MLB.tv 5 day free trial
Dave · April 2, 2007 at 8:17 am · Filed Under Mariners
If you are like me and live just a wee bit outside of the Mariners broadcast area, but you still want to watch opening day, MLB.tv has made it possible.
They are offering a 5 day free trial of MLB.tv during the month of April. Yes, you’re required to cancel before the five days expire or you’ll be charged for whichever service you sign up for, but canceling simply requires sending an email from your account to a specified address.
Basically, it boils down to free baseball for five days. Even if you don’t like the idea of watching the games on your computer, it’s better than nothing.
Dave —
Just curious, are you able to partake in Extra Innings on DirecTV? I would be lost without it…
I was waffling all offseason over whether to stick with MLB.tv, which I’ve used ever since it was created, or get the EI package. However, since I don’t have DirecTV and have no desire to have DirecTV, it looks like – barring an 11th hour agreement – I’m headed back to MLB.tv for another year.
This will be my second year using MLB.tv and for the most part didn’t mind it last year. And it’s the only way I’ll get to watch Braves games. I have no desire to purchase DirecTv. Though I do get M’s games blacked out for the most part since BFE Southern Oregon is still with in the Blackout Range. guh…
The blackout restrictions are insane. As I’ve complained about here before, I’m in the Orioles market, despite being a nifty seven hour drive from Camden Yards. I also don’t have any channels that show the Orioles games despite being in the Orioles market, so when the M’s play Baltimore, I’m screwed.
This is my first time purchasing mlb.tv for the entire season. When Felix was first called up a couple years back, I bought a month of it when I was down in California.
I’ve watched a few games on it so far, and I’m really surprised with the quality. It’s total butt on a Mac. It doesn’t work at all in Safari, while it sort of works in Firefox – but with some nasty syncing issues. But when I use it on a PC, it’s as pretty as Jessica Alba jumping out of a birthday cake.
What gives, MLB?
sigh. in the Old Days, this would be the week you’d get the free out-of-market ballgames on digital Comcast, as they tried to get you to buy the baseball package. Thank you, MLB.
Dave,
I think alot of Orioles (and Nationals) games are going to be on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) this year. I get it here in Virginia Beach. Do you not get it down there in North Carolina?
Dave,
In fact MASN carries all of the Orioles and Nationals games which means you may get to watch some Doyle action too. The website has a zipcode/cable provider entry to see if it’s available in your area. Not that I like either team, but it will be nice to see when the M’s come to Baltimore and also watch Doyle tear apart the National league with Washington.
http://www.masnsports.com/Index.cfm?
I got MLB.tv to work on my Mac. It’s not all that stable, but the key for me was to set Flip4Mac to play the stream in Quicktime instead of the browser.
Some advice can be found at the MacRumours Forum
Stupid blackouts. Getting rid of the main reason I’d actually want to buy it… Since I really don’t want to get cable.
Guess it might be worth a trial though. See how the blackouts actually work…
No, we don’t get MASN down here in North Carolina. If its not NASCAR or Tar Heels, they probably don’t care enough to put it on TV.
Be careful, it will probably take MLB 6 days to read your cancellation email.
Thats stinks. I figured you might get it because they are going to show a ton of ACC games.
The whole telecomm industry is a complete mess throughout North America. Fortunately, I can exploit that mess up here in the Frozen North (it’s snowing as I type this, btw) by subscribing to the television feed offered by my phone provider and selecting a sports package from a nationwide sports channel whose Western region purchases programming from FSN which happens to include the M’s games. Unless hockey interferes, of course. So I’m completely set, unless any of these load-bearing cards happens to fall down…. Who designed this system, anyway?
Simple solution to all of these problems (except maybe the blackouts) — get DirecTV. I really prefer it to cable, it is not more expensive (at least not in my area) and you can get Extra Innings.
All in all, well worth it if you can afford it.
Has anyone had success installing MLB.tv Mosaic with Vista?
Am I retarded? After signing up for MLB.tv, I closed my browser and came back. I can’t seem to login and every time I try to watch a game from the schedule it takes me back to the signup page.
I’ve successfully installed MLB.tv Mosiac on Vista and OSX. I’m sitting on campus with my MacBook and I have an hour and a half until my next class.
Ahhhhh it’s a good day.
As someone who works from home and whose A.D.D. habits make it difficult to get any damn thing done, MLB Radio is about all I can take. And at fifteen bucks for the whole year throught the playoffs? It’s a serious bargain. I’ll even be able to follow the Mariners’ August collapse while on vacation in Ireland (if I happen to be awake at 3am).
All last season I couldn’t get Mosaic to work. MLB.tv worked fine, but Mosaic couldn’t interpret my Canadian address well enough to determine which market I was in (and how hard is that – all of Canada counts as Jays territory).
So, while Dave can’t watch O’s games despite being 7 hours from Camden Yards, I can watch M’s games despite being only 2.5 hours from Safeco and having about 65 games a season on TV.
Am I retarded? After signing up for MLB.tv, I closed my browser and came back. I can’t seem to login and every time I try to watch a game from the schedule it takes me back to the signup page.
I had the same problem. I finally got around it via a long, complicated, stupid workaround that I’d be happy to email you if you want (follow my screen name link to get to my contact info…), unless you’ve figured it out yet.
And don’t bother calling MLB.tv, they’re swamped today and you’ll be on hold forever.
FYI,
I signed up for MLBtv two years ago when they had a try it for one month, guarranteed money back deal. Even though I canceled it during the trial period, they never gave me my money back and in fact it took me another two times trying to cancel it before it stuck. Then last year they charged me again even though I never should have paid anything to start with, (due to their automatic renewal).
I’d hold off on installing mosaic and just watch through the browser. They’re having all sorts of problems with it. 700k feeds at this point don’t look much better than the 400k feeds (the Mil-LAD game looks like it’s being transmitted through an aquarium tank…
/
They’re always swamped. The only way ever to get through to them is to call them well before any of that day’s games have started. Aim for before 9:00 am pacific.
I’m in AZ but my debit card adress is in WA. Am I going to get screwed by MLBtv on all the M’s games (I already subscribed before thinking about this)?
The only way ever to get through to them is to call them well before any of that day’s games have started
True. I have also had luck calling at about 7pm Pacific, as well.
_David_:
I’m pretty sure they base their blackout rules on your billing credit card address, not on your physical location. At least they used to.
No, they base it on IP address from where you’re logging in.
wow, this sucks
They base it on IP address from where you’re logging in.
Good to know. Thanks.
_David_, It is based on the IP address, so you should be ok.
But be careful about their automatic renewal, you may unexpectedly get hit with a big withdrawal from your checking account next spring.
thanks Dave, I posted without refreshing (then sent an irked email to MLBtv) It’ll be good to see Felix.
“Yes, you’re required to cancel before the five days expire or you’ll be charged for whichever service you sign up for, but canceling simply requires sending an email from your account to a specified address.”
Oh lord, if only it were that simple! MLB.TV is certainly one of the worst services around when it comes to cancelling your subscription. I originally signed up for this 5 day deal and ended up keeping it for the rest of the season. The only possible way to cancel however is to phone their customer service line. I live in the UK so whilst this is a “toll free” number, in reality it costs me a significant amount of money to call them and I was left on hold for almost 2 hours before finally being able to cancel.
An absolutely terrific service in my opinion is utterly ruined by these strong arm sales tactics. There’s absolutely no way I would consider signing up for the 2008 season given what I had to go through to cancel (and lord knows what that 2 hour call at international rates actually cost me).