Looking for information on NHL's Center Ice subscription through DirecTV. Specifically interested in what one might expect in terms of games in HD. Really hard to find information on this and I am hoping that anyone who has been a CI subscriber with DirecTV and is currently signed-up for CI this year has some idea of what type of HD coverage to expect.
The CSRs at DirecTV do not have much info on this question and you can tell that they are guessing. I don't blame them; the NHL has been unbelievably slow in getting information out. They finally posted a schedule but it contains exactly zero information on which games are being broadcast by who and if they will be in HD. For instance if I knew who was giving CI the feed for a particular game (i.e. local affilitate/RSN versus the affiliate/RSN for the away team) I could at least do some of the leg work myself but that information is no where to be found.
I don't think I want CI unless I know (for sure) that at least half of the games will be in HD. If that were the case it it's a good deal ($150 early bird) which gives you approx. 40 games a week with blackouts for FSN Wild games in my area. All the Wild games not carried by FSN would be eligible on CI for me. Whether they would be in HD is something that only a celestial power might know.
Any comments from past or present CI subscribers would be much appreciated.
GO WILD!
NHL Center Ice
Moderator: Moderators
Re: NHL Center Ice
Mr. X wrote:Looking for information on NHL's Center Ice subscription through DirecTV. Specifically interested in what one might expect in terms of games in HD. Really hard to find information on this and I am hoping that anyone who has been a CI subscriber with DirecTV and is currently signed-up for CI this year has some idea of what type of HD coverage to expect.
The CSRs at DirecTV do not have much info on this question and you can tell that they are guessing. I don't blame them; the NHL has been unbelievably slow in getting information out. They finally posted a schedule but it contains exactly zero information on which games are being broadcast by who and if they will be in HD. For instance if I knew who was giving CI the feed for a particular game (i.e. local affilitate/RSN versus the affiliate/RSN for the away team) I could at least do some of the leg work myself but that information is no where to be found.
I don't think I want CI unless I know (for sure) that at least half of the games will be in HD. If that were the case it it's a good deal ($150 early bird) which gives you approx. 40 games a week with blackouts for FSN Wild games in my area. All the Wild games not carried by FSN would be eligible on CI for me. Whether they would be in HD is something that only a celestial power might know.
Any comments from past or present CI subscribers would be much appreciated.
GO WILD!
I don't get CI but after reading your post I did a quick check on tonights schedule. None of the games are listed as HD but the HD channel normally carries some games in HD. 2 years ago NFL Sunday Ticket showed about half the games in HD each week for no extra charge. Last year they started carrying all of them in HD but charged extra for the HD package. I called and argued that since I paid for the HD package shouldn't I also get the games in HD. They said it's a separate package
Mark Solie
Mark Solie
Re: NHL Center Ice
I get all the NFL ST games in HD without having to pay for the SuperFan package as part of their new customer promotional deal. Next year I'll have to pay the extra $50 for SF to get HD. I don't see that as much of a decision. If you're going to pay the $250 or so for ST and you have HD it's worth the $50 to get the games in HD.mr6kings wrote:I don't get CI but after reading your post I did a quick check on tonights schedule. None of the games are listed as HD but the HD channel normally carries some games in HD. 2 years ago NFL Sunday Ticket showed about half the games in HD each week for no extra charge. Last year they started carrying all of them in HD but charged extra for the HD package. I called and argued that since I paid for the HD package shouldn't I also get the games in HD. They said it's a separate package Mark Solie
I was hoping that DirecTV would treat Center Ice like it does Sunday Ticket. They had a free promo for CI this week and not a single game was available in HD. I see that they have finally gotten around to setting up sub-channels for the CI games and it looks like they are in fact going to give you an HD option if it is available. The problem is that there is no consolidated schedule for HD games so if you are a Wild fan there is no way to know how many Wild games on CI will be in HD. But the bigger problem is that FSN-North is only going to broadcast 10 of their 45 games in HD this year. I am in the FSNN market and therefore I have to take that feed or get blacked-out. Bummer. As a result I'm still not sure if I'm going to fork over the cash for CI.
There will be a couple of NHL games a week in HD on Versus and HDNet. The picture quality has been really good for those games so far and for hockey ... HD makes a HUGE difference. It's an even bigger difference than it is for football.
Last night I watched the Wild - Blue Jackets game on FSN-Ohio. The PQ wasn't very good but that tends to be the case for SD content on HD sets. So while I will never get any of the Wild games on KSTC, I'll still get the 45 on FSNN and then pick up the away team's RSNs broadcasts. I think that will give me about 80% of the schedule. Good enough I guess.