How do you currently watch the race?

[NC HillBilly]

Wanted to take a poll to see what devices most people here usually watch on and what provider they're using. You can vote multiple times because I know a lot of folks are probably using multiple devices.

For me it depends. We have a cable subscription just for certain sports. If I watch it live I'll typically watch on the main TV using the cable box. We also have several Rokus all set-up for streaming using our cable subscription. Sometimes that doesn't work or the channel the race is on doesn't have an official app for the Roku. In those cases I'm forced to seek out third party/illegal streams (I don't consider this stealing since I pay for it). I never watch on my phone even though I have the ability because I can't stand using it for watching a full race.

If I miss the race live and forget to record it I typically seek out a good quality torrent of the full thing with the commercials cut out. That's what I'm having to do tonight because I missed most of today's race. In the past when I didn't have a television in the bedroom I would often stream it from a third party/illegal feed. There used to be a guy on youtube that streamed the race live without commercials. It was like the old c-band dish feeds and you could still hear the announcers and race control when it was supposed to go to commercials. Sadly, I don't think he's around anymore and I'm pretty sure he might have gotten caught because those feeds are encrypted now and the only ones that are supposed to have access to them are people working in the industry.

Sorry if the poll is confusing I tried to cover all the bases and it got a bit long winded.

 

[bigspud]

i watch streams from europe sports channels, bc there are are no commercials.

 

[tclarson]

I use Apple TV and have DIrectv NOW.

 

[Charlie Spencer]

Sometimes that doesn't work or the channel the race is on doesn't have an official app for the Roku. In those cases I'm forced to seek out third party/illegal streams

If you have cable, why can't you use the legal FOX and NBC streams? I'm not passing judgement; like you said, you're paying for it.

 

[Clutch]

i watch streams from europe sports channels, bc there are are no commercials.

I watch legally in New Zealand and we have no commercials.....;I watched the Xfinity race streamed and the Ads drove me crazy! I am soooo lucky down here

 

[Mike Crayne]

For this race i used the airwaves. When it is on cable I use Swing tv.

 

[dpkimmel2001]

If you have cable, why can't you use the legal FOX and NBC streams? I'm not passing judgement; like you said, you're paying for it.

True enough. Roku has both the FOX Sports and NBC Sports apps that broadcast every NASCAR race. Amazon's Fire Stick does as well. We have multiple Roku's and Fire Sticks that we use for streaming services. We are a strictly streaming/OTA household.

We have been taking in most of the races via DVR this season. In a normal season, we've got one television streaming the race and others streaming whatever other sporting events are on that we are interested in.

 

[Charlie Spencer]

I usually watch live on Dish, or on DVR if something prevented me from watching live. Weather permitting, I watch on the TV in the garage and work in the yard during the commercials.

 

[sdj]

I watch live at the track when I can.

At home, I DVR all races and watch when I want to and skip commercials.

 

[AdoubleU24]

On the edge of my damn seat!

Cable. Unless I'm at a bar for NFL I will pull it up on my phone. They act like it's a sin to ask for the race to be put on 1 of 50 TVs for some reason

 

[Team Penske]

At home, I DVR all races and watch when I want to and skip commercials.

Same here. I like to give it about a 40 min head start on the DVR and watch from there.
It isn't always the commercials I FF, sometimes it is just Burton squealing.

 

[StandOnIt]

The networks are missing out by not selling a squeal filter for the Nascar races.

 

[DIDIT]

Home on cable.
When traveling, one of 5 ways.
1. OTA broadcast
2. Cable hookup
3. Pirated stream on TV
4. Pirated stream on phone
5. Twitter and NASCAR app (no video this way)

 

[Jorge De Guzman]

Many ways. I usually DVR the first hour or so and catch up by fast forwarding through the commercials. If it’s a big race (Daytona 500, Coca Cola 600, Brickyard 400 or Southern 500) or a favorite track (both Bristol, both Martinsville, both Richmond and both Phoenix races) I’ll watch live. I used to DVR and watch pieces throughout the week, maybe 100 laps here and there. When I was in high school my tv in my bedroom used to have a built in VCR, I used to tape races and watch it through the week. One video tape would last me a full season. I like DVR better.

 

[NC HillBilly]

If you have cable, why can't you use the legal FOX and NBC streams? I'm not passing judgement; like you said, you're paying for it.

When I set it up for my Dad last year a couple of the channels didn't have a proper app or I had issues with it being able to stream properly without constant jutter. When that happens it's easier to stream it directly from my own PC with whatever source I find for the race. Sometimes I'll hook up my capture card to the cable box and route that source to other devices on the property. I wrote a custom application for the Rokus and Amazon boxes he owns that is just a simple media player that plays whatever I feed it.

We have multiple TVs with Rokus and/or Amazon boxes connected to them. If we attempt to stream with the official apps using all of them it consumes more bandwidth and they're never in sync with each other. Found this out the hard way when we hosted a Carolina/Duke game party and all three TVs and the projector weren't in sync. Caused a big headache because all four screens were in the same room but we were only using the sound source from one stream which I had routed through the sound system he has set-up in his "party barn" (private bar basically). From then on I used the PC to feed one stream to all four devices

I could have run HDMI cables/analog cables all over the place to carry the same video source but it was just easier to use the CAT5 and WiFi I'd already set up and write my own application to handle it on all of the devices he uses. I have ran my own network to cover the entire farm so it made sense to use the existing network. Plus, it saves me the headache of constantly having to configure things for him. I can drop a file or route a stream to that file on my own PC in my house and it'll play on every device he owns in sync over the entire network. So instead of constantly inputting codes for him or downloading official apps he can just request I put on a game/race/any video program and he can pull it up with the click of one button on any device he owns.

Also. Sometimes you can find an overseas stream that doesn't have commercials. I'm of the opinion that if I'm paying for a channel I shouldn't have to watch more commercials than the actual race. So given the chance I'll always go for the stream/source that never leaves the track instead of cutting away to commercials about boner pills every 10 minutes.

 

[NC HillBilly]

Sorry for the wall of text. Just remembered that the devices had apps for the channel but our cable/satellite service hadn't partnered with them at the time. So basically, even though I was paying for the service I wasn't allowed to access it through that application back then. A lot of the small cable companies and even DirecTV weren't partnered with the individual networks on the Rokus for some time.

I ended up throwing together my own private streaming service. I can feed it whatever I want and it will play over all the devices without the constant buffering and the problem of each device not being in sync with the others. Also saves a lot of bandwidth. I'm not limited on bandwidth but when you have 10+ devices on a local network all attempting to stream content outside of that local network you tend to run into problems.