GoDuke.com Inside Access questions

[GopherBlue]

I am making the move to cut the cable (or TV satellite, as it were) - the only thing that really kept me from doing this sooner is Duke basketball. This leaves me searching for alternative methods of getting my Duke BB fix. Local sports bars are an option, but not a great one. GoDuke Inside Access may be another. So a few question for Inside Access before I decide whether to order:

Are otherwise televised games (e.g. ESPN, CBS, etc) available live on Inside Access?

Are replays available on Inside Access for all games, or only games carried live on Inside Access?

Are subscribers generally satisfied with quality of broadcasts? (technical, broadcasters, etc)

Anything else I might want to know before signing up?

Thanks!

[Dev11]

I am making the move to cut the cable (or TV satellite, as it were) - the only thing that really kept me from doing this sooner is Duke basketball. This leaves me searching for alternative methods of getting my Duke BB fix. Local sports bars are an option, but not a great one. GoDuke Inside Access may be another. So a few question for Inside Access before I decide whether to order:

Are otherwise televised games (e.g. ESPN, CBS, etc) available live on Inside Access?

Are replays available on Inside Access for all games, or only games carried live on Inside Access?

Are subscribers generally satisfied with quality of broadcasts? (technical, broadcasters, etc)

Anything else I might want to know before signing up?

Thanks!

Only the non-televised games will have video feed online. Radio feed will always work.

The quality of the feed varies. See a game thread from an exhibition game for back-and-forth about this.

If you're cutting cable, you should stick be able to get broadcast (in this case, only CBS matters) on your tv through the wall. You should find a nice friend who has a WatchESPN-affiliated cable provider and use their WatchESPN account to stream all of the ESPN content. Offering to pay part of their cable bill might be helpful :)

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

Access to ESPN is the issue, I agree with Dev11. You can try a friend, or if you can stomach it, pair down your cable subscription to the lowest tier (with ESPN) as possible at least until bball season is done.

How are you going to be watching content? Roku/Apple TV? Also, out of curiosity who's your ISP?

[GopherBlue]

Access to ESPN is the issue, I agree with Dev11. You can try a friend, or if you can stomach it, pair down your cable subscription to the lowest tier (with ESPN) as possible at least until bball season is done.

How are you going to be watching content? Roku/Apple TV? Also, out of curiosity who's your ISP?

Currently have DirecTV, which does not provide WatchESPN access. ISP is Time-Warner RoadRunner, but again, they do not provide WatchESPN access unless you have cable TV package.

Over the air TV will work for games on CBS. I also have Apple TV, and would love to be able to subscribe to WatchESPN a la carte if that were offered.

[chaosmage]

Mods: I resurrected this to keep from creating double posts; if I erred, please repair as needed. Thank you.

I'd like to get a definitive answer from the board on ways to cut cable and keep Duke. If the radio feed always works and is reliable, then we have no problem paying for it. I have Sirius, but each radio requires a subscription, and there are no guarantees on games being on Sirius channels.

1: Has anyone else cut the cable and kept Duke? If you have, what is your method?
1b: Where are you located and who's your ISP?

2: Is there a good HDTV antenna for use in a house that gets all the basic channels - recommendations?

For my info, we have AT&T UVerse in SoCal, we have multiple Apple TVs, and a Roku. As I pointed out in the Apple TV thread, WatchESPN requires a video subscription, and I'm not sure if using someone else's subscription works, but I'm going to try it. :-)

Any advice is helpful; I'd have no problem with paying for Inside Access and supporting the radio program, and my wife would love it because she'd never have to hear Dick Vitale again. But if there are options with video, it'd be great. :-)

Thanks in advance!!!

[nocilla]

Mods: I resurrected this to keep from creating double posts; if I erred, please repair as needed. Thank you.

I'd like to get a definitive answer from the board on ways to cut cable and keep Duke. If the radio feed always works and is reliable, then we have no problem paying for it. I have Sirius, but each radio requires a subscription, and there are no guarantees on games being on Sirius channels.

1: Has anyone else cut the cable and kept Duke? If you have, what is your method?
1b: Where are you located and who's your ISP?

2: Is there a good HDTV antenna for use in a house that gets all the basic channels - recommendations?

For my info, we have AT&T UVerse in SoCal, we have multiple Apple TVs, and a Roku. As I pointed out in the Apple TV thread, WatchESPN requires a video subscription, and I'm not sure if using someone else's subscription works, but I'm going to try it. :-)

Any advice is helpful; I'd have no problem with paying for Inside Access and supporting the radio program, and my wife would love it because she'd never have to hear Dick Vitale again. But if there are options with video, it'd be great. :-)

Thanks in advance!!!

We cut the cord a few years ago. We have an antenna on the roof. For Duke games I usually find a feed online. I have been doing this for 3 years now. I have had to clear a virus off my laptop once, so be careful. There are lots of things to click that lead to popups. Some will say you need their plugin but you don't. Don't download anything, those are usually viruses. Wait for the ad to play and find the tiny x to close the ad box. Then make it fullscreen to avoid more ads popping up. The sites I use are atdee.net and firstrowus1.eu. If you are not comfortable with the virus risk then don't use these sites. I use a laptop that doesn't have important info on it and I plug it into my tv with an hdmi cable. The video quality is not great, kind of grainy, but I live with it. I don't know the legal ramifications of these sites either. They were shut down a year or so ago when they were based in the US, but now they are coming from Europe. They may crack down on these eventually, I don't know.

I used the espn3 feed a few years ago using a friends login. They had to click a remote access link every couple months to keep it open on my end. Then when they switched around stuff with the watchespn I lost access to some games. The video quality wasn't much better than the sites above so I quit even trying because it was a slight hassle to get my friend to update the remote access. The feed may be better now as far as I know.

As for other tv, we get several over the air channels and we stream netflix through the Wii. Amazon Prime and Hulu+ are other options that can stream directly to your tv.

[gus]

Mods: I resurrected this to keep from creating double posts; if I erred, please repair as needed. Thank you.

I'd like to get a definitive answer from the board on ways to cut cable and keep Duke. If the radio feed always works and is reliable, then we have no problem paying for it. I have Sirius, but each radio requires a subscription, and there are no guarantees on games being on Sirius channels.

1: Has anyone else cut the cable and kept Duke? If you have, what is your method?
1b: Where are you located and who's your ISP?

2: Is there a good HDTV antenna for use in a house that gets all the basic channels - recommendations?

For my info, we have AT&T UVerse in SoCal, we have multiple Apple TVs, and a Roku. As I pointed out in the Apple TV thread, WatchESPN requires a video subscription, and I'm not sure if using someone else's subscription works, but I'm going to try it. :-)

Any advice is helpful; I'd have no problem with paying for Inside Access and supporting the radio program, and my wife would love it because she'd never have to hear Dick Vitale again. But if there are options with video, it'd be great. :-)

Thanks in advance!!!

I have a Mohu Leaf (http://www.amazon.com/Mohu-Leaf-Paper-Thin-Indoor-Antenna/dp/B004QK7HI8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388155648&sr=8-1&keywords=Mohu+Leaf+Paper) antenna. It works great, and is very discrete. I have it hidden behind my mantel, but it can be mounted on a wall and painted too. Digital broadcast in my area is very strong, and offers a lot of content. TV Guide's free iphone app is useful for local listings. Digital broadcast TV is fantastic.

[DukeCrow]

I use a Solid Signal HD-BLADE antenna (http://www.amazon.com/s/?keywords=solid+signal+hd-blade&tag=alslibl-20). Pretty much the same thing as the Mohu Leaf except that you can buy it with differing lengths of cable or without a cable at all if you already have one. Have two of them in my house, and they both work great.

I last subscribed to GoDuke Inside Access two seasons ago, so this might have changed since then. But back then, for games not shown live on GoDuke Inside Access, they still usually posted a replay of the game an hour or two after it finished. Or they would post a "condensed" version of the game that cut out stoppages of play and "less interesting" parts of the game.

[chaosmage]

I think we're going to try a couple of things.

1) My mother in law has a cable subscription, so I may be able to use her subscription to get WatchESPN.

2) If that doesn't work, then I'm going to go with Duke Inside Access. The top tier does replays, and with being on the west coast and teaching, I rarely catch a game on time anyway. We're also going to get an antenna. Going to decide between the Mohu Leaf that was recommended earlier and the C2 from Antennas Direct.

3) For everything else, we have multiple Apple TVs and a Roku 3 (or an Apple TV if the wifey doesn't like it).

Thanks again for all the help folks. I appreciate it greatly!

[DukeCrow]

FYI, here's a comparison between the Mohu Leaf (http://www.amazon.com/Mohu-Leaf-Paper-Thin-Indoor-Antenna/dp/B004QK7HI8/alslibl-20)and the HD-BLADE (http://www.amazon.com/s/?keywords=solid+signal+hd-blade&tag=alslibl-20) (the closer to zero the gain is the better).
http://forums.solidsignal.com/docs/HD-BLADE%20vs%20Leaf%20LR.pdf?utm_campaign=PJ_AFF&utm_medium=AFF&utm_source=PJ&source=pjn&subid=18097

Good luck, and I hope everything works out well for you.