I'm a big snooker fan, but I now only have Freeview, as I have stopped paying for a large cable TV subscription (which included British Eurosport) to save some money.

Then I discovered Eurosport Player, which only seems to be £3.99/month on a rolling contract. So I'm wondering how it works exactly.

Eurosport seems to have the rights to pretty much every snooker tournament going, so would Eurosport Player give me access to both British Eurosport 1 and 2?

And would I maybe even be able to continue watching a live snooker match even to its conclusion, even if the Eurosport channel switched to something else mid-match, which I found they often used to do?

http://www.eurosportplayer.co.uk/pro...mp;ns_fee=0.50

According to the website you get access to:
- British Eurosport
- British Eurosport 2
- Eurosport

The sportplayer will be a straight simulcast of the broadcast channels.

Thanks, I did check the Eurosport Player website, but it didn't seem too clear. And I can't seem to get a proper snooker schedule listing either (it just comes up with Bundesliga). Seems like it covers all three channels, and it even suggests that you can watch up to three channels at once too. It also mentions bonus live feeds, which hopefully might mean continuing with the snooker coverage even when the channels go to something like cycling...

It's disappointing though that the computer-based one and the iphone one are unconnected, so if you pay for the computer-based one you can't also watch it on your portable device. Not that I would want to watch snooker on my iPod!

Does anyone here have any experience of using the Eurosport Player? I would be interested to hear people's experiences of it.

Yes, so here goes.

The three main channels are Eurosport HD, Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2.

In addition when there is demand for more capacity there are additional channels (when they are on you will see them on the TV page you are trying to view) so that if there is a tennis/snooker tournament on, they can cover extra courts/tables. These are web-only and NOT available on your TV.

For my interest next month they will be showing the World Curling champs, on the extra channels rather than the main ones!

Add to that there is a video vault, so any games you have missed will be stored there for viewing at your leisure.

I think it's worth an one-month sub and have a play around, if you like it you can then sub for a year for around £30, look out for offers!

One item to note - they use Microsoft Silverlight which gives an oK picture but is a beggar to remove if it needs re-installing. If the picture is jittery you may need to update Silverlight, which is simple enough.

Oh, and at the end of your sub all you need to do is e-mail your cancellation (or re-sub!).

Enjoy!

Eurosport player gives you access to British Eurosport, British Eurosport 2, Eurosport HD plus various other streams of events which they can't fit onto their main channels (although these will be without comentary). Snooker does seem to get covered by additional live streams when I've seen it on there. You also get access to the Eurosport player video library, note that all the video on here is without comentary and low bit rate.

On the subject of bit rates since they changed from a flash based player to silverlight last year I haven't been able to get a stream above 1800kbps. I've tested on several different PC's and internet connections, including the 400Mb link at work.- all the same. Other people on here have had the same problem. Watching on a 42" plasma from 9ft I'd describe the picture quality as passable.

Billing can be a bit erratic. If you search you'll find some previous threads on the player.

That's great, thanks for that! I have to give this a go now. You say you watched on a 42" plasma - how can you do that exactly? Do you have a TV that can stream internet or something, or maybe a connection from your computer? I just assumed that I'd have to watch it on my PC monitor, which I would at the moment because I only have a straightforward 28" SDTV. But it sounds like there might be an option of getting the player on the TV. I wonder if I could SCART/AV/S-VIDEO from the PC to the TV...?

If that SDTV is one of the old CRT's (the big heavy ones) then I don't think you would be able to connect to the computer - although some might?

If it's a more modern one then there should be ways to connect to the computer, such as HDMI cable which (IMO) gives the best picture.

But this guide might help, page 3 has the options available.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com...uter-to-tv.htm

QUOTE
The most common video inputs on an SDTV are composite, S-video and component video. On computers, the most common video output is S-video. On a desktop PC, you'll find the 9-pin S-video jack on your graphics card next to where you connect your monitor.

Some Windows laptops also have S-video-out jacks, but most have 15-pin VGA jacks for connecting to external monitors. Luckily, it's easy to find adapters and special cables that have VGA connectors on one end and S-video connectors on the other. Apple also sells a wide variety of adapters to connect Mac desktops and laptops to the S-video or composite jack on SDTVs.

Even if you have an old TV that only accepts coaxial video cable (the one-pin variety that's mostly used for cable TV and satellite connections), you can use something called an RF converter box that can convert S-video or VGA input into coaxial output.

For connecting a computer to an HDTV, it's the same story. The most common HDTV inputs are component video, DVI and HDMI. If your graphics card doesn't have one of these outputs, then you'll need to buy a special converter box or adapter. For example, if your computer only has a VGA jack and your HDTV only accepts HDMI, then you'll need to buy a small box that will convert the signal for you.

Great, thanks for that link, it's very useful. I think my computer has an S-Video out, and my SDTV has an S-Video in (and SCART and AV of course), But I suspect it wouldn't be as easy as connecting an S-Video cable up. There would surely be resolution issues for a start.

My PC audio already goes through an amplifier, so the sound isn't a problem.

I'm guessing the first step would be to buy an S-Video cable and see what (if anything) happens!

Do any of the internet-enabled entertainment devices (TVs, PVRs, DVD players, games consoles etc.) support Eurosport Player? That would be a far nicer solution for me than having to hook up a laptop PC to the TV everytime, and would potentially provide the benefit of an RF modulator for ease of distribution to elsewhere in the house.

If a PC is the only way, what would be the most cost-effective solution for a dedicated PC that I could leave connected to the TV permanently? I'm thinking that in principle a laptop with a broken screen would be ideal!

Richard.

Xbox 360 would be great for me. Although no doubt I would require Xbox Gold membership though, so that would be no good. I'm pretty sure you can get a separate Eurosport Player for the iPad. But I only have an iPod.

The latter. My PC sits behind my TV stand and I run a DVI>HDMI cable to connect it with a separate connection from the onboard sound outputs to my home cinema receiver. I doubt you'll find an internet enabled TV that supports Eurosport player given it uses Microsoft Silverlight for the video stream rather than the more prevelant Adobe Flash. Although having just rejoined Sky I'll be saying bye, bye to Eurosport player for now.

I'm actually looking to buy a new 1080p HD TV now, and also a new PC. So I don't see why I couldn't make sure that I get a PC with a decent video (maybe one where it's intentionally set up to output to a TV?), and make sure that I get a TV that has a video in?

Are there any particular kind of video ins and outs etc that I should be looking out for on the two items? Maybe ones that work particularly well for streaming PC internet to the TV? Maybe a DVI> HDMI like you have? I already have a surround-sound amplifier for the sound, so I can output that from whatever PC I get.

Almost any modern PC will be fine - lots of motherboards these days come with built in DVI or HDMI outputs. If you get one with a descrete graphics card, either AMD or Nvidia you'll be fine. Newer graphics cards can output sound over their HDMI outputs as well, such as the new AMD Radeon 7xxx series

Great, thanks. I'll aim for a PC with HDMI out then, ideally including sound.

Pretty much all HDTVs have a VGA input (the one you'll be using to connect your PC to your monitor) so i'd upgrade your tv first and hook up your current PC to it. It wont give you an HD quality picture like using DVI/HDMI but if your main usage is the Eurosport player it wont matter (It should look as good as it does on your monitor). You can still upgrade your PC if you want the extra quality but you may be happy enough.