Race Fans: Which channels do you watch?

Ted

Ted

The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
30,006
Display Name
Display name:
iFlyNothing
Background: I've never paid for any kind of TV service in my life. When I was a kid, we had "cable", but when I was my kids' age that was 13 channels and I was the remote. By the time I graduated high school we had probably 50 channels, but it was nothing like the couple hundred you see today on most satellite packages.

I've always considered TV service to be a bad value with the packages that exist. Too much money a month for too many channels that I'll never watch and have no intention of watching. I also realized when I was first out on my own that if I had cable, I probably would spend more time in the evenings watching it instead of making progress on other things I wanted to get done, like wrenching on the cars, building Cloud Nine, etc.

Fast forward to today and having retired from Cloud Nine and pivoted my interests back towards ground-based items that burn fuel, I'd like to be able to watch racing. But I want to pay for only the racing channels, I don't want to spend the money on hundreds of channels I won't watch. I'd consider another service if it was reasonably priced and had good racing content.

What kind of racing? Figure broad spectrum auto and motorcycle. I'm not much of a NASCAR fan, but it's still the sound of horsepower and I've come to appreciate it more.

So, what say you PoA brain trust?
 
It looks to me like Formula 1 is on ESPN. I don't watch F1 and haven't in a long time, just don't have enough time these days. The two series I do watch are Weather Tech Sports Car, which is sanctioned by IMSA, and IndyCar. You can find both of these on the NBC Sports app. I think that most of the IMSA support series are on NBC Sports as well, again I don't have time to watch them.

There's a weird and wonderful variety of lesser known racing on MAV TV. It's part of our cable package, I'm not sure how you'd subscribe to it as an individual.
 
Ted, I don't have a good answer for that. I've always felt the same way you did, and in fact routed the cable in the house to an attic mounted broadcast antenna when the house was new. However, since getting Xfinity fiber for Internet, I got a bunch of streaming channels whether I wanted them or not. They aren't 'paid' in the sense I'm paying extra to get them, but as far as I can tell, if you want good content, you have to pay extra for those channels, and those include racing channels.

I am somewhat of a NASCAR fan, and the key races are usually on the broadcast channels anyway.
 
Most of the racing I watch is from mavtv.

https://mavtv.com/shows/#motorsports

ETA: a digital product for MAVTV called MAVTVSelect is available through Plex

For Dakar, which I’ve followed for a long, long time, I usually catch the summary shows on Outdoor Network, I think it is. The best coverage for my interests (bikes) is on ADVRider in the firehose thread though.

I tried to watch Street Outlaws on Discovery (1/8th mi street drags), but the drama turned me off even though there were some good glimpses into the work that goes on to make the speed happen.
 
Last edited:
Ted DuPuis said:
I do not, but am willing to consider those as options.
Click to expand...
One of those would widen your options and greatly improve the experience with my aforementioned PlutoTV and/or Xumo suggestions.

And there's the possibility of taking it with you on an RV trip.
 
asicer said:
One of those would widen your options and greatly improve the experience with my aforementioned PlutoTV and/or Xumo suggestions.

And there's the possibility of taking it with you on an RV trip.
Click to expand...

That would be an important point. One thing I didn't mention is the BlueRay player we got for the bedroom TV has some aps it can do. I forget which.

The concept of actually channel surfing and having to pay attention to what's on when requires a shift in mindset compared to the lazy on-demand nature I've come accustomed to. What I'd essentially like to find is a racing channel that lets me just turn on and have racing of some sort when I feel like it. Maybe my answer then is DVR of some sort.
 
I got a couple of suggestions from the Factory Five Facebook group (figured they'd care about racing!) for the IMSA ap and the MotorTrend ap. The former is free, the latter is a subscription but cheap enough to be worth it for me. So, I signed up for those. Now I have to figure out the streaming aspect...
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I got a couple of suggestions from the Factory Five Facebook group (figured they'd care about racing!) for the IMSA ap and the MotorTrend ap. The former is free, the latter is a subscription but cheap enough to be worth it for me. So, I signed up for those. Now I have to figure out the streaming aspect...
Click to expand...
If you get time (LOL), I recommend the TV show Dirt Every Day on the motor trend channel. It's family friendly and very funny, and off-road centric.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
That would be an important point. One thing I didn't mention is the BlueRay player we got for the bedroom TV has some aps it can do. I forget which.

The concept of actually channel surfing and having to pay attention to what's on when requires a shift in mindset compared to the lazy on-demand nature I've come accustomed to. What I'd essentially like to find is a racing channel that lets me just turn on and have racing of some sort when I feel like it. Maybe my answer then is DVR of some sort.
Click to expand...

A number of the series maintain a good presence on Youtube, and you can see the entire race a few days after it is complete, and without commercials.
 
F1 on ESPN is just about the only "Appointment TV" for me. I watch through Youtube TV.
 
F1 is actually on ESPN2. Practice Friday, Qualifying Saturday and Race on Sunday. Usually around 8 AM Eastern Time depending where the race is held.

Only racing I watch.

Cheers
 
So follow-on question. If I'm streaming on my iPhone (XS Max), what's the "best" way to then put that on some sort of TV/monitor/whatever? It looks like an AppleTV is probably it since ideally I want to be able to stream and do other things on my phone.
 
I use Air Screen app on my old HDTV to mirror my ipad to the large screen..I am running Amazon Fire TV .
 
Doug Reid said:
I use Air Screen app on my old HDTV to mirror my ipad to the large screen..I am running Amazon Fire TV .
Click to expand...

That's a mirroring though rather than a screen extension, right? In other words I can't stream and also use my phone for something else.
 
I have YouTube TV because I can watch on multiple devices, it has a free DVR function, and has all the channels to watch the racing I want to watch. But they recently raised their price, and I'm very likely to get rid of them once the F1 season is over. But, I'm not sure what I am going to replace it with to watch once the season starts back up again. I had DirectTV Now, and got a great price for "life" because I signed up right when they started. Then about a year later they said "fooled ya!" and my price for life got jacked up to the full retail price.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
So follow-on question. If I'm streaming on my iPhone (XS Max), what's the "best" way to then put that on some sort of TV/monitor/whatever? It looks like an AppleTV is probably it since ideally I want to be able to stream and do other things on my phone.
Click to expand...

I take it that Apple doesn't have a device to cast to a TV. I have an Android phone and a Chromecast dongle on the TV, and can cast from NBC Sports and YouTube direct from my phone.
 
Ted, the best race watching isn't seen through a TV screen, it's seen through a windscreen. I have a slightly used racecar out in the barn that's available for adoption. Let me know if you're interested.
 
FormerHangie said:
I take it that Apple doesn't have a device to cast to a TV.
Click to expand...

https://www.apple.com/apple-tv-4k/

That being said, Apple TV is too expensive for what it is and the experience ain't great from what I hear in the Apple blog/podsphere (and I say that as someone who is all in on Apple generally). I use a Roku primarily and the F1TV app to watch F1 (don't get me started on what a POS F1Media is...but it's the only way to get F1 as a cable cutter). I also have a chromecast and can stream from Chrome on my Mac to the chromecast when I want to watch things that are accessible only through a browser.
 
Half Fast said:
Ted, the best race watching isn't seen through a TV screen, it's seen through a windscreen. I have a slightly used racecar out in the barn that's available for adoption. Let me know if you're interested.
Click to expand...

You have me intrigued... :)
 
Inquiring minds want to know, please! What kind of racecar?
 
We use chrome cast. I can stream from my tablet and have it displayed on the TV and use tablet for other things
 
This was Colorado Region SCCA, and also Rocky Mountain Chapter of NASA. I first had a traditional Spec Rx-7 but this IT-A and PT-E car offered a lot more fun and performance. I agree the X is normally for Novice, but here the X is for Instructor. (This was my third racecar.) Tons of fun!

A bit of a step up from a Spec Rx-7. Still the stock 12A and transmission, but a worked carb, upgraded suspension, much better roll cage, and some other improvements.

I always find it interesting to see how many sports car racing people are into aviation, and how many pilots are into sports car and vintage racing. There are some folks on this forum with some very impressive racing resumes - a story-swapping happy hour would be great fun.
 
G-Man said:
I always find it interesting to see how many sports car racing people are into aviation, and how many pilots are into sports car and vintage racing. There are some folks on this forum with some very impressive racing resumes - a story-swapping happy hour would be great fun.
Click to expand...

We can do that at my house. :)
 
G-Man said:
This was Colorado Region SCCA, and also Rocky Mountain Chapter of NASA. I first had a traditional Spec Rx-7 but this IT-A and PT-E car offered a lot more fun and performance. I agree the X is normally for Novice, but here the X is for Instructor. (This was my third racecar.) Tons of fun!

A bit of a step up from a Spec Rx-7. Still the stock 12A and transmission, but a worked carb, upgraded suspension, much better roll cage, and some other improvements.

I always find it interesting to see how many sports car racing people are into aviation, and how many pilots are into sports car and vintage racing. There are some folks on this forum with some very impressive racing resumes - a story-swapping happy hour would be great fun.
Click to expand...


We didn’t run a true Spec-7 class, just a carve out from ITA. Our IT7 cars were full IT prep. We usually had 15 to 20 IT7 cars in a race group of 50 or so.

A story-swapping happy hour would be fun! A POA race would be even more funner! :D

Maybe we could all fly somewhere and get rental cars....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ted
I've been enjoying watching racing. It makes for a good background during the day sometimes and also winding down in the evenings. I'm enjoying the IMSA ap a lot, although Motor Trend also has some really good content on there.

One thing I have to figure out is streaming. I have a TV that will do AirPlay (streaming over my WiFi network) but it doesn't seem to work very well. For one it essentially renders my phone useless since it's just mirroring what's on my screen. But also I've observed that the phone will stream fine but then the TV will often have lag.

I want to try to address both these options but I'm not sure how. A lot of people have recommended Chromecast but it seems like that's only meant to work with Android phones. AppleTV is, of course, meant for Apple products, but I'm wondering if that doesn't end up just being the same thing (working over the WiFi network) and if my router is the slow point, will that leave me having the same issues.

I'm not a tech person. Any suggestions from the tech-savvy folks?
 
yeah, torrents for content where the announcers don't suck. BTSports for the MotoGP coverage. Eurosports for WSBK.
Run Plex on your home system, then a Roku or smart tv to view.
 
Ted said:
I've been enjoying watching racing. It makes for a good background during the day sometimes and also winding down in the evenings. I'm enjoying the IMSA ap a lot, although Motor Trend also has some really good content on there.

One thing I have to figure out is streaming. I have a TV that will do AirPlay (streaming over my WiFi network) but it doesn't seem to work very well. For one it essentially renders my phone useless since it's just mirroring what's on my screen. But also I've observed that the phone will stream fine but then the TV will often have lag.

I want to try to address both these options but I'm not sure how. A lot of people have recommended Chromecast but it seems like that's only meant to work with Android phones. AppleTV is, of course, meant for Apple products, but I'm wondering if that doesn't end up just being the same thing (working over the WiFi network) and if my router is the slow point, will that leave me having the same issues.

I'm not a tech person. Any suggestions from the tech-savvy folks?
Click to expand...

I have a Chrome cast, but I also have an Android phone. When my daughter gets home from school next weekend I will see if she can try to connect her IPhone to the ChromeCast.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ted
FormerHangie said:
I have a Chrome cast, but I also have an Android phone. When my daughter gets home from school next weekend I will see if she can try to connect her IPhone to the ChromeCast.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the upcoming pirep :)
 
NBC Sports Gold (streaming) had the Supercross and Motocross series live. I believe they also offered some other motosports’ seasons (F1 perhaps?)

For Supercross it was 70-something for the entire season, and coverage was time qualifying/practice, plus the whole night show.
 
Omalley1537 said:
NBC Sports Gold (streaming) had the Supercross and Motocross series live. I believe they also offered some other motosports’ seasons (F1 perhaps?)

For Supercross it was 70-something for the entire season, and coverage was time qualifying/practice, plus the whole night show.
Click to expand...

I have subscriptions to both IndyCar and IMSA on NBC sports, I think the two of them are $65 a year. One of the best things about that is the IMSA coverage is commercial free. You can also get subscriptions to short track NASCAR and flat track motorcycles.
 
Ted said:
Appreciate the upcoming pirep :)
Click to expand...
I can help with that... We've got 3 or 4 chromecasts, and my iPad has no problem casting to them. I'm also a Motortrend subscriber. Can confirm that works too, from my iPad to our various Chromecasts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ted
Ted said:
That's a mirroring though rather than a screen extension, right? In other words I can't stream and also use my phone for something else.
Click to expand...

You have a tablet? I use the tablet and just leave it hooked to a charger while streaming long stuff so the phone isn’t tied up. That said, Android phones that’ll do split screen will usually also stream just fine from various streaming apps and leave you half the screen to do other stuff. Apple, not so much. They’re still not into multitasking in 2020. LOL.

FormerHangie said:
I take it that Apple doesn't have a device to cast to a TV. I have an Android phone and a Chromecast dongle on the TV, and can cast from NBC Sports and YouTube direct from my phone.
Click to expand...

See below. Apple’s native video streaming is AirPlay but quite a few apps (YouTube being the most obvious one) also implement their own casting protocols besides AirPlay. App specific.

jrcox19 said:
I can help with that... We've got 3 or 4 chromecasts, and my iPad has no problem casting to them. I'm also a Motortrend subscriber. Can confirm that works too, from my iPad to our various Chromecasts.
Click to expand...

Apple uses “AirPlay”.

There’s apps for every possible “stick” (FireTV, Roku) that’ll make them pretend to be an AirPlay device so Apple things will stream to them.

Have one on the Fire sticks called AirPlay that pretends it’s an...

- AirPlay Video and Audio Device
- Chromecast
- DLNA Media Receiver
- YouTube Dial
- YouTube TV
- Samba Client (Direct file server streaming)

If you can’t find a way to cast to that, you’re not trying hard enough. LOL. Runs all the time in all our FireTV sticks. Haven’t run into an Apple or Android device that didn’t automatically “see” that software as at least one method of casting to the TVs in whatever apps we’ve used.

About the only “problem” with it is the automatically populated list of “devices seem” with four FireSticks running it in the house. Is pretty long. Ha.

It was the highest rated one when I went looking thru the twenty or so available for the sticks, years ago. Hasn’t ever had a problem so haven’t seen if there’s better ones now. Do know the Roku and others had similar apps available back then. Was going to use a Roku in my office just as comparison fodder. Never got around to it. Imagine they’re still plenty available now.

Prior to the fire sticks there were two AppleTVs in the house. They were way too limited back then and probably still are for stuff like this. Even with their perennial dislike of each other between Amazon and Google, both are a lot more open about these apps that pretend to be the other vendor’s devices than Apple likes allowing on their devices with their walled media garden. Just how it goes.

But zero problem streaming from Apple (or Android) devices to their competitors. Just snag one of these apps and it’ll show up as “something” on all OSes and in all apps doing their own things.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top