free eurosport ?

[ventoux50]

Hi folks,

being a tight northern git and preferring to spend my hard earned on cycling kit, I wondered if there is any way of recieving eurosport (for the cycling coverage) without having to subscribe to Sky tv. ??

Do the old analogue sky dishes still pick it up, or is it free to view some other way ?

Any suggestions (which don't involve spending lots of money ) please ?

 

[frank9755]

I'm watching it now on eurosport player. #4 for a month.

 

[marinyork]

Eurosport Germany 19.2 degrees, 11258.50V

Might want to double check that though on something like kingofsat.

 

[John the Monkey]

I'm watching it now on eurosport player. #4 for a month.

I do that too - works nicely, and the HD feed is pretty good, ime.

 

[ColinJ]

Do the old analogue sky dishes still pick it up, or is it free to view some other way ?

Yes - it's how I get it. Added bonus - this season, they have finally gone widescreen!

I've no idea how much longer the broadcasts will continue, but all the main German TV stations are still broadcasting on the same analogue satellite so I'm hoping it will be for some time yet.

They show the International coverage, so the other week I got the Tour of Turkey rather than the Tour of Romandy featured on British Eurosport.

The only real drawback is that the picture quality is affected by severe weather like heavy rain.

You can pick the analogue systems up dirt cheap if you ask around. I paid £30 for mine when digital first came in and the analogue systems became obsolete.

If you are cheeky enough, you could knock on the door of every house that still has an analogue dish on the wall and offer to take it down for the householder if they are no longer using it and still have the box. Eventually you'd find someone who didn't want theirs any more. Offer them a bottle of wine in exchange?

 

[ColinJ]

Yikes - I've just heard that the analogue satellite signals are being turned off in April 2012!

We have just gone digital here and the cheapskate commercial broadcasters are only giving us 'Freeview Light' so I don't get ITV4 and their cycling coverage.

I'm really going to miss Eurosport International and I do not intend to pay for for SKY to get British Eurosport so I think that will only leave Eurosport Player ... So, Frank and John - do you both still recommend it? What is the picture quality like? Can you get the International service as well as British Eurosport? (Sometimes they don't show the same coverage.) Is the service reliable? I remember people complaining about it a couple of years ago.

 

[XmisterIS]

I like eurosex! Happy time! Pepsi max!

 

[Svendo]

Yikes - I've just heard that the analogue satellite signals are being turned off in April 2012!

Oh No! I'm going to have to tell my aged mother, she will be desolated!

 

[the_mikey]

Eurosport Germany 19.2 degrees, 11258.50V

Might want to double check that though on something like kingofsat.

It's still there, although it seems Europsort Deutschland will prioritise anything other than cycling given the choice.

I use Eurosport player, choice of British Eurosport, Eurosport2 and Eurosport (HD?), + feeds of other sports, although I wish they'd include commentary options, it's either British commentary or no commentary.

 

[HLaB]

We have just gone digital here and the cheapskate commercial broadcasters are only giving us 'Freeview Light' so I don't get ITV4 and their cycling coverage.

That's a bummer but you can also get ITV4 live online or through their player, for eurosport I use steephill but it a bit hit and miss

 

[fossyant]

You can watch it... as above and stuff

 

[ColinJ]

I use Eurosport player, choice of British Eurosport, Eurosport2 and Eurosport (HD?), + feeds of other sports, although I wish they'd include commentary options, it's either British commentary or no commentary.

What is the picture quality like? I'd prefer to watch full-screen but not if everything looks fuzzy or blocky. I have a 6-7 Mb connection so I should have plenty of bandwidth for it.

Can you watch cycling coverage on-demand, or do you have to watch it when they schedule it? I'd prefer to watch it when I choose to, so if they don't offer on-demand, I'd try to find a way to record it for later.

 

[the_mikey]

We have just gone digital here and the cheapskate commercial broadcasters are only giving us 'Freeview Light' so I don't get ITV4 and their cycling coverage.

ITV4 is avaliable online or free to air via Astra satellite at 28.2E, you can use a freesat box to pick this up. Also I've heard there is likely to be a new pay tv operator working via satellite, yet to see how they intend to sell services, maybe Eurosport might be an affordable option via this route too.

What is the picture quality like? I'd prefer to watch full-screen but not if everything looks fuzzy or blocky. I have a 6-7 Mb connection so I should have plenty of bandwidth for it.

Ref: Eurosport

The picture quality is ok, it's not quite as nice as the broadcast picture, but efforts have been made to improve the quality of the feeds lately, so the HD feeds for example look ok on a laptop, although being on the internet it's always subject to whatever conditions you experience on the internet.


They have a vod feature but it's not satisfactory, it only has a select few events and again they're often without commentary. Otherwise there is no record or watch later option.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I took out a eurosport sub when the tour was on this year, think it cost me £3.50. Pic on the lappy was good as was commentary from Kelly and you could catch-up on previous days too.

 

[srw]

British Eurosport and BE 2 are a core part of the basic subscription package with Virgin Media. If you're in a cabled area, get it.