BRASSO Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 ...so, anyone know the skinny on what's up with Fan Network? Latest vid is Atlanta...shouldn't some of Allentown be up? After this season DCI should change the name from " Videos on Demand " to " Videos when we're Good and Ready ". Stil in all, Fan Network is a nice innovative step that DCI has taken for the fans, imo. Its got glitches to be worked out here and there, but on the whole, its a good deal at a fair price, imo. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDUB Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 This is the first year I purchased FN and I am happy I did. However, the value of the service is only as good as its fresh content. I really don't care what happened in Atlanta now that the corps marched in Allentown. And I won't care about what happened in Allentown after Indy. Not trying to knock those that are behind this service (working hard, I'm sure), but in the age of wifi and iPhones, a day late might as well be a month late. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeutralNovice Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 The price was $65 all summer - and just got lowered to $40. I do not consider $65 close to $100. Just saying. I believe he is talking about the DVD/Blu-Ray levels because those are for sure well over $100. Also, prelims or semis performances won't be available by VOD to the lowest subscribers, if I am not mistaken. We shall see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 (edited) Good lord, people. You realize the people at DCI who deal with these videos also have other tasks to take care of, like *preparing for finals*? For what you paid, you are getting a stellar bargain. To my memory, DCI reps have posted hints on here that the live streaming is by far the most used part of the service, and so I expect that's the part they put the most work into. We got a *lot* more live streams this year than in the past and I expect they are working to grow the number of streams they can provide in future years. Also! They don't just chop up and post the raw footage from the feeds as a poster here suggested he could do superfast. They do some additional work to improve the quality as well. Keep up the great work, DCI! Edited August 6, 2012 by skywhopper 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PioneerWebmaster Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 I thoroughly appreciate the work that the Fan Network team does with the limited resources. Being a tech guy, I'd love to be a fly on the wall and see all that they go through to bring us the shows live and VOD. Simple fact is that it takes a ton of time to render 8 hours of video into multiple formats. I've seen it take almost a whole night to render a 1 hour video on a PC that was built for video editing. Not to mention, the rendering process often times isn't flawless... There's nothing like watching a video back that took hours to render, only to find out that there's a glitch, skips, freezes or that the audio inexplicably doesn't line up with the video. I've seen all of the above happen. On top of that, it takes many hours (if not days depending on the Internet infrastructure where they're at) to upload gigabytes of video to the Fan Network interface. This might be the age of Wi-Fi and iPhones, but you're not uploading gigabytes of video using either of those. It takes a serious high speed connection to upload that much data, and you're generally not going to find those connections at a truck stop, McDonalds or Holiday Inn... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peel Paint Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 (edited) Also, prelims or semis performances won't be available by VOD to the lowest subscribers, if I am not mistaken. That was the case previously in some other years, but this year at least, semifinals are available in VOD next week through May 2013 for all tiers of Fan Network subscribers, including the $40 subscription tier that was added today. Scroll all the way to the bottom of this page and see the table: http://dci.thefannetwork.org/store/service/display Edited August 6, 2012 by Peel Paint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peel Paint Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 I thoroughly appreciate the work that the Fan Network team does with the limited resources. Being a tech guy, I'd love to be a fly on the wall and see all that they go through to bring us the shows live and VOD. Simple fact is that it takes a ton of time to render 8 hours of video into multiple formats. I've seen it take almost a whole night to render a 1 hour video on a PC that was built for video editing. Not to mention, the rendering process often times isn't flawless... There's nothing like watching a video back that took hours to render, only to find out that there's a glitch, skips, freezes or that the audio inexplicably doesn't line up with the video. I've seen all of the above happen. On top of that, it takes many hours (if not days depending on the Internet infrastructure where they're at) to upload gigabytes of video to the Fan Network interface. This might be the age of Wi-Fi and iPhones, but you're not uploading gigabytes of video using either of those. It takes a serious high speed connection to upload that much data, and you're generally not going to find those connections at a truck stop, McDonalds or Holiday Inn... Yes. And drumcat did e-mail a DCP member last week and said they were having these kinds of technical glitches with the Atlanta VODs, which is why they only came up today instead of last week. Fan Network consists of a small group of staff people servicing a relatively small number of subscribers. Lots of DCP people subscribe, but we're pretty hard core. The last figure I saw for Fan Network subscriptions maybe or two or three years ago on DCP was just over 1000 subscribers. So they don't have the budget to add on extra staffers at this time of year just to get this stuff pumped out ASAP. It's possible Allentown VODs would be ready sometime this week, but I agree with Skywhopper that it is more likely that they are focusing all their attention right now on getting set up in Michigan City and Indy for the much more important Live broadcasts this week. I'd predict Allentown will not appear until next week, and if rendering Allentown, Michigan City, or Indy proves glitchy, they may hold Allentown until after semifinals are rendered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCfan76 Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 I wouldn't mind so much except that Allentown wasn't live. VOD is all we get. Basically, if it doesn't come out tomorrow then a lot of us are going to miss it - because this is finals week. This is a busy time for the fans (consumers) too... and if you can't follow through with the product, then don't offer it for sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjaydub Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 DCI Arkansas is supposed to be VOD as well... that's been week ago. I realize the "popular" bands were rained out, but 5 others performed. Where are those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soccerguy315 Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 This is the first year I purchased FN and I am happy I did. However, the value of the service is only as good as its fresh content. I really don't care what happened in Atlanta now that the corps marched in Allentown. And I won't care about what happened in Allentown after Indy. Not trying to knock those that are behind this service (working hard, I'm sure), but in the age of wifi and iPhones, a day late might as well be a month late. And you will never watch anything from 2011 or before... amiright? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.