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iJohnHenry

macrumors P6
Mar 22, 2008
16,530
30
On tenterhooks
I hate commercials, ergo, I hate TV.

Been 10 weeks without, and still going strong.

However, without my iMac for information, entertainment and mental stimulation, I might be a basket case.

:D
 

Gray-Wolf

macrumors 68030
Apr 19, 2008
2,603
2
Pandora, Home Tree
Got the coupon to get the converter, but I doubt I will. i only watch the local news, and that very rarely as more is available on the internet. The boob tube us mainly used for DVD's and Video tape movies.
 

richard.mac

macrumors 603
Feb 2, 2007
6,292
4
51.50024, -0.12662
I hate commercials, ergo, I hate TV.

Been 10 weeks without, and still going strong.

However, without my iMac for information, entertainment and mental stimulation, I might be a basket case.

:D

if Australian ISPs allowed internet plans without caps i would download all of my TV shows purely to skip the ads haha
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
I don't know what the content producers can do though. They can just make demands, but even those are futile if they don't have a way to punish affiliates who still do that crap. They can't pull their content from the affiliate? Then they lose even more viewers.

I don't suppose they have much leverage, and they'd have to be pretty motivated to use the leverage they've got.

Like all businesses the b'casters care about making money and they can make more money selling ad time on 5 super compressed HD channels than on 1 nice looking HD channel.

Perhaps, but some of the abuses don't calculate into money. They do of this nonsense because (as nearly as I can tell), they just don't care.
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
Caring costs money.:D

Lethal

Sometimes, but not always. The broadcasters have to spend money to distort the picture by squeezing that stupid ticker into the bottom of the screen. They've made the active, deliberate choice to degrade the quality of their broadcasts. This does not bode well for the future of HD broadcasting.
 

LethalWolfe

macrumors G3
Jan 11, 2002
9,370
124
Los Angeles
Sometimes, but not always. The broadcasters have to spend money to distort the picture by squeezing that stupid ticker into the bottom of the screen. They've made the active, deliberate choice to degrade the quality of their broadcasts. This does not bode well for the future of HD broadcasting.
But by squeezing in a ticker, having those annoying snipes appear in the bottom of the screen (usually animated things advertising another show on the network), and/or smashing the credits so they can simultaneously roll the intro of the next show (or squeeze in another commercial) they are maximizing the amount of ad time they can sell. By crushing the quality of the shows to fit more of them into the same, finite amount of bandwidth they are maximizing the amount of ad time they can sell. In typical corporate America businesses sense I doubt they care much about future HDTV b'casts as long as they get the biggest piece of the pie they can today. They'll let the "next guy" worry about worry about the future.


Lethal
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
But by squeezing in a ticker, having those annoying snipes appear in the bottom of the screen (usually animated things advertising another show on the network), and/or smashing the credits so they can simultaneously roll the intro of the next show (or squeeze in another commercial) they are maximizing the amount of ad time they can sell. By crushing the quality of the shows to fit more of them into the same, finite amount of bandwidth they are maximizing the amount of ad time they can sell. In typical corporate America businesses sense I doubt they care much about future HDTV b'casts as long as they get the biggest piece of the pie they can today. They'll let the "next guy" worry about worry about the future.

I know why they run the ticker. My point was though with all of that screen real estate they don't have to distort the content to squeeze in the ticker. They could just as easily crop or overlay. They would if they cared.
 

NC MacGuy

macrumors 603
Feb 9, 2005
6,233
0
The good side of the grass.
Sometimes, but not always. The broadcasters have to spend money to distort the picture by squeezing that stupid ticker into the bottom of the screen. They've made the active, deliberate choice to degrade the quality of their broadcasts. This does not bode well for the future of HD broadcasting.

Hd/Digital is rather in its infancy. I think (and hope) that with enough subscriber input and getting to the sweet part of a learning curve, the tide will turn in favor of the end-user.
Having lived through the years 3 VHF channels (NBC, ABC, CBS w. color a true innovation - ahh Bonanza and the peacock,) then the wonder of UHF, followed by the seemingly sci-fi feel of cable; the Digital and HD content and experience will get better.

Look where HD TV has come in three years. I have an old HDTV that is obsolete after four years with it's separate decoder box and local HD rabbit ears and not a HDMI port in site. Channels are increasing, HD movies on demand at $3.99-9.99 ea. for 24 hrs. seems fair to me. I can watch a movie unlimited for 24 hours which pretty much kills Apple TV rentals for me.

Right now the providers are running a hybrid system and basing broadcast protocol on what was done in the past. Three years ago I had four HD channels, now I've got over twenty w. lots of HD on demand. Apple TV, Satellite, vid rentals like Blockbuster and Netflix will push Cable providers to step up the pace of innovation. The dummied down broadcasts and local obnoxious interferences will be a thing of the past.

I'm betting on it.
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
Watching our local NBC affiliate, I must say, I am very impressed with how they handle HD. The local news is in HD, along with their hour-long sports talk show on Sunday nights. Most of the clips they film on-location for the news are in HD. When doing sports, they make an effort to use as many clips in HD as they can, and none of the weather overlays screw with HD. Other affiliates need to take a lesson from them.
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
Hd/Digital is rather in its infancy. I think (and hope) that with enough subscriber input and getting to the sweet part of a learning curve, the tide will turn in favor of the end-user.

I posted an earlier reply to this post which has been deleted, though I hardly know why. I don't have the time to recreate the original thought, but the gist of is was that all the evidence suggests that a majority of viewers really don't seem to care very much about the quality of their viewing, so I don't see the content providers responding to the apparent minority who do.

Could the mod who deleted my previous reply, please let me know why?
 

MacNut

macrumors Core
Jan 4, 2002
22,995
9,973
CT
Watching our local NBC affiliate, I must say, I am very impressed with how they handle HD. The local news is in HD, along with their hour-long sports talk show on Sunday nights. Most of the clips they film on-location for the news are in HD. When doing sports, they make an effort to use as many clips in HD as they can, and none of the weather overlays screw with HD. Other affiliates need to take a lesson from them.
I bet your affiliate is in a new HD studio. Most local channels are nowhere near that far advanced. Remember that costs money that most channels owners can't afford or don't want to pay.
 

Antares

macrumors 68000
Our CBS and NBC affiliates can overlay weather and DTV notices without replacing the HD feed with the SD feed, I don't know why the Fox one can't. Obviously, the technology is there, it's just a matter of being too cheap, too lazy, too stupid, or a combination of the three.

Yeah, that is annoying. ABC, in Chicago, switches from HD to SD when doing alerts and/or weather overlays. I don't know if they improved that yet. I remember watching Lost, last year, and it switched from glorious widescreen HD to 4:3 SD while an alert was going. Same thing happened whenever they overlayed election updates. Mucho annoying...and it took until the next commercial break to switch back, even though the alert was done.
 

gmecca2

macrumors regular
Jan 17, 2008
134
0
The hotel maybe had a 720p television and I'm sure it wasn't a high-end one. Also, many features of high definition cannot be seen until the screen size is at least 37".

The only true HD available is with a 1080p television and blu-ray. HD cable is only 1080i. HD tv channels I feel are a rip off for what cable companies are charging for them.

Blu-ray and 1080p is the way to go.
 
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