AFL LIVE PASS - WHAT A JOKE!

[bing181]

I'm using watchafl from Germany.

I'm OS as well (France)

Does anyone know what's going on with the International Memberships, which used to include access to this? Or do we need to take out a separate Watchafl subscription. My club (Melbourne) is telling me that there will be an International Membership, but for the moment, unless I'm mistaken, I can't access Watchafl and preseason etc. without taking out a new subscription, even if I use the free Preseason code.

Conflicting messages. Anyone know anything more?

 

[braddsey]

I'm OS as well (France)

Does anyone know what's going on with the International Memberships, which used to include access to this? Or do we need to take out a separate Watchafl subscription. My club (Melbourne) is telling me that there will be an International Membership, but for the moment, unless I'm mistaken, I can't access Watchafl and preseason etc. without taking out a new subscription, even if I use the free Preseason code.

Conflicting messages. Anyone know anything more?

On the lions membership forum, someone replied that they contact the club and the International Membership will be available late Feb, early March.

You need to sign up again to watchafl (i guess because it's transferred to Fox), but if you enter the voucher code PRESEASON17 the price drops to zero (https://www.watchafl.com.au/offer). You still need to enter payment method, and it does say "Simply cancel before 23rd March and you won’t be charged**". If you're worried that you won't take out an annual subscription, you can select the weekly pass, so if you forget to cancel, at least you only get charged for a week (€17). Cancelling the subscription is pretty easy, in the "Manage Your Subscription" section of My Profile, there's a big "Cancel Subscription" button.

I'm watching the women's match now. Quality is awesome. I'll definitely be taking out the season pass, but still waiting to see what the International Membership costs via the club.

 

[mwillliams613]

@braddsey have you tried airplay yet? Works off my mac, but not my iphone.

 

[The Dice Man]

I'm using watchafl from Germany. Quality for me is awesome, looks like a big step-up compared to the garbage from Rightster in previous years. For people in Australia, if you can find a smartDNS service (or VPN) it looks like you can pretty much get fox footy, without subscribing to Fox.
Cost in Euros is €149. Cost in GBP is £149. I'll get USD and update this post.

Fox Footy looks like a big step in the right direction for me:
- The app looks sleek, and actually works (as compared to the Rightster garbage we got for the previous few years), with Airplay.
- It looks like we get access to Fox Footy programming. On the Couch, AFL Tonight, AFL 360, Bounce, Open Mike, League Teams, whatever other crap they put on. Sure, it was possible previously thanks to some great footy fans who made it available, but it's much easier to watch it on demand! Big plus from me!
- So far, streaming quality looks great on iPad, and would trust Fox to deliver better overall quality than Rightster did, with less glitches and dropouts. And hopefully no more of the crap the used to put on repeat between each goal and each quarter because they didn't take the advertising.
- Likely it will be a bit more expensive. The subscription cost has gone up online (€149 for me). The global lion membership is not yet available - last years was $155.

you can sign up for a trial subscription now until March 22: https://www.watchafl.com.au/offer
enter voucher code PRESEASON17

Looks like a lot of positives for my footy consumption this season!

(A bit of a cross-post from here: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/2017-membership-all-for-one.1151356/page-12#post-48637640)

Have just noticed this too. IIRC last year I paid 100, but cant remember if it was in AUD or EUR. Going to sign up today too and see how it looks. Cheers

 

[The Dice Man]

Well it looks good, watching the replay of the womens game. Biggest improvement is access to the Fox Footy Channel, thats fantastic for us OS tragics.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Quality was ok when I tested earlier. Tested the live fox footy stream of the replay of tonight's game and it started off pretty low res but improved after 30 seconds or so. Still not HD but much better than the pixellated jittery rubbish put out last year.

Will have to test during a live game to see quality. It did pause for about 3 minutes the first time I streamed it but after a while it was fine.

Still I don't understand why they can't stream in 720p. There is no option to select quality/bitrate from my early look. They should model off the NFL Gamepass app/website not perfect but has the basics down pat - and streams in HD.

 

[bing181]

On the lions membership forum, someone replied that they contact the club and the International Membership will be available late Feb, early March.

Thanks for that, much appreciated, was the cancelling part I was concerned about.

Good luck for the season ahead.

 

[The Great Gabsby]

On the lions membership forum, someone replied that they contact the club and the International Membership will be available late Feb, early March.

You need to sign up again to watchafl (i guess because it's transferred to Fox), but if you enter the voucher code PRESEASON17 the price drops to zero (https://www.watchafl.com.au/offer). You still need to enter payment method, and it does say "Simply cancel before 23rd March and you won’t be charged**". If you're worried that you won't take out an annual subscription, you can select the weekly pass, so if you forget to cancel, at least you only get charged for a week (€17). Cancelling the subscription is pretty easy, in the "Manage Your Subscription" section of My Profile, there's a big "Cancel Subscription" button.

I'm watching the women's match now. Quality is awesome. I'll definitely be taking out the season pass, but still waiting to see what the International Membership costs via the club.

I am in the same boat and I found this part interesting reading through the fine print

Weekly, Monthly and Season Passes are auto-renewing with renewal charges occurring within 24 hours prior to the end of your chosen subscription period.

Looks like you have to be on the ball otherwise you will get smacked with another bill.

 

[braddsey]

@braddsey have you tried airplay yet? Works off my mac, but not my iphone.

Yes I had airplay from my iPad to Apple TV 3. It worked okay, but should have been better - though I suspect it was my fault as I was using it in part of my house with not so good wifi.

 

[mwillliams613]

Yes I had airplay from my iPad to Apple TV 3. It worked okay, but should have been better - though I suspect it was my fault as I was using it in part of my house with not so good wifi.

Dunno what i'm doing wrong then. I'm using PIA vpn and ive tried mirroring from iphone and ipad to apple tv 4, i get the black screen with the spinning wheel for like a second then it stops. The iphone/ipad shows that it is playing on the apple tv but the apple tv is just on the home screen. Tried with a chromecast to and it wont play on that either

 

[BoxMatrix]

Dunno what i'm doing wrong then. I'm using PIA vpn and ive tried mirroring from iphone and ipad to apple tv 4, i get the black screen with the spinning wheel for like a second then it stops. The iphone/ipad shows that it is playing on the apple tv but the apple tv is just on the home screen. Tried with a chromecast to and it wont play on that either

How did the quality work out for you on your device? Just out of curiosity...

 

[hoianbulldog]

Dunno what i'm doing wrong then. I'm using PIA vpn and ive tried mirroring from iphone and ipad to apple tv 4, i get the black screen with the spinning wheel for like a second then it stops. The iphone/ipad shows that it is playing on the apple tv but the apple tv is just on the home screen. Tried with a chromecast to and it wont play on that either

I don't think you can cast to a smart tv if you are running a VPN on your device. One of the propeller heads might be able to explain the technical reasons for this.

 

[Power Raid]

I don't get the live pass hate. It's not perfect but it's pretty handy.

Just plug the phone in to the TV and i get to see every game.

 

[pjcrows]

So I had a free Live Pass last season through Telstra. They emailed me and said the free subscription was ending and I'd have to start paying. So I canceled. Then I get an email saying sorry, it's still free.

So... do I need to re-register?

 

[LB#16]

So I had a free Live Pass last season through Telstra. They emailed me and said the free subscription was ending and I'd have to start paying. So I canceled. Then I get an email saying sorry, it's still free.

So... do I need to re-register?

Your account will still be in place, you'll just have to restart your subscription on the AFL app.

 

[braddsey]

Dunno what i'm doing wrong then. I'm using PIA vpn and ive tried mirroring from iphone and ipad to apple tv 4, i get the black screen with the spinning wheel for like a second then it stops. The iphone/ipad shows that it is playing on the apple tv but the apple tv is just on the home screen. Tried with a chromecast to and it wont play on that either

Honestly I gave up on my Apple TV a couple of years back (I dug it out of a box to test this) - I think it's more trouble than it's worth. I generally do everything through a laptop plugged into the TV via HDMI.
I got a great scroll wheel air mouse thing and a wireless keyboard. Works every time without fail. Can get full access to internet - no restrictions based on what apple or app provider decide I can & can't do. Plus it takes out the concern of wifi network issues.

 

[The Dice Man]

Is anyone able to find replays from last year? Cant seem to find a search function.

 

[funk44]

Here is a 2 minute sample of the WatchAFL service. A few points

The stream stutters on Chrome and doesn't work at all using Edge but is perfect on Firefox
The same stutter existed on the web browsers on both my Sony TV and LG TV
The delay between FTA and the stream is around 15-20 seconds
Presently the highest available quality is 5.4mbps however it should go as high as 7

I've concluded the best way to get this running on a TV is to either
1. Run it on a laptop plugged into the TV via HDMI or;
2. Get an x86 mini PC like a NUC or Compute Stick and connect to the device via VNC

The advantage of doing either of those for users planning on using a VPN is that you will isolate the VPN service to the device so you don't hinder the rest of your network like you would if you configured the VPN at the router (which is also quite a technical process). I am going to go with option 2 and have just purchased a Compute Stick here

Overall I think the service is excellent. The quality is more than satisfactory and given effectively what you are buying is the Fox Footy Channel plus on-demand games plus on-demand panel shows I think it is absolutely value for money

 

[Atomboy]

So tried to log in as an International member from last year (with payments still being taken out of my account).

No dice.

Contacted the Admin of Watch AFL "sorry you aren't registered with us, you will need to contact the previous service provider to sort payment issues out, but you will have to pay us to as the new provider to access the service".

Anyone else experience this ?. I am still getting charged by "Righster" for this year's service even though they aren't apparently doing it now, and no way to get in contact.

Pretty pisspoor by the AFL to change provider and not give me a heads-up, and then wash their hands of payment problems for the old provider who I signed up with through their fooking website !!.

 

[dazbroncos]

So tried to log in as an International member from last year (with payments still being taken out of my account).

No dice.

Contacted the Admin of Watch AFL "sorry you aren't registered with us, you will need to contact the previous service provider to sort payment issues out, but you will have to pay us to as the new provider to access the service".

Anyone else experience this ?. I am still getting charged by "Righster" for this year's service even though they aren't apparently doing it now, and no way to get in contact.

Pretty pisspoor by the AFL to change provider and not give me a heads-up, and then wash their hands of payment problems for the old provider who I signed up with through their fooking website !!.

watchafl@rightster.com

From last season.

Go Catters

 

[HaroLad]

Anyone know if I can register a prepaid sim with Telstra, buy like a $30 prepaid voucher, and then get the live pass free for the season?

I'm on a plan with Optus.

 

[cryptor]

Anyone know if I can register a prepaid sim with Telstra, buy like a $30 prepaid voucher, and then get the live pass free for the season?

I'm on a plan with Optus.

I believe the offer was only for postpaid customers in 2016. Likely the same in 2017. So no.

 

[HaroLad]

I believe the offer was only for postpaid customers in 2016. Likely the same in 2017. So no.

I was prepaid Telstra in 2016 and I had it for the season.

 

[Mr Eagle]

Anyone know if I can register a prepaid sim with Telstra, buy like a $30 prepaid voucher, and then get the live pass free for the season?

I'm on a plan with Optus.

$30+/mth recharge required to keep it going.

 

[HaroLad]

$30+/mth recharge required to keep it going.

Crap.