USA Viewing = NBC ... information, schedules, praise, complaints

[A.H.Black]

After -

- At least a year of thinking about how to watch the London Olympics
- Three months of planning and research
- Enough hours to work for a week
- Countless phone calls to DISH and discussions with my technical wiz relatives
- Tons of misinformation/misunderstandings with DISH
- Four sessions with the DISH Executive Resolution Team
- Three visits from a great technician who DID understand what I want to do, what equipment I need to do it, and worked with the ERT to make it happen

I now have -

- 2 Hoppers
- The ability to record 6 stations at once
- 2 external hard drives and -
- More than 7000 hours of capacity.

I am now reading the online manual page-by-page.

Then I should finally be ready for NBC and London.

[DK073]

After -
I now have -

- 2 Hoppers
- The ability to record 6 stations at once
- 2 external hard drives and -
- More than 7000 hours of capacity.

I am now reading the online manual page-by-page.

Then I should finally be ready for NBC and London.

Wow, I am impressed. I had a couple of technician visits (I have Time Warner) leading up to Beijing and had 5 cable boxes (including 3 DVRs). I've simplified things this time around that I'm doing most of the recording into my computer, so hopefully that will help matters. But my goodness.. 7,000 hours? I know that's SD instead of HD, but that's quite a number there. You might be the only person out there with a crazier set up than I have! Good luck to you.

[A.H.Black]

Wow, I am impressed. I had a couple of technician visits (I have Time Warner) leading up to Beijing and had 5 cable boxes (including 3 DVRs). I've simplified things this time around that I'm doing most of the recording into my computer, so hopefully that will help matters. But my goodness.. 7,000 hours? I know that's SD instead of HD, but that's quite a number there. You might be the only person out there with a crazier set up than I have! Good luck to you.

I'm jealous of your ability to do it on the computer. I still have big gaps in my education when it comes to doing video online. I'm lucky to be able to watch streaming stuff. We just go with what we know, right?

[DK073]

I'm jealous of your ability to do it on the computer. I still have big gaps in my education when it comes to doing video online. I'm lucky to be able to watch streaming stuff. We just go with what we know, right?

I've been doing this for 20 years now.. needless to say it's a lot different now than back then when all you needed was a stack of VHS tapes and to remember when to hit the record button. Not quite so simple anymore, of course. I actually stuck with recording to DVD for a while, but now that everything with the Olympics is now in HD, standard definition just won't do anymore and it's a lot easier getting that done on computer than it is burning to disc (or saving everything to 2 Hoppers and/or multiple DVRs)

[Simone411]

I can't afford the Home DVR thing with DirecTV right now. A rep said it would cost $199.00 for the extra satellite and the DVR. I'm doing it the old way.

I have what's called a "VCR 2 PC" that I can hook up to my laptop. I've been transferring figure skater's programs to my laptop that date back to 1992 Olympics. The videos are in MPEG2 format, and I convert them to AVI/MPEG4. I, then, burn the figure skating program videos to DVD.

I've been recording using a VCR with my HD TV for about 4 years, and it works pretty well. I'm definitely recording all the Gymnastics and swimming.

[gingercrush]

OK I thought I loved the Olympics but you lot are crazy.

[Simone411]

Just received an e-mail from the U.S. Olympic Committee. It's a notice about a scam e-mail that looks like it's coming from Team USA. Just thought I would add the notice here:

It has come to our attention that an external party has developed a scam targeting Team USA fans. They have sent an email suggesting that tickets to the upcoming Olympic Games in London have been charged to your account, and that you have a short period of time to dispute the charges.

The link directs recipients to a site that mimics the official TeamUSA.org website. This is not our official site, and this email is not from anyone affiliated with the United States Olympic Committee. If you receive one of these emails do not open the link to the invoice and consider contacting your bank to inform them of the possibility of fraudulent charges.

Thank you for your patience and your continued support of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams.

[A.H.Black]

Lo and behold, look what I found.. 2012 LONDON OLYMPIC GAMES
LISTINGS

There's the complete listings, by network with all the times and all events covered. I see the word LIVE there a lot, but for the most part, the big 4 sports are mostly on delay on TV. Of course, everything is live online (pending authentication, I know that's easier said than done), so that's an option that wasn't there for Beijing

DK - I really like this schedule. Can I ask where you found it and/or can you check to see if there is an updated version? I can't find it.

[A.H.Black]

I can't afford the Home DVR thing with DirecTV right now. A rep said it would cost $199.00 for the extra satellite and the DVR. I'm doing it the old way.

I have what's called a "VCR 2 PC" that I can hook up to my laptop. I've been transferring figure skater's programs to my laptop that date back to 1992 Olympics. The videos are in MPEG2 format, and I convert them to AVI/MPEG4. I, then, burn the figure skating program videos to DVD.

I've been recording using a VCR with my HD TV for about 4 years, and it works pretty well. I'm definitely recording all the Gymnastics and swimming.

I like the idea of the "VCR 2 PC". I bet there isn't a MAC equivalent. I may search for one after the Olympics.

OK I thought I loved the Olympics but you lot are crazy.

Yeah, well...... I guess somebody has to be crazy.

[Simone411]

I like the idea of the "VCR 2 PC". I bet there isn't a MAC equivalent. I may search for one after the Olympics.

Unfortunatley, it isn't compatible with MAC computers at this time. There are updated drivers now for Windows 7.

http://www.ionaudio.com/products/details/vcr-2-pc

I hope there's something equivalent to it online. Good luck in your search.

[DK073]

DK - I really like this schedule. Can I ask where you found it and/or can you check to see if there is an updated version? I can't find it.

A couple of sports websites reported it since NBC was less than forthcoming with the full schedule, but that was a few weeks ago. At this point, your best reference is the schedule on NBC's website. There are a few inaccuracies, but it will have a breakdown hour-by-hour for most of the coverage that you won't get on the program guide on your DVR. So that's probably what you should be going off of.

And not to be outdone, although I cannot claim to having 2 hoppers, here is my arsenal for the Olympics..
3 DVRs (all HD, total recording time is probably around 300 hours in HD)
2 computers (loaded with a total of 5 capture devices capable of recording 8 streams simultaneously) with a total about 4 TB of recording space, hopefully should be good for about 700-800 hours that I'll eventually dump to Blu-ray discs most likely.

So yes, there's at least 2 crazies here. A.H., I know you said you had about 7000 hours worth of record time.. I hope you're at least recording everything in HD, because I'll be somewhat disappointed in you if you're going old school and recording in SD.

[A.H.Black]

I found the Comcast schedule and it is pretty good. The NBC schedule needs redesigning.

- Did some checking on the guide for Universal Sports. I was puzzled as to why we hadn't had some sort of announcement about what they plan to broadcast during the games. Looks like nothing. The schedule for next Saturday and Sunday looks like all normal stuff for them - no London 2012 programming at all. I guess NBC is looking to use NBC Sports Channel a lot. I wonder what that means - if anything.

- Neither DISH nor Comcast have given any indication of what channels will be used as the special Soccer and Basketball channels yet. C'mon guys.

- My Olympics recording starts tomorrow morning with the today show.

[DK073]

- Did some checking on the guide for Universal Sports. I was puzzled as to why we hadn't had some sort of announcement about what they plan to broadcast during the games. Looks like nothing. The schedule for next Saturday and Sunday looks like all normal stuff for them - no London 2012 programming at all. I guess NBC is looking to use NBC Sports Channel a lot. I wonder what that means - if anything.

I remember hearing during Vancouver that Universal Sports isn't fully owned by Comcast and NBC, so it's not the ideal place for Olympic coverage. Even still, I think the channel is only available in about 60 million homes compared with close to 80 million for NBC Sports Network. So even though Universal Sports advertises itself as the year-round home of Olympic sports, it wouldn't make sense to put coverage there instead of NBCSN or 1 of the other NBC cable networks. What it means is that Comcast is heavily invested in NBSN and couldn't care less about Universal Sports.

- My Olympics recording starts tomorrow morning with the today show.

Good reminder.. I just set my guide to record for the week.

[A.H.Black]

I remember hearing during Vancouver that Universal Sports isn't fully owned by Comcast and NBC, so it's not the ideal place for Olympic coverage. Even still, I think the channel is only available in about 60 million homes compared with close to 80 million for NBC Sports Network. So even though Universal Sports advertises itself as the year-round home of Olympic sports, it wouldn't make sense to put coverage there instead of NBCSN or 1 of the other NBC cable networks. What it means is that Comcast is heavily invested in NBSN and couldn't care less about Universal Sports.

All you say is true. However, there was tons of programming on Universal Sports during Vancouver - about 7 hours a day of original stuff (including the figure skating show). I'm sure NBC does have a more vested interest in promoting NBSN, but so far I'm only seeing sports coverage. I haven't found any commentary/news/features programming yet (other than the usual Today Show stuff). I'm surprised there isn't a gymnastics feature program somewhere.

[SpeedySucks]

Since Comcast does not fully own Universal Sports, they cannot air any actual sports footage on the channel. They did the news programs in 2010, but since then, they switched from an over-the-air channel to a cable/satellite-only channel. Since it's only available on Dish and DirecTV, it's only in about 20 million homes. Comcast probably figured that it's not worth spending money on news programs that no one will watch.

[DK073]

All you say is true. However, there was tons of programming on Universal Sports during Vancouver - about 7 hours a day of original stuff (including the figure skating show). I'm sure NBC does have a more vested interest in promoting NBSN, but so far I'm only seeing sports coverage. I haven't found any commentary/news/features programming yet (other than the usual Today Show stuff). I'm surprised there isn't a gymnastics feature program somewhere.

I remember the coverage from Vancouver.. yes, I recorded all of that too. But it was all news and fluff programming which happened to fit the time difference well. Notice how all of their live stuff was between 10am (when the Today Show ended) and 3pm when NBC typically came on the air each day. There isn't as friendly a window for London. Plus they're trying to push NBC Sports Network to cable operators. Remember, it's Comcast running the show now, so they have less of a commitment to Universal Sports than even NBC did. Don't know why NBC has scaled back on stuff like Olympic Ice and the gymnastics coverage from Beijing. But again, this is Comcast's show so that's probably their call, not to mention the relatively low distribution numbers for Universal Sports.

[BreakfastClub]

Remember, it's Comcast running the show now, so they have less of a commitment to Universal Sports than even NBC did.

NBCUniversal has a minority financial interest in Universal Sports and no controlling interest. Universal Sports is NOT part of the NBC Sports Network (the group of stations, not the actual channel.) They have no need or interest in leveraging US to broadcast coverage.

Comcast has absolutely no controlling interest in Universal Sports.

The lovely entrepreneurs at Intermedia Partners who purchased and still very much majority own Universal Sports cut a deal with the devil back in 2007 in exchange for the rights to leverage the NBC peacock branding. They got greedy, pulled their over the air coverage to try to cash in big once they were a household name, and tried to extort the satellite and cable companies for a ridiculous per subscriber fee. (Much like Viacom just did and lost trying to extort DirecTV. Providers know that they can demand higher and higher per subscriber fees of the cable and satellite companies, and the cable and satellite companies will always take all the bad PR and public flogging for raising rates and/or dropping channels when most of the time what they are doing is passing on the higher rates demanded by the content providers.)

At any rate, I expect Universal Sports to eventually go under. They don't have enough subscribers to keep it afloat.

Neither DISH nor Comcast have given any indication of what channels will be used as the special Soccer and Basketball channels yet. C'mon guys.

I have placeholders on Comcast for both channels - in my area channels 801 and 809; this may vary by market - with a static image that says coverage begins on 7/25 (soccer) and 7/28 (basketball).

[AJ Skatefan]

I have placeholders on Comcast for both channels - in my area channels 801 and 809; this may vary by market - with a static image that says coverage begins on 7/25 (soccer) and 7/28 (basketball).

Thanks for this info. I'm a women's basketball fan and haven't been able to figure out where these channels are supposed to be in my area.

[A.H.Black]

I have placeholders on Comcast for both channels - in my area channels 801 and 809; this may vary by market - with a static image that says coverage begins on 7/25 (soccer) and 7/28 (basketball).

Thanks from me too. I will check it out. I will have to call DISH tomorrow to find out what their channels will be.

[A.H.Black]

Update on DISH. They have no clue about the specialty channels. I keep calling the Executive Resolution Team and they still don't know.

I finally called tech support (they often have the best information). The specialty channels will probably be on 147-148 The problem is they are scheduled to be activated on 7/28/12. I hope the soccer channel will be available tomorrow but I'm not sure.