Sky Sports F1 HD

I'll take or leave Ben Edwards TBH. I remember him commentating on the BTCC in 2002 and thinking he was OK. At least DC will be staying on alongside him.

On the subject of former BTCC commentators, I think it's a shame they've not brought John Watson in alongside DC. I didn't like him as a BTCC commentator, where a different style of commentary is needed and he couldn't pull it off, but after checking out old EuroSport live F1 coverage from the early 90s on YouTube, I think he's actually very good as an F1 commentator - certainly he's very insightful. He's also worked with the BBC in the past so there should be no problem there, unless he or the BBC were put off by his stint alongside Charlie Cox, and as far as I know he doesn't have any major commitments elsewhere at the moment. I think a good opportunity might have been missed there.

---

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was thinking James Allen might have been back in
> with a shout (he'd be better without the ITV bias,
> and hopefully the Beeb would've kept his mock
> excitement in check), but I couldn't see the BBC
> thinking that would be a popular appointment.

James Allen said from the start on his website that he wasn't interested in a full-time live commentary role any longer.

---

X (@ed24f1)

good, neither were we in him

---

RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Does anyone know whether I can get this channel through Virgin or not?

Latest I've heard is that Virgin would like to show it - see their site

---

Batracer - the online racing manager game - join here [batracer.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2011 11:50PM by Robert.

I have access to Virgin Media(My folks subscribe to it), so I'm hoping they can work something out as well. It'd solve a few problems...

---

Combination of beeb and air-playing dodgy streams for me. That's if I'm lucky enough to be off work during the racing otherwise I guess delayed coverage and iplayer will suffice for my situation.

Either way there's no way i'm splashing out on SKY or Virgin, because it'd be a waste of money on something I neither need nor want.

Yeah I'm hoping that Virgin can pick up the Channel, and hopefully have it as part of their HD package

Otherwise it will have to be streams for me

---

Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Do you reckon they'll be showing F1 on one of the Sky Sports channels? Again, we don't want to fork out money for sky, but our carble TV comes with Sky Sports 1-4. But as far as I can see, they haven't mentioned anything about it being shown on any of these channels.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]

You never know, it will be a Sky Sports channel, so you might get it anyway.

Personally, I'm leaning towards not giving a @#$%& and just downloading the Sky coverage once it's available and watching it later. I might listen to 5Live coverage live or I might try to avoid all contact with sport and news until seeing the race, but I'm certainly not going to pay £600+ a year and I just can't bring myself to only watch the BBC highlights.

How do you mean download the Sky coverage? Surely you will have to subscribe?

The same way I download HD coverage now (I don't have an HD receiver yet).

It's the naughty method, but I can sleep relatively soundly by thinking that if Bernie wasn't so greedy (I blame Bernie's fees rather than the BBC's (quite correct) cost cutting) then non-subscription channels could afford to broadcast it (as it was up until the economic downturn, and as it is in most other countries) and that I'd be able to see the races anyway on the BBC, albeit truncated slightly for 10 of them.

This season I downloaded most of the races in HD anyway. I pay the license fee and I watch the races live anyway, so I'm not cheating anyone. While I don't condone it, in a way, I wouldn't really cheating Sky - I wouldn't subscribe to Sky in the first place, so they're not losing money from me... I'm just using them to get the full races rather than what the BBC will in the races they don't have live - probably around an hour of highlights.

To be honest, my outlook might change completely over the coming months. I might just make due with 5Live and the BBC highlights. My interest in F1 has dwindled in the past decade, primarily due to the castrating of circuits, of Tilke's dire tracks taking up much of the season, and the lack of close racing. To an extent the latter has changed since the introduction of slicks and especially Pirelli's, but for the most part it's still not as entertaining as it was 'back in the day'. My heart used to be pumping at the start of a race with anticipation and excitement... it just doesn't happen anymore.

I still very much like F1, but it's not the love it used to be, and I'm not about to pay £600 (plus the license fee) for the right to see them all. I'll see in March how I want to satisfy what lust there is left.

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My interest in F1
> has dwindled in the past decade, primarily due to
> the castrating of circuits, of Tilke's dire tracks
> taking up much of the season, and the lack of
> close racing. To an extent the latter has changed
> since the introduction of slicks and especially
> Pirelli's, but for the most part it's still not as
> entertaining as it was 'back in the day'. My heart
> used to be pumping at the start of a race with
> anticipation and excitement... it just doesn't
> happen anymore.
>
> I still very much like F1, but it's not the love
> it used to be,


Well you're not alone in that, Gav. I thought it was because I was growing up, but when you look back on old races, you can see how most of the soul has been lost.

I still enjoy a good race, but there's no anticipation anymore for me. At uni, before the start of 2010, I said to my mates I was thinking of taking a year away from F1, to try to relight the fire.

It's a shame, because I think these last few seasons have been very entertaining. But they don't seem to be thrilling anymore. Maybe it's because F1 has become too sanitised, maybe it's because I'm growing up... I don't know. For example, when I look back on footage of the 70s or 80s (even 90s) cars, up to 1997, I get a great thrill just from watching the cars go round the circuit, let alone racing.

I think they need to bring back more of the simple pleasures - aggressive looking cars, onboard cameras with a sense of speed (compare old onboards with new onboards... New onboards are faster, but don't have the sensation of speed), a variety of circuits with character (the fast track, the twisty track, etc), but most of all that feeling of danger (even if it isn't dangerous, it just needs to feel it)

Which is strange, because when I went to Goodwood this year, I thought that the modern F1 cars were by far the most thrilling out of any. They looked and sounded fantastic compared to the other cars, even the ones that people worship as being the most exciting cars ever.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]

Gav wrote

"The same way I download HD coverage now (I don't have an HD receiver yet)."

Would you be kind enough to give an idea how to do this. Thanks alot.

Torrents. I won't go into it due to the risk of a ban or highlighting specific sites (and them getting Bernie on their back), but most general torrent sites will likely have an F1 HD torrent available for download a few hours after a race. Hopefully someone will upload Sky coverage next year, so I might have the option of downloading the full race a few hours later. Certainly not the same as seeing it live, but it'll probably be better than a highlights package (and if I listen to the race on 5Live, I'll know whether getting the full race is worth it or not). For those races which the BBC do cover live, I guess I'll watch them the same as I have been this year - live, and then if the race is a special one, I'll download HD coverage of it in order to keep it available.

Thanks - I'll look into it.

I'd imagine the demand for Sky HD coverage will mean more torrents get uploaded than there have been in the last few years. Making sure I can get access to live streaming is what's bugging me, in case the Virgin deal with Sky doesn't work out.

---

Well I imagination FOM will be on the look out and will be smithing as many as possible but hopefully some will get through the net

Yeah, that's the awesome thing about trying to police the Internet. It can't really be done. :P

---

EC83 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'd imagine the demand for Sky HD coverage will
> mean more torrents get uploaded than there have
> been in the last few years. Making sure I can get
> access to live streaming is what's bugging me, in
> case the Virgin deal with Sky doesn't work out.

Maybe, but on the other hand, less people will have access to the races, so there are less people to upload.

---

X (@ed24f1)