Game Room: September Roundup
NFL Sunday Ticket on the PS3
You no longer need a satellite dish to watch the NFL in the comfort of your own home, and that's a good thing for folks that couldn't get satellite service or didn't want it. Now you can get the best of the NFL every week and all you need is a PS3 with a good home internet connection.
Sunday Ticket gives you access to all out-of-market games and the Red Zone Channel. In-market games are blacked out to avoid competition with local networks. That means you won't get NBC's Sunday Night Football, ESPN's Monday Night Football or the NFL Network's Thursday Night Football when games start airing in the second half of the season.
The interface is clean and simple, and very similar to what users of the DirectTV Sunday Ticket app iPad already have. It gives you access to game stats, highlights, schedules and standings. You can view stats for a different game without leaving the game you're watching, which is great for fantasy football fans.
The video quality is HD, and it's good, but not great. It's on par with the MLB's streaming app on PSN, but not as good as the HD quality on satellite or cable. It takes about 15 seconds to switch between games, and while that's not a lot of time, it's an adjustment from the speed you're used to in changing channels on a cable or satellite box.
Sunday Ticket on the PS3 stumbled out of the gate with severe connectivity issues during the first weekend of the NFL season, but the bugs have been worked out and it's been stable since. To compensate Sony gave a $25 PlayStation Store credit to people that purchased Sunday Ticket in time for Week 1. The service is billed monthly ($85 per), so be aware of when you activate it.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
Sunday Ticket gives you access to all out-of-market games and the Red Zone Channel. In-market games are blacked out to avoid competition with local networks. That means you won't get NBC's Sunday Night Football, ESPN's Monday Night Football or the NFL Network's Thursday Night Football when games start airing in the second half of the season.
The interface is clean and simple, and very similar to what users of the DirectTV Sunday Ticket app iPad already have. It gives you access to game stats, highlights, schedules and standings. You can view stats for a different game without leaving the game you're watching, which is great for fantasy football fans.
The video quality is HD, and it's good, but not great. It's on par with the MLB's streaming app on PSN, but not as good as the HD quality on satellite or cable. It takes about 15 seconds to switch between games, and while that's not a lot of time, it's an adjustment from the speed you're used to in changing channels on a cable or satellite box.
Sunday Ticket on the PS3 stumbled out of the gate with severe connectivity issues during the first weekend of the NFL season, but the bugs have been worked out and it's been stable since. To compensate Sony gave a $25 PlayStation Store credit to people that purchased Sunday Ticket in time for Week 1. The service is billed monthly ($85 per), so be aware of when you activate it.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
