the webstream. Cool!

Maybe this will be useful for everyone at work come Monday

[CHrisCHu]

Just tried it. Good PQ (with my connection video quality bar stays at top). Loved the "Key Events" bookmarks. Search is instant! Great job CTV!

[dalmond]

The streaming is a great replacement for the sub-par TV coverage. I enjoy being able to stay on one feed and watch whole events.

PQ is very good, even in full screen. MacBook stays fairly cool even though it shows 3/4 processor usage.

[markf]

I'm purely OTA, so I have to say I'm very impressed with the video quality through my HTPC of the streaming video.

With such great quality available on a 5 mbps line, what are the chances some of these stations become a la carte online with a small fee paid to TSN for just TSN for example? Are their rules against this?

Not sure if this belongs in this forum, but I did want to mention how great the streaming is.

[CHrisCHu]

Since my last post I've used the live streaming more and I want to add that with my connection I get "HD" on the video quality indicator most of the time. I don't know how well Silverlight works with other browser, but with Chrome it's a CPU-hog at HD-quality and doesn't use hardware acceleration. While my desktop has more than enough power for the job, my 3.5-yr old dual-core laptop is not fast enough and has to fall back 1 notch from HD quality (automatically).

Originally Posted by markf

With such great quality available on a 5 mbps line, what are the chances some of these stations become a la carte online with a small fee paid to TSN for just TSN for example? Are their rules against this?

While comparing to other internet live streaming, CTVOlympics.ca is top. Unfortunately, it's still not TV broadcast PQ level. For me, it'll at least have to run full frame rate (60fps, interlaced or not).

[HeaTransfer]

What version of Chrome are you using? Silverlight barfs on Chrome 4.0.249.89 (I used IE 6 to stream!)

Also regarding PQ, do you know what format the HD stream is actually run at? I do suspect that it's at broadcast HD resolution -- I'm just mentally comparing to YouTube HD which claims 720/1080p and it appears comparable.

[okcomputer]

I've been using this site extensively.

We usually have one event on the HDTV (Eastlink digital cable), and another playing from the site on my MacBook Pro, sitting on a little stool where both my wife and I can see it.

One time we even had her laptop going as well because there were so many things going on at once. Haha.

I'm extremely impressed with the quality. I've used Safari, Firefox, and Chrome, and it's worked great in all browsers.

Only downside is that it takes a little bit to load, and it will freeze the browser for a second. Otherwise, great picture quality!

[CHrisCHu]

Originally Posted by HeaTransfer

What version of Chrome are you using? Silverlight barfs on Chrome 4.0.249.89 (I used IE 6 to stream!)

Also regarding PQ, do you know what format the HD stream is actually run at? I do suspect that it's at broadcast HD resolution -- I'm just mentally comparing to YouTube HD which claims 720/1080p and it appears comparable.

I use the same Chrome version. It works great. It just doesn't use hardware acceleration and that taxes my 3.5yr-old laptop with integrated video card too much at full screen "HD". My laptop doesn't play 8mbps+ 1080i mpeg4 HD smoothly without hardware acceleration anyways. My desktop on the other hand has no problem keeping up with the CTVOlympics.ca streaming at "HD". It just takes up more CPU resource than I would like. I won't notice it if I don't look at the CPU graph. And it's only CPU-hog when quality becomes "HD". At "4-bar" PQ it doesn't take up that much CPU time even on my laptop.

Format could be proprietary MS since it runs under Silverlight. It's got to be mpeg4 but not broadcast resolution (TV broadcast was still far better). It's more comparable to youtube user CTVOlympics 720p clips and noticeable lower quality than the 1080p ones.

[99semaj]

Silverlight = fail as far as I am concerned. I declined to use it and wrote a comment to CTV for using closed technology when they are standards available that work just as well or better.

[BGY11]

..and that is why Adobe currently has a near-monopoly on Internet streaming video (Flash) - since people freak out when other formats are used. I am honestly sick of Adobe myself, and wish there was another Flash-compatible alternative (and yes, I realize Silverlight doesn't fill this need).

I honestly can't wait until HTML 5 becomes mainstream, then we won't have to worry about Flash / Silverlight for these purposes.

Actually, I should ask - does Flash allow for jumping in at any time and viewing an entire streaming event from the beginning?