MLB Extra Innings 2012 Now Available

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Is MLBTV blackout area determined by IP Address; or is it they determined by zip code?

The MLBTV site shows my IP address is not subject to any home territory blackout restrictions. But, it also shows based upon my zip code the White Sox and Cubs are in my home territory and are subject to blackout restrictions?

Will I be able to watch the White Sox and Cubs with MLBTV?

It is determined by IP. I get the Tigers games when I am on the road even though my account shows a Zip in the Tigers territory. That being said I think there is a glitch with the IP blackout test right now. When I am on my home ISP (Charter cable) that tool correctly shows the Tigers being blacked out. When I am on my office ISP about 5 miles away (AT&T DSL) the tool incorrectly says no teams are blacked out in my area.

We will see how it works when the actual season starts but I have a feeling the Tigers will be blacked out at work even though the tool says they aren't.
 
Last season I received $10 off per month, making my monthly payment $24.95 intead of $34.95. I called a couple of hours ago and asked if they could match what they did for me last year. (I also referenced MLB.TV costing $125 for the same poduct they were selling at an early bird rate of $210.)

The CSR immediately gave me the same $10 off per month as last year. I then asked if I could receive an additional discount if I paid the entire amount at once. He said no, but said he could give an additonal $5 off per month, making my payments $19.95 per month for six months. I thanked him profusely, telling him he had gone above and beyond what I was even asking.

I just called and tried the exact same thing -- asked them to give me the same deal I got last year ($10/month credit) -- got nothing. They offered to cancel it for me, but nothing else. Figures -- I'm a born-loser when it comes to getting deals.
 
I just called and tried the exact same thing -- asked them to give me the same deal I got last year ($10/month credit) -- got nothing. They offered to cancel it for me, but nothing else. Figures -- I'm a born-loser when it comes to getting deals.

Videojanitor, I should have mentiond that I called into retention from the very beginning (I said "cancel service" at the initial voice prompt). If you didn't do this, it may have made the difference. I'd try again.
 
clayface1000 said:
Videojanitor, I should have mentiond that I called into retention from the very beginning (I said "cancel service" at the initial voice prompt). If you didn't do this, it may have made the difference. I'd try again.

At the first prompt, I said "Cancel MLB" -- that got me right to a human with no further prompts. Not sure if it was the Retention folks, but I would guess so. One of their suggestions was to call back AFTER the season starts, as they might have deals then. I said "huh?" I completely lose all leverage at that point, since canceling is no longer an option. I DO plan on calling again in about a week.
 
At the first prompt, I said "Cancel MLB" -- that got me right to a human with no further prompts. Not sure if it was the Retention folks, but I would guess so. One of their suggestions was to call back AFTER the season starts, as they might have deals then. I said "huh?" I completely lose all leverage at that point, since canceling is no longer an option. I DO plan on calling again in about a week.

Others on this forum will know better than me, but I think it's important to get a CSR who handles customers who are potentially leaving Directv altogether, not just cancelling one specific service. I have a feeling you didn't get to the person you really needed.
 
I just got off the phone with DTV. They gave me the best deal I've ever got with them. I went the "cancel" route. I told him about getting the MLBTV instead, and he said let me see what I can do. He came back a couple of minutes later with a $25 discount/month for 6 months! So I'll now be gettin EI for $9.99/month for the season! I couldn't be happier! DTV comes through again! Yippee!
He did mention that I had a considerable amount of credits to work with. I just figured that since they already gave me a deal on the NFLST and NHLCI, & that I just extended my contract with them a little over a month ago with a new HDDVR (that they gave me for free), that I'd have a tough time getting anything taken off the EI. So glad I checked! We've been with them off and on for about 15+ yrs, and solid since Sept. of '05, & I swear they just keep gettin' better & better!
Happy St. Patty's Day everybody! :)
 
I just got off the phone with DTV. They gave me the best deal I've ever got with them. I went the "cancel" route. I told him about getting the MLBTV instead, and he said let me see what I can do. He came back a couple of minutes later with a $25 discount/month for 6 months! So I'll now be gettin EI for $9.99/month for the season! I couldn't be happier! DTV comes through again! Yippee!
He did mention that I had a considerable amount of credits to work with. I just figured that since they already gave me a deal on the NFLST and NHLCI, & that I just extended my contract with them a little over a month ago with a new HDDVR (that they gave me for free), that I'd have a tough time getting anything taken off the EI. So glad I checked! We've been with them off and on for about 15+ yrs, and solid since Sept. of '05, & I swear they just keep gettin' better & better!
Happy St. Patty's Day everybody! :)


That's an awesome deal my man! Congrats!
 
I just called and tried the exact same thing -- asked them to give me the same deal I got last year ($10/month credit) -- got nothing. They offered to cancel it for me, but nothing else. Figures -- I'm a born-loser when it comes to getting deals.

Try again in a day or two......you'd be amazed how some CSR's seem to care more than others. Do exactly what you did earlier with another CSR......results will more than likely be different this time.
 
Try again in a day or two......you'd be amazed how some CSR's seem to care more than others. Do exactly what you did earlier with another CSR......results will more than likely be different this time.

Different result indeed. Called again today and the first offer was $5/month off my base package for six months -- I said "how about $10?" She put me on hold for a few minutes and then came back and said it was done deal -- $10 off the base package for six months. Why they have the structure it this way is beyond me, but it all comes out in the wash. So, getting MLB for about the same price as last year, which is all I was looking for.
 
We can watch Spring Training games on the PS3 now. I just did a MLB APP software update to 3.0 and am getting live and archived spring training games. I am also getting the Dodgers so they are not blacking it out.
 
It is MLB. Their site indicated some were planned for March, the rest planned to release opening day (or slightly before, but by opening day).
 
We can watch Spring Training games on the PS3 now. I just did a MLB APP software update to 3.0 and am getting live and archived spring training games. I am also getting the Dodgers so they are not blacking it out.

Nice! I have been connecting my laptop via HDMI for spring training games so far but this is way easier.
 
I know I have been watching all the televised Tigers games on MLB.tv that would normally be blacked out. The reason I was using my laptop instead of my PS3 is because the PS3 app didn't have spring training games available until a couple days ago.
 
Ok, I wanted to test out MLB.TV quality on my PS3 because I have never had it before so I watched Verlander's no hitter against Toronto from last season. I thought I would share some of my thoughts on my first experience with the service for people who are thinking about buying it.

First, the picture quality was good for the most part. It definitely had more artifacts than FS Detroit on Dish but most of the time it was close enough. If it looks like that all season it will definitely exceed my expectations. It was comparable to the Netflix 1080p streams on my PS3 for almost the entire game. My only real gripe was that it wasn't as consistent as Netflix. About 3 or 4 times during the game it turned into a horrible blurry mess that is far worse than Dish SD. This only lasted for about 30 seconds at a time and I can live with but it would be nice if they could get it as rock solid as Netflix. I'm hoping they are just working kinks out because it was the first night of the 2012 package and it will improve during the season.

When I watch Netflix HD through my PS3 the quality is solid and people watching with me would have no idea that I'm watching an internet stream. If my first test of MLB.TV turns out to be the norm you couldn't say the same thing about this service. The quality is very good for the vast majority of the game but those 3 or 4 times the quality dropped took away from the experience a little bit.

Second, I put a lot of money into my sound system. When I watch TV or movies sound is just as important to me as picture. That being said I wasn't expecting bluray quality sound from this streaming service. The sound wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. I was happily surprised to see that my Onkyo receiver was getting multichannel PCM 5.1 from the PS3. FSN Detroit doesn't use the rear channels but this gives me hope that this service is capable of using them for channels that do take advantage of them.

Overall I think it is a good value for me. Dish doesn't have EI so it is a no brainer if you want out of market baseball. If I had Directv it would be a closer call but I think I would still go with MLB.TV and save the $90. If they don't change anything quality wise it will be acceptable to me. If they can get it to stay at its top quality like Netflix does throughout the entire game I will be extremely happy with my purchase. I do have 20mb cable internet service so my internet speed should not have been the problem.

Edit: One small thing I forgot to add. It would be nice if they would edit out the commercial breaks on archived games since they aren't actually showing any ads anyways. Every time the game went to a commercial they showed a blue screen that said commercial break in progress for a couple minutes. I understand why this is necessary for live games but it seems a little dumb to look at a blue screen for 2 minutes every half inning or pitching change for a game that was on May 7th. This isn't a huge deal to me because 90% of my use will be for live games but it doesn't seem like it would be that hard for them to edit out the commercial breaks on archived games.

Now that I have watched a couple live opening day broadcasts of MLB.TV on my PS3 I wanted to update my review for anyone still trying to decide between EI and MLB.TV.

First I want to say that the update to the 3.0 PS3 app fixed all my gripes. The picture quality on yesterdays games was rock solid. It looked every bit as good as Netflix streaming and I never once had it stop to buffer or a momentary quality drop like I did with the archived game I watched. I would think this weekend would be their heaviest load of users and if yesterday was any indication they are handling it nicely.

This is what I paid for and expected. It no longer looks like a internet video stream. It looks like a HD baseball game. If someone walked into my mancave (basement) while I was watching a game I don't think they would be able to tell they were watching an internet stream and that's what I wanted. I do not see any obvious difference between MLB.TV on my PS3 and my Dish HD service.

This one day of baseball was enough to convince me to order two of the new Apple TVs specifically to have MLB.TV available in the living room and my bedroom.

If you can get a discount on EI to get it close to the price of MLB.TV I say take it. This lets you use your DVR and keeps the convenience of not having to switch inputs. If you can't get the price of EI somewhere near the $125 that MLB.TV costs I say get MLB.TV. I don't think you will regret it. This also gives you the ability to take your subscription anywhere you go with PCs, smartphones, and tablets. MLB.TV also has DVR features. For instance you can turn the game on in the 3rd inning but start from the beginning. You can also fast forward, rewind, or skip back.
 
I am out of contract with DTV. I have called them several times over the last 2 weeks (saying "cancel" at the prompt) and have got virtually no offers to try and keep me with them. They will not come off the price of MLB Extra Innings one cent. They are doing nothing to try and keep me as a customer. They say I already have all the discounts that I qualify for. I am paying $93 a month now with Choice Xtra Classic, with 2 HD DVRs, one DVR, and 2 standard boxes. Thinking about jumping to Dish,, but am concerned about having to use mlb.tv since as of last month my ISP s limiting my internet usage for the first time. Directv is willing to do nothing to keep me on, which surprises me since they have been willing to work with me in the past to keep me as a customer. And I see some here have gotten great deals on the Extra Innings package. Maybe I'm not holding my head right when I call! Not sure wat to do here: cant get a deal with DTV, mlb.tv would prolly blow my internet cap every month, Dish is an option but doesnt have Extra Innings. DTV is not being very good to me! Seems they no longer want my money.
 
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