American Football in Quito

BobH wrote:

This article is about a young man who is helping coach Lobos de Quito, described as Ecuador's first American football team. It appears they practice in Parque Carolina (I recognize the plane in one picture).

There are a few planes, as Bob knows, permanently in position in Parque la Carolina.  IMO, that's the way it should be -- quiet exhibition planes on display. 

In the old days (pre-2013), before the new international airport opened in Tababela, Ecuador, the noise of planes coming in for a landing at the old airport every several minutes was a plague to us basketballers and other park-goers.  We're fortunate from a noise pollution point-of-view that the new airport is so far out of town.

Lobos -- Spanish for "wolves."

cccmedia in Quito

USA-style football may never catch on here in a big way, but I congratulate those Ecuadorians who recognize in the sport the intricate strategies and possibilities that elude me when watching fútbol aka soccer.

Soccer does have the advantage of continuous action, but some of that is boring to the utmost such as when the ball is kicked far from the goals and players pursue the necessary but pedestrian task of getting it all the way back upfield ... or is it downfield?

There's something more compelling IMO about a high scoring contest often produced by the USA game, say 38-35...versus the common soccer score of 0-0.

I don't know much about soccer strategy ... but I doubt they have play-action passes ... quarterback sneaks ... double-reverse runs ... the old Statue of Liberty play ... 'flea flickers' ... Hail Mary's ... tackle-eligible touchdown passes ... or on-sides kicks.

Am I right, Bob?

cccmedia in Quito

As a college football junkie, I wake up early on Saturdays so that I can get everything done around the house, and be ready to watch GameDay at 9am.....start watching games at noon, after Lee Corso shows us which team he thinks will win and usually I'm still watching the west coast games past midnight. What are the chances that I can get all of the college games if I'm living in Cuenca ? Thanks !

Edgenaples wrote:

As a college football junkie, I wake up early on Saturdays so that I can get everything done around the house, and be ready to watch GameDay at 9am.....start watching games at noon, after Lee Corso shows us which team he thinks will win and usually I'm still watching the west coast games past midnight. What are the chances that I can get all of the college games if I'm living in Cuenca ? Thanks !

I have a friend who watches a lot of college football online using USTVnow.    Very good bandwidth required.

Nards makes a good point about bandwidth, because you'll probably have to watch on a computer.

DirecTV, which televises 98 percent or more of NFL games here through its satellite service, does not show U.S. college contests before bowl season.

No one here sees "all the college games" because there are hundreds of them each fall weekend.

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

Nards makes a good point about bandwidth, because you'll probably have to watch on a computer.

DirecTV, which televises 98 percent or more of NFL games here through its satellite service, does not show U.S. college contests before bowl season.

No one here sees "all the college games" because there are hundreds of them each fall weekend.

cccmedia in Quito

My friend watches it on a ROKU.  To watch on a ROKU after the trial period expires, you have to have a paid subscription.  Otherwise, you can get the free 8 channels using a laptop or PC.

Even with good bandwidth, I think there are times when the USTVnow servers get hit hard and buffering occurs. Using a laptop or PC offers the advantage it seems in that you can reduce the video quality using a menu, when bandwidth is limited.

With regard to watching games, mainly NFL, any Sport Planet restaurant is usually very good about putting it on their big screens on Sunday.  Just watched the Panthers Eagles game there last night.  Really good environment for games.

Ryancito wrote:

With regard to watching games, mainly NFL, any Sport Planet restaurant is usually very good about putting it on their big screens on Sunday.  Just watched the Panthers Eagles game there last night.  Really good environment for games.

Thanks for the review on Sports Planet, Ryan.

I noticed several days ago (not during an NFL telecast -- soccer was on) that they have two active, big screens viewable at night from the street at their third-level location above Plaza Foch, in the heart of Gringolandia.

cccmedia in Quito

I finally watched a game -- actually the first half of one -- at Sports Planet, Quito's most prominent sports bar.

It was tonight's telecast of NFL Thursday Night Football (November 5th -- CLE at CIN), featuring titulares Andy Dalton and "Johnny Football" Manziel.

The place has a dozen screens and is set up to show as many as three NFL games at one time -- on Sundays.

The wings were delicious, the service was slow on a slow night for business, the screen resolution was good and the audio was loud rock music only.

cccmedia in Quito

Top Ten Sports-Named Platos on the Menu at Sports Planet in Quito's Gringolandia....

10.  Grand Prix BBQ Ribs

9.  Beckham Nachos

8.  Jordan Steak

7.  Tyson Dogs

6.  Muhammed Ali Shrimp

5.  Tiger Woods Salad

4.  Agassi Grilled Fish

3.  Burrito Ortega

2.  Champions Burger

And the #1 sports-named plato on the Sports Planet Quito menu ...

1.  Nachos Camacho



There's a dessert named Strawberry Paradise, but it's unclear whether it's named after New York baseball star Darryl Strawberry.

#3 is apparently a reference to the late Argentinian soccer player Emanuel Ortega, who died in a soccer game last May after crashing into a wall that was located too close to the field.

#1 is a play on the nickname of the late boxer Héctor "Macho" Camacho (1962-2012).

cccmedia in Quito

College sports are big in my family.  My husband is a true die hard Gator fan (ugh), and I am a die hard UNC fan.  We have tried everything and even increased our internet speed to an insane amount.  We have Kodi but I don't think it works well for live tv.  Here's what works for us most of the time.  My friend lives in Knoxville and we use his online cable tv login.  He has xfinity/Comcast which is the worst but beggars can't be choosers.  I bought a HDMI connector for my iPhone/iPad to connect to my tv.  However somehow in the cable app they know it's using an adaptor and won't stream the game.  I can stream using my phone but just not connected to my tv.   HOWEVER, if the game is on ESPN or cbs, you can use that app and his cable login and it will stream on my tv using my iPhone/iPad with the adaptor.  If the game is on something that doesn't have an app, I just connect my laptop and use the cable online with the login and it doesn't block it streaming on the tv.  But the iPhone/iPad always stream much better, due to the more stable processor.  Oh yeah, to get it to work internationally you must have a VPN with feeds based in the states and sometimes have to change locations on the vpn due to blackouts.  We haven't missed a game we wanted to see yet using this method.  Also with the Kodi box, we have canceled our direct tv and only use these 2 methods and it only costs us the VPN expense.  We use one where we buy data that never expires and there's no monthly fee.  Hope this helps any sports crazy people like we are continue to watch the games and sports that you love.  It took us 2 years of trial and error to finally find a system that works and is in English without paying for additional subscriptions.

Congratulations on pulling this off, Sophems.

I could probably read your post five or ten times and still not understand how you did it.

It was a fun read, nonetheless.

cccmedia

My friend in Cuenca watched NFL football this season using the international version of NFL gamepass. Since it is an international version, it doesn't require a vpn or proxy to access it.  He has fiber optic and a download speed of around 40 Mbps. I think he said he paid $80 for his subscription but he may have started his subscription mid-season.  He says he never has problems with buffering and he watches it primarily on his laptop connected to his TV although I think he said he could use his Roku 3 as well.

http://www.nfl.com/watch-nfl-live

Recently my gringo friends down the street had a barbecue.  He usually watches sports using a Mag254 streaming box with an iptv private server subscription. This box also does not require a vpn or proxy.  While this box can perform great, it can also perform badly on any given day.  On this particular day he couldn't get the NFL playoff games, so I took out my laptop, connected an hdmi cable to the tv and went to the following website:

http://www.rojadirecta.me/

This site gives me a list of links I can use to watch the game.  Many links use adboe flash player technology in your browser and the video resolution is low but quite watchable. However some of the links use a newer streaming technology called acestream. I think it may use the torrent approach so while you are downloading the video, you are also uploading it to others.  Assuming there are enough people watching the resolution of the stream is very high with hardly any buffering.

Any way, we watched the entire playoff games that day using an acestream off my laptop.  I will watch often watch basketball games with my puny 3 mbps connection and it works quite well if I don't do anything off the web.

Here is the link to where you can install the the necessary acestream software

http://acestream.org/

P.S. The rojadirect.me site will force you to sit through some pop-up ads when you click on a link, but you only have to wait a couple of minutes and shut windows down as they pop up.   There is a bit of a learning curve..........

Nards Barley wrote:

My friend in Cuenca watched NFL football this season using the international version of NFL gamepass. Since it is an international version, it doesn't require a vpn or proxy to access it.  He has fiber optic and a download speed of around 40 Mbps. I think he said he paid $80 for his subscription but he may have started his subscription mid-season.  He says he never has problems with buffering and he watches it primarily on his laptop connected to his TV...

http://www.nfl.com/watch-nfl-live

I was in Quito for half the NFL regular season of 2016 (September and December) and in Colombia the other half (October-November).

In Quito, I watched mostly via a DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscription.  All those games -- the Sunday 1 p.m. to 4:25 p.m starts -- have English audio available.

Starting this past season, DirecTV in both countries stopped offering English audio on the games outside the Sunday Ticket package.  Used to be that you could get English audio on Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football .. whereas Thursday Night Football was not shown.

That got turned around in 2016.  Spanish-only audio was available on Sunday/Monday nights.  Thursday Night Football was added on DirecTV -- with Spanish-language audio, no English.

I watched some of the night action on the NFL GamePass subscription that Nards mentioned.  That gave me English audio on everything, with all NFL games shown.  (Full disclosure:  I did not attempt to access the London, England, games, which are played in the early morning U.S. time.)

When in Colombia, I watched almost exclusively on my laptop via NFL GamePass even when games were available on the hotel's TV .. in order to get English audio.

By the way, the “live” TV games are not synchronized perfectly with play in the actual games, so that watching on a larger TV screen while listening to English audio on GamePass was not practical.

I watched some of the NFL games this past season on delay.  For instance, I might have seen a couple of games the following day, which is easily doable with GamePass.

I was pleased with the GamePass video.  Like Nards's friend in Cuenca, I found that buffering was not a problem. 

If anybody doubts the importance of having English audio for NFL games, I will be glad to explain.

cccmedia, planning to watch SuperBowl LI next Sunday
    on NFL GamePass .. here in Quindio, Colombia (Juan Valdez coffee country)

cccmedia wrote:

on NFL GamePass .. here in Quindio, Colombia (Juan Valdez coffee country)

Now you got us wondering why you are spending so much time in Columbia. FARC transition facilitator?

Colombia, try it .. you'll like it.

Seriously, I'll post more about my Colombia plans, but not on a football thread.

cccmedia in Coffee Country, COL

Until you brought up the feeds with the pop up adds, which I suffered through last year and the buffering, I just remembered that I think my problem was partly due to my router and my extender.  How I could I forget the 2 year nightmare dealing with that?  We even switched our internet provider and boosted our speed up past the 40 mark.  The problem is my internet line came in upstairs and since the houses are concrete walls I had a POS extender on my stair case.  In December on my Miami supply run, I got a bad ass router and had the internet company also come and run the line downstairs.  So my main router is upstairs and my router downstairs is able to connect to it like an extender.  I haven't tried the laptop route since then since if I use the cbs or espn apps it streams in HD.  Isn't it crazy the lengths we go through to watch our sports?

Sophems wrote:

Isn't it crazy the lengths we go through to watch our sports?

It can get complicated if you are attempting to get all NFL games on a shoestring budget.

It can be simple.

DirecTV's Sunday Ticket gets you virtually all the games .. 75 percent or more with English audio until the start of the playoffs.  NFL GamePass gets you all the games, including the playoffs and Super Bowl, all with English audio.  Ustvnow.com (with selected options) gets you all of the night games and selected Sunday afternoon games, all with English audio.

You don't need all three services.  GamePass could be sufficient, especially if you can route the signal to a 32 or 40 inch TV.

I paid less in South America for the combination of DirecTV Sunday Ticket and NFL GamePass this season (2016, plus playoffs through Super Bowl on GamePass) than I paid for Sunday Ticket alone during my most-recent years living in the States.

cccmedia

Yes we had direct tv, but recently canceled it now that we have the Kodi box.  He only thing I really miss is turning on a live channel for the noise.  Kodi doesn't stream live tv well for us, but that could be because we are new to it and don't really know what we are doing.  But I like being able to get everything even from Netflix and Amazon without a subscription.  And it doesn't require a vpn either.  Sports doesn't work so well on it though.

Sophems wrote:

Yes we had direct tv, but recently canceled it now that we have the Kodi box.  He only thing I really miss is turning on a live channel for the noise.

This may need an explanation.

What noise did you hear from DirecTV NFL telecasts -- announcer over crowd noise, whistles and refs' announcements?

What, if anything, are you hearing or not hearing now?  Are you getting English-language commentary on the games?

cccmedia

Oh I just meant TV noise from some random channel.  When I'm cleaning or cooking and don't feel like listening to music I usually just turn on the tv for the background noise.  Plus I have two dogs who like to look out the window and bark at people walking down the street or letting their car alarms go off for ever.  Kodi, although I love it 99% of the time doesn't really stream live tv per se.  It can certain channels but on my Samsung box the live feeds buffer so bad it's useless.  I can search anything I want to see or listen to once it's aired and it's fine,but when the program is over it just goes back to the menu.  My husband is always insistent on finding games on it, but I'm more like why waste the time just use our friends US cable login and be done with it. Less time and aggravation and it streams better for live events. There may be a way to fine tune it so it works better, but I don't see the reason.  Plus everything is free on Kodi.  So we cut the $100+ a a month for direct tv here and I had no idea how far behind direct TV here is on all the stuff I watch.  The only downfall is if internet is down I have no tv. But fingers crossed it's been very good lately even with all the rain.

For live news, I always find two of the 24 hour cable stations from the u.s. playing on YouTube.

Sophems, you might be a candidate for ustvnow.com, which offers a month's free trial on about four USA, English-language channels.

After the month, you can cancel for no charge or choose from a menu of programing choices, from extremely inexpensive to $39 US per month.  I take the top package because it not only includes about 20 channels, but I can program the DVR with recurring-program record for favorite shows.

As a result, I can watch Nightline, Meet the Press, Twilight Zone episodes, Good Morning America, NFL/NBA games televised by major networks, and other DVR-recorded programs .. instead of just relying on what's playing at the moment.  The ‘recurring' feature means I don't have to remember to program the recordings, they're just there on my recordings-page .. and will automatically self-erase about a month later.

That eliminates the mindlessness of turning on TV as background noise with a 5-10 percent chance that a decent program is playing.

cccmedia