This is one of those situations where I don't wanna 'suckitandsee'...
'cos if it stinks then I'm out $119 on my CC. Soooo....

First, can I actually get this in the UK? I'm not real interested in
clicking all the buttons to sign up and find I'm not
eligible...whatever. Also... what blackouts apply? Any?.
I emailed MLB about this last year and as expected got a kind of
'form' response which told me nothing.

If anybody has some experience of this, I'd like to hear about it.
I'm using a Mac, but my specs seem to have the basics well covered...
but one of the things that concerns me is being with Virgin Media and
their damn awful speed capping at 'peak' times. I'm wondering if my
stream speed will drop to a crawl if I get included as a 'heavy user',
despite the fact I wouldn't actually be downloading anything!

Anyway, all info will be gratefully received,
Regards,
Bud.

"jushavinabud"  wrote in message 
news:100220081352578763%chillin@home.com...
> This is one of those situations where I don't wanna 
> 'suckitandsee'...
> 'cos if it stinks then I'm out $119 on my CC. Soooo....
>
> First, can I actually get this in the UK?

Yes.
This year will be my 2nd or 3rd year on premium, prior to that (from 
'03 postseason) i've been on the standard mlb.tv package with no 
problems.


> Also... what blackouts apply? Any?.

Of sorts, yes. The only real blackout for the UK, though, is that you 
can't watch an archive of the previous day until around 11am the 
following day. So, if, on a sunday you want to watch a game from 
saturday night, you need to wait until 11am sunday to see it.

There are blackouts that affect the US and some other territories, but 
(as yet) they don't apply over here.

>
> If anybody has some experience of this, I'd like to hear about it.
> I'm using a Mac, but my specs seem to have the basics well 
> covered...
> but one of the things that concerns me is being with Virgin Media 
> and
> their damn awful speed capping at 'peak' times. I'm wondering if my
> stream speed will drop to a crawl if I get included as a 'heavy 
> user',
> despite the fact I wouldn't actually be downloading anything!
>

Don't know about MACs as i'm a PC user.
As for "speed capping", the media streams this year will apparently 
come in 3 speeds, 400K is the standard one, then 800 and 1200 for 
"preimum" subscribers.

In the past i've not had problems with the 400K, sometimes picture 
isn't brilliant, but still good, the (last year) 700K feed was 
superior picture quality, but at times prone to severe buffering on my 
ISP (i'm only on 1Meg link though).

basically, you'll be fine.... for roughly 60 quid a whole season of 
MLB games is a serious bargain !!!

In article , Matt Wheeler
 wrote:

> "jushavinabud"  wrote in message 
> news:100220081352578763%chillin@home.com...
> > This is one of those situations where I don't wanna 
> > 'suckitandsee'...
> > 'cos if it stinks then I'm out $119 on my CC. Soooo....
> >
> > First, can I actually get this in the UK?
> 
> Yes.
> This year will be my 2nd or 3rd year on premium, prior to that (from 
> '03 postseason) i've been on the standard mlb.tv package with no 
> problems.
> 
> 
> > Also... what blackouts apply? Any?.
> 
> Of sorts, yes. The only real blackout for the UK, though, is that you 
> can't watch an archive of the previous day until around 11am the 
> following day. So, if, on a sunday you want to watch a game from 
> saturday night, you need to wait until 11am sunday to see it.
> 
> There are blackouts that affect the US and some other territories, but 
> (as yet) they don't apply over here.
> 
> >
> > If anybody has some experience of this, I'd like to hear about it.
> > I'm using a Mac, but my specs seem to have the basics well 
> > covered...
> > but one of the things that concerns me is being with Virgin Media 
> > and
> > their damn awful speed capping at 'peak' times. I'm wondering if my
> > stream speed will drop to a crawl if I get included as a 'heavy 
> > user',
> > despite the fact I wouldn't actually be downloading anything!
> >
> 
> Don't know about MACs as i'm a PC user.
> As for "speed capping", the media streams this year will apparently 
> come in 3 speeds, 400K is the standard one, then 800 and 1200 for 
> "preimum" subscribers.
> 
> In the past i've not had problems with the 400K, sometimes picture 
> isn't brilliant, but still good, the (last year) 700K feed was 
> superior picture quality, but at times prone to severe buffering on my 
> ISP (i'm only on 1Meg link though).
> 
> basically, you'll be fine.... for roughly 60 quid a whole season of 
> MLB games is a serious bargain !!! 
> 
> 

Matt, thanks for answering ALL my queries!
The widget on MLB.TV home page says I have 3478kbps bandwidth,
The media player will run AOK on either Firefox or Safari, so basically
I'm good to go. I'm gonna go sign up NOW. Thanks again,
Regards,
Bud.