Best Option for Watching Crows games?

[GreyCrow]

The WatchAFL subscription comes with the $155 Global Crow membership with the AFC, so that's a little under $13/month.

False economy isn't it? Technically correct but most people watch heavily in football months. Say 7 months? $22+ a month

 

[Niximus]

False economy isn't it? Technically correct but most people watch heavily in football months. Say 7 months? $22+ a month

If you do that though then you need to do the same when comparing to the alternative of getting foxtel just to watch the footy. The $50 per month becomes $85.

 

[GreyCrow]

If you do that though then you need to do the same when comparing to the alternative of getting foxtel just to watch the footy. The $50 per month becomes $85.

Yes, which is why I love the American ESPN content on there. ie I get Foxtel mostly for the AFL but the ice cream on the side is just as tasty

 

[Smoooothy]

ADSL2. Speedtest results (including last weekend) are usually around 8 Mbps.

That should be more than fast enough to maintain a 2 Mbps connection. It also doesn't explain why watchafl refuses to buffer more than a few minutes ahead, no matter how long it's paused. I have no problem at all with streaming HD using Kodi, so I'm really not sure why watchafl behaves so differently.

theres one variable here thats of issue - VPN (or smartDNS, depending on your poison)

 

[DynaBass]

I've been watching live on my phone all the time, beginning to get sick of the little screen but better than nothing. An option that a mate told me about is he streams from Crown Bet and chromecast's to a telly. Said he just had to setup a Crownbet account with a fiver to have access. I haven't got a Chromecast yet, but thinking of it for Netflix, so haven't tried it myself.

 

[Vader]

theres one variable here thats of issue - VPN (or smartDNS, depending on your poison)

Using Getflix, so DNS solution - not VPN (which does reduce the speedtest results by about 10%).

 

[The Big Sauce]

Did anyone go down the WatchAFL/Global Crow path in 2018?

I have been out at pubs and such for the first two games of the season, but want to get Watch AFL pass which I did in 2017.

Ideally, I would do this via the Adelaide Global Crow membership, which is cheaper and also sending money to the club. Are there any potential hiccups I should look out for? Do I have to give them an international address on my account when purchasing the membership or can I just list my local one?

 

[Vader]

Did anyone go down the WatchAFL/Global Crow path in 2018?

I have been out at pubs and such for the first two games of the season, but want to get Watch AFL pass which I did in 2017.

Ideally, I would do this via the Adelaide Global Crow membership, which is cheaper and also sending money to the club. Are there any potential hiccups I should look out for? Do I have to give them an international address on my account when purchasing the membership or can I just list my local one?

Yes, I'm doing Global Crow/WatchAFL again this year. It's become even more necessary, now that Prime have switched their HD channel from 7Mate to Prime7, meaning that AFL coverage has once again reverted to the dark ages and is only shown here in SD.

There aren't too many gotchas. You don't need to provide an overseas address, or anything like that. As far as I can tell, the club couldn't care less where you're actually located.

You do, however, need a fairly fast internet connection. Last year I had an 8Mbps ADSL connection, and WatchAFL was largely unwatchable at the 2.4Mbps quality level (constantly buffering). This year I have a 50Mbps FTTP NBN connection, and I have no problems maintaining a stream at the 5Mbps quality level (720p).

You also need a VPN, or a DNS proxy (e.g. GetFlix), in order to make WatchAFL think you're located outside of Australia. The only time it checks is when you start the stream.

 

[The Big Sauce]

Yes, I'm doing Global Crow/WatchAFL again this year. It's become even more necessary, now that Prime have switched their HD channel from 7Mate to Prime7, meaning that AFL coverage has once again reverted to the dark ages and is only shown here in SD.

There aren't too many gotchas. You don't need to provide an overseas address, or anything like that. As far as I can tell, the club couldn't care less where you're actually located.

You do, however, need a fairly fast internet connection. Last year I had an 8Mbps ADSL connection, and WatchAFL was largely unwatchable at the 2.4Mbps quality level (constantly buffering). This year I have a 50Mbps FTTP NBN connection, and I have no problems maintaining a stream at the 5Mbps quality level (720p).

You also need a VPN, or a DNS proxy (e.g. GetFlix), in order to make WatchAFL think you're located outside of Australia. The only time it checks is when you start the stream.

Cheers, I switched over to NBN finally this Summer so my connection should be fine. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[The Big Sauce]

There aren't too many gotchas. You don't need to provide an overseas address, or anything like that. As far as I can tell, the club couldn't care less where you're actually located.

They do say in the T&C that they won't even send out the WatchAFL pass details if you don't list an international address.

 

[Donkey Magoo]

As you all know, I live in Canberra. This means that Crows games are few and far between when it comes to the FTA TV schedule. We average about 5-7 H&A games per year, depending on how many games are bumped because of clashes with Sydney & GWS games.

In the past I've always gone to the Ainslie Football Club, and watched the games on the big screen there. The advantage of this is that it costs me next to nothing. The disadvantage is that I have to drive to the club, hope to find a seat with an unobscured view of the screen, and hope that the untrained monkeys in charge of the system manage to get both the video and audio piped into the right area (it frequently takes them until half-time to get things right).

So.. I'm looking at options for watching the games at home, preferably in HD.

Option #1 - Foxtel
I don't like this on principle - I refuse to pay them for garbage that I have no intention of viewing (i.e. every single channel in their base package). I would consider the option if they allowed viewers to select (and pay for) channels they actually want, but they don't seem to be in any hurry to change their business model.

This is the most expensive option - $125 for the IQ3, plus $65/month (sports + HD) for 7 months. That's a total of $580. Ouch!!!

Option #2 - AFL Live Pass
I have an Android media player, so installing the AFL app and watching the game this way would be trivial. It's also the cheapest (legal) option, at $100 per year. Last year the AFL Pass had a limited screen resolution, this year they've crippled it even further by ensuring that the picture is no larger than the size of an iPhone screen. Stupid, stupid, stupid AFL.

Option #3 - AFL Global Pass
I have the ability to connect the media player via a VPN, so fooling the AFL's Global app into thinking I'm overseas shouldn't be a problem. Cost is $185, which is higher than AFL Live Pass - but so is the picture resolution. What I don't know is whether this service is HD, SD, or something lower than SD.

Option #4 - Streaming from Overseas TV Networks
Most, if not all, AFL games can be streamed, and the cost is $0. Big plus. On the other hand, the picture resolution and sound quality are both poor - well below SD, and the streams frequently stop for "buffering" (though that may stop with a faster home internet connection).

What do people recommend? Does anyone know if the AFL's Global Pass operates in HD?

I used the Global pass via VPN last year. It worked well on NBN and a few router configurations.

 

[Vader]

They do say in the T&C that they won't even send out the WatchAFL pass details if you don't list an international address.

They lie.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

 

[The Big Sauce]

They lie.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

That they do, they sent out the code straight after.

Cheers for the help though.

 

[Maggsy]

My recommendation would be to NOT live in Canberra Vader

 

[Maggsy]

but speaking as an avid crows fan that lives overseas currently,. I can't speak highly enough about the 'Global crow' service,. $155 for the year as opposed to the £165 for the watch afl membership I paid last year! Get involved. But yeah.. definitely might be worth moving out of Canberra still