IceNetwork Discount This Year?

[dbny]

I got the IceNetwork renewal email, but haven't gotten the discount offer. Has anyone gotten it yet? I hope they do it again.

[Skate@Delaware]

I hope so....cause I want to subscribe! Anyone figure out how to view it on a larger screen (my view is pretty small) or on a tv?

[Isk8NYC]

I hope so....cause I want to subscribe! Anyone figure out how to view it on a larger screen (my view is pretty small) or on a tv?
A few people explained how to hook up the computer to the TV. The resolution's pretty good and I didn't have any stalls over the DSL.
http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=27972&highlight=cable+video+audio

[sexyskates]

I e mailed them about the discount, and received a message that there is no USFSA member discount this year.

[Skate@Delaware]

A few people explained how to hook up the computer to the TV. The resolution's pretty good and I didn't have any stalls over the DSL.
http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=27972&highlight=cable+video+audio
Thanks! I have the "S" hookup (this will work better for my Netflix movies too)
I e mailed them about the discount, and received a message that there is no USFSA member discount this year.
booooo!!!!!! But still, I miss watching tons of skating so, I will spend some of my hen money on it!

[Isk8NYC]

I e mailed them about the discount, and received a message that there is no USFSA member discount this year.
I'll bet a lot of people won't renew without the discount.

I already renewed because the Olympics are coming up and I just wanted it off my do list. I was paying out for a million other things and figured I'd just get it done.

Last year, they offered the discount after the autorenewals went through. A SF member sent me the discount email and I asked IceNetwork/USFSA for a refund, which they did fairly quickly.

Interesting that I had a "Out of the US" block on my account after I received the refund. Took over a week and numerous emails/phone calls to resolve that problem. :twisted:

I would strongly recommend that everyone test their IceNetwork (IN) viewing before the season gets underway.
If there is a problem with your viewing, it can be fixed more quickly if the IN staff isn't deluged with complaints.

[dance2sk8]

So far, I've enjoyed Universal Sports. Only a few selections, but some of the big events are streamed live on here.

http://www.universalsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&KEY=&SPID=13046&SPSID=105655

[Query]

When I tried it (including on my computer screen), I found the resolution was substantially less than broadcast quality (and we don't even have HDTV). In particular, there was a lot of blurring and various artifacts when skaters were in motion.

Is that everyone's experience, or is it possible to get broadcast quality results?

(On the other hand, I have tried using a nice big bright TV screen in place of a computer monitor for computer work. Wow! The resolution may not be quite as good, but I love big and bright. Once you try it, you may be tempted to use your TV screen all the time.)

[Isk8NYC]

For me, Universal Sports was very clear and bright. IceNetwork was slightly grainy, but not much worse than watching TV over the airwaves in the 1970's and 1980's, lol. But I understand what you're saying: it's not broadcast quality, although Universal Sports was close.

My DVD/VCR shows a clearer picture than the regular TV channel. I really should figure out why, but I hate fooling with the cables. Between the satellite, the Wii, the DVD/VCR, and the TV itself, it's a jungle of cables.

Instead of hooking the laptop up to the TV itself, I've been using the DVD/VCR input jacks. Maybe that's why the resolution is okay.

I'm a little concerned because I've been having problems watching the videos on Syfy.com and nbc.com for the last two months - they stall and stutter terribly over my wireless network. On a wired connection, they're more reliable, but there are still a few hiccups. I might have to move my modem and router to boost the wireless signal since that's the only way I can hook it up to the television.

[Skate@Delaware]

My concern is getting very poor video quality and choppy playback. I do have HD cable and broadband. I have watched Netflix over the Xbox and haven't had any issues, but watching some of the "freebie" videos from IN haven't really sold me...they are fuzzy and choppy. I'm not sure if it's ME or THEM.

[Isk8NYC]

Just out of curiosity: did anyone else get the 'autorenew' email followed by a later email saying the autorenew failed because the credit card was expired?

A casual conversation at the rink revealed that four of us had this happen. No one's autorenewal went through.

While it's quite possible we all subscribed last year with cards expiring in 2009, I wonder if there's more to this story that they're not telling us about?

[Debbie S]

Just out of curiosity: did anyone else get the 'autorenew' email followed by a later email saying the autorenew failed because the credit card was expired?I didn't get anything like that, but interestingly, my CC address in their records was wrong, b/c I moved since I first registered, which was 2 seasons ago. It went through last year, and then after I got the autorenew e-mail this year, I started wondering about it. So I logged in to the IN site and made the change. I assume everything went through (hey, it did last year when the address was wrong).

[Skate@Delaware]

My DVD/VCR shows a clearer picture than the regular TV channel. I really should figure out why, but I hate fooling with the cables. Between the satellite, the Wii, the DVD/VCR, and the TV itself, it's a jungle of cables.

Instead of hooking the laptop up to the TV itself, I've been using the DVD/VCR input jacks. Maybe that's why the resolution is okay.

I should try this...I hooked up my laptop to my tv (which is a flat-panel lcd) and could not get the picture to come up....and when I finally did manage, I got picture only, no sound (GRRRR!). So, back to the drawing board and see if I can figure this out and get it working (easier said than done, eh?)...be so much easier if they had it watchable on the iTouch or iPhone, BUT the technologies are not compatible.

[Query]

There is a possible reason a video signal might be more clear when you watch it through your DVD and/or VCR instead of connected directly to the TV. For one reason or another, the signal strength coming from the computer might not be strong enough for your TV. (On my own home system, the input cable signal has been split too many ways, between TVs and VCRs. So broadcast TV would look worse if I split it more to pipe a signal directly to the TV instead of letting it use the signal from the DVD/VCR.) But the difference would probably only show up when the DVD/VCR was turned on.

When I mentioned I get "artifacts" when I watch Ice Network, I was referring to:

(1) The compression process probably divides the image into little 8x8 pixel boxes. The borders between those boxes are sometimes visible. I used to work in image compression (on the scientific end, as in ship, air and space borne systems, not in the consumer market, but the ideas are the same), and know that this happens when you aren't sending a high enough data rate data stream.

(2) Sometimes the images appear blurred. This only occurs when there is motion - again an artifact caused by inssuficient data rate. In fact they are almost always more blurred than broadcast TV, except when there is no motion. It's not noticeable if you let Ice Network use a small part of your screen, but it is very noticeable full screen.

(3) Sometimes the image freezes for a moment. Perhaps because a data packet gets lost in the transmission process. I have been very careful to cut down on the extraneous processes running on my computer, so am confident it is not because they are causing the decompression to occur too slowly. I don't know whether this problems comes from my cable company/ISP (Comcast), the general Internet, or Ice Network itself, or some combination.

These things are not characteristics of the connection between the TV and the computer (they occur on the computer screen too). They can only be the result of insufficient data rate, and of poor data transmission protocals.

[Skate@Delaware]

All I know, Query, I have high-speed broadband but I tried hooking it up direct to my cable modem
cable modem to computer....watched icenetwork and it was slow and choppy (at 400k)
cable modem to dvd/vcr.....ditto
(I tried with my laptop AND with my son's alienware gaming machine so it's not just my laptop)

cable modem to computer....watched netflix (not sure what their transmission speed is)....no problem with any movie...ditto for youtube ditto for an HD video I had on a remote server
cable modem to dvd/vcr...netflix OR youtube

which leads me to believe that they are just pushing thru narrow band lines/servers or it could be the cable company....I'm not sure

Why should I pay for that? I'll catch highlights on youtube or somewhere else...I want to watch on my big tv but it doesn't seem to be working out for me so I'll pass for now.

[sk8pics]

I was going to try icenetwork this year, but when I saw all the TV coverage with NBC and Universal Sports, and I realized I get Universal Sports on my cable, I decided not to. I'm too busy to watch every last skater on icenetwork, and the coverage on Universal Sports has been great so far!

[liz_on_ice]

I did subscribe this year, thought i's catch some of the intermediates from my club at regionals but I only see a button to subscribe, not view - whats up? I'm getting the TEB video like I should.

[icedancer2]

I dumped icenetwork - when I called the guy asked if I had done all of the technical things possible so that my feed would work on my computer. I told him that yes I had and that I felt like I wanted to kill myself after wasting so much time with it - he let me go...

Just discovered yesterday that we have Universal Sports Network on our cable package - yea!! I like the coverage that I saw so far - looking forward to seeing the NBC version today.

Yea! The skating season has begun! I have missed watching skating on TV.

[Isk8NYC]

After either NBC or DirecTV screwed up the Cup of Russia broadcast (the last HOUR was black-screened. I thought listening to commentators during skating programs was bad - it's even worse with ONLY the audio, lol.

I finally broke down an renewed my IceNetwork account. Decided it was time to change passwords and clean out old billing information, but IN doesn't seem to provide the ability to remove the latter. Guess I'll have to send IN an email.

I spent about 30 minutes trying to get my Wii to stream the video from icenetwork.com, but the two are incompatible. The kids are thrilled that we now have the "Wii Shopping" and "Wii Internet" channels. They don't realize that I still have parental controls in force, lol.

[Skate@Delaware]

I was going to try icenetwork this year, but when I saw all the TV coverage with NBC and Universal Sports, and I realized I get Universal Sports on my cable, I decided not to. I'm too busy to watch every last skater on icenetwork, and the coverage on Universal Sports has been great so far!
Wow! I wish Comcast (downstate) had Universal Sports!!!!
After either NBC or DirecTV screwed up the Cup of Russia broadcast (the last HOUR was black-screened. I thought listening to commentators during skating programs was bad - it's even worse with ONLY the audio, lol.

I finally broke down an renewed my IceNetwork account. Decided it was time to change passwords and clean out old billing information, but IN doesn't seem to provide the ability to remove the latter. Guess I'll have to send IN an email.

I spent about 30 minutes trying to get my Wii to stream the video from icenetwork.com, but the two are incompatible. The kids are thrilled that we now have the "Wii Shopping" and "Wii Internet" channels. They don't realize that I still have parental controls in force, lol.
I don't subscribe to some of my cable channels, however, I can still get the audio on them...nice to listen to movies while crocheting or knitting (don't have to look up altho that's a habit I keep doing-LOL).

I "locked down" my son's Xbox one time and he freaked out---man was it ugly! He learned his lesson! Oh to have such power over your minions!!!!!! :twisted:

[Isk8NYC]

GRRRRR ... Definitely not my day. I finally caved and subscribed to IN, but sure enough, there's a discount now! Hopefully, someone else can use the discount code.

http://ww2.icenetwork.com/twu/

Make sure you read the page and enter the TWU code to get the $5 off.

EXPIRES 11/14/2009 - act fast!

[TreSk8sAZ]

WAit, can people who already bought this get the discount?

[Isk8NYC]

I going to send an email and see if they'll give me a credit. I have a Twitter account (which I use for very little, lol) which is how I came across the discount today. (Offer expires 11/14/2009, btw)

I had given up hope of a discount and resigned myself to paying full freight (after I changed my password, which is another story) and lo and behold, a discount appears.

ETA: I just sent a request for a $5 credit. I remarked that I would have expected it to be offered to USFSA members first.
We'll see what happens - probably nothing until next week when the offices are open again.