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PEARSON: Watch Olympics on the Web

By Mike Pearson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 15, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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If you don't know that NBC is televising the Olympics these days, you've either been in a coma or a shack in the woods playing with explosives.

NBC paid $900 million for the U.S. rights to the 2008 games, and the network and its affiliates are in the process of delivering 3,600 hours of coverage on television and online.

What's the best way to watch?

You could do what I did the first few days: Tivo five-hour blocks of Olympics coverage, then fast-forward to the events you want.

Or you can go the Internet route.

At nbcolympics.com, you'll find a smorgasbord of options: You can watch some events in real time, and countless others on video clips.

Here's the first thing to know about watching the Olympics online: Since NBC has exclusive rights in the U.S., your best bet is to go through its Web site. Sure, you can find clips on other sites, from Yahoo! to YouTube. But finding live Web coverage of the games outside of NBC's control will be tricky.

Once you're at nbcolympics.com, you'll need to download the Microsoft Silverlight program to watch streaming video. It's simple, taking about 30 seconds.

One way the online coverage differs from the broadcast is that most live coverage comes without commentary. (Not so the video clips of past events.) That means you can watch a bike race or a sailing competition without an intrusive announcer postulating on mindless details. Should you still want details, there's a button to click and written comments pop up.

Because NBC makes more money from TV ads than online advertising, some of the hottest events won't be streamed live (i.e. gymnastics, volleyball). You can only catch them online after the fact.

Here are a few more things to know:

* The front page of the site gives results from the day's activities. If you don't want to know, preferring the prime- time tape-delayed coverage, don't log on.

* The quality of the streaming video will depend on your computer monitor. Unless the monitor is high-definition, it can be a bit fuzzy. You might be better off watching some things on regular TV.

* Don't even think about streaming video with a dial-up connection - it'll be slow and take forever. A high-speed connection such as DSL or cable is your best bet.

* Even with a high-speed connection, the site isn't flawless. It sometimes freezes up or traps you in buffer hell. The other night I tried to watch the Venus Williams tennis match and it refused to load. I gave up after 10 tries, though I was able to watch live badminton, sailing and another tennis match easily.

* The NBC site lets you watch multiple events at once. The four-in-one feature allows you to watch something on a larger screen, then choose three other sports to display in smaller screens. You can easily substitute what you're watching in all four quadrants.

* Expect commercials. NBC spent $900 million on the games, so parent company GE plans to get its money's worth. GE banners litter the site, and there are plenty of GE, Coke and McDonald's commercials preceding the video clips.

* A "control panel" allows you to watch Olympic events as seen on TV, in highlight form and the most popular clips on the site.

* One nice feature is a guide to judging. Get primers on the criteria judges use for everything from gymnastics to shooting. That's something the TV announcers rarely tell you in coherent fashion.

* A picture-in-picture function makes it easy to watch your two favorite sports simultaneously.

* Since Beijing is 14 hours ahead of Denver, don't expect much live coverage while you're sitting at the office during the day. (Noon in Denver is 2 a.m. Beijing time.) Most of the live footage streams earlier in the morning. A better bet is the video archive of events that have already happened.

* Check out the "village cam," which allows athletes to talk directly to the camera, introducing themselves and their sport. I loved the video of weightlifter Kendrick Farris, who was like a little kid talking about meeting Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade at the cafeteria.

The Internet gives you 24/7 access to the 2008 Olympics. The only thing missing? Surround sound.

Check out Mike Pearson's Pop Culture blog on the Entertainment page.

Road less traveled

Want to follow the Beijing Olympics online without going through NBC? It can be done, though the process is a bit inconvenient.

* Because NBC has online rights in the U.S., continental users can't simply go to the online BBC or Canadian sites to circumvent the process.

* You'll need a proxy server, a program that prevents the host site from determining what country your computer is in. Decide what country you want to go through, Google (i.e. "Canada open proxy") and download the program.

* How much information do you divulge when you go to a Web site? Check for yourself at uniqueinternetservices.com.

* Be warned: Free proxy servers can be unreliable. In other words, it might take three or four tries to connect to your destination.

Big stream

1.7 million video streams downloaded of Monday's stunning swimming relay, when the American team came from behind to beat France and keep Michael Phelps' gold-medal streak alive.

1.5 million video streams of the relay race were e-mailed from one person to another.

Source: NBC Universal

Comments

  • August 18, 2008

    8:37 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    thefoschinis writes:

    We are so focused on the inside in this country, that all we see are competitions with the US. We even look at the medal standing differently. China is leading by a large margin in gold medals (at the moment they have 39, compared to 20 of the US). But only here do we count total medals, in which the United States are leading.
    And one more questions: What happened to the idea that these are the games of non professional athletes? ...

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