[RELEASE] NHL Gamecenter Addon

What quality are the condensed and archived, is it 1600 or 3000kbs?

Live, condensed and archived games are available as 800, 1600 and 3000 kbit/s streams. Classic games are available as 800 and 1600 kbit/s streams.

Is there a way to adjust the buffer size of the stream? Playback is sometimes a bit choppy (I have a 15Mbs connection so should be ok), but would like to try increasing the buffer if it's possible.

Great plugin though

mikegc Wrote:Is there a way to adjust the buffer size of the stream? Playback is sometimes a bit choppy (I have a 15Mbs connection so should be ok), but would like to try increasing the buffer if it's possible.

Great plugin though

I agree with mikegc. I know when I first got ATV2 the actual gamecenter app they had on there I had no issues streaming at high bitrate. But since I had to revert back to ATV2 4.3 and using the plugin my video gets choppy every 15 secs or so. Would love to see the buffer increase a bit too. Keep up the good work Carb0!

Hey guys - quick question or two -

First off - Thanks Carb0 for making this plugin. Does the NHL periodically make a game free to do the same way MLB does? I am currently a DirecTV Center Ice subscriber, so I have no need for NHL GameCenter Live this season... but I want to look at the picture quality (Both through the aTV2 native app and this one using my main HTPC) so I can make a decision for next season.

With MLB.tv, I had some playback issues with the aTV2's app, and using the MLBMC add-on created by divingmule. With both of them, I got some periodic hesitations and general choppiness, and the picture quality would jump from very good to very pixilated, as the software was adjusting based on my connection. This was tolerable for watching a baseball game, but I would go out of my mind trying to watch a hockey game this way. My ISP has recently bumped up the connection from a horrible 7-10 Mb/s connection to a respectable 15 Mb/s, so I am hoping that should resolve some of the issues... but I really want to give this a test drive.

I tried contacting the NHL at the beginning of the season to see if they can give me a 1 day trial so I could test streaming quality and they refused....so, back to my original questions -

1- Do they periodically put a game out that is free to access by non-subscribers?
2- Can you access any other content (archived games, etc...) without a subscription that can give me an idea of the quality?

Thanks in advance for answering this questions, I know they are slightly off topic regarding the functioning of the add-on.

One little question:

Why the games played on yesterday do not show up in the menu? First I thought there is a new blackout rule but as I opened GCL from browser I noticed that I still can watch the games played on yesterday. I just can't watch them with XBMC.

I live in Finland and most of the games start 2.00-4.00 am while I'm supposed to sleep. I really can't wait two days to watch the games because it's very hard to avoid the spoilers

mikegc Wrote:Is there a way to adjust the buffer size of the stream? Playback is sometimes a bit choppy (I have a 15Mbs connection so should be ok), but would like to try increasing the buffer if it's possible.

Great plugin though

smoothaseggs Wrote:I agree with mikegc. I know when I first got ATV2 the actual gamecenter app they had on there I had no issues streaming at high bitrate. But since I had to revert back to ATV2 4.3 and using the plugin my video gets choppy every 15 secs or so. Would love to see the buffer increase a bit too. Keep up the good work Carb0!

I don't think it's possible to control the buffer size, but a 15 Mbit/s connection should be more than enough for streaming at 3000kbit/s. I think the servers are sometimes not fast enough if many people access the videos, but usually it's possible to stream at 3000kbit/s.

sdsnyr94 Wrote:Hey guys - quick question or two -

First off - Thanks Carb0 for making this plugin. Does the NHL periodically make a game free to do the same way MLB does? I am currently a DirecTV Center Ice subscriber, so I have no need for NHL GameCenter Live this season... but I want to look at the picture quality (Both through the aTV2 native app and this one using my main HTPC) so I can make a decision for next season.

With MLB.tv, I had some playback issues with the aTV2's app, and using the MLBMC add-on created by divingmule. With both of them, I got some periodic hesitations and general choppiness, and the picture quality would jump from very good to very pixilated, as the software was adjusting based on my connection. This was tolerable for watching a baseball game, but I would go out of my mind trying to watch a hockey game this way. My ISP has recently bumped up the connection from a horrible 7-10 Mb/s connection to a respectable 15 Mb/s, so I am hoping that should resolve some of the issues... but I really want to give this a test drive.

I tried contacting the NHL at the beginning of the season to see if they can give me a 1 day trial so I could test streaming quality and they refused....so, back to my original questions -

1- Do they periodically put a game out that is free to access by non-subscribers?
2- Can you access any other content (archived games, etc...) without a subscription that can give me an idea of the quality?

Thanks in advance for answering this questions, I know they are slightly off topic regarding the functioning of the add-on.

1. I don't think they do that.
2. You need a subscription to access the content.

The best quality available is 720p (3000kbit/s).

Cocktus Wrote:One little question:

Why the games played on yesterday do not show up in the menu? First I thought there is a new blackout rule but as I opened GCL from browser I noticed that I still can watch the games played on yesterday. I just can't watch them with XBMC.

I live in Finland and most of the games start 2.00-4.00 am while I'm supposed to sleep. I really can't wait two days to watch the games because it's very hard to avoid the spoilers

The games show up for me. I live in Switzerland btw.

This message comes up alot when I'm watching a game in the logs:

10:20:22 T:3384 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available

I'm not sure if this is what is causing my stream to stutter, it could well be an isp/network issue though.

Great plugin! I am used to watching live games with a 30-40 minutes delay. So I can skip commercials and period breaks. The only thing I am missing is a button/implementation to start from the absolute beginning and jump forward 10 seconds. The native xbmc buttons doesnt really work.

That's what I love about the original web player. Any chance you can incorporate that? Cheers!

mikegc Wrote:This message comes up alot when I'm watching a game in the logs:

10:20:22 T:3384 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available

I'm not sure if this is what is causing my stream to stutter, it could well be an isp/network issue though.

Does it stutter if you use boxee to access gamecenter live? Did you try to watch the videos at different times (morning, Evening)? If you always have the same issues it's probably your isp. Try lower stream qualities to get smooth playback.

Ogglord Wrote:Great plugin! I am used to watching live games with a 30-40 minutes delay. So I can skip commercials and period breaks. The only thing I am missing is a button/implementation to start from the absolute beginning and jump forward 10 seconds. The native xbmc buttons doesnt really work.

That's what I love about the original web player. Any chance you can incorporate that? Cheers!

I'll take a look at it, but I don't know if it's possible.