Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

When I first signed up for FLO a few years ago, I did not have a Smart TV, so I would watch most of the races on my laptop or every one in a while, on my phone and I thought that was the greatest thing just to be able to watch dirt track racing. When we bought a new TV and I added Dirtvision, I learned how to cast from my phone, which brought watching to a whole new level for me. Now I am spoiled, and get aggrivated when my wife wants to watch something on television and I am back on the laptop. Let's be honest, with all the streaming programming available, you can now almost watch racing 7 days a week. It is almost TOO MUCH.

On another note, when I first got FLO, I loved watching a race on a Wednesday night, from a track in the middle of no where, that I had only read about. It could be sprint cars or IMCA modifieds. Sometimes even with Chet Christner announcing. I loved it. Now it looks like FLO is getting away from broadcasting those grassroots types of tracks, and working toward agreements with only National Series. 

I am not sure how these other streaming services can compete and stay in business? Maybe I am different, but I can not justify paying $20 or $25 a night to watch a PPV of a regular race when I have FLO and Dirtvision. I guess enough race fans do pay for those or they would not still be in business. It will be interesting to see how this whole streaming deal works out in a few years.?

MavTV  and Lucas oil have once again ruined another good PPV channel.

Loudpedal which changed to FLO is now mostly pavment races and Motorcycles / dragsters ect.

I love all forms of racing just like I enjoy all types of music.

FLO was great for dirt sprint ,midget and silver crown , and thats what I love.

Now you don't see much of that.

TOTAL BUMMER.

You have very valid points. The not my problem issue can be frustrating. It a person wants to use the latest gadgets you would be wise to start reading up on it all unless you are lucky enough to have friends or kids to help you.

I try to avoid WI-FI for streaming. Nothing better than hard wires.  A person can buy cables with ends already on them.  I can make cables but prefer premade cables for most everything. Most anything can be bought on line fortunately.

Running cables in older houses does require being creative often. Using the cold air returns for running cables may work for many folks.

While using the modem and WI-FI supplied or sold by the internet provider may be more expensive when you have a problem it is their problem thru the modem or WI-FI not just to the house.

Sometimes one has to restart the device you are watching on. That is computers and phone 101. I have found Dirt Vision and Flo tech support to be helpful.

I see a potential business opportunity traveling around to help tech challenged Hosers resolve their streaming problems.  

Stan Meissner

Unlikely the people needing the help are willing to pay I suspect.

That's what kids are for.

That's awesome.  I've always wanted to do the Linux thing because I'm not real happy with the direction Microsoft is going with Windows but I've never had much motivation to do it.  It's a fun hobby keep it up.

You're welcome to come to my house...

I'm pretty sure they still broadcast all the USAC dirt sprint ,midget and silver crown races. The season hasn't really started yet (Florida is an exception)

Hell my TV isn't even connected to the Internet. I don't know how to use Netflix

Modem is in the basement (like all good trolls, right?) & signal doesn't reach the TV upstairs

But I know how to watch FLO & DV on my laptop & babble here....

You are correct, hard wiring all your streaming devices is best for two reasons, #1 your streaming devices don't have to fight for air time and #2 since streaming takes up so much air time it frees up other devices for a better experience.  

Running wires in older homes can be fun.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend using air duct ventilation but it is an option and the cold air one is much better than supply ducts but this is only an option if you have a house with duct work (no boilers).  If you're handy with drywall you can just knock a few holes in the wall and run wires pretty much anywhere but not everyone is comfortable with this.  There is also mesh systems available, they can be expensive but IF setup the way they're supposed to be, they do work well.  I wouldn't recommend this unless you know what you're doing because you might not really need it and PROPER setup takes a litte bit of know how and in the end you could end up just wasting time and money.

If you don't have a very good idea about networking in general I would absolutely recommend renting your ISPs router.  This can be hit and miss though.  I worked at a FTTH ISP for five years.  If someone had a problem we could literally log into the router, see what was connected and the signal strength to that device.  There could be channel interferences we could try to help with or individual device help or sometimes things just change, like I said earlier someone adds a TV in a bedroom that wasn't there to when you initially installed them and for whatever reason doesn't get good signal to that device we could add a mesh or run wire if it was possible.  But there are some shitty ISPs too that aren't going to be any help.  I don't know a good way to tell you how to find a good one other than try to talk to a tech and tell them what you're doing, if they give you an answer like "Our router's great we don't have any problems like that".  I'd maybe stay away from them.  But if they say something like "Show us what you got when we get there, we'll check it out and try to get you going".  They probably understand that wifi isn't as simple as just installing a router.

I get into arguments all the time with people because they have a solution that works FOR THEM and think it's great and I've seen enough to know that there is no one size fits all solution for most of these things.  What's the best router for everyone?  Someone might have a 4,000 square foot house and a router that works for them and will think it's great.  I can tell you my last house was about 900 square feet on the main level that was a cabin or tiny house that had been added onto a few times and there was one wall in that house that wifi wasn't passing through (not anything worth connecting to anyway).  I bought a router that said it covered houses up to 4,500 square feet, guess what, it couldn't cover my house with 900 square feet, it was physics, it wasn't passing through that one wall.  I ended up needing to hardwire a mesh to the other side.  My current house has a large addition on it, same thing I needed to hard wire an access point.  What's the best streaming box?  People swear by Roku, I've seen enough of Roku to know they act as stupid as any other device sometimes.  Some people swear by Firesticks, I've had 3 of them and after two years I wasn't happy with any of them.  Some people like smart TVs (including Roku TVs), I'm not a fan of these at all for lots of reasons.  But IF IT WORKS FOR YOU THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS, that's all I try to tell people.  Some people probably think I'm a "negative Nancy" when these discussions come up because I never really give any solutions but point out that whatever solution someone recommends might not work for them but the truth of the matter is, I could get a setup to work in anyone's house but I can't do it by what you tell me online, I'm going to need to walk through your house and see what I'm working with.

I wonder if it has ocurred to anyone to go to the Flo Racing website to look at their schedule of races to e streamed? There is a printable schedule there.

revjimk NOPE usac cra just ran at cocopah not on flo.

I do understand Perris is boycoting ppv I drive 900 miles round trip to go see there shows.

Before the merge , buy out , sell out , whatever you want to call it you would see all usac .

USAC , USAC CRA , WESTERN USAC MIDGETS , 360 USAC WEST COAST.

Now not so much.

Last summer / fall is when we started seeing all the fall off of other tracks and sanctions.

MAVTV sucks.

LOL.... I remember in High School the most I would ever put in my 66 Chevelle was $2.00 worth of gas. If I was going on a long drive somewhere I would really load her up with $5.00!!! LOL...

I could be wrong... aren't they broadcasting the National USAC shows????

I sure hope so...

Truth.  Every single race I watch without a hitch, I get online and see everyone complaining about DV or FLO's broadcast.  It's hilarious!

When I was in HS a guy bought a 427 Chevy with dual 4 barrels. We were astounded when he spent $8 on gas on the first weekend he had it, just cruisin'

I have both Flo & DV. I seldom see any streaming problems that are not from the source (track). There are a lot of places along the way that problems can occur and do sometimes.  I see more problems when I replay events than LIVE.

Flo often has audio level problems, DV not so much. It is all about doing it cheaply or with minimal manpower.

You do realixlize that we're in that March lull between Florida and tracks opening for the season.  Next weekend there is two nights of IRA on Flo.  This semi dead period happens every season after Speedweeks.  There will be more to watch than there is time soon.

Stan Meissner

Is this the part of the discussion when people who don't know how to fix their WiFi predict the demise of streaming?  

Stan Meissner