The UFC Video Vault Still Sucks

by Kid Nate on Jul 16, 2009 10:40 AM EDT in News Comment 33 comments

3726074959_0ec718f28a_medium I've covered this before, Fagan has covered this before, but its still true: the UFC Video Vault of fights from their archives still sucks.

I've been staying away from the vault ever since they eliminated the yearly subscription option and forced me to order every fight ala carte for $1.99.

But my desire to see the UFC 100 undercard brought me back. So I settled in front of the lap top, paid my moneys, downloaded the fights and sat down to watch.

The fights all downloaded no problem, the first couple of minutes of Jon Jones vs Jake O'Brien were nice (the video quality really is impressive) but then....the screen shot above shows what I saw during the spinning elbow that Jones dropped O'Brien with. Yup. The image froze then went all black while the audio continued on just fine.

My assumption is that the massive file got corrupted while I was downloading it. In the old days when I had the subscription, I'd have just deleted the jacked up file and tried downloading it again (although there are some fights where the files don't work at all -- for a long time Nick Diaz vs Diego Sanchez was totally jacked up). But now that's I've been forced to the pay as you go plan, I'll be damned if I'm doing that.

And it wasn't just Jones vs O'Brien either. The Tom Lawlor vs C.B. Dollaway fight also froze -- exactly as Dollaway made his ill-fated half-assed shot for a takedown. The image froze, the audio continued and then it returned as Lawlor already had the guillotine choke sunk in.

Its bad enough that I can't watch fights on my Mac, or using Firefox, that their online support is a cruel hoax, but this is the last straw. I paid for the fights. I want to see the fights. The whole fight -- including the key moments of action.

0 recs | Comment 33 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

I, fortunately, grabbed a subscription just before they went to the pay-per-fight plan. I had the same problem with the Jones/O’Brien fight. I didn’t grab the Lawlor/Dollaway fight so I can’t comment there.

I had trouble with Firefox back when I wrote the original post, and now I occasionally have problems where I can’t logon with it at all, even though the site says it supports the browser now. Also, look at the featured fighters on the left hand side of the page – there’s a pretty glaring omission.

Twitter: @Mike_Fagan_13
http://www.sackmikegoldberg.com

by Mike Fagan on Jul 16, 2009 10:49 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

So were you able to retain the subscription rate indefinitely? Someone should start a petition to return things to the way they were. That 1.99 a fight thing is a fuckin joke. And have you seen the prices for the On-Demand station? It’s shocking.

"The reason a rabbit outruns a fox is because the rabbit is running for his life and the fox is running for his dinner."

by Blackout612 on Jul 16, 2009 12:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don’t know about indefinitely. I guess I’ll find out when the subscription expires, though I’m not sure I would re-up anyway.

Twitter: @Mike_Fagan_13
http://www.sackmikegoldberg.com

by Mike Fagan on Jul 16, 2009 12:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I managed to find the Lawlor/Dolloway fight on some website the day after, had every undercard fight but Miller/Danzig.

A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.

by iiowyn on Jul 16, 2009 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You missed the best one.

Some people might say that winning a fight makes you a better fighter but I don’t agree with that.- BlueberryMuffin

by ufc4 on Jul 16, 2009 1:47 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions 0 recs

I dunno, Lawlor’s fight was awesome for seeing Dolloway get choked out and Lawlor’s post fight interview.

A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.

by iiowyn on Jul 16, 2009 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

x2

I second your feelings. To make matters even worse, I was so disgruntled with the service that I was prepared to let me 6 months expire and move on with my life. But I got automatically charged for another 6 months on my account. So now I am stuck with this crappy service for another 6 months. And they wonder why people pirate the fights…..

by Nick Travaglini on Jul 16, 2009 10:49 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Looking forward to subo defending Zuffa for simply providing the service!

Twitter: @Mike_Fagan_13
http://www.sackmikegoldberg.com

by Mike Fagan on Jul 16, 2009 10:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Hah

Undercard = not meant to be seen on TV. They’re doing you a fucking favor, Fagan. :-D

But yeah, even I don’t buy that shit.

How's the weather up your own ass? - Stephen Colbert

by subo on Jul 16, 2009 3:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I hope you got to see Lawlor’s entrance. It had more entertainment value than that fight IMO.

by cyke on Jul 16, 2009 10:52 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

that wasn't included in the fight

they cut out most all the fun stuff.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Jul 16, 2009 10:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That’s just floating around youtube. Think someone posted it yesterday, even. I thought it was stupid, personally. The Japanese have crazy intro’s on lockdown.

"The reason a rabbit outruns a fox is because the rabbit is running for his life and the fox is running for his dinner."

by Blackout612 on Jul 16, 2009 12:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Do you have to use their player?

by nitro on Jul 16, 2009 11:02 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

yes

and its a bitch to install and is everything you’d expect from an IE spinoff piece of bloatware.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Jul 16, 2009 11:14 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You can open the videos in WMP.

Twitter: @Mike_Fagan_13
http://www.sackmikegoldberg.com

by Mike Fagan on Jul 16, 2009 11:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

What format?

People are suggesting I can’t use my Mac at work to view them, but I have the WMV plugin for Quicktime on my rig.

"The reason a rabbit outruns a fox is because the rabbit is running for his life and the fox is running for his dinner."

by Blackout612 on Jul 16, 2009 12:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If you haven't already

Download K-Lite Codec Pack then open up the videos with Windows Media Player. This may fix your problem.

by nitro on Jul 16, 2009 11:24 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

good tip

I’ll try that.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Jul 16, 2009 11:37 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You know what Sucks? It’s the fightclub!!!!!! If you want decent tickets to any UFC event at face value your forced to buy it….

by KneesnBows on Jul 16, 2009 11:09 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I like it actually. I
made $600 off a pair of seats I bought to 100, that covered the cost of the membership and the ticket I bought for myself.

Some people might say that winning a fight makes you a better fighter but I don’t agree with that.- BlueberryMuffin

by ufc4 on Jul 16, 2009 1:49 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions 0 recs

I want to see the undercard too..

weoweoweo .deviantart .com

by Anton Tabuena on Jul 16, 2009 11:10 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I might have to ante up for 102’s undercard. Just realized how stacked that card is becoming.

"The reason a rabbit outruns a fox is because the rabbit is running for his life and the fox is running for his dinner."

by Blackout612 on Jul 16, 2009 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah, that's one sick card..

i hope the fights end quickly so we could see most of the fights.

weoweoweo .deviantart .com

by Anton Tabuena on Jul 16, 2009 8:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It is a damn shame that they charge anything for the prelims, at the very least should be free for those that plunk down 55$ for the ppv

by kanodogg on Jul 16, 2009 11:37 AM EDT via mobile reply actions 0 recs

I believe there was a way to get them free if you ordered the ppv

but I went to Luke’s house to watch it.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Jul 16, 2009 11:37 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

These are widely available both as downloads and streams within hours or days of each event.
Paying for these, when I fully disagree on charging for them, is not even an option I consider.

by Simco on Jul 16, 2009 11:42 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

two things

1) i’m trying to be a legit citizen here. I’ve got the $1.99/fight and I don’t mind spending it if I get what I pay for. My posts are intended to get the attention of the UFC so they’ll improve their game.
2) the bootleg videos get pulled down after about 12 hours. for those of us with kids and jobs there’s not time to watch them all. And I’m not interested in jacking around with virus infected video bootlegging sites.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Jul 16, 2009 12:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don’t think a person needs to feel bad for downloading a fight if not provided with a option to purchase a good quality copy.

I dislike Matt Hughes and Twidder.

by MonkeyCHops on Jul 16, 2009 7:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, but they just did that for 100 and I think you have to pre-order it online.

Some people might say that winning a fight makes you a better fighter but I don’t agree with that.- BlueberryMuffin

by ufc4 on Jul 16, 2009 1:50 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions 0 recs

They should have never gone away from the subscription model. A friend of mine who wanted to see the prelims had similar problems as you and he’s running Windows so there is no excuse for him why it’s not working.
Even worse when they have robots manning the email service, so god help you if you want to talk to someone about getting a refund on broken files or even help watching them.

That being said I don’t watch the prelims legitimately. I buy all the PPV but find the prelims at other sources. Being a member of their pathetic ‘fan club’ they should get the prelims for free as well. I don’t normally condone ‘stealing’ stuff but I refuse to subject myself to their horrible ‘online presence’.

by pr0cs on Jul 16, 2009 11:57 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

This is why i always buy DVDs instead.

by Bandaka on Jul 16, 2009 2:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

That brings up a good point. If you want to buy all the prelims (in this case $12), you could just wait however long it takes for the UFC to put out DVD’s, spend $3 more at amazon, and have all the fights. And they don’t expire after six months. And you can watch them wherever you want.

Fuck.

Twitter: @Mike_Fagan_13
http://www.sackmikegoldberg.com

by Mike Fagan on Jul 16, 2009 4:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs