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View Full Version : Will Race Director be an acceptable alternative to the poor broadcast schedule?



nanders
18th January 2008, 15:45
Since many of us will be looking for an alternative to watch the CCWS this season, I want to get a different thread going about Race Director.

I started to reply to BobbyC in another thread but after I wrote it I thought that I'd give people the opportunity to pile it on me because I'm highly critical of Race Director. So for those of you that have another observation, pile it on baby.


This is to get people to buy Race Director! Somebody's cashing on this package, and it's CC and their Race Director move.

If last years Race Director quality was an audition for this seasons big push to get RD sales up then I have to say, "it's a miserable failure." I have bought RD for the last 3 seasons and it has gotten worse each year.

First off, it's a tiny little Poor Definition webcast. If they are going to force us to this itty bitty POS screen to barely be able to see the race then they have another think coming, because I'll be bashing it to the ends of the earth. It sucks! CCWS needs to step up the resolution of the screen they're encoding so we can see it! Yes it takes more bandwidth to do so, but the cost of bandwidth has fallen to very very low prices so it's affordable for them now and there should be no resistance to streaming a higher resolution product.

Secondly, the webcast is only as good as the "encoding process." This last season the encoding was way worse then the season before and it was worse then the season before it. You know they have as many as 4 or 5 camers to choose from,right? At the European races they didn't have the "broadcast audio" even on the broadcast video ... it was on a corner camera ... so you couldn't follow the action and hear the braodcast audio at the same time.

They also used to have "car sound audio" on the in car camera feeds ... but no more. When you go to an in car camera it's just silence. Have these people never watched a race before?!?!?!?!! What a bunch of idiots!!!! CCWS and whoever the webcasters are have NO QUALITY ASSURANCE for Race Director. It is below amateur SIM Racing webcast races that I'm familiar with.

Thirdly, Since Global Media bought out VFX the quality of the application has went down rather then up. 3 years ago the navigation on the web application built for Race Director allowed for multi-camera viewing and being able to see the "timing and scoring" application. Now you can only view one feed and receive timing and scoring.

Forth, The ability to make a connection at the beginning of the race and sometime throughout the race has become very difficult to marginal. On many occasions last season, I would have to sit there clicking and clicking hoping I could get the webcast to start and then if you went away from the site you couldn't log back on to the site becuase it eas too busy. I call that a rip off. It happened many many time last season. They need to increase their capacity.

If I had to give a grade to last years Race Director it would be "sub 0."

beachbum
18th January 2008, 17:07
Simple answer - NO.

I for one, am not going to pay just because they are too cheap to put it on a medium I already have paid for - TV. I am a computer programmer, and won't waste my money on their "internet TV". The free timing and scoring was so screwed up most of last year that it was useless too.

I am sure sponsors who depend on ratings and TV coverage will be overjoyed. (thats sarcasm - for anyone who cares). The ratings for the CCWS web site are even more dismal that the TV ratings.

bennybigb
19th January 2008, 03:12
How is the quality on Race Director?

Is it even worth watching, or is it fuzzy and choppy.

Miatanut
19th January 2008, 04:01
I use a Mac and two years ago I got a subscription and actually got it to run, barely. Never got the car radios to work. The video was kind of jumpy and froze on occasion. I had other gripes at the time, but I don't remember them now.

The real zinger was, after I paid for an "annual" subscription three races into the '06 season, when I went to use it for the first race of the '07 subscription, I was informed my subscription had expired. Turns out it's not an "annual" subscription at all. It's a season subscription which they call an "annual" subscription.

I said 'screw 'em' and didn't renew. It should be what they say it is, and it should run on Mac and Linux.

Jag_Warrior
19th January 2008, 22:27
Nope.

Cart750hp
20th January 2008, 04:06
RD the alternative to poor broadcast schedule? Well, what else they've got? Long Beach race won't even make it to the LA Times so, sure, RD is the only alternative from ESPN 27 race delay.

Anyone remember when KK said last year, "the series will be in ABC, one network next year and we are so excited about it." Who's excited now? How about the Laguna testing that they'll be announcing the series sponsor? Oh man, the series is just getting worse and worse this time of the year.

So to answer you question: acceptable or not.....yeah.

Cmndr Keen
20th January 2008, 19:03
Race Director is not an acceptable option.

nanders
10th February 2008, 16:13
I now notice that there is no subscription enrollment dialog at champcarworldseries.com.

heelntoe
10th February 2008, 16:46
I now notice that there is no subscription enrollment dialog at champcarworldseries.com.

That's because CCWS is about to go away for good, IMO, of course

Nikki Katz
10th February 2008, 16:49
I used it a few years ago when there was next to no coverage in the UK, but the broadcast feed was always a lap or two behind what was actually happening. Normally this wouldn't make a difference, but the leaderboard was updated real-time, so there were few shocks :(
Fortunately, Eurosport have actually done a reasonable job in the past couple of years. Which is why I'm sorta hoping that the merger won't happen right now, as I'm pretty sure it would move over to Sky Sports then, which I don't have.

heelntoe
10th February 2008, 16:51
I used it a few years ago when there was next to no coverage in the UK, but the broadcast feed was always a lap or two behind what was actually happening. Normally this wouldn't make a difference, but the leaderboard was updated real-time, so there were few shocks :(
Fortunately, Eurosport have actually done a reasonable job in the past couple of years. Which is why I'm sorta hoping that the merger won't happen right now, as I'm pretty sure it would move over to Sky Sports then, which I don't have.

Deal has apparently been done according to Goldcoast.com