Tournament tangles with Web

If watching sporting events on a computer is the wave of the future, then the future hasn’t been perfected.

On the first day of the NCAA men’s tournament, there were some good things about NCAAsports.com’s March Madness on Demand, which offers video-streamed games from the first three rounds not available on CBS. But there were also glitches.

Getting on just before the first tipoff proved difficult, particularly for those who didn’t pre-register for VIP access. There were 189,000 people waiting in line, according to CBS SportsLine, which operates the site.

By 1 p.m., 800,000 people had registered and made 1.5 million visits. Last year, through the first three rounds, a total of 1.3 million people made 5 million visits.

This year, with the bandwidth doubled, getting on became easier as the day progressed. It was considerably easier than last year, when the site was free for the first time -- and was overwhelmed by the response.

On Thursday around halftime of the earliest games, one Times colleague who had pre-registered had no trouble getting on and one who hadn’t got on quickly as well. However, the colleague who didn’t pre-register said he couldn’t get the Maryland-Davidson game to come up on his screen.

A big plus this year is that the picture is sharper and the opening screen is bigger -- 5 1/2 inches wide by 4 1/4 compared with last year, when it was about half that.

Users can also switch to full screen, where the picture isn’t as clear but is watchable.

As for glitches, an early one was that the “watch now” button was not on the screen. And some people may not have realized that games being televised by CBS in their market were not available online.

The biggest problem, however, seemed to be getting bumped off the site. The colleague who had pre-registered said that she got bumped off because of no activity.

A CBS SportsLine spokesman says if there is no activity for 30 minutes, the visitor gets bumped. But it seemed that it was more like 10 minutes of inactivity that got you bumped.

It happened to me too, and for this technologically challenged individual, getting back on wasn’t easy. It took two calls to CBS SportsLine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the help of two patient, computer savvy young men to get me back on.

Another thing was the broadband feed was out of sync with the TV feed. The CBS announcers were apparently not aware of this and broadband viewers could hear their off-camera conversations for a few seconds.

All things considered, paying $69 for the DirecTV out-of-market Mega March Madness package might be the way to go. Generally, a television remote is easier to navigate than a computer -- at least for me.

One fun thing about the broadband site, however, is the “boss button.”

The operators of the site, showing a sense of humor, created this feature last year for those watching at work. One click of the icon instantly brings up a ready-made spread sheet, just in case the boss is nearby.

The fake spread sheet last year offered this advice: “Cheering in the office gives you away.” Even more creativity went into this year’s elaborate fake spread sheet, which provided a breakdown of products consumed while watching sports events.

Beer was listed No. 2. No. 1, by a slim margin, was Pepto -- apparently just to make sure that no one thought this was a legitimate spread sheet.

However, Pepto -- still known as Pepto-Bismol to old-timers -- could have come in handy at times Thursday when getting bumped had the stomach churning.

Court-side seat invitation

Basketball would seem to be an easy sport to televise, since it is played in a relatively confined area. A midcourt camera situated in the stands provides viewers with all they need to see.

Although CBS directors seemed to show restraint during the NCAA tournament on Thursday, others seem obsessed with sky cams or cable cams or whatever those cameras are called that can make a real game look more like a video game.

This trend was particularly noticeable on a Lakers-Cleveland Cavaliers game televised by ABC in February.

A week later, when NBA Commissioner David Stern was in Las Vegas for the All-Star game, the subject of camera angles was brought up.

“The one I really like is the one that puts the viewer in a courtside seat,” he said.

Then Stern would like what Tom Feuer, executive producer of FSN West and FSN Prime Ticket, has planned for tonight’s Lakers-Portland Trail Blazers game at Staples Center.

FSN West will have a traditional telecast. At the same time on Prime Ticket, there will be a special telecast that provides what Feuer calls a “courtside view.” The idea is to put the viewer in a courtside seat.

Feuer, who also did this last season on a Lakers-Clippers game, said, “We took what we learned with the first ‘courtside view’ and made it better.”

For one thing, there will be five cameras dedicated to the Prime Ticket telecast instead of three. And Patrick O’Neal will interview the actual courtside seat patrons at the game. And he will have time for this because there will be only one commercial break each half-hour.

Nine cameras are used on regular FSN West telecasts, and Feuer said, “We can use those cameras as well on our Prime Ticket telecast to help tell the story of the game.

“But our main objective is to let our viewers experience what it is like to sit courtside.”

larry.stewart@latimes.com