Watching the Olympics online

[LionelThompson]

Besides the NBC Olympic site, which my employer has courteously gone ahead and blocked, are there any other websites, perhaps international where I can watch the games? During the last World Cup, I was able to view games live via a Brasilian website and was hoping to have similar luck this time around.

[Slainte Mhath]

Wow, blocking the Olympics at work? Your management is anti-American, I would alert the local news agency immediately.

Our friends in Canada have you covered though. http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/
Of course, not sure what all they will cover considering they'll have a bias toward events featuring Canadian Olympians, but there's a good number of those to go around so chances are you'll see most of what you're interested in.

[Fugitive]

Our friends in Canada have you covered though. http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/
The video on the women's beach volleyball stream is extremely choppy. :( (Edit: Improving, though)

[idrisz]

is there a video of the opening?

suppose to awesome, but I can't find a video at all.

[Robert Sharp]

I watched in HD on NBC. It was amazing. Find a way to see it...very impressive.

[idrisz]

baah I can't find it anywhere online.

[Alan Dunkin]

nbcolympics.com.

Or do you mean alternate method? Try grabbing TVU, then finding an NBC station or Olympics-themed channel.

Just finished watching some Australia-Belarus women's basketball; American women fencing is up next hopefully... right now just some waiting. And China already got the first gold, what a shocker.

--- Alan

Edit: Oops I guess China didn't get it, but the Czech Republic.

[idrisz]

I just want to see the opening ceremony shows and fireworks, not really interested in the actual competition.

[Alan Dunkin]

Oh. It should be up on nbcolympics.com then. You'll need a plugin installed (Microsoft Silverlight).

--- Alan

[idrisz]

I'm looking around on the site, but only video I can find is just interviews regarding the ceremony.

[Fugitive]

Edit: Oops I guess China didn't get it, but the Czech Republic.
I think China just got one in the women's weightlifting though (watching it now), so not too far behind.

[jpinard]

Am I reading the site list wrong, or is all the fencing only available for viewing on-line live? If so that sucks. I'd much rather watch it on TIVO.

And why do they have 4 listings for the same thing? Are they different cameras? Seems really stupid that we have to click around to all the different cams to try and find one where something is actually happening?

Also, Women's Judo is freakin' fantastic. Just watched Hungary do some unbelievable flippy-pounce-thingie that was incredible. I'm guessing Tae-Kwan-Do is no as exciting since it's primarily defensive?

Here's some world-class commentary from their crappy text comentary thing:

gripping is the major facit ofthis contest

[Alan Dunkin]

Not sure where fencing is offered other than online, that's how I'm watching it. There are 4 streams because there are 4 matches going on in the same time at the same arena (I think they start slightly staggered).

On another topic, this is from the BBC commentary/blog:

0523: Let's have a bit more on China's first gold medal. Chen Xiexia flexed her muscles to lift 95kg in the snatch and an Olympic record 117kg in the clean and jerk on her way to gold - and she looked such a wee lifter too. I now feel a total weed for struggling with a couple of bags of shopping this afternoon. Oh.

--- Alan

[Alan Dunkin]

Judo looks absolutely crazy; switched away from women's fencing since Jacobson is now in the 8 to watch some (just saw an American win). I don't understand Judo scoring, but it sure is entertaining to watch two guys twist and turn so much you would have thought their backs would have been broken five times over.

--- Alan

[Ezdaar]

I like the online viewing but is there any way to make the 4 video setup bigger? I can only get one small main video and 3 tiny videos. If I click to make the small video larger it kills all the tiny videos.

[Alan Dunkin]

No you can't.

The 3 American women made it to the semifinals (the last is a Russian) for fencing. Pretty good--the last one where Becca Ward beat the Tunisian by a single point, and she took it very hard. She was still collapsed on the mat when they ended coverage.

--- Alan

[XPav]

I watched in HD on NBC. It was amazing. Find a way to see it...very impressive.

I did notice once where the camera operator bunched the Auto White Balance button while filming.

Sheesh.

I liked the opening ceremonies though. I always like the opening ceremonies more than the actual sporting events.

[hong]

Apropos of nothing, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines would make an awesome name for a rock band.

[wildpokerman]

Besides the NBC Olympic site, which my employer has courteously gone ahead and blocked, are there any other websites, perhaps international where I can watch the games? During the last World Cup, I was able to view games live via a Brasilian website and was hoping to have similar luck this time around.

My employer did this too and sent out a request to please not watch at work for fear that 25 thousand employees watching Olympic coverage would cause network slowness and crashing.

[jpinard]

Is there going to be a way to re-watch the fencing matches I missed last night after going to bed? Or are they totally gone?

[Hanacker]

Wow, fencing is awfully boring if you don't know what's going on.

[delirium]

Is it just me or does the NBC streaming run horribly? It's so choppy and pretty much unwatchable. Sucks because I don't have TV and was pretty much banking on watching the Olympics online.

[Quaro]

Sabre is anyway, with the second long points. It's weird to have everything decided on what can literally be just a minute of total activity.

[Gordon Cameron]

Fencing happens extremely fast and two of its types (foil and sabre) depend on understanding some rather confusing right-of-way rules. It's not a telegenic sport.

[jpinard]

Is it just me or does the NBC streaming run horribly? It's so choppy and pretty much unwatchable. Sucks because I don't have TV and was pretty much banking on watching the Olympics online.

Runs smooth as glass on my system. But maybe some of it's because MS's Silverlight runs poorly unless you've got 4 Gig RAM, 8 Gig Cable, and a fast proc & VC. I'm also running on Win XP. Though maybe... it's because I was just one of 10 people watching fencing and judo.

BTW - how are you people watching 4 cams at once?

[Alan Dunkin]

Oops I made my comment about the choppiness on the other thread (basically I said it was only choppy in one fencing match for me last night, the last one I watched).

You can watch 4 if you try the Enhanced Player (when it pops up you get the standard one, the one with the text commentary, etc.). There's a button on there to get you the enhanced one, where the screen is bigger--on the left there's a row of buttons including "Live Control Room" at the top. You can bring up 4 streams there, though #1 is small (and #2-4 are really small). You can swap between them, then enlarge #1 to the big window.

--- Alan

[jpinard]

Oops I made my comment about the choppiness on the other thread (basically I said it was only choppy in one fencing match for me last night, the last one I watched).

You can watch 4 if you try the Enhanced Player (when it pops up you get the standard one, the one with the text commentary, etc.). There's a button on there to get you the enhanced one, where the screen is bigger--on the left there's a row of buttons including "Live Control Room" at the top. You can bring up 4 streams there, though #1 is small (and #2-4 are really small). You can swap between them, then enlarge #1 to the big window.

--- Alan


Awesome thanks! Now only if I had 2 weeks to just sit in front of the computer and do nothing.

[Alan Dunkin]

Well, not everything is on the computer. None of the stuff broadcast live, for instance (at least, live on the computer).

--- Alan

[Jim Preston]

Wow, fencing is awfully boring if you don't know what's going on.I did some epee fencing in college. At the highest levels of the support there is actually a first-mover's disadvantage, so often what you have is two people with an incentive not to go first and wait for the other player to make a move. They've tried to make changes to the rules in recent years, but it still has its quirks.