I really wanted to watch the Marianas Open this past weekend, but was out in the country with no internet, and was having trouble finding results as they happened on Twitter or wherever else. I've heard a bunch of people online complain about Flo being too expensive, and about the search function being wonky so I never really thought about signing up. I looked it up, and saw that it is either 20/month to month or 12.50/month if you sign up for a year. And if you sign up for the year, you get ALL the Flo content, which I will probably never use, but for the price of Netflix, I figured why not?
I've been at work watching Lepri and Najmi matches all morning. The presentation is incredibly professional and the video is high quality. The matches are insanely easy to search, so I don't now what everyone's deal is whining about that. The upcoming schedule is great, and I would pay the 12.50 just to watch the upcoming Frazatto/Rader at F2W in a couple weeks. They seem to be covering everything, so when Worlds and Abu Dhabi come around, I'm all set which is cool, and will probably end up throwing a little viewing party at my gym.
As for the price, I think even 20/month to month is pretty damn fair considering most people probably sign up just to stream Pans and then cancel, then Worlds and cancel, then Abu Dhabi and cancel. Remember how much those event DVD's used to cost from Budo, and they were basically just a highlight reel, with very few matches? I think 20 bucks.. 5 bucks a day... for four days of the World Championships in a sport that there's no real money in and that no one really cares about is actually cheap considering the work that probably goes into recording and streaming the event.
So yeah, for no reason at all, I'm telling you all publically that I am very happy with my Flo subscription thus far. I'm catching up on all the matches I didn't see from Worlds 2016 currently, but what under the radar matches shoudl I be sure to seek out while I see what else is on the site? Anything particualrly cool/memorable?
I don't have a problem with the subscription model. $20/month is super cheap. It's just a terrible service. You are watching matches at a time when no one else is accessing the website. Imagine I go on ticketmaster to buy tickets and it crashes all the time. I wake up at 3AM, purchase the tickets and then talk about what a fantastic website ticketmaster is. Is it fair to assess Ticketmaster during a time when no one else is accessing the system?
Try accessing the site during peak hours or when a live event is actually playing. It crashes, buffers constantly. When you complain, they have the nerve to blame your connection. Considering we have over 100 download and 20 up at the gym, it's not on our end. They have a ton of matches that just cut off within a few seconds. The video is not HQ. It's not even HD. They listed it as such, but you can clearly tell that the resolution of most matches is well below 720.
Imagine I record a tape of a tape of a tape of a tape of Metallica. I take that final tape and record it into my computer as a shitty MP3. I then save it as a 96K, 24 bit audio file. Can I legitimately turn around and claim that this is 96K,24b audio? They don't want to invest in their infrastructure. It's a fantastic idea that's executed poorly.
I don't want to get too nerdy into the specifics so I've tried to make this post as simple as possible
Hmmm fair enough, I suppose I should wait and see what it's like during Worlds.
For the video quality are you referring to all of it, or just the stream? The archived stuff looks good to me, but I'm not super particular about that stuff.
A lot of the videos are buffering a lot. Is that Flo, or my connection at work? I don't know how computers work. For the most part they are fine though, I'm not bothered too much. Haven't tried watching on my phone yet.
It's probably both; most business connections are split so many times that while they have a ridiculously high speed connection, it's split so many times to all the desks that it causes the connection to feel slow at your desk.
The issue with Flo is that their business model, they stream niche markets expecting them to just be able that stuff is being streamed; they picked Wrestling, BJJ, and several other niche sports like climbing, softball, cheerleading, etc. The problem is that they didn't expect the demand for these niche markets to be so high OR they had crappy IT people that didn't calculate load balances very well. Simply put, their infrastructure can't handle the ability to live stream to all their subscribers at once.
Think of the data stream like water in a pipe; Flo has all the water and we pay them to give it to us, so we connect our pipes to theirs. Not a big deal when only one or two people have the water on (what you are experiencing right now), but when everyone needs to shower suddenly the water pressure drops off to a trickle because Flo's pipe can only provide so much… well, FLOW. So while everyone is getting trickles of water, no one is actually able to shower or do anything productive.
The reason we hate them is that because of saying "our bad, we'll have to look into getting a bigger pipe" they say "Your shower head sucks, it can't provide enough flow for a shower."
Then you have Seth Daniels who decided to call out the people complaining and telling them to get over it because they're paying 25 cents a match to watch F2W and that if they miss one match to shut up and he'll refund their 25 cents.
A lot of the videos are buffering a lot. Is that Flo, or my connection at work? I don't know how computers work. For the most part they are fine though, I'm not bothered too much. Haven't tried watching on my phone yet.
Go to speedtest.net. Check your download/upload speed. I'm about 250/25 at home and it still buffers all the time.
One thing is for sure, they will blame it on you and your connection.
It's probably both; most business connections are split so many times that while they have a ridiculously high speed connection, it's split so many times to all the desks that it causes the connection to feel slow at your desk.
The issue with Flo is that their business model, they stream niche markets expecting them to just be able that stuff is being streamed; they picked Wrestling, BJJ, and several other niche sports like climbing, softball, cheerleading, etc. The problem is that they didn't expect the demand for these niche markets to be so high OR they had crappy IT people that didn't calculate load balances very well. Simply put, their infrastructure can't handle the ability to live stream to all their subscribers at once.
Think of the data stream like water in a pipe; Flo has all the water and we pay them to give it to us, so we connect our pipes to theirs. Not a big deal when only one or two people have the water on (what you are experiencing right now), but when everyone needs to shower suddenly the water pressure drops off to a trickle because Flo's pipe can only provide so much… well, FLOW. So while everyone is getting trickles of water, no one is actually able to shower or do anything productive.
The reason we hate them is that because of saying "our bad, we'll have to look into getting a bigger pipe" they say "Your shower head sucks, it can't provide enough flow for a shower."
Then you have Seth Daniels who decided to call out the people complaining and telling them to get over it because they're paying 25 cents a match to watch F2W and that if they miss one match to shut up and he'll refund their 25 cents.
Pretty good explanation and analogy. They don't want to invest in their infrastructure and then blame the consumer. The 2nd part is outrageous because either they are stupid because they don't understand how capacity works, or they are lying asses.
Hmmm.... well. Content-wise it is awesome at least, and it is making my work day go a lot faster. I obviously know nothing about IT but it seems like that would be a simple enough problem to fix if they were willing to spend money on extra servers? Or address it somehow.
Hmmm.... well. Content-wise it is awesome at least, and it is making my work day go a lot faster. I obviously know nothing about IT but it seems like that would be a simple enough problem to fix if they were willing to spend money on extra servers? Or address it somehow.
The issue is the investment. I would assume that they think the investment isn't worth their estimated return. Trade equity for capital but get that management team out of there.
A lot of the videos are buffering a lot. Is that Flo, or my connection at work? I don't know how computers work. For the most part they are fine though, I'm not bothered too much. Haven't tried watching on my phone yet.
Go to speedtest.net. Check your download/upload speed. I'm about 250/25 at home and it still buffers all the time.
One thing is for sure, they will blame it on you and your connection.
Test #1
Ping: 5
Download Speed: 103.60
Upload Speed: 33.08
Test #2
Ping: 5
Download Speed: 112.73
Upload Speed: 43.35
I have no idea what these numbers mean, but there's a lot of buffering today. Apparently, IT is working on our internet. It's been acting kind of weird.
A lot of the videos are buffering a lot. Is that Flo, or my connection at work? I don't know how computers work. For the most part they are fine though, I'm not bothered too much. Haven't tried watching on my phone yet.
Go to speedtest.net. Check your download/upload speed. I'm about 250/25 at home and it still buffers all the time.
One thing is for sure, they will blame it on you and your connection.
Test #1
Ping: 5
Download Speed: 103.60
Upload Speed: 33.08
Test #2
Ping: 5
Download Speed: 112.73
Upload Speed: 43.35
I have no idea what these numbers mean, but there's a lot of buffering today. Apparently, IT is working on our internet. It's been acting kind of weird.
Anyone watch the All Access video on Cobrinha? I was kind of hoping it would be longer, but the content was really good. I think a longer, more in depth project on Cobrinha would be one of the best people to focus on in the entire sport. Too bad he probably doesn't have much in terms of artifacts from the old days at TT or growing up.
1. Part of this demonstrates why getting rid of net neutrality and having "fast lanes" is bullshit.
first of all "fast lanes" doesn't really mean anything in terms of scale. Is 10 a big number or a small number? It just depends upon the scale or what it's being compared to...Compared to 2 or on a scale of 1-10, it's big. Compared to 999 or a scale of 1-1000. It's small. So maybe a fast lane is what you have now and the other connections are throttled.... Also I pay for my connection to the backbone and companies like Flo pay for their connection to the backbone. I don't want an ISP working special deals with business partners (or companies they own) and consolidate decent connection speeds to only them.
2. I can understand the difficulties if you are trying to do live streaming with limited delay. However, there's no reason why they can't have html5 video streaming on their library that allows even the entire video to be downloaded before the browser plays. They should be able to control that buffer size better.
Another minor complaint: I don't think I should have to sit through an ad if I am paying for a subscription.
I guess it isn't so bad considering they are both short and at the beginning, so the videos are't interupted... and if it keeps the price at $12.50 a month then fuck it.
Another minor complaint: I don't think I should have to sit through an ad if I am paying for a subscription.
I guess it isn't so bad considering they are both short and at the beginning, so the videos are't interupted... and if it keeps the price at $12.50 a month then fuck it.
I like how your "Isanely Good" post is slowly moving to mediocre after a few days;)
Just remember, you haven't watched a live event yet lol