4/5 Cubs (Stro) @ Reds (Greene) 11:35 AM CT

[UMFan83]

Damn I just realized we're off tomorrow, so 2 days off and then back to Wrigley.

[Irrelevant Dude]

No Cubs baseball for 2 days, followed by an Apple TV+ broadcast, so it might as well be 3 days.  That's not cool.

[UMFan83]

28 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

No Cubs baseball for 2 days, followed by an Apple TV+ broadcast, so it might as well be 3 days.  That's not cool.

Terrible.  I have apple TV+ but its so annoying to access these games, feels like a burden lol

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Apple TV+ is running a free trial period, but still very annoying.

[Bertz]

What's the protocol here, do I start a new thread or do we repurpose this one? 

[Brock Beauchamp]

A friendly reminder to @Bertz that they still have the game thread for today's game.

[Irrelevant Dude]

9 hours ago, itisallpartoftheplan said:

Apple TV+ is running a free trial period, but still very annoying.

I thought the free trial for MLB games ended after last season.  Doesn't it require a paid subscription now?

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Put all the games on Apple TV+. It’s the only way I get to watch them, and the quality is amazing.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

5 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I thought the free trial for MLB games ended after last season.  Doesn't it require a paid subscription now?

I think you're both right.  Last year you did not need to subscribe to Apple TV+ to watch the MLB games, you just needed to go to the Apple TV app.  This year it does require Apple TV+ to my understanding, but if you've never subscribed you can get a free trial.  From spot checking the schedule, it looks like there's 2 Cubs games on Apple TV this year, this afternoon, and Friday night May 12th @ Minnesota 

[UMFan83]

13 minutes ago, Ding Dong Johnson said:

Put all the games on Apple TV+. It’s the only way I get to watch them, and the quality is amazing.

I get it...I've said this before but the thing I hate about streaming is the length of time it takes from 'hey I should put the game on' to 'game is on my TV'.  Not so bad on the phone but on a smart TV it can take a good 45 seconds....sucks when you want to flip it on quickly in a big situation. 

The other more annoying thing is the inability to easily flip between shows, which MLB (and MLS) probably considers a feature not a bug, but its a barrier for casual fans to put on.  For example, I am a pretty casual MLS watcher, don't follow super closely as a league but keep an eye on the Fire.  The other day I saw that they were up 1 in the 90th minute and decided to put it on.  But it was also during the final 8 minutes of a close NCAA tourney game.  By the time I got the Fire game on, I wanted to flip back to the tourney game and I did and then didn't give a second thought to going back to the MLS game.

Nit picking I know, but even if people become more comfortable with the concept of the forced streaming of live sports, I don't see how those issues are solved.

[Andy]

18 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

I think you're both right.  Last year you did not need to subscribe to Apple TV+ to watch the MLB games, you just needed to go to the Apple TV app.  This year it does require Apple TV+ to my understanding, but if you've never subscribed you can get a free trial.  From spot checking the schedule, it looks like there's 2 Cubs games on Apple TV this year, this afternoon, and Friday night May 12th @ Minnesota 

There is a two-month free trial at the moment, so one could cash that in now and be good to watch both games.

There will probably be another AppleTV game or two in the second half of the season, though, for whatever that's worth.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

8 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

I get it...I've said this before but the thing I hate about streaming is the length of time it takes from 'hey I should put the game on' to 'game is on my TV'.  Not so bad on the phone but on a smart TV it can take a good 45 seconds....sucks when you want to flip it on quickly in a big situation. 

The other more annoying thing is the inability to easily flip between shows, which MLB (and MLS) probably considers a feature not a bug, but its a barrier for casual fans to put on.  For example, I am a pretty casual MLS watcher, don't follow super closely as a league but keep an eye on the Fire.  The other day I saw that they were up 1 in the 90th minute and decided to put it on.  But it was also during the final 8 minutes of a close NCAA tourney game.  By the time I got the Fire game on, I wanted to flip back to the tourney game and I did and then didn't give a second thought to going back to the MLS game.

Nit picking I know, but even if people become more comfortable with the concept of the forced streaming of live sports, I don't see how those issues are solved.

And this is one of the many reasons why I continue to buy the physical Apple TV. Switching between the apps is just as easy as it is on the phone. Maybe even easier with the Siri remote.