How can I watch RvV?

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George
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How can I watch RvV?

Post by George » 26 Mar 2013 16:48

I don't (and never will) subscribe to Sky, and Eurosport isn't available on FreeSat. So I usually watch bike races either on ITV/BBC via FreeSat, or on the internet; in the past, I also subscribed to Eurosport Player for a while, but was unimpressed by the picture quality and the loading times.

However, this Sunday's Tour of Flanders isn't on any of the FreeSat channels (as far as I can work out). And it clashes with a football match I'd like to attend, so I can't watch a live stream via the internet. Ideally I'd like some way of recording it to watch after the football, or finding some on-line source where re-runs are available later in the day. Does anyone have any suggestions?

For example:
a) Does anyone know whether re-runs of big races are available on Eurosport Player? (I can't find any info on their website.)
b) Does anyone know a reasonably reliable and technically straightforward way of recording live streams from the internet? (I've tried screen capture software before now, but the picture quality is abysmal.)

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dweben
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Post by dweben » 26 Mar 2013 17:02

I watch most of my cycling via torrents from this site. It's mostly from Eurosport but also from some american channels. Remember to Seed!

I did try Eurosport player for £4 a month but the quality was crap, the service crapper and the quantity of programs on there was... well, worse. I ended up sending a ranty mail to them to drop my contract 11 months early. :P

http://cyclingtorrents.nl/login.php?returnto=%2F

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Post by laurence_cooley » 26 Mar 2013 17:08

Eurosport often show highlights in the evenings. The listings are here, although they often change at the last minute. They've got highlights of the Ronde scheduled for Sunday at 8 pm (for two hours, so it might be a re-run of the whole live coverage). If you're willing to sign up for 12 months, it's only £2.99 a month. The picture quality's not great but it's adequate, and they show a lot of cycling - I was watching Driedaagse De Panne while working this afternoon and I doubt you'll ever find that on Sky or ITV.

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George
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Post by George » 26 Mar 2013 20:49

dweben wrote:I watch most of my cycling via torrents from this site.
http://cyclingtorrents.nl/login.php?returnto=%2F
Thanks for the tip, Paul. But isn't it a live streaming site? I need something that runs repeats/offers recordings.
laurence_cooley wrote:Eurosport often show highlights in the evenings.
Thanks, Laurence. I used to have access of Eurosport via a satellite service, and often watched their evening highlights. As you suggest, they are usually just repeats of the last part of the live coverage. It's a couple of years since I last subscribed to Eurosport player, but I have the idea stuck in my head that you don't simply have access to all the scheduled programmes that go out on the broadcast channel. Am I wrong about that? Also, just to complicate things, 8pm doesn't work out well for me either. I could really do with recording the live broadcast and watching it late afternoon.

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Post by laurence_cooley » 26 Mar 2013 21:04

You can watch British Eurosport and British Eurosport 2 live, so you can watch everything they broadcast. They often repeat the highlights in the evenings (when I guess there's not much live sport on to show) multiple times the week following the event, and sometimes early in the morning too. There's a feature that allows you to watch a selection of past broadcasts at any time, a bit like iPlayer, but I've not used it much and the few times I have, it didn't seem to have commentary for some reason.

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Post by ripebuds » 26 Mar 2013 21:11

I second www.cyclingtorrents.nl

Fantastic site with loads of cool races!

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Post by laurence_cooley » 26 Mar 2013 22:12

Most races seem to be available on YouTube pretty soon after - and they don't seem to get taken down either. That might be an alternative to watching it live. This account seems to have most recent races, some in English and some in Dutch.

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Neil Compton
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Post by Neil Compton » 27 Mar 2013 11:00

Would you consider Virgin Media? Whether you could get it where you live though George is doubtful but they do a tv package which includes Eurosport 1 and 2.

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Ed Moss
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Post by Ed Moss » 27 Mar 2013 17:26

Easy solution

Don't watch Football.

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George
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Post by George » 28 Mar 2013 10:04

Neil Compton wrote:Would you consider Virgin Media?
Thanks for the suggestion, Neil. I eschew Sky partly because I don't like Murdoch and partly because I simply don't watch enough TV for it to make financial sense. The latter reason is likely to apply to their rivals too, but I should really look into it more closely before dismissing them. I've occasionally wondered about BT's service, which is quite cheap if you've already got their broadband ... but I'm concerned that it might hog the bandwidth and interfere with internet use (waste of time asking them, because of course they'll say it won't).
Ed Moss wrote:Easy solution

Don't watch Football.
I knew someone was going to say that; I'm just surprised it took so long.

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Post by laurence_cooley » 01 Apr 2013 11:08


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Post by George » 03 Apr 2013 20:46

Once more, Laurence, I am touched by your consideration. However, by the time you posted that, I had already watched the race, courtesy of a friend who recorded it for me.

It wasn't quite as exciting as last year, because the favourites left the selection so late, but when Fab went, my Goodness did he go! It seemed that Sagan cracked only metres from the top of the Paterberg, and that the gap as he crested the hill was negligible, but within moments it was clear that there was only going to be one winner. He really is quite something that Cancellara.

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