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A review of MLB.tv, MLB Mosaic, and MLB Extra Innings for the 2007 season(page 2 of 5) The first type of blackout is the local live blackout. That is you cannot use MLB.tv, MLB Mosaic, or MLB Extra Innings to watch the team(s) that are broadcast locally in your area. For example, I live in Boston and the Red Sox are broadcast locally here on NESN. With the cheap cable that I buy (local channels only with no ESPN, Discover, TLC, etc...), I don't have access to NESN. However, the local games are still blacked out on MLB.tv, MLB Mosaic, and MLB Extra Innings. So you can't use either of those three packages as a way to watch your local team without having to get a more expensive cable package (you'd have more success getting around the expensive cable package with a roll of aluminum foil, some rabbit ears, and a lotta patience). However, if your favorite team to watch is not the local team where you live, then this type of blackout rarely affects you (only when your favorite team plays your local team).The second kinda blackout is the national live blackout. This blackout comes into effect when a game is played on one of the major national channels like ESPN, ESPN2, or FOX. This blackout also means that the entire postseason is not available with any of these packages. If you have ESPN and ESPN2 in your cable package, no worries for those games. If you don't have ESPN or ESPN2, you'll find yourself always hoping that the game is not on those channels; plus, the games on those channels are usually the good rivalries like the Red Sox -vs- Yankees or Cardinals -vs- Cubs. So unfortunately, you'll often be blacked outta the good stuff. The FOX games are a different kinda annoyance that effects everyone. Every Saturday, FOX broadcasts the SATURDAY BASEBALL GAME OF THE WEEK at 3:30PM EST. FOX broadcasts 2-3 games at the same time each Saturday, and the game you get depends on your local market. So here in Boston, I almost always get some game involving an east coast team. And I can't watch the other simultaneously broadcast FOX games on MLB.tv, MLB Mosaic, or MLB Extra Innings even though they are NOT being broadcast where I am. I can understand all the other blackout rules: ESPN, the cable company, and the local TV stations don't want MLB sifting off their viewers and advertising revenue. But it doesn't make sense to me why a FOX game that is not available in my area wouldn't be made available on MLB.tv, MLB Mosaic, or Extra Innings. But, dems da breaks. If you have the internet packages (MLB.tv and MLB Mosaic), one reprieve from all this blackout junk is that you still can watch the game shortly after it ends in the MLB archive. Review of MLB Extra InningsNow that MLB, Direct TV and the cable companies have worked out their differences, MLB Extra Innings is available through most cable companies. There's not much to say about MLB Extra Innings; it's pretty simple. On the high channels on your cable box (it's channels 620-630 or so on my Comcast box), they'll broadcast all of the available baseball games currently in play. You can flip through those channels, find your game, and watch it like any old baseball game on tv. Some of the games are in high definition, most are not.Negatives of the MLB Extra Innings Package The downside of MLB Extra Innings relative to the MLB internet offerings is that you don't have access to the archived games, and you can only watch the games at the location where you've purchased the Extra Innings cable package. For more information about archived games please read the next section on MLB.tv. Review of MLB.tv Click image for larger Previous Page | Next Page Skip to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |