So we have set up a pretty decent "Man Cave" at our shop to watch the races this year and I'm looking for some input. I could get the comcast package with sports and all but would then be watching FoxSports commentators, not the greatest IMO. I'd really love to watch with Sky Sports but not sure how I would accomplish that. Has anyone used this in the US? https://buy.sky.com/sports-upgrades?DCMP=afc-SkySports_F1navbar Streaming? Dish? Cable? DVR? Give me your thoughts. We have a 90"ish screen and an HD projector with decent sound system. Did I mention the keg fridge? Thanks in advance for your input. I'd really like the best experience possible. Martin
One of the Spanish language stations on Comcast covers the races live without all the commercial interruptions. I found this to provide more continuity to the broadcast. Still taped the nbc sports coverage for pre and post race coverage but even the immediate post race coverage was better without the stupid commercial breaks.
If you MUST watch it live, stream it using vipbox.biz . I'm usually out partying till as late/early as 6-7am on Saturday night/Sunday morning, so I miss the races sometimes. For those times, I just download a torrent of the race. There's Sky/BBC uploads of the race within a few hours. Commercial free, full HD, great commentary, pre/post race show are also available too.
I record the race on NBC Sports and fast forward thru the ads and rewind to see the parts I missed when I fall asleep. Really.
To my knowledge, Sky Sports is not available in the US. BBC content is available through the BBC America channel, an upgrade on most cable TV packages, but I don't think it airs F1. You're best bet is to watch on NBC Sports if you want to watch live and can live with the commercials. Or you can use one of those online streaming links posted (though I've had issues with these and it can be quite frustrating in the middle of the race). If you don't mind not watching live, my personal preference is to download a torrent of the race afterwards. You can get torrents of BBC or Sky and they are usually uploaded within 2-3 hours after the race (takes me about 30-45 min to download). I strongly prefer Sky/BBC so I usually wait to watch a reply.
Download and watch. Only bad thing is that you risk spoilers by venturing onto the internet. NBC coverage is absolutely atrocious.
Yea, good point. If you download torrents, go straight to the torrent website (not Google) and search for the torrent. Once on the torrent webpage, do not read the comments because there are spoilers. As long as you're careful, you can minimize that risk.
Most of the people complaining of a boring race, I suspect that they watched with NBC. The races I got to watch with SKY last year were extremely exciting, and it was a real ??? as to why I would log onto to people talking about the race being a snooze fest. Then I watched one with NBC....znooze fest.
Should be a sky stream on VIPBOX as mentioned earlier, or squirrelstreams. This will be the first time in years I have to stream because I normally had BBC content in Africa but now live in Holland again. For some reason the house I live in doesn't have the right box to watch BBC content (and that's only a few races a year) and I sure as **** am not going to watch the Dutch content. Suffered through that for one race last year and decided I couldn't bring myself to pay to watch that.
Yep!!! Too often I'll scroll to comments to look for info on video quality, etc. only to hear people comment about the race. One time recently the uploader himself actually put the race result in the description. It's very important to find a reliable site, and habitually go directly to it, and download without looking It really is terrible. The commentators are just talking nonsense most of the time, no better than any one of us could, and then the commercials just kill it. Also somehow they can't manage to get the sound right either, almost like the racing is on mute. I feel completely disconnected from what's happening on the screen. Granted, I recall during the Vettel era there were some awfully boring races that I watched via BBC, but last year every race was exciting for me (besides the couple I watched with NBC).
how is it really different NBC vs Sky? they both use the same international feed, the cars sound the same, the commentary is not really that different, and will buxton does a very good job reporting from the pits and the paddock. The only real difference is the commercials.
Commercials are a big detractor for me. There are way, way too many for <2 hr broadcast and they seem to always come at the most inopportune times of the race. The video coverage is better on Sky too. There's been many times when NBC announcers are commenting on some awesome battle in the field, and the camera they cut to shows an empty part of the track (exciting!).
Another vote for this option. It's what I do and it works for my purposes. Only downside is you have to be patient for the better quality files to be avail. That and, well, there's that pesky topic of legality.....
There is a world of a difference between NBC and Sky/BBC! Will Buxton is the only decent commentator on NBC, the other 3 stooges, enough said. Personally, I like Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard. Lets not forget pre/post race shows also. NBC doesn't come close. Lots of commercials and very dumbed down commentary. I avoid this forum and the internet in general like the plague until Im able to download a race and watch it first. I download race torrents from Racingfor.me, so there are no spoilers posted at all.
The best way to watch an F1 race in the USA is to buy DVD's of races from the '60's, '70's and the '80's.
some really good links thrown up in here that I've never heard of before. Thanks guys! nsxrebel got an invite to spare?
Martin, As soon as you listed your cave and goodies, the first thing I did was to check your location. I'm not above inviting myself, but you're too far away. It will be great to see what happens when the rubber meets the road, FINALLY.
Thanks to all for the suggestions! We had a great event, lots of carne asada and other great eats. After a lot of fussing around we decided to just go with comcast and nbcsn. The commercials are bad but they don't interupt the race. Commentary wasn't as bad either. Ferrari even made the podium I hope this isn't going to be another Mercedes team fight for first and second with the rest of the field just there to make it look like a race. I will still try to find a way to stream sky sports. I did see some mention of the service being available for ex-pats but couldn't find anything concrete. Nothing compares to Corse Clienti and watching the record broken at Laguna Seca in 2012. That was awesome watching a V10 Ferrari F1 turn up the wick. You could walk right in the pits and talk to the techs, lean in the cars etc. Can't do that at COTA!! Any other suggestions to enhance the viewing let me know. I thought about putting the ItalKarts on the floor in front of the big screen and sit in there to watch but I'd never get the kids out!
Glad you had a good time! Even if the race was pretty crap.... I do recall that last year Sky were offering 'ala carte' feeds for the weekend - something like £25 that got you *all* of their sports channels from Friday thru Sunday. Check out their site to see if it's still available this year? I thought it was outrageously expensive, and don't want to watch everything!.... I'd happily pay a few quid for just the F1 coverage, but that's not offered. For you however, sharing among many, it may be a viable option? However, I suspect you'd still need to be "in" the UK - easily solved via a VPN of course. I use 'strongvpn' at $55 a year for a flawless connection. Cheers, Ian
Granted this race was a snooze fest with that few cars starting the race and even fewer cars finishing, but I can't stand commercials, even if it's split screen with the race. The commercials were long too, like 1-2 minutes long, they were showing 2-4 at a time. Screw that, I'll much rather download the race later in the day and watch uninterrupted.
