Minnesota Sports Forum

A little off topic. I have had NBA League Pass on Directv for many many years, since Marbury's rookie year. This has allowed me to watch almost all Wolves games since then but the price always irritated me. Its currently at the 200 dollar mark. Recently with the new technology the TV package included streaming and mobile which is a nice addition especially when I was visiting my mother in laws house for dinner. Also with the addition of DVR I could record games when I was away (as long as I could rearrange my wife's shows to record later). I also added HD to my package in order to get the best game experience possible, however I have never been impressed with the HD quality of the broadcasts.

Anyway I decided to try and cut back on the cost and decided I would just buy the streaming package but was disappointed to see that it costs 150 to see the games for 5 teams. On top of that there are blackouts of certain games such as NBATV broadcasts which I won't be getting without the League Pass subscription.

Dejected, I did some searching and found about a subscription site called ballstreams. They are based in the Netherlands and stream all games, preseason/regular season/post season. The price point is 99 dollars which is a substantial difference from the alternatives. I read all the reviews I could find as I was initially concerned about the legality of this site. Apparently since the Netherlands is outside of the copyright laws of the U.S., they can get away with this. The HD quality is worlds better than what I have been experiencing on DIRECTV. They also archive all games so you can watch them after the fact and still fast forward through commercials. They apparently will stream both teams broadcasts so you can still choose and I watched the Bulls postgame last night which is a bonus that you don't get with DIRECTV. I can connect my laptop to my tv with an HDMI and watch that way, air stream it from my ipad to my apple tv, and also play it from the roku. One issue is that when playing it on apple tv the HD quality is lost however. Im not sure about roku but my mother in law has one so i will surely be trying it out at some point. I believe you can stream these on your phone as well if you want.

I thought I would bring this up as an option for someone who wants an alternative to Directv and free streaming sites with popups and possible viruses. I am extremely satisfied thus far. If you are concerned about the legalities and having the site be shut down, they have been streaming hockey for years and the NBA since last year. The people running the site have said they will refund a prorated portion if something were to happen. Also they have daily, weekly, monthly passes in addition to the yearly pass if you aren't ready to fully commit. This site is invite only so I will post my invite link and it should get you in if any of you are interested. http://www.ballstreams.com/ref/11766http://www.ballstreams.com/ref/11766

That's interesting thanks for sharing. I've paid for the broadband pass for a few years and this year I've said I wasn't gonna pay for it and then it went up to $150. I'd love to watch all the games but realistically that's a ton of time spent and like you said there are games you don't even get to watch because of blackouts etc which is REALLY frusatrating. Let's say I watch half of the Wolves games this year which is quite a few games. At $150 that's nearly $4 a game. That's kinda nuts. Heck I paid $5 a game to go to Husker men's basketball games last year and I can watch Women's games for free.

The past few weeks I've been enjoying using the streaming sites for football games even though they are frustrating but they work. The problem is who knows how many games I can watch live. I watched most of the games on NBA broadband later. This is an interesting alternative. The NBA Boardband player has gotten better over time that's for sure and I can upgrade my internet speed which would probably help the experience a lot.

Right now I'm honestly just trying to figure out how much time I really want to spend watching NBA ball. Its not whether the Wolves are gonna be good or whatever just my priority with time.

Thanks for sharing Phenom. Speaking of which, are there any fans out here in DC that want to watch some of the games? I don't plan on getting League Pass so we'd have to find a bar, maybe a few times a month?

Thanks for sharing. I am now outside the Twin Cities, so I am seriously considering signing up for the League Pass at $200 this week. I still may get League Pass, but glad there is some other choices and I will look into that site. For those who've had League Pass, is the quality good if you use your cable provider? Also, are there many blackouts due to NBATV? I have ESPN/2 and TNT so those blackouts don't concern me.

Phenom how is ballstreams been for you? I'm considering going that direction because $150 for league pass seems ridiculous. $99 I may be able to justify even tho its to a company that isn't legal. I have issues with paying for broadband pass and then not being able to see all game especially ones that are NBATV which seems completely ridiculous. For archieved games are they listed without scores? I guess I need to decide soon what I want to do maybe I'll do a month subsription to start.

I love it. The HD quality is great and the streams are smooth. I like it better connecting my laptop to my TV with HDMI opposed to air play from my ipad. I plan on trying the roku soon as well. I recommend it.

The League Pass quality is pretty good, but blackouts happen far to often. Last year I finally called it quits because sometime in November 3 of like 5 games we played were blacked out, maybe 2 with 1 being on NBA TV. But for such a steep price that only lasts about 3-4 months out of the year for us Wolves' fans, it's not worth it. Also, quite often as well your signal cuts out and you get a "technical difficulties" message that doesn't allow you to watch any games. Overall, it's a borderline scam. I'll take free and lower quality over HD and BS any day. Just my two cents if anyone is thinking about getting the LP.

Thanks for the response Phenom. I spent some more time reading after I posted here and what won me over is you can freeze your account when there are no games so you can get like 1.5 seasons for the $100.

I agree with the negative comments on NBA LP. Its just another example of why people go another route. Just give us all the games.

I bought a subscription tonight for Ballstreams and wow it really is better than league pass broadband. Better video quality by far and its nice to have more of the broadcast plus excellent ability to fast forward instead of just guessing like on LP. I keep forgetting to upgrade my internet but even downgrading to the lower quality was fantastic. What a terrific game to watch I'm quite pleased with the service. Go Wolves!

Yea I had recently read about the account freezing benefit. That is another nice bonus. I can freeze it after the 82nd game and watch the Wolves playoff run from my Directv :-)

Phenom I want to thank you again for this post that led me to getting Ballstreams. It been fantastic. Its really great to be able to watch any game also. After the Wolves game I watched the last 5 minutes of the Rockets Dallas game and I'm sure I'm check out the ends of games that are close ones throughout the season. Last night was a game I wouldn't have been able to watch the Wolves on LP in the past due to it being on NBATV which is mindbogglingly stupid. Thanks again go Wolves.