ESPN on Xbox vs cable?

[nuker77]

Hello,

I am looking for alternatives for getting cable tv as the only thing I ever watch is football (last year I only had cable for the football season). One option I was exploring was ESPN on Xbox. This, combined with antenna for ABC/CBS would likely give me access to all the football I need (minus big ten channel).

I don't currently have an Xbox 360, so I would need to purchase one and then upgrade my internet speed, which would require going to the cable company anyway since I don't have FIOS available at my house. So, I'd be looking at $+30 for higher speed internet (currently have regular verizon DSL, which I don't think is fast enough for streaming) plus $60 for Xbox Live subscription vs. about $70/mo for 4 months for cable. So, I'd potentially save a little but not much. I would be able to justify purchasing an Xbox to my wife however .

Does anyone have any thoughts, suggestions, comments on this (specifically the usefulness of ESPN for football through Xbox live?). What speed internet is required for good streaming?

Thanks.

 

[jimski]

I have a 10Mbps cable connection and it works fine for SD movies and most streaming, including MLB.TV. HD movies usually work, but can a times be sketchy.

ESPN is not what you may think for XBox. Currently, it offers taped clips of studio updates along with ESPN3. That's it. My XBox has not detected my carrier, Bright House, as supporting ESPN3 although a recent commercial says they do. Going to have to take a look on their website to see if it can be enabled. But until the NFL provides something like MLB.TV for XBox you may be out of luck.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro

 

[nuker77]

Thanks.

I am mainly interested in college football, not NFL. But, things I have read made it seem like you could pick up anything broadcast on ESPN (if your provider is in the ESPN agreeement). Will have to look into that a bit further.

 

[eric12341]

Well most ISPs have bandwidth caps now so you can't totally use Xbox,roku etc as a replacement for a TV package.

 

[5tephen]

The ESPN app on Xbox is how I watch my Canes play. And usually if I can't watch it live on the Xbox such as the FSU game which was on ABC, I can watch the replay the next day. I have Cox with a 18Mb connection and streaming HD quality live college football works great. They also have an awesome screen in screen feature so you can have two games on at once.

 

[VagrantWade]

ESPN on the 360 just plays ESPN3 games.

 

[Duvi]

Thanks.

I am mainly interested in college football, not NFL. But, things I have read made it seem like you could pick up anything broadcast on ESPN (if your provider is in the ESPN agreeement). Will have to look into that a bit further.

You'll also have to have ESPN as a channel on cable tv as it checks your subscription from what I remember. The quality sucked the first time I installed it, so I haven't checked it recently.

 

[Guitarpik]

I'm not sure I'm understanding your math.

Isn't $70 a month for 4 months a lot cheaper than buying an xbox, xbox live membership, and upgrading your internet?

Although I doubt you would have to upgrade the internet to begin with.

 

[pavvento]

Even of your broadband carrier offers ESPN through Xbox I think (as 1 poster mentioned) it also requires a cable subscription.

 

[shingi_70]

It depends as I don't have a cable sub and I get it. Mostly espn3 content and college sports. That and reolay clips of the various shows.

Its supposed to be getting upgraded to something called watchespn with all of the espn channels.

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[inteller]

back in August, ESPN starting putting EXTREME restrictions on ESPN3, the service that drives ESPN on Xbox. Before, you could see all kinds of content from ESPN U, ESPN2, even ESPN proper sometimes. You had to have ESPN3 from your cable provider. A lot of cable providers threw ESPN3 with your INTERNET subscription, not cable. Well now ESPN has a new tier of ESPN on depand content called WatchESPN. With this tier you have to be subscribed to cable, and your provider has to support it. HOWEVER, you will not get access to this content through the ESPN Xbox app even if you meet all of those requirements. I'm predicting ESPN will release another app for Xbox that authenticates if you have WatchESPN on your subscription.

The ESPN app is REALLY nice from back when it started. However with all the blackout resitrictions on it now it is pretty worthless.

 

[5tephen]

Whoa. I don't even have cable AT ALL but I can still use the ESPN app on the Xbox to watch college football all day Saturday. I have had no issues with quality (I have a 18Mb connection) and it streams in HD too. I don't know what these other people are talking about needing a cable subscription and having extreme limitations. I've watched stuff from sportscenter (replays), college football (live and replays), tennis (live), college basketball (live and replays), and other things like that. I have had no issues AT ALL.

 

[inteller]

replays yes, you can get all of those. But you can no longer watch something that is live if it is live on ESPNU or ESPN2.

 

[5tephen]

replays yes, you can get all of those. But you can no longer watch something that is live if it is live on ESPNU or ESPN2.

But...college football comes primarily on ESPNU. And I watch it through the app on my Xbox all the time.

 

[inteller]

hey man I'm not going to argue any further, you can read up here:

Frequently Asked Questions about WatchESPN

basically if you get a game on there great, but in the future it will be less and less certain.

 

[5tephen]

Oh I'm not trying to argue either, I'm just saying that I watch college football that airs on ESPNU every Saturday. And that I don't have a cable subscription and it works just fine. Just my experience.

 

[shingi_70]

Pretty sure ESPNU content still works as does some ESPN2 content.

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