anyone know when is the best time to buy League Pass?

[hater]

when do they have the discount?

[dougp]

They have a discount at the beginning of the season, and at the all-star break. You could possibly convince you carrier to add it for cheaper if you threaten to go somewhere else, but I doubt it.

[urunobili]

If it's less than 199USD it's a good deal...

[DJB]

Also, can I watch Spurs games on league pass in HD? Does league pass give you the FSN HD signal?

[Dex]

Also, can I watch Spurs games on league pass in HD? Does league pass give you the FSN HD signal?

No, League Pass has no effect on other stations like FSN, ESPN, or TNT. When you purchase League Pass, you will gain access to a group of about 10 channels (usually way up around the 500-600s) that are dedicated to broadcasting the League Pass games.

If I remember correctly, they are not available in HD, but I've never actually bought the product, just seen the Free Previews, so someone might be able to confirm or disconfirm.

[bdubya]

Most seasons, League Pass is free for the first couple of weeks, during which there's a discount ($20 off?). Then at the ASB it's offered for about half-price (that's not a discount, since you've missed over half the season).

LP doesn't have HD channels (at least not in Chicago), and doesn't offer games that are carried nationally (ESPN, TNT, NBATV, etc). For all other regular-season games, it offers the feed from one of the teams' local broadcaster (usually the home team, but not always). So not only do you get to watch any NBA game you want, you get to experience other teams' announcers, so you can hear how great George Blaha is, what a festering ass Tommy Heinsohn is, how feeble the Utah guys are, etc. Pretty cool stuff.

The downside is, the feed ends the minute they cut away from the court, so just when you're geared up to hear the post-game, you get a "thank you!" slide and some shitty music instead.

Matter of fact, I wonder if I can get mp3s of the LP music (they've had maybe a half-dozen tracks, from a shitty Jan Hammer-style thing that sounds like the Miami Vice intro to a fairly tolerable slow funk groove). It would be a good way to clear the house when the party's over...

[hater]

mmm interesting. Wonder if League Pass Broadband is a better choice. would the video quality be better than cable quality? maybe could be even close to HD??

plus with broadband pass, you can watch up 2 3 games at the same time.

[dougp]

There are HD broadcasts - don't let people fool you. They're just not always common, I'd say last year about 30% of the LP games I watched (pretty much only the Spurs) were in HD.

If I had to do it again, I'd consider possibly just getting it at the ASB - I felt really committed to watching all 82 games since we paid for it. Also, listening to other announcers gets tiresome, only about 20% of the games last year were the Spurs announcers - d228 can confirm that one.

[Muser]

I have to use the shitty International League Pass -_-

Oh well, better than nothing.

[completely deck]

There are HD broadcasts - don't let people fool you. They're just not always common, I'd say last year about 30% of the LP games I watched (pretty much only the Spurs) were in HD.

People aren't fooling each other, it just depends on your carrier and if they support the League Pass HD. For example here in Houston, Comcast has not supported League Pass with HD feeds yet (hopefully this changes in the 09-10 season).


Regarding pricing, at the beginning of the year its $149 and at the end of the 2009 year I believe it's half off.

[cherylsteele]

Also, can I watch Spurs games on league pass in HD? Does league pass give you the FSN HD signal?
If you are in San Antonio, no, Spurs' games are blacked-out, if you are not in San Antonio, then you can watch then but I don't remember league pass being in HD, maybe this will change this year.

[DJB]

I'm moving to LA in a month for work and would like to have as many HD feeds as possible if I purchase league pass...

[duncan228]

Also, listening to other announcers gets tiresome, only about 20% of the games last year were the Spurs announcers - d228 can confirm that one.

True, we only got a handful of Spurs call last season.

I've had LP since it came out, and as an out-of-state fan (Southern California) I couldn't do without it. I watch every Spurs game, so it's worth it to me.

The 'early bird' discount is $20 off. They cut it again at the All-Star break. Free previews at the beginning of the season and the break. I do get some games in HD. Halftime has varied for me, sometimes I get whatever halftime show goes with the call, sometimes I get NBA TV stuff, sometimes I get a 'stats central' screen. No pre or post game shows. It starts with the first night of the regular season and ends with the last. No preseason, no post season. Blackouts for all games on ABC, TNT, ESPN, and NBA TV. You get broadband with it.

Every provider I've had (in 3 states) has broken the payments up over three or four months. Be sure to ask, it makes it a little easier to pay for.

[benefactor]

I hope Dish doesn't screw around this year like they did last year. That was very irritating.

[phxspurfan]

When do they start selling it for the early bird special?

[mabrignani]

the beauty of living in south texas is getting every spurs game on tv. no need for league pass when you live down here. i mean occasionally we might miss a spurs vs bobcats game or somesing but thats bout it

[duncan228]

When do they start selling it for the early bird special?

Info not out for this season yet, main page here. I assume they'll let us know.

http://www.nba.com/leaguepass/index.html

[jermaine]

when do they have the discount?

discounts after allstar break. Ive never seen a spurs game in HD, its only blocked out if they're on nbatv or fsn! Ive seen every game for the last three yrs, an by the end of the first qtr you can tell hoe they're going to play the rest of the game!

[El Sancho]

I Live here in the Washington D.C. area and have Verizon fios with 15 mb up and 15 mb down and I got the NBA Broadband last year for 99 dollars I think but it was not worth it a lot of the Spurs games were Blacked out. And no HD did I receive.

[Doug Collins]

I had LP Broadband last year and loved it. There were several occasions where games were blacked out for no reason and some other glitches, but I really enjoyed having the live box score and being able to watch 3 games at once. Plus, it made it easy to watch games when I was traveling. I think I'm going to get it again vs. regular league pass but haven't decided. It was only $85 iirc.

[kwamay_brown54]

If you get Dish Network and order the league pass you are in for a real treat. Dish network will give you your own team's FSN HD channel in the sports tier section, and additionally will provide about 80% per day for priority games in HD in addition to the daily NBA TV HD, TNT HD, or ESPN HD games per week.

[jermaine]

Ive seen every gm of the Spurs in the last 3yrs an I cant recall any in HD. Its $99 after the allstar break, gms are only blocked out when they're on FSN or NBAtv, and you can tell how their gms are going to go by the end of the 1st qtr of every gm! I need Dish network if they give all that shit with it.

[Booharv]

When you're watching the games on a computer, how good is the video quality?

[spursnatic]

Usually if you have had it for a while they renew your contract for $159...That is what I always get it for....I think the early bird special is usually $169?..And then it goes up to $179 after that goes away...

[Shifty]

Anyone knows if the broadband International version has anything different or if it lacks something?

[ElNono]

I've had NBA LP on Comcast the last couple of years (I'm in NJ), and pretty much watched every game. They did not offer any of the games in HD though (not even NBA tv).
I switched to Dish a couple months ago, and don't ask how but I'm already subscribed for the next season. I can tell you right now channels 560-572 all have both SD and HD, and the same goes for all the Fox Sports networks. I'm sure blackout rules still apply, but I'm pretty excited to see how many games in HD they're gonna show this season.
I'm using the eastern arc setup. I'm not sure if it's any different if you're using the western satellites.

[ploto]

League Pass on Time Warner has one channel in HD. They definitely favor certain announcers. Usually get Raptors feed only once or twice per month.

[YoMamaIsCallin]

I bought NBA League Pass in Austin (Time Warner Cable) when I figured out that the Spurs were NOT blacked out, despite TWC saying they were.

The first week or two are free, and if you sign up during that period, you get the early bird discount (like $20).

It seems to differ by carrier how much you get in HD. Here, we had one HD channel that would carry one HD game (usually) per night.

You also get NBA League Pass Broadband for free. I had to enter my TWC account number on some web page and it took them about a week to validate it and turn on my service.

I found that the service itself was OK. However the blackout determination was really screwed up for me. It wanted to black out all kinds of games nowhere near where I lived (like Indiana games for some reason). It does require a reasonable amount of available bandwidth (over a megabit if I recall correctly), so it doesn't work well in a lot of hotel rooms.

If you want to wait until the all-star break they have another free week and offer a lower-cost second-half option.

[jbspurs]

IM from northern California and I have Direct Tv with DVR HD receiver. Last season was awesome for me, I got to record all the Spurs games and most of them are on HD. I say about 70% of NBA games last season have HD broadcast.

[Knoxxx]

I've been on Dish for years and had both Cable and Direct. The first year we got Finley I went ahead and got the full season League Pass. The next year I may have had the half season, and fell off after that. You absolutely have to have a DVR to get the max benefit. The Dish DVR also has a very nice skip forward button that is perfect for football games. You hit skip right when the tackle occurs, and it goes right before the next snap when teams are not running the no-huddle. I can watch a full NFL or college game in less than an hour. For NBA games, always nice to skip the free throw shooting, timeouts, and halftime. When I am really in a hurry, I will even 4x speed the point guard dribbling the ball upcourt. Yeah, I know, pretty sick. I rarely watch anything live, normally I lag and get chores done or whatever, then catch up while in progress.

I have not seen a similar skip button for Direct or cable DVRs. Cable basically sucks, and Direct is more expensive than Dish who gives you just as many features if not more. My take from someone who has had all 3.

[sribb43]

Im wondering if League Pass will allow you to have the capabiility to watch games on you iphone similar to what MLB does with its At-bat app?

[completely deck]

Im wondering if League Pass will allow you to have the capabiility to watch games on you iphone similar to what MLB does with its At-bat app?

At this time, there is no NBA streaming app for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

You could probably find a way to do it through another streaming video app, but the quality and reliability will be similar to if you searched for a feed at your computer.

[Penya]

Anyone knows if the broadband International version has anything different or if it lacks something?

The games shown on the TV of your country aren't shown on NBALP International.

[DPG21920]

Did anyone else see some of the new features for League Pass they supposedly have?

1) Early bird is now $163.80, not a huge difference but a little cheaper
2) There will now be a "Mosaic" channel. You can watch all games airing on League Pass at once.
3) Dual feeds now. You can choose which announcers you want to listen to.

All of those are pretty cool, especially the Dual Feeds.