Canadian Viewing - 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

[Garak]

We Canucks who wish to watch this race need to put our heads together and come up with something. The cable and satellite forums have not been helpful. SpeedTV Canada is essentially toast. It has the rights to the race up here, as far as I know.

Unfortunately, it's not truly a dead channel, it's just that no major provider up here offers it any longer. As contracts are expiring, no one is renewing them with Speed, so it will slowly but surely die. Of course, that doesn't do us a bit of good come June, unless they sell the rights to TSN or Rogers or something in one heck of a hurry.

My WEC membership specifically exclude the stream of the Le Mans because of TV rights. So far, the only things I can think of are the onboard streams of Audi and Nismo and perhaps Porsche, but that wouldn't be my preferred way to watch. I could combine that with live timing from the WEC site. What a mess.

 

[dernp]

Welcome to Canada and the CRTC.

 

[dparm]

justin.tv is your friend.

 

[Garak]

I'll have to look into that one. I do know that some online streaming services simply block Canadian IPs for certain events.

 

[NMBurb02]

Road trip!

 

[Garak]

Well, tickets are cheap. The flight won't be. Aside from that, I don't think my businesses can do without me for a long weekend, at least not this year. One of these times, though....

 

[JustinH]

Originally Posted By: Garak
I'll have to look into that one. I do know that some online streaming services simply block Canadian IPs for certain events.


You can buy a VPN for like 3 bucks a month.

 

[Garak]

That certainly would work, but that's a bit of a hassle. I'd rather not be watching the race in front of my computer if I can avoid it. Cable and satellite TV are progressively slitting their own throats. If I cannot watch one of the most important annual races in the world on a television, particularly when I'm stupid enough to buy one of the most expensive satellite packages out there, I begin to question why I'm paying for television.

I have to have Oprah's network, yet I cannot watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans? I can watch council meetings from small town Ontario and watch small town Manitoba TV bingo, yet nothing whatsoever from the WEC calendar? And TV executives wonder why viewership is down.

 

[dparm]

Garak, just plug your laptop into your TV or whatever. Heck, some devices like Roku, AppleTV, and even smart-TVs have built-in web browsers that might be able to handle an HTML5 video stream.

 

[Garak]

Very good suggestion, but I'm a Luddite when it comes to laptops and portable devices. If it's not a desktop, I'm not interested. No, I'm suffering for that. Maybe an HDMI repeater and a long cable or a wireless HDMI kit might be in order.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Bad start for Audi... one of their R18 cars destroyed during a practice run...

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/06/11/audi-r18-crash-lemans-practice-video/

 

[Garak]

Ouch. That one won't be running. Hopefully, he'll be okay.

And I checked my stupid video card. I was thinking of running an HDMI to my TV room, even with a booster, if needed. No HDMI. I guess I'm doomed to trying to find streams anyhow and watching them.

 

[bdcardinal]

I think Audi will be allowed to switch chassis without penalty. Duval might not be cleared in time to participate, so they might have to call up another driver to take his place. Wonder what the learning curve for the R18 is.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Wonder what the learning curve for the R18 is.

Given what happened and that Duval is far from a rookie, it might be pretty steep.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Wonder what the learning curve for the R18 is.

Given what happened and that Duval is far from a rookie, it might be pretty steep.

I was just wondering since F1 and IndyCar have an off week this weekend. They might headhunt someone to take their spot. I didn't see Scott Pruett in the entrance list. I would love to see Charlie Kimball get a chance at something on the big world stage, Ganassi had a gem in him.

 

[Garak]

I would assume they should have some reserve drivers, too, or could even snag a reserve driver from an F1 team. After all, Sebastian Buemi is an Infiniti Red Bull reserve driver as it is. I'm guessing Audi would want a Platinum driver if at all possible, and someone with a super license is the easiest way to accomplish that. Maybe Allan McNish has the weekend off, and his retirement might have been premature.

 

[BradC]

You can stream the LeMans live from the official site:
http://www.24h-lemans.com/live/en

 

[Garak]

Yep, it's working. They did geo-disable (is that even a word) the onboard cameras that are streamed through that site. I haven't tried the onboards from the manufacturers own sites, yet, though. The NISMO live Youtube channel is working.

I was afraid that the official streaming sites would not work in Canada. Everyone up here seems too willing to shut something down at even the first hint of a copyright or TV rights issue.