Week 2 NASCAR HotPass @ California: Comment here

[jmettee]

For those that subscribed for NASCAR HotPass, let's hear what has changed (if anything) with the first subscription viewing (week 2) of the program.

J

[AdamL2388]

Well only 45 minutes til Racetime, I'm very curious to see what changes Direc TV have made, and if Jeff Gordon will win the AutoClub 500.

One thing's for sure: There will be commercials on Direc TV which sucks for you guys, LOL. No commercials what so ever wil be on my HotPass in Canada!!!

[Tom_Oliver]

I don't think they actually went to in-car shot on Jr's car until lap 15. Ridiculous.

I mailed this in as well:

If you have to show the commercials to keep the Fox feed then lose the feed. I was just thinking after watching this again, there is no way I'm signing up next year if you keep commercials, even with HD. I might even try to cancel this week.*Right now the only reason I'm able to hear the communication under yellow*is because I'm running trackpass. If I have to run trackpass to hear the communication and I have to deal with the commercials, then why exactly am I subscribing to HotPass? I can't think of*a single reason, other than for some different camera feeds.

[AdamL2388]

Is anyone noticing while watching Jeff Burtons car, that like every 5 secs the screen shakes and has a sound to it. That is the only HotPass channel its doing it too. Also the sound on his channel is Horrible, I hear nothing.

ARGGHHH.... once again the announcers are speaking over the communications, Man there has been no improvements made this week to HotPass, this like watching it on FOX!!!

[bonscott87]

I don't think they actually went to in-car shot on Jr's car until lap 15. Ridiculous.

I mailed this in as well:

If you have to show the commercials to keep the Fox feed then lose the feed. I was just thinking after watching this again, there is no way I'm signing up next year if you keep commercials, even with HD. I might even try to cancel this week.*Right now the only reason I'm able to hear the communication under yellow*is because I'm running trackpass. If I have to run trackpass to hear the communication and I have to deal with the commercials, then why exactly am I subscribing to HotPass? I can't think of*a single reason, other than for some different camera feeds.

Be sure to email or contact Nascar about that, not just DirecTV. Nascar will care more then DirecTV will.

[Tom_Oliver]

Please lose "music the driver likes." Sheesh.

[cadet502]

I

If you have to show the commercials to keep the Fox feed then lose the feed. .....

+1

The one big improvement I think they made is the announcers not talking over the radio chatter. I watched the first part of the race on Sadlers channel, and it seems like they might have an auto cut out on the announcers when the radio comes on.

I think the "homer" aspect is even worse this week. All this "our guy" "us" "we". STOP IT!!!!

[Chesney09]

If you have to show the commercials to keep the Fox feed then lose the feed. I was just thinking after watching this again, there is no way I'm signing up next year if you keep commercials, even with HD.

Add me to that list... I don't really mind the commercials, if #1 they didn't make it the overpowering feed, #2 if they would drop the audio on the commercial for any Team Communications.

I really dislike how they make the Fox Feed the Largest view during commercials.

[AdamL2388]

Elliot Sadler Announcer just said when they came back from commercial that the reason they take commercials is because they have the abilty to show the FOX Feed.

[AdamL2388]

I love the idea that the announcers are speaking to other announcers during the race.

For example, Matt Kenseth's Announcers spoke to Jeff Burton's Announcers with around 30 Laps to go in the race, to find out different opinons, how they were doing, etc...

I think they are doing a much better job today!!!

[kehardman]

Interesting effect on Kenseth Channel. I hung at 7:18 for about 7 minutes. Came back at the point in hung, except that the remote colored buttons did not have the hot pass features attached. At 7:30 went back to normal. Other channels worked well.

When it hung, I was switching between audio feeds using the yellow button.

Anyone else experience this?

[kehardman]

Sure would like to be able to toggle the announcers on and off so that I can hear the in-car sounds and the team communications.

[RAD]

Sent this to hotpass@directv.com:

Still too much talking by the announcers, even when they say they'll shut up they still talk. Example, The Kenseth channel, for the last restart the announcers said they'd be quiet until the end of the race, that lasted about 15 seconds when they started yacking again. If you want to save money, just get rid of all of them.

[AdamL2388]

I like the announcers, I do believe tho they still need to calm down an let the communication with the pit crew and driver talk.

On that note, I think it was a much better HotPass then last week, and with Nascar taking 2 weeks off maybe Direc TV will read all the e-mails sent to them and make some decisions and improvements before March 11th race in Las Vegas.

I do like the announcers bringing in other announcers on a different channel to get advice and here their comments, etc...

[LVGamblers]

I have heard that the reason HOTPASS shows commercials from the Fox broadcast is so the subscribers can be counted in the Nielson ratings. This sounded like the most plausible explanation to me.

[ZoSoAir]

I have heard that the reason HOTPASS shows commercials from the Fox broadcast is so the subscribers can be counted in the Nielson ratings. This sounded like the most plausible explanation to me.

No flame intended, but that sounds like the biggest load of BS to me.

[bdowell]

I'd still have a very hard time re-subscribing (renewing) to this package next year. At this point I'd have to say I'd get far more value from content offered at NASCAR.com (though I think some of that is overpriced really).

Too much dead space -- especially during the commercial breaks on the main network feed.

The forced commercials (as some others have mentioned, we might be forced to watch those commercials on the NFL package or the MLB package too, but for those packages there are typically half-a-dozen or more alternative games to see, versus *one* NASCAR race. For MLB or NFL viewers can flip channels to a different game quickly and avoid the commercials entirely really) are salt in the wound really.

More passenger seat views might be nice. More race status graphics and other information would be great. But how much more would be needed to make this package worth subbing to again? Hard call for me.

[davidrumm]

My take is the broadcasters not just FOX have the broadcast rights for the race. Therefore they are enforcing that right on the Hotpass so that they can claim those broadcasts also. This is probably in the contract with D* for the hotpass channels. This is also why they say we have the commercials no matter what. D* probably doesn't have a choice in the matter. This would also explain no commercial outside the US as they will not have the broadcasters requiring their feed like in the US. Just my .02 worth.