Network Congestion prompts MLB.COM to Prevent Customers from watching live games!
Internet congestion is very real. The amount of end to end video file sharing, uploads, downloads and streaming is overtaxing the net and causing providers to break their customer guarantees/ SLAs.
On August 6th, I received bogus blackout messages for each live mlb.com game I tried to watch. This was independent of the streaming speed (I'm a premium subscriber that usually watches at 1.2Mb/sec). When I tried to access a different game, I received a page with this message: "You've reached this page in error." When I entered my zip code=95050, I got a messsage back indicating that I was blacked out for SF and Oakland. But I was not trying to watch either of those teams!
When I called tech support, I was told there was a mismatch between my IP address (in San Jose, CA) and the games I was trying to watch. That seems to be a huge software error in the MLB.com server. Then the tech said that "during periods of network congestion users sometimes get bogus blackout messages." Finally, he had me remove and re-install a new version of the Silverlite media player. That seemed to fix the problem, but why? Is there a software bug in the previous version of Silverlite and if so, will the new version fix the problem (e.g. by allowing for a deeper playback buffer? I just checked the mlbsupport forum and another user complained about the exact same false blackout problem.
http://www.mlbsupport.com/forum/
For a more thorough analysis of Internet congestion and bandwidth breakdowns, please visit:
http://www.viodi.com