Go Back  Bike Forums > Bike Forums > Professional Cycling For the Fans
Reload this Page >

Alternative coverage to Versus?

Notices
Professional Cycling For the Fans Follow the Tour de France,the Giro de Italia, the Spring Classics, or other professional cycling races? Here's your home...

Alternative coverage to Versus?

Old 06-27-10, 09:22 PM
  #1  
Bontrager
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
Bontrager's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Boulder, CO
Posts: 2,339

Bikes: Road, MTB, Folding, Commuting bikes...

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time in 1 Post
Alternative coverage to Versus?

Where can I get (live?) coverage or torrents of Versus TdF shows or feeds? We have Comcast here and they only have Versus on their upper-tier programming (as opposed to a SD feed on regular cable).
Bontrager is offline  
Old 06-27-10, 10:20 PM
  #2  
Scott4957
Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 27
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
You can pay $30 for the Versus tour tracker. It gives you full coverage of the tour in HD via the internet.
No need to record anything, you also get video on demand for anything you miss while at work ect...
I'm considering getting it even though I have Versus in SD.

Scott
Scott4957 is offline  
Old 06-28-10, 07:53 AM
  #3  
Bontrager
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
Bontrager's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Boulder, CO
Posts: 2,339

Bikes: Road, MTB, Folding, Commuting bikes...

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time in 1 Post
Originally Posted by Scott4957
You can pay $30 for the Versus tour tracker.
Scott
Thanks for the tip, Scott. I might go this route instead of adding cable for 1 month.

Too bad you have to pay $15 extra if you want to use the Vs. app on your iPhone

Here are the FAQ's for the Tour Tracker for others that may be interested.
Bontrager is offline  
Old 06-28-10, 10:21 AM
  #4  
DXchulo
Upgrading my engine
 
DXchulo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Alamogordo
Posts: 6,218
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 125 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
https://cyclingtorrents.nl if you want to download torrents later. Just don't come on here complaining about spoilers before you get a chance to watch the stage.

You can also check cyclingfans.com and steephill.tv for live feeds. Those may be hit or miss, so if you're going to be watching online you might as well sign up for the VS coverage. That's what I'm going to do. I didn't have any problems with the VS feeds last year.
DXchulo is offline  
Old 06-28-10, 09:43 PM
  #5  
Bontrager
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
Bontrager's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Boulder, CO
Posts: 2,339

Bikes: Road, MTB, Folding, Commuting bikes...

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time in 1 Post
Originally Posted by DXchulo
so if you're going to be watching online you might as well sign up for the VS coverage. That's what I'm going to do.
That's probably what I'll do. I have a 24" iMac in the bedroom which is our internet TV and I usually hook up a mac laptop to the HDMI connector on our living room HDTV for vodcasts and more internet TV. I'm gonna love watching live without any commercials.

Bontrager is offline  
Old 06-29-10, 03:04 PM
  #6  
thenomad
Riding like its 1990
 
thenomad's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: IE, SoCal
Posts: 3,789
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 9 Post(s)
Liked 8 Times in 8 Posts
I'm on vacation back east for two weeks starting the 1st. I'm getting the tour tracker. The good thing is that it's unlikely i'll pass by a bar or hear a passing conversation spoiling the results of the day.
thenomad is offline  
Old 06-30-10, 11:59 AM
  #7  
mcoomer
Rat Bastard
 
mcoomer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Sammamish, WA
Posts: 1,504

Bikes: Cannondale Prophet, Specialized S-Works SL2, Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1 Post(s)
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
I did the Versus Tour Tracker about a week into it last year and it rocked. I'm already signed up for this year. $29.99 very well spent!
mcoomer is offline  
Old 07-03-10, 09:17 AM
  #8  
petalpower
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Italy
Posts: 492

Bikes: 2014 Specialized Roubaix Pro

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
I'm considering coughing up the $30 for the Versus Tour Tracker as I don't have a means of recording the stages, and I'm not sure I want to get up at 4/5am to watch it live.

Hopefully my DSL connection can handle the stream/download.

Anyone else care to share their experiences with the Versus Tour Tracker?
petalpower is offline  
Old 07-03-10, 09:40 AM
  #9  
hurley.girl
Nerd
 
hurley.girl's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Bordentown NJ
Posts: 1,033

Bikes: Cervelo R3 SL, Cervelo P2

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Is it possible to get onto the site without seeing spoilers? I just signed up and logged in, and there's a list of the current standings on today's prologue. I won't be able to watch live on weekdays, and I'd like to get the On Demand videos without ruining the suspense.
hurley.girl is offline  
Old 07-03-10, 10:02 AM
  #10  
muccapazza
brain damaged bovine
 
muccapazza's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: back on the dental floss ranch, wielding zircon encrusted tweezers
Posts: 625

Bikes: Schwinn wrecked ol' Probe 1x2, 84 Bianchi Limited,Cannondale F400,Raleigh 20 folder,78 Schwinn LeTour III Fixed Gear,Redline Conquest Pro,71-73 Gitane TdF,Gitane Grand Sport de Luxe,78 Raleigh Super Course,80 Schwinn World Sport

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
I want to know if it's possible to see it live on the versus tour tracker. Getting tired of thaqt 30 second commercial while the standings scroll on the side. This is what you get for your $29.95?

Hit the video tab and it says live video is offline. reload. click reload and nothing happens.

Wel l;looks like they're reading this because the streaming just started. But no commentary. Where's the lLggett? Seems like they jobbed the prolgue up last year too.

Last edited by muccapazza; 07-03-10 at 10:19 AM.
muccapazza is offline  
Old 07-03-10, 10:15 AM
  #11  
strommer67
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Central Coastal California
Posts: 17

Bikes: Giant OCR3, CannondaleM500

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Does anyone know if the Versus Tracker On-Demand video continues to load if you hit "pause", like their sample video on the faq page?(https://tracker.versus.com/faq)
In other words, can I just hit pause and walk away for 10 minutes to make a nice big buffer, or is it a streaming only type of thing?

To buy the tracker for evening viewing I would need to smooth out the feed, but they don't have an autobahn plugin for linux, unfortunately.

Thanks much
strommer67 is offline  
Old 07-03-10, 12:29 PM
  #12  
Dubbayoo
Senior Member
 
Dubbayoo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 7,681

Bikes: Pedal Force QS3

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time in 1 Post
I don't believe it buffers at all. If you connect an big tv to a computer the online feed can be very good, especially if you maximize the window.
Dubbayoo is offline  
Old 07-03-10, 02:30 PM
  #13  
strommer67
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Central Coastal California
Posts: 17

Bikes: Giant OCR3, CannondaleM500

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Shucks, unfortunately, my internet connection isn't fast enough to keep up and stops every few seconds. So I was hoping to sort of trick it into buffering for me, since the autobahn solution isn't available.
strommer67 is offline  
Old 07-04-10, 02:05 PM
  #14  
tblendell
Senior Member
 
tblendell's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: studio city ca.
Posts: 148

Bikes: cannondale topstone, caad 10, trek superfly, bike friday pocket rocket

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 4 Times in 1 Post
tour tracker was working (mostly) yesterday and today until half way through the race (on demand) it just stopped working and now it crashes my the browsers. seems like every year i spend more time looking for streaming alternatives, or restarting the tour tracker or waiting for it to load than i do actually watching the tour...
tblendell is offline  
Old 07-05-10, 12:55 PM
  #15  
inja
Senior Member
 
inja's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: takoma Park - PG co., MD
Posts: 96

Bikes: Felt F55, Leader bike Road, Trek 2100(composite), Haro MTB, Cannondale m800, Devinci mtb.

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
My Wife Blew the money for the Versus Streams ...And I've a few seconds of yesterdays show - and - that's it.
I torrented last year and think it's the best solution.
so far ...VERSUS HAS NOT DELIVERED anything except irritation and frustration.
inja is offline  
Old 07-05-10, 03:10 PM
  #16  
Tunnelrat81
Senior Member
 
Tunnelrat81's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,407
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 23 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
The last two years I took the route of searching out recordings after each stage and it worked out well enough.

This year I bit the bullet and signed up for the online VS. coverage and it's worked well for me so far, both the on demand and live stream over basic DSL. Skipping forward and backward has been a bit finicky but works with some patience followed by a "pause" and "play" cycle.

I really think that VS. should make their 1 hr. highlight shows available to online subscribers. We'd all love to have 6 hours every evening to watch the day's stage, but the reality is that many of us don't. Thankfully the on demand allows you to skip forward to the last 40k of the race for the finishing fireworks, but then you miss anything good that happened in the previous 4-5 hours of the race.

I think it'll be worth it, and it's hard to quantify the value of being able to watch an event live or nearly so, so I'm happy with my decision so far.

-Jeremy
Tunnelrat81 is offline  
Old 07-05-10, 07:57 PM
  #17  
petalpower
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Italy
Posts: 492

Bikes: 2014 Specialized Roubaix Pro

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Seems like Versus is working on, or have already, fixing/fixed some of the issues.

Here is an email I got from them:

Dear Tour Tracker user,

First of all apologies for the problems over the last few days with the Tour
Tracker service. We know that many of you have experienced problems and have
contacted us through our support email or posted your feedback online. We've
responded to many of you, but while we've worked on fixing these problems we
know many of you have not yet received a response.

Due to the problems with the Autobahn plugin, after today's stage we removed the
video player and replaced it with one that does not require Autobahn. Initial
reaction is that this has fixed the streaming problems. This was also why the On
Demand video of todays stage was delayed.

Another issue (particularly for the prologue) has been the start time of the
coverage. We start the coverage when the International TV broadcast starts, some
days this includes the start, some days it does not - it depends on when the
host broadcaster in France decides to start the broadcast. The feed goes up on
the Tracker at the same time as anyone in the world gets a TV feed.

The daily schedule of broadcast times is now published on the FAQ page:
https://tracker.versus.com/faq

The other issue that many of you have commented on is the audio feed and the
lack of background noise. We're frustrated with this as well. We're working hard
on a resolution to this with the host broadcaster in France to correct the
problem.

We're cycling fans too and understand that the problems over the past few days
have been extremely frustrating, we appreciate your understanding and hope you
will enjoy the rest of the tour without any further streaming problems with the
service.

Regards,
The Tour Tracker Team.
petalpower is offline  
Old 07-05-10, 09:28 PM
  #18  
rmanla
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Annapolis, MD
Posts: 22

Bikes: 09 Gary Fisher Piranha (XC), 07 Kona Major Jake(CX), Cannondale Road Bike

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
the tv coverage seems a bit unpolished to me. They don't have as many cameras as id like, and during todays race a couple of them were either continually "janky" or covered with water. I know its a limitation of a constantly moving playing field, but i think they have to put in a little more work if they want to isolate all of the tour.

To the versus online subscribers, can you download video?
rmanla is offline  
Old 07-05-10, 10:05 PM
  #19  
Tunnelrat81
Senior Member
 
Tunnelrat81's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,407
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 23 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Originally Posted by rmanla
the tv coverage seems a bit unpolished to me. They don't have as many cameras as id like, and during todays race a couple of them were either continually "janky" or covered with water. I know its a limitation of a constantly moving playing field, but i think they have to put in a little more work if they want to isolate all of the tour.

To the versus online subscribers
, can you download video?
No, unless someone here has some additional trickery that I'm not aware of. There may be a way to capture it while it plays, but it's simply live and on-demand video, no d/l option.

-Jeremy
Tunnelrat81 is offline  
Old 07-06-10, 09:45 AM
  #20  
* jack *
Senior Member
 
* jack *'s Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Durham, NC
Posts: 1,514

Bikes: more, please.

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 4 Times in 2 Posts
watch the tdf for free on eurosport. links here: https://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/#live
* jack * is offline  
Old 07-06-10, 01:04 PM
  #21  
johnny99
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Northern California
Posts: 10,879
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 104 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 5 Times in 5 Posts
I watched the Versus stream today and it was pretty clear and smooth all the way through. I have a relatively slow (by today's standards) 1.5Mb DSL. They reportedly made some improvements to the stream last night, so it should be better now.

I tried some of the freebie feeds, but their video quality was much worse than Versus. I do like Sean Kelly's commentary on Eurosport better than Phil Ligget, though.
johnny99 is offline  
Old 07-08-10, 08:16 AM
  #22  
ManMachine
Old Guy
 
ManMachine's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 7
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Sign the Petition!
Bring Back the Old VS theme Music!

https://www.petitiononline.com/VS2010/petition.html
ManMachine is offline  
Old 07-10-10, 04:40 AM
  #23  
baj32161
Behind EVERYone!!!
 
baj32161's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Burlington ON, Canada
Posts: 6,020

Bikes: 2010 Specialized Tricross Comp 105 Double

Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 54 Post(s)
Liked 96 Times in 29 Posts
Originally Posted by * jack *
watch the tdf for free on eurosport. links here: https://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/#live
Wow!! Thanks for posting this. It looks like I will be bringing my laptop into work and plugging in during the day.

Cheers,

Brian J.
__________________
“A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence. ”

― Bruce Lee
baj32161 is offline  
Old 07-12-10, 04:51 PM
  #24  
Bontrager
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
Bontrager's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Boulder, CO
Posts: 2,339

Bikes: Road, MTB, Folding, Commuting bikes...

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time in 1 Post
Tour Tracker is meh!

So I got the tour tracker for $30.
Video is great on a 24" iMac at full screen sitting a few feet away. Unfortunately it cuts in and out sometimes to the point where I have to restart Safari and restart the video. I usually watch in the evening. Sometimes it gets real annoying to have to do this over and over. Sometimes it gets fixed if I just FFWD a minute ahead or back. Better than having to pay $$ for cable for the month.

I wish they would put all the other videos (interviews, etc) on the Tour Tracker feed. It's so annoying to watch the 20 second commercial in front of each and every video (interviews, additional content) on the main Vs. site that I simply don't even visit teh main site. You'd think it already knows that I'm logged in and have paid for the Tour Tracker so don't show me the god damn commercial over and over.
Bontrager is offline  
Old 07-14-10, 09:48 AM
  #25  
tulip
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Out there, on my bike
Posts: 5,421
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
I've been watching Eurosport, but decided to get Tour Tracker so I could watch at night (I do have a job during the day!) There's one thing that really bugs me about Tour Tracker: There's no ambient sound. It's just Paul and Phil in a studio. You don't hear the background noises that bring the race to life: helicopter, crowd cheers, radio chatter from team cars...

Hey Versus, if you're reading this, please add some ambient sound. It can't be that complicated to do, even if Paul and Phil ARE in a studio. Sean Kelly and the other Eurosport guys are in a studio, too, but they have the ambient sound.
tulip is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
RJM
Professional Cycling For the Fans
24
07-18-15 04:34 PM
TromboneAl
Professional Cycling For the Fans
5
07-02-13 07:31 AM
rkelley23
Road Cycling
10
01-16-11 03:20 AM
cedricbosch
"The 33"-Road Bike Racing
8
04-03-10 07:54 PM
nvrlnd7
Professional Cycling For the Fans
21
01-23-10 01:46 PM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.