Streaming Update
All,
Again, thanks for your patience. Our streaming partner has been struggling to keep up with load all day on our single game streams, and we’ve been constrained by some similar issues with the mosaic streams. We appreciate your dedication and interest in the product, and will provide the optimal experience you expect. We’re working to resolve these issues and improve experience now.
For clarification, we’re offering single game streams in 400k and 700k to our premium subscribers this year. The 700k single game stream on monitors up to 36″ or so looks comparable to standard definition television – hence the TV quality streaming. For the Mosaic, the 6 game view is designed to allow you to get better context about whats going on around the league. In order to provide the customizable user interface, we actually have to stream all 16 games behind the scenes – so while the mosaic streams run at 700kilobits/s, 1.2megabit/second and 1.8 megabits/second, we’re actually streaming 16 games with video and audio in that pipe. We’re working on additional upgrades to our encoders to provide higher quality and will be rolling that out asap.
All that said, we’ve now deployed for those of you struggling with the mosaic streams, a 700k (LOW) quality stream in all video quality settings, that bypasses our new streaming software and should be working. We’ll have the high quality streaming back up and running asap. Thanks again for your understanding and all of the feedback. The whole team very much appreciates it.
Thanks,
Justin
MLB.TV Mosaic Blog 
Thanks!
So, are you saying that the streaming in mosaic wont ever be 1.8 megabits, instead the entire stream will be that speed? all 6 games?
Thanks for the update.
Anything on the constant crashes many of us are experiencing?
“Again, thanks for your patience. Our streaming partner has been struggling to keep up with load all day on our single game streams, and we’ve been constrained by some similar issues with the mosaic streams. We appreciate your dedication and interest in the product, and will provide the optimal experience you expect. We’re working to resolve these issues and improve experience now.”
—
did you not stress test this first?
also, PLEASE CLARIFIY IF MY CREDIT CARD INFORMATION WAS SENT UNENCRYPTED.
Or on the constant Credit Card requests? When I hit OK on that form, its like all the games are then blocked, I can’t see anything. If I fill out the form completely, it just pops back up 10 seconds later and asks for the info again
Oh Justin. It still doesn’t work. Only BTV shows a picture. But keep on pretending. I got you 😦 *rofl*
I, too, have been dealing with constant crashes. Playertracker and these other features look promising, but for now, I’d really just like to be able to see the games. Furthermore, it’s been incredibly difficult to even get to a login page because the applet keeps asking for my credit card information. Lastly, I would just add that I find it pretty annoying to have to watch a 15 second ad – particularly the SAME ad for Right Guard – every time I switch games.
can you say ‘x264’ codec?
The sound is absolutely AWFUL, and is several seconds behind the video feed. So far I am very disappointed. I hope they get this stuff fixed ASAP.
Hi Justin, thanks for the updates throughout the day. They are much appreciated. From the posts I’ve read, I’m now under the impression that as a Premium subscriber, I will not be able to watch a ‘single’ game with a 1.2/1.8 stream? I hope that is not the case. Generally, I’m really not interested in watching multiple games at once. I’d rather just click on my favorite’s team’s game and see that in the highest possible quality. Is this the case?
I am also having problems with the 700k stream occasionally stopping? Is this a known problem or something new?
Justin,
Thanks for keeping us all updated. I can imagine how difficult it is to market a product that tends to have hiccups on the first day. But it’s just that…The first day. If these issues can be resolved in the first week or two then the rest of the season is golden! Keep up the good work, and I’ll keep watching via mosaic…Even if it’s one game at a time right now.
lhaehn – are you joking? Will you sell a notebook and just after a feedback you will solve the “first day issue”, that there is no CPU inside? This is just a horrible service. OK, it is hard to simulate the high demand and network could collapse but that CC story is NOT about high demand. It´s just about selling a product without real testing!
the entire package has amazing potential with better streaming, less stopping, and a working playertracker this will be a great buy. thanks for the help today justin and crew.
My Mosaic opens, but I have no video feeds except for the Baseball channel. Please tell me how I can get games to actually show up in their windows.
Oh, man… You paid 120 bucks for non-running service, you did nothing wrong and you are saying thank you, that they are fixing their own mistakes? You are very broadminded man
Television quality with a 700k feed? Maybe if your computer screen is six inches wide. Here’s hoping those 1.2/1.8 streams get fixed.
Other than the picture quality, the Mosaic is fantastic. I’m very impressed with the features. Great job with the Mac support. It’s exactly the same as the Windows Mosaic program, which is rare. Usually Mac users get lesser quality services. It’s a refreshing change!
Oh, and can you please let us choose a username when commenting on this blog? I get enough spam without having my e-mail address posted next to my comment.
rbichamp, I don’t know the how much you know about how mlb.tv works (many people who have just subscribed due to the extra inning deal seem to be confused about how the whole “mlb.tv” thing [and mosaic] work, due in part to their insane “screaming” and rants about mosaic not working…) but maybe I can help you out. Mosaic is more of an “elaborate” add-on for people who would like to watch multiple games at once, have stat alerts/updates, ect., and is no the only option to watching games online. It sounds to me like you would be better suited using the normal in browser version of mlb.tv. This can be accessed by going here: http://mlb.mlb.com/mediacenter/index.jsp#20070402
You can click on the “premium” link to get the much better video/sound quality. (If you go ahead and click on the mlb.tv “400k” link, you can see the quality difference.)
I think that many people are getting confused that Mosaic IS mlb.tv (the only option), which is not true.
What people need to understand is that you pay $120 a year (as opposed to $99.95 a year) for enhanced video quality…that is it. As an “added bonus” almost, you get access to the Mosaic program, which they are having some issues with right now…the same “type” issues were present last year when they launched it. The way people are absolutely freaking out about Mosaic is just a tad bit unnecessary…
I hope that helps you out.
MLB EXTRA INNINGS NEVER SAYS NETWORK STREAM ERROR!
I HATE YOU BUG SELIG
I sure hope we getter feeds. Was led to beleive the picture would be as good as TV. Well it is nowhere near the clarity I got with EXtra Innings package on my digital cable.
Sure hope they get this fixed ASAP. Pictures are very choppy and I got one of the top video cards out there and far exceed the system specs for mosaic.
y2kvidkid,
I disagree wholeheartedly. Mosaic is no “bonus”; it is, and is advertised as, an integral feature of the premium service and is reasonably expected to be fully functional as it is part of the service for which we have paid. The smartest thing MLB ever did was make the first 5 days free: imagine how unhappy we’d be if we were paying to participate in a stress test?
y2kvidkid,
Do you work for MLB.com? Do you know for a fact that the Mosaic feature is just a “throw in” and we shouldn’t expect it to work as advertised? Personally, I believed the marketing and thought the Mosaic feature was a key component of the Premium package.
Now my single game feed of 700K is not even streaming. I click on the 400K and it works fine. So this is not even related to Mosaic — they need to fix it ASAP or start issuing some $$ back in some form or fashion
Hi guys, sorry to be off the air for a bit. Again, very much appreciate all of the commentary. We’ve been busy behind the scenes working on getting the higher quality streams going as well as fixing the CC bug that many of you have found. We now have a 1.8 mbit stream back up, which we’ll be testing through the night. Please feel free to try the high quality video setting.
Regarding stream quality, as it stands now the plan for the product is to offer the multi game mosaic streams at 700k, ~1.2 and ~1.8, though we’ll tune those up and down a bit based on trying to get you all the most video down the smallest pipe possible.
For single game streams, as advertised, they will be available in 400k and 700k form. What i can say, is from a R&D perspective, we’re already working on how we stream single games to you all at higher bitrates – not unlike the mosaic streams. When we get this right, we’ll be working it into the product.
Packers – No, I am not joking. And really, you’ve no right to tell me what I would do. Seriously. I work in IT. I have to answer the phone when people unplug their mouse and somehow it is my fault. I listen to people like you ***** all day about stupid issues that they caused themselves. And a lot of times about issues beyond control (such as 14 of 15 RAID drives going down on a production Oracle server) do a Google search if none of that made sense to you. So sometimes in a day where your ‘Flagship’ product hits the market, and you’re excited because the tests you ran inside the department/company ran so well you can’t wait to release it to the public. And what happens? It was so well marketed (and we were all so gullible) that there is just too much traffic for the circuits installed. So I choose, instead of biting the heads off people, to thank them for doing their JOBS! Who knows, this little hiccup may not be here tomorrow. But you know what? I’m not going to chase people down and pound their head in because there is an issue on the FIRST DAY! Three months from now, sure. I want my money back then. But it seems to me that you need to ask for your money back and watch your TV. Better yet. Move to Alaska and have no contact with humans. Even on my worst day I’m better than you. Because I treat people like people. No go crawl in your hole.
instead of watching 6 games at 1.8Mbps, I would love to watch a single game at 1.8MBps.. That would be the BIZZZOMB!!
I still haven’t heard an answer as to why the stream that Mosaic says is going at 600+k, is only using up 200k of my download bandwidth with several different bandwidth monitors.
mhochman, if you have a second to discuss, I’d like to follow up with you personally. please feel free to send me an email with your contact details on that.
I guess Im paying to see a red X on left corner of blank screens on media area listings.Not only getting that but my channel is in 4 pieces. Getting pretty frustrated to no ends.
“We now have a 1.8 mbit stream back up, which we’ll be testing through the night. Please feel free to try the high quality video setting.”—— how do you tell this? I have 3 options to choose from on the mosaic and the 1st 2 each say streaming at 780 kbps (NOT 1.2 mbit). And the 3rd option still tells me I cannot connect. So it appears the 1.8 mbit is not working for me at all nor the 1.2 mbit
Hi, my picture, games have all been constanly skipping, anyone else having this kind of problem??? and will this be fixed?
deerhunter716, it sounds like you might have an issue with the swarmcast software we’re running. mind trying restarting your computer, and retrying? I’ll be here through the evening – if you have some time to discuss feel free to email me your contact info and I’ll give you a call.
flyersfan – which stream are you watching?
have you tried the single game view? you can double click on a live game up at the top of the app and it will switch to single game – let us know if its buffering a lot there as well.
Will do and will restart now.
No, I don’t work for MLB.com, I have just been using mlb.tv for a few years now, and went through the original “mosaic nightmare” last year. Maybe that’s why I feel differently than many of you do…I am just happy to have the higher quality on the normal video for $20 more a year, and I know that they will have Mosaic up and running smoothly (or as smoothly as possible) within a few days, so I am not too worried.
the single game wiew don’t work.
we can see the box scores, the game status but the video is off.
!) Also my mosiac is buffering alot — funny thing is all was right when I had the giants archive feed til you guys refreshed for the day. Didnt have trouble on mosiac til then. Really liked what glimpse i had. 2) never had any thing on the media guide side yet.
Justin-
My Mosaic loads, but will only play video for the baseball channel and not for any of the actual games. Is there something I can do to fix this? When I try to watch a game individually through Mosaic, it just sits on connecting or says connecting for a minute and then the status window goes blank and nothing loads for video.
Please let me know anything I can do to make Mosaic work.
Hi, I restarted and The Mosaic is still skipping in single game view and all other views in both 400 k bits and 700 k bits.
Among other things, I get the most angry when I see that picture of the 6 screen Mosiac program on the MLB.com page with Tejada and Andruw Jones…That is so misleading. When you say TV quality, thats what I expect. Please take that picture down and put up a screenshot of what I am looking at, then see how many people sign up.
just,
can you confirm if i sent my credit card information in the clear or not?
Justin,
The install and the CC verification went fine but I can’t watch any of the archive games all i see is the blue background with the MLB.TV logo. I’ve tried both the 400K and the 700 k and neither works. I’ve tried many different games and nothing works. I have WinXP Media center edition version 2002 SP2. intel p4 with 512MB of ram. My bandwidth = 9679 kbps. Any ideas?