NFL Rewind

[BlueSky]

As a Saints fan living in enemy territory, it's often tough to catch the Saints on TV. I get to see a lot of the games - two obviously when they play the hated Falcons (that's where I live) and whenever they're on national tv. Otherwise I have to go to a sports bar, and obviously even that's out every other Sunday when I'm working.

I used to have DirecTV but as much as I loved NFL Sunday Ticket, their equipment and customer service is so horrible that I couldn't renew with them in good conscience when my contract was up. I ran across NFL Rewind yesterday and bought it, so I thought I'd write a mini-review based on my experience so far.

I used their demo to check it out and saw enough to sign up immediately. It's usually $49.95 but you can get it for $39.95 as a preseason special and that's for access to full commercial-free replays of every game, including the playoffs and Super Bowl. Access lasts until midnight on the last weekend of the season. It includes all 2008 games and 2009 games once they're played. You can't watch games live obviously, and can't download them to keep.

As for quality, the streaming video is outstanding. It's HD and looks incredible. What surprised me was the sound quality. I had headphones on since my wife was working, and while watching the MNF Saints-Packers game from last year, you could hear QB signals on occasion, the crowd noise was like being there, and after a Marques Colston TD, they fired off this thing that's like some kind of vertical steam cannon and you could clearly hear it hissing. It's impressive. A new option for 2009 (not available when watching 2008 games) will allow you to listen to your team's radio broadcast if you prefer that over the TV team. I'll be all over that since I'm a huge fan of the Saints' play-by-play guy, Jim "There is a God after all!" Henderson.

It's no match for seeing games live on Sunday Ticket, but it's a great plan B that gives me the peace of mind of knowing I won't miss seeing any Saints games this season.

Link to NFL Game Rewind

Demo is at lower left.

From the site:

PRODUCT FEATURES

Watch all games in their entirety, without commercials in HD-quality

Pause and rewind game action with full DVR controls and easy quarter by quarter navigation

View up to 4 games simultaneously

Synchronize your team's local radio broadcast during games

Access integrated team and player stats

Chat and comment with fellow NFL fans, family and friends

Unlimited access during your subscription period

[HedleyLamarr]

Justin.tv.....

[BlueSky]

NFL Rewind is offering a free trial. I highly recommend it (just watched Saints-Panthers this morning) but reading all the small print is your responsibility.

They've really added some excellent features this year. For example, you can easily search a game for a certain play. Like in Steelers-Browns, search "Harrison penalty" and you'll see the two controversial hits. Or search "touchdown" and see all of a game's TDs (that took a while for Raiders-Broncos), or say "punt run" in Saints-Browns to see the Cleveland punter make fools out of the Super Bowl champs. And so on. The sound is phenomenal too. Listen with headphones for a whole new experience.

[CS85]

Awesome bluesky, thanks for pointing this out! I'm moving to Oklahoma in a few weeks and was looking for ANY alternative to directv/sunday ticket. This looks like it's a winner!

[BlueSky]

Awesome bluesky, thanks for pointing this out! I'm moving to Oklahoma in a few weeks and was looking for ANY alternative to directv/sunday ticket. This looks like it's a winner!

Glad it helped. Obviously it would be nice to see the games live, but having access to every game is golden.