NHL.TV 4+

The old app was ok. This new one has a ton of problems. The audio mix has been terrible where you can’t hear the commentators, which you can also no longer choose. The video playback is often terrible. This is to the point of being unwatchable. Have a look at Dallas vs Montreal from 22 Oct to get an idea. At least the audio was fixed on that. The app logs me out, mid game, all the time. Very frustrating. The games are frequently missing the first couple of minutes of the game and one was cut off with five minutes of game left. The cuts to commercial are always early in and late out. Also the intermission presentations with commentators and highlights are no longer there. This app does not work and should have been tested properly before the change. This is not new technology. The subscription is expensive and the people paying should have a working service. I would much prefer to be rating this on it’s features than listing all the bits that are broken.

It is a downgrade from the integrated system in the NHL app from last season. It looks good, aesthetically, and it plays the games well. It is pretty quick to go to the static commercial page, but I can understand that. I miss the “start from the beginning” of a stream button as I am not usually able to start a stream at the beginning of the game and it will spoil the score if I join a stream late. But I can get through with that. The real problem I have with it is the constant need to re-sign in. If I pause and close my phone, I have to sign in again. If I try to watch a replay of a game , I have to sign in again. I have been using the app for two days and I think I have signed in 8 times. Not that the app says I need to sign in again. I says there is an error, then that I need to subscribe. Once I go to check if I am signed in properly, it doesn’t give me the re-sign in message until I try to check my profile.
Overall I am disappointed with the downgrade and the early release problems. If the sign in problem gets fixed, it will be a good app. If they add the start from beginning function back to the player, a great one.

As well as the sign in/subscribe issues we all seem to be having with this new app, there are several other issues with it.

You can’t choose which feed you want to listen to on game replays, only live games, which is very disappointing for me as I am in the UK so can’t always watch live. I would like to be able to listen to my teams commentators on replays of away games.

The sound mix is awful. The arena noise is so loud you can barely hear the play by play commentary. I understand trying to make it feel like you are at the game but this is ridiculous.

The replay of the Rangers/Jets game on 14th October was missing all but the last 1.30 of the 3rd Period. The 2nd Period ended and the feed cut immediately to the last 1.30 of the 3rd, spoiling it completely.

The cut to the “video break” card is too quick, especially if there is a penalty called, it cuts away before they announce the penalty.

I also miss the broadcast of the intermission reports and player interviews (although this may be a broadcast company thing). These were a great added extra to the feed and would be even better now that reporters have greater access now they are allowed back into the locker rooms.

On a plus note, the actual video playback is good quality and the user interface works a lot better than the old app for scrubbing through breaks. Just a shame I have to Airplay to my AppleTV from my iPad/iPhone as there are no native AppleTV or Xbox apps yet.