ShortAndFast Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 The Fan Network has been an epic fail this season, as many have discovered. There are two major problems for me: 1. Upload speed 2. Low and inconsistent Quality 1. Upload Speed It should not take that long to record the show, edit the video file, then convert it into .flv for uploading. If someone was paying me to do it, I could have it done very quickly. 2. Quality After the wait, we get, what I believe to be a fairly crappy product compared to other video streams available online on other websites. I did my homework to determine the quality of a video streamed by dci. The first is Crown from Beverly, MA. Video - 512 kbps; 480x270; 51.8 mb Audio - 48 kbps; 4.75 mb The audio bitrate is god-awful. Any audio nerd would cry because 48 kbps is VERY LOW. Anything lower than 192 kbps in my book is too low, but 48 is terrible. Just wait, it gets better. I then looked at the Blue Devils video from Stanford, CA: Video - 1500 kbps; 720x404; 134 mb Audio - 16 kbps; 1.43 mb 16 kbps is atrocious, especially when paired with 1500 kbps video. I'm disappointed and I'm sure I'm not alone. I just thought I'd share these details with the less tech savvy so you too could loathe the product we've been given this year. I would suggest that you send this feedback to the Fan Network staff, with the feedback option. I sent them a polite message inquiring about the slow upload times and got a prompt response acknowledging the problem and saying that it was the result of technical problems on their end. You've obviously done your homework, and (a) they may tell you what's up, and (b) you'll let them know that paying customers care about this stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BostonRocks Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 I agree. I will of course get purchase it because it is much better than nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BostonRocks Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 dci.org was down for a bit. You can get into dci.org now but not the fan network. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nero14 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 i have "a friend" who watched an HD video of crown's full show on "some streaming video site"- and it was about 10 times better than anything the fan network has ever put out... ever... or so he tells me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmathis Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 i have "a friend" who watched an HD video of crown's full show on "some streaming video site"- and it was about 10 times better than anything the fan network has ever put out... ever... or so he tells me I watched that same video. The picture quality might be better, but the audio most definitely isn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShouldveMarchedAgeOut Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 (edited) i have "a friend" who watched an HD video of crown's full show on "some streaming video site"- and it was about 10 times better than anything the fan network has ever put out... ever... or so he tells me ummmm definitely...come on FN this is ridiculous Edited July 10, 2009 by ShouldveMarchedAgeOut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybersnyder Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 This is my first year of the Fan Network so I don't have anything with which to compare it. So far I'm loving it because of the archived performances. Yeah, the On Demand performances from this year aren't that great, some white balance would be much appreciated, but for $59 I'm happy. That said, I probably shot better video with my iPhone than some of the videos that I'm seeing. I know, no recording of performances allowed, but I shot a few clips just to test the camera. Surprisingly the sound and video from the little phone was great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayM Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 The quality drops shouldn't be due to the economy... The choice made in the makeup of the stream are what is making the quality go down. I assume they didn't run out and buy new cameras for this... This is just conjecture, but maybe the reduction in audio quality does have something to do with the economy. Lesser quality means the video file sizes are smaller and that the Fan Network goes through less bandwidth over the summer as a result. In any case, anything less than 128kbps is quite ridiculous. I can maybe see 96, but 48 and 16 just blow my mind. It's like they want us to get our corps fix from YouTube or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasCorpsFan Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 ....it's sad when a person could have driven across the U.S. and have seen the show live, faster than it's taking FN to upload videos. What exactly is so "PLUS" about this silly package I bought? Hmm....I'd almost rather FN refund, and DCI/corps just let YouTube members upload virals. Half the time those are better quality audio (sadly, not video b/c jittery audience member= poor video) but if people knew they weren't going to be body slammed by some bando parent thinking he's god's gift to security we'd have fast & quality viral videos??!! Maybe I should write Hoppy and have him purpose a rule for viral videos next year ;o) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutDutOut Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 My first DCI purchase was the finals recording of the 94 champs. It was a set of four cassette tapes and it was $70 dollars. Quitcher#####en'! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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