Monday, May 28, 2012

First Post of 2012...

 Memorial Day and I thought I would make a post while watching some more racing action. I'm currently watching the uninterrupted coverage of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge from New Jersey's so-called Thunderbolt Raceway (SMH).

 This post is about the future of racing on TV or should I say on the internet. I should start by saying I recently added XBMC to my Windows Media Center PC. Why is this a big deal? -

  •  This added ESPN3 to my PC without the clumsy use of Second Run TV 2.0 which just went directly to the web site. Second Run used the number pad for mouse control and as you can imagine its not fun to use at all.
  • Has the best You Tube Account app I have ever used. Automatically defaults to full screen and best quality (adjustable in the settings) 
 Why is You Tube important? The FIA GT1, European GT3 and Blancpain Endurance Series has moved its Live Streaming to You Tube. However GT1 and GT3 are Geo-Blocked because in the US its available on Speed2. Nothing Tunnel Bear can't solve (VPN), I'll get to that later...

 Back to XBMC for a second... XBMC is a development of Xbox (the original) Media Center (thus XBMC) that allow Xbox users to watch and listen to media. Development for the Xbox stopped about two years ago but continued development for Apple TV, IPad, Linux and Windows machines has continued with the release of Eden.

 This makes it possible to have all your motorsport needs completely covered. Again, I'll get deeper into that in later.

 More importantly I think Auto Racing Fans especially those that enjoy racing outside of America or racing not on the mainstream radar need to understand that the days of producing content exclusively for broadcast TV are OVER. Series like SCCA World Challenge and Continental Tire series are not shown live on TV. Neither is any of the FIA sportscar series. Do you wanna wait until the NASCAR season is over or do you want to watch it as it happens or a few days after?

 Several web sites have popped up and I'll mention those in another post later on; As long as you have a better than average broadband connection, you can get all the racing you can stand or what your significant other will allow you to watch.

 The time to embrace this is NOW.

 In the next post, I will cover what you need to experience streaming in high quality on any size TV.

   
  

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