MotoGp.Com 2008 Subscriptions

[fatman]

Who else gets a subscription? I have to because there is no other way for me to get decent coverage of the races where I am. This year I splurged and got the high-res package but i'm dissapointed to discover that you can only watch a race in high-res once.

Also the people running the web site need to get their act together we are already into the first race weekend and they haven't published the weekend schedule yet. I need to see what time the race is on in my time zone !!!

[maxu05]

I will sign up as soon as I can get my new credit card. I will just get the standard package though, as I don't believe my connection will be good enough to handle the high res. So, what you are saying Ryan is that if you watch the race live, you get high res, but if you watch it later, you get standard ? I know what you mean about the scheduling, I was trying to find out what time the sessions started yesterday, but there was no times available. I think it's a bit piss poor at times, and I have complained before about the service. I hope they get their act together soon.

[fatman]

I sent them an email about the schedule before I went to bed and when I woke up this morning the schedule was up. You can all thank me later :-)

@maxu: I believe you can watch the high-res version of the race either live or later but you can only watch it once. You can't watch it multiple times in high-res. At least thats what my understanding is. I'll be able to test it out once the racing starts.

[edlalu]

We subscribe because the US television coverage is the worst. SpeedBLAHtv. What a joke.

I'm waiting for the QP to post so I can watch. We discovered this a few years ago and information and coverage of all out racing was just thrilling. It was as close to enjoying a race weekend without being there.

[fatman]

WTF !! They still haven't posted the race on MotoGP.com ! I was a really grumpy guy last night. I cleared my schedule so I could watch some racing. It's rare that I can catch anything live and thus have to avoid all my regular web sites and news sources on racing until I can see the race.

The next chance I have to watch the race will be today at around noon when my daughter has a nap. If it isn't posted by then I'm going to be un happy.

[maxu05]

You should email them and ask for an explanation mate. I have done it before, and I got some results, just a thought.

[fatman]

Finally they have posted the HighRes version of the race which was excellent to watch. Still waiting for 125 and 250s.

[maxu05]

Bit slow eh, I will pay my subscription this week, so I will be able to watch the next race. I missed the first race, what a bummer.

[MrJan]

Thanks to the coverage in the UK not only can I watch the race live but I can watch it online for a week after the race :up: :D Sorry guys but it's just superb to be able to do that.

[fatman]

some more lame things about motogp.com this year.

The 125 and 250 races have finally been posted but only in medium quality and only with a flash player. The resolution sucks and the I've not been able to watch an entire race as the feed cuts out half way through.

[maxu05]

I have often had similar problems Ryan. I think it sucks when you have paid for the service. If it was free, you could expect some flaws, but not when you are paying for it. I am still trying to find out if it will be telecast here on CCTV, if so, I may just watch it with Chinese comentry, at least the TV doesn't cut out with 4 laps to go.

[MrJan]

Trouble is that the service is probably fantastic but your ISP is probably struggling. Like I said before I watched the Beeb's coverage and I don't think it cut out for the whole 90 minute programme. That said the quality wan't fantastic and watching full screen meant that I had trouble distinguishing the riders (apart from Casey, he was the one in red buggering off into the distance :D )

[fatman]

Trouble is that the service is probably fantastic but your ISP is probably struggling.


There is nothing wrong with my ISP other than the fact that I'm in Canada a long way away from the servers. I have no problem with the high res feed apart from them taking too long to actually post the race. Part of the problem with the 250 and 125 is that they are only streaming the feed using flash player which is great for small files but not as reliable for large full race files. This format also prevents you from jumping ahead any farther than what has already been downloaded.

[MrJan]

There is nothing wrong with my ISP other than the fact that I'm in Canada a long way away from the servers. I have no problem with the high res feed apart from them taking too long to actually post the race. Part of the problem with the 250 and 125 is that they are only streaming the feed using flash player which is great for small files but not as reliable for large full race files. This format also prevents you from jumping ahead any farther than what has already been downloaded.

Damn!! I was trying to sound all technical by using abreviations I've seen other people using but you scuppered my plan by actually knowing about it. Maybe next time, eh?

[fatman]

Damn!! I was trying to sound all technical by using abreviations I've seen other people using but you scuppered my plan by actually knowing about it. Maybe next time, eh?

My fault for programming internet servers for a living i guess. Also my fault for living in a part of the world where serious motorcycle racing is basically impossible and thus no one knows about it.

The race win went to Noriyuki Haga on the Yamaha Italia machine who rode a faultless race, leading from lights to flag. He lost out on the title by just two points. Toseland actually finished in sixth place but it was sufficient to clinch his second World title.

[fatman]

I've sent the following email to motogp.com techincal support team. If any of you have similar feelings I encourage you to send something similar.

---
Re: Beta Site.
My compliments on your efforts to improve the motogp.com web site. The beta looks like it will have lots of great new features.

If I can make one suggestion which would be a very very important feature for all the North American subscribers.

We need a no spoiler video page ! A page we can log into and select a full race video to watch which has NO NEWS about race results.

Living in North America we do not have the luxury of having live TV coverage and most races occur in the middle of the night anyway.

For myself I usually don't get to watch the races until 2 or 3 days after race weekend. It takes a lot of effort to avoid web sites that provide race coverage. With the current MotoGP.com site I have to minimize my browser down to 1 square inch in size. Then slowly scroll down till I can see the login form and then the video button. I then scroll sideways to find the full race link and then can safely select a race to watch without being informed of who won the race. An awkward process but it at least doesn't spoil the race for me.

With the beta site there is news highlights posted all around the video links and it appears impossible to find a link to a full race and not see any results.

Thank you for providing an amazing web site and great video feeds. It really keeps the North American fans in the loop. If you some how provide a link to a no spoiler video page I will name my second child 'motogp.com' in your honor.

My Best Regards,

[NinjaMaster]

Sounds like a pretty fair request to me. At least we're fortunate enough in Aus that we can watch it live at a reasonable hour on pay TV - Foxtel (for those who can afford it).
Good luck with it, hopefully you will see a sensible result soon.

[ChrisS]

For myself I usually don't get to watch the races until 2 or 3 days after race weekend. It takes a lot of effort to avoid web sites that provide race coverage. With the current MotoGP.com site I have to minimize my browser down to 1 square inch in size. Then slowly scroll down till I can see the login form and then the video button. I then scroll sideways to find the full race link and then can safely select a race to watch without being informed of who won the race. An awkward process but it at least doesn't spoil the race for me.

:eek: I don't subscribe to motogp.com so I don't know but cant you just bookmark http://www.motogp.com/en/motogp/motogp_videos.htm?menu=videos and go directly there avoiding the main site and all the spoilers?

I often said it that I find their website too heavy and not user friendly, I use firefox and adblock plus that blocks the ads but still, there little things flashing all over the pages, and there's not even a search button. maybe they should start by adding that to their new site.

[fatman]

:eek: I don't subscribe to motogp.com so I don't know but cant you just bookmark http://www.motogp.com/en/motogp/motogp_videos.htm?menu=videos and go directly there avoiding the main site and all the spoilers?

I often said it that I find their website too heavy and not user friendly, I use firefox and adblock plus that blocks the ads but still, there little things flashing all over the pages, and there's not even a search button. maybe they should start by adding that to their new site.

Going directly to the video page always shows the race winning interviews right up front. So it's a certain spoiler if you see the three podium finishers with their 'after the race' interviews.

Also with the new site (beta.motogp.com) when you click on a video they have news highlights on the left and right side of the video. Another sure spoiler.

I'm probably the only subscriber from Canada so who knows if they will listen to me or not. The face that I pay nearly 100 EUR for their full High-Res service should at least get me a response I would hope.

[ChrisS]

How is the HD servise? Is the video good enough to view on a big screen via an HDMI cable?

[leopard]

Hoping you can sort out the problem. Currently I don't have dependency on it. :)

[fatman]

How is the HD servise? Is the video good enough to view on a big screen via an HDMI cable?

I'll let you know when my new Sony Bravia XB TV arrives in another couple of months. It currently looks great on my 19 LCD. A very big improvement over the regular feed. And it runs smoothly as well.

[MrJan]

Out of interest how much better are HDMI cables from HD componant cables? Just that I have a fairly cheap LG HDTV linked to my xBox using the componant jobs that came with the console and was wondering if it's worth the money to get a HDMI jobby.

[ChrisS]

I also have my Xbox 360 conected with component cables, its one of the older consoles before they added the HDMI port. My new VAIO is the only thing I have with HDMI ports

From the little I know, component cables are analog, HDMI is digital, and I think you cant get 1080p from component cables

[fatman]

One thing I've noticed about the beta.motogp.com site is that it's using clean URLs. The full race videos don't appear to be working at the moment but the following URL might provide a spoiler free access to the races.

http://beta.motogp.com/en/videos/2008/Full+session+HIGH+RES+quality+race+MotoGP

[ChrisS]

the new website went live, Its terrible IMHO, I cant find anything.

[maxu05]

The new website looks a bit generic IMO. The old one was a bit cluttered, but it looked more professional.

[ChrisS]

Its not just the look, its also the content, most of the old content is gone

you cant find news in a logical manner or view an old news archive,

you cant sort photos, for example how to I find 125cc action shots from Qatar? and photos are low rez

World Championship standings are just a list with riders names and points a breakdown of how many points at each event and manufacturer/team standings are not available in the main site. for points breakdown and manufacturer/team standings you have to open the pdf. All session times are available but all the other info they used to have like lap analysis, fastest laps, etc are no longer available. Results only go back until 2005, when they went back until 1998 in the old site

Riders & Teams and Calendar & Circuits just sort news and videos by Rider, team, event or Circuit and don't provide any real information. Riders have a little profile but the career stats for each active rider, and the statistics page that you could find any race, rider or result for all classes from 1949 until today are gone

I cant comment on videos as I dont subscribe

The only reason I can think of for going from the old website to this one is to save money

[maxu05]

I am so glad that I didn't subscribe this year, as I found a way to see the same live footage and commentry as Motogp.com for free. It is not high res, but, it's the same quality I had last year when I did subscribe. I wish I had found this sooner.

[ChrisS]

can you post or pm me the way please :)

[fatman]

It's terrible.

Not only do the full race videos not work at all. It's nearly impossible to view the video without seeing who won the race.

Not happy.

[fatman]

Another crappy thing about the web site. When you're looking at the videos you have to hover over every little thumbnail for a few seconds to find out what teh video is actually of. They have all the labels and titles of things stuck in the tooltip. Might make for a funky design but the usability is horrible.

[ChrisS]

Thanks John :wave:

[maxu05]

That sucks Ryan, and I know how you feel mate. I had subscribed for 3 years, and had nothing but trouble with the live feed. I sent them complaints via email, but it appears they don't give a rats. Perhaps next year you can try my method. No spoilers, live telecast, and exactly the same as you get on motogp.com, (though it is not high res) and it's FREE :D

[fatman]

Sadly it looks like there are no full results being posted on MotoGP.com. It took me 4 clicks and lots of page scanning just to find the times from FP1. The times from FP2 are not even posted.

Even when you look at previous races this year, most of the normal results data is missing. There are links but it's all blank.

[maxu05]

Sounds like the site format change is due to budget cuts.

[ChrisS]

The data is still there in pdf format. They just don't put them in html. I have to agree the new pages seems like a budget cut to me

[maxu05]

Perhaps the official site is helping Rossi out with his tax payments :D

[patnicholls]

After giving the results section of the new MotoGP.com site a look for the first time this weekend, as well as the photos bit (which used to be lovely hi-res wallpapers), I can confirm: it is dire.

Obviously, within a few years TV and the internet will be the same thing (as anyone who's seen BBC iPlayer or Channel 4 On Demand in the UK will be aware, it's already happening), but for now I'm rather glad we have the Eurosport TV coverage over here.