Who else has is tick'ed off at this garbage? That piece of junk in the left corner says, "Celebrity Apprentice Tomorrow 9/8 Central". :grumpy:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/1199326058.jpg

It doesn't go away. It stays there for the full hour. Except during commercials. Then it comes back. :mad:

I noticed this started during Christmas specials (nice way to ruin a SNL special) or movie.

Just when I thought TV couldn't get worse....:thumbsdn:

At least TV will go away soon. :sigh:

Really ticks me off when I'm recording something to save.:thumbsdn:

NBC: Now Broadcasting Commercials
ABC: Always Broadcasting Commercials
CBS: Commercial Broadcasting System

And they all break at the same time.

Cable's just as bad too, now. 1/2 the stations can't show a program without some stupid cute graphic flying around the screen...

I hate that shit... It screams "We're desperate!!! WATCH IT!! WE NEED THE MONEY!!"

I watch most of my stuff on the internet nowadays anyway. I can suppress the ads, and fast forward through commercials, or if they've disabled fast forward, I can open up another window, and browse until the commercial is over.

Right, I hate it when the fixed logo is in color and you are watching an old black and white movie.

Some cable stations have moving animations with sound running across the bottom of the screen as a promo for some show. Very bad trend.

Right, I hate it when the fixed logo is in color and you are watching an old black and white movie.

Some cable stations have moving animations with sound running across the bottom of the screen as a promo for some show. Very bad trend.

Tell me about it! I was trying to enjoy a suspenseful B&W Twilight Zone marathon on Sci-Fi yesterday, and some flying piece of colored shit comes across the screen to tell me about some asinine show on later in the week.

When will they be satisfied? When I sign a contract to watch their foccocktra' show next week?

'Course I guess I'd be insecure too if the best show on my network was produced 50 years ago!

Years ago...the 70's...the FCC used to slap stations with fines for "non-program material" which was their back door way of policing early 3/4" tape on the air with blanking errors. The "non-program" material was the lack of 3/4" full scan across the screen which left a blank stripe on one side of the screen or the other because of blanking errors. The stripe was not the program. Pink slip was in the mail.

I wonder if the rule still exists and does it apply to garbage promotions that have nothing to do with the program being aired? Or did the re-write of the act in 1984 get rid of this? Cable does not count as it is not broadcast. Over-the-air only.

Dave A

I'm sure either the rule has been rewritten, or the broadcasters have a loophole, as those crap promotions have been going on for years.

Right, I hate it when the fixed logo is in color and you are watching an old black and white movie.


Just turn down the color. It'll blend in. :D

Sorry, couldn't resist.;)

Years ago...the 70's...the FCC used to slap stations with fines for "non-program material" which was their back door way of policing early 3/4" tape on the air with blanking errors.
I wonder if the rule still exists and does it apply to garbage promotions that have nothing to do with the program being aired?

I'm pretty sure the Funny Cookie Corporation got rid of the people (engineers) who would even know about such technical details years ago. But have a wardrobe malfunction, and the FCC is all over your behind like a rash...

Just turn down the color. It'll blend in. :D

Sorry, couldn't resist.;)

Damn. Shoulda thought of that.

I have noticed this kind of advertising getting worse and worse too. It used to be that cable networks would have a transparent logo on them and broadcast networks would have none. What's especially irritating is advertisements which come on with sound and motion during a show. I had to totally give up watching Star Trek Voyager and Next Generation on cable networks and just buy the DVD's as there was so much advertising junk on "Spike TV" and "G4" where the shows were available.

The logos themselves are called bugs. They used to just hang around on the screen, but lately have been getting pretty animated.

The sad part is a few years ago there was a conversation on slashdot.org about an English group that was (unsuccessfully) working to get bugs banned off British TV. In reading through the replies to the news article though the majority (of fairly young respondents) basically said they liked the bugs and couldn't understand why anyone would get rid of them. They apparently used them to see what channel they were on, etc.

I knew then that it was too late to do anything about them, the young generation couldn't remember a time without bugs.

David

I don't care for that sort of thing myself. Another thing they do that rubs me wrong is when they edit out part of a show so more commercials will fit in a time slot. I know this has been done with MacGyver because I'm old enough to remember when it came on ABC and I now notice that small parts have been edited out for the re-runs on the cable networks. It also upsets me when they run advertising through the end credits and theme music of an old TV show. I don't know why this bothers me; but, it does. I expect to see a show just like I did 20 years ago. I guess the only way I'll be able to do that is buy the DVD's. Then, I can watch the complete show without commercials or other annoying things.

I can see a day where watching tv will be akin to dodging popups and banner ads on a webpage.

What I was told when I bitched to the local stations is that they "watermark" certain programs at the behest of their providers to prevent someone from using them in manners not authorized by the program provider (read: record, redistribute, or otherwise enjoy them, =greed).

I hate them so much that I no longer watch commercial TV. At least PBS isn't doing this to the same degree (yet).

I used to watch CNN pre 911. Now I don't, and its not because of the reporting: the scroll on the bottom of the screen that proudly announces that someone's dog died, the number of days left in the year, and other non important information that i really don't need.

Here's a suggestion to CNN: stop running anything even 80% screen. Instead plaster all that useless crap all over the screen instead of trying to make it look important by running it on a scroll, and run your reports in a window, no larger than 10% of the screen. It is just as annoying as what they're doing now and can't hurt their audience worse than Bloomberg.

The little transparent bugs in the corner used to really annoy me. They still do, to some extent, but they're far less annoying than the animated ones. They prance about on the bottom of the screen, sometimes even with sound! Grrr. I hate them. I don't watch nearly as much television as I used to, partly due to the in-program annoyances, and partly just due to the overall low programming quality.

But I really enjoyed one little bit in The Simpsons where Marge is saying something, and a "FOX Football" logo appears in the lower corner of the screen, complete with little animated football players running around. Marge says something to the effect of "for crying out loud" and pulls out an aerosol can of bug killer, and sprays the football players. They cough and wheeze a bit and fall over dead.

There's also a Simpsons intro where the family runs in to sit on the couch - and there's a Fox bug in the corner of the screen. Homer runs up, rips it off and throws it on the ground, and they all start stomping on it.

Apparently Matt Groening doesn't like these things either.

On a side note, has anyone seen a TV set with any of this crap burned into the tube?

-Ian

Blame Ted Turner. He started it all years ago by putting these bugs on all his TBS programs.

jimmymagick

Blame Ted Turner. He started it all years ago by putting these bugs on all his TBS programs.


Ahh, yet another reason to dislike Ted Turner and the colorization nazis.

Roy

The most recent thing I saw on TV was the beginning of one show squeezed into one half the screen while the credits of the previous show were on the other half.

I wonder what it'll be like when TV goes fully digital... maybe pop up ads will appear during a show and you'll need to use the remote to close them.

I wouldn't put it past the SOB's

I wonder what it'll be like when TV goes fully digital... maybe pop up ads will appear during a show and you'll need to use the remote to close them.

I wouldn't put it past the SOB's



I can see that happening. I wish they had a thing now to cancel them with a remote.

I can picture someone eventually writing a computer virus that can infect digital TV's...

I think unnecessary screen clutter should be banned. When CBS got the NFL back, I thought the NFL made a big mistake. I do like having the score up all the time, and having the stats updated. What I couldn't stand was the plastering of the CBS eye everywhere and having it animated. The announcing teams sucked and the pregame was even worse. It was painful enough to see the Browns lose all the time. Having to watch the slaughter on CBS made it worse. I haven't seen NBC coverage since I was always working.

I no longer watch any of my favorite off network syndicated shows on commercial TV. Hacking up shows for more commercials is why I get the shows on DVD. It's nice to see the shows the way they originally aired.

I feel commercial time should be limited. It's coming sooner than we think. An hour long show will be 30 minutes of commercials. What we need is an FCC that won't be a patsy to the corporate suits.

Squeeze credits should be blatently illegal. I can't see how the nets could spend the dough to make them when the shows already have them ready to use. I do remember something called voiceovers. Either the show's own anouncer, or a network announcer would do a voice promo for what was on next, and/or a primetime show. Credits should not go so fast that they can't be read.

End of rant. This rant has been brought to you tonight by the Miller Brewing company... makers of High Life, Lite and Genuine Draft. The Miller Brewing Company, Miluakee, Wisconsin.

You know what's really stupid is when the logo is planted right on top of the score graphics in video shown during the sports segment of a newscast. And this is in New York Ciry, where you'd think someone at WNBC would notice and correct it....

Now I dont know enough about electronics or digital stuff and all that. But it seems to me that there should be away for someone to build a little black box that finds that frequency and can filter out those damn bugs. You just kinda put it inline when hooking up the cable and zap.....gone.
If this could be done I bet you would be a pretty rich fellow.

If anyone in the television industry with the knowledge of how this bug is put on the screen can tell me why this cant be done, I would like to hear it.

If anyone in the television industry with the knowledge of how this bug is put on the screen can tell me why this cant be done, I would like to hear it.

I don't work in the TV industry, but from what I understand, the bugs are sent as part of the broadcast image, and once it reaches the TV that's it. An analog TV simply displays the picture sent to it.

Probably the most you could do is build something to place a black bar over the bug.

Digital TV may be a different story...

There is a simple solution as to not seeing the bugs in the corner of the screen. Watch your shows on a roundie:D

I too hate the split screen, highlights of the next show crap durring the end credits of a TV show. I always look for copyright dates at the end of the show, and I can't read it when its compressed. And yes, voiceovers durring the end credits are annoying as well. I like hearing those old TV theme songs. Back when nick at night used to show the good shows from the 60's, they always destroyed the end credits with the voice overs etc.

I must say, the local UHF station in chicago WWME channel 23 is a 24-7 station of 50's-70s TV shows. Luckily there are no bugs or alterations to the end credits of any show on that station. I will miss WWME when it goes off the air next year.

On a side note, has anyone seen a TV set with any of this crap burned into the tube?

I remarked on this in the Patriots NFL network thread last week but i watched the game at a sports bar with the ESPN logo burned into the bottom corners of all the projection TV's there.

For a while I was immune to the bugs on most stations here. They used to sit in the bottom right corner of a 16:9 frame. If you were watching on a 4:3 set with the STB set to full screen the bug was cut off the edge. It seems the networks got wise to this, so they moved the bug closer to the center of the screen. It's now some distance in from the corner on a 4:3 set and closer to the center on a 16:9 set. I doubt even watching on a roundie would cut the bug out.

Pop up style ads have already started to appear here. On network TV they are embedded in the video so there is no way to get rid of them. On cable they seem to be sent as data that is displayed by the OSD in the box. Those can usually be closed by hitting "back" on the remote. You could get rid of them permanently by disabling the OSD, but you'd have to do without the menus and EPG and navigate blind.

They gave us a free trial of the DVR box for a while and from memory those pop ups and bugs were not present when you watched a recorded program.

I've found a couple of orphan boxes from networks that are not in use here that have a seperate VCR output that doesn't display the OSD.

You can't escape them! Even History channel has the animated ones that take up a good percentage of the screen. I was watching it last night and some stupid animated martial arts character was doing his stuff advertising for a show. As mentioned, those squeezed credits that zoom up the screen so fast they are a blur really annoy me. I like to see when those shows were made, and you can't catch the copyright when they zoom by, just so the network can squeeze in another commercial.

I predict a future where the "free" channel will be loaded with pop-ups and all sorts of other crap, but you will be able to pay extra to access the same shows sans the nuisance ads.

Have you seen the credits roll at the end of Entertainment Tonight? What a joke.

The worst part is when those pop-ups bock important information like subtitles.

What I was told when I bitched to the local stations is that they "watermark" certain programs at the behest of their providers to prevent someone from using them in manners not authorized by the program provider (read: record, redistribute, or otherwise enjoy them, =greed).

Those "bugs" don't stop people from taping shows using VCRs. I tape the NBC Nightly News, which has a small transparent NBC peacock bug in the lower left corner of the screen, every now and then and the tape always comes out great. I think the bugs are meant to thwart digital recording on DVDs of the network programs. There is no law I am aware of that prohibits recording of network TV shows (digital or otherwise), or anything else on television, using analog devices such as VCRs.

The bug that really gets me, however (at least it used to), is NBC's peacock with a promotional announcement for a new show. These bugs appear in the same spot as the standard NBC peacock (lower left corner of the screen), but fortunately they don't affect analog VCR recording. The first time I saw these bugs was a couple weeks ago, when NBC was about to begin showing "Clash of the Choirs." The bug remained on the screen all through prime time, which annoyed me at first, but I have since learned to ignore the bugs and concentrate on the program. I did see one downright cute bug during the holiday season, however--when the NBC peacock was shown wearing a Santa Claus cap. That has to be the cutest, most adorable thing I've ever seen on TV in my life, IMHO, as far as program promotion schemes are concerned.

I must say, the local UHF station in chicago WWME channel 23 is a 24-7 station of 50's-70s TV shows. Luckily there are no bugs or alterations to the end credits of any show on that station. I will miss WWME when it goes off the air next year.

I just looked up WWME-TV on Google. It is a class-A low-power UHF station; its entry on Wikipedia states that the station will continue to be available on digital cable (Comcast) in Chicago, even after the analog stations' shutdown deadline. I don't know what cable system serves your area, but again, if it is Comcast you will still be able to get WWME. There may be other systems in the area that will or currently do carry this channel digitally, but again, the only one mentioned on Wikipedia is Comcast.

BTW, I like the old 1950s-'70s TV shows as well, especially those from the '70s as I grew up in that decade. Neither TV Land nor Nick at Nite have very many of the shows I really like anymore, but that doesn't bother me, as I can get on DVD (through Netflix) the programs I cannot see on cable. Two of my many personal favorites are ABC's "The Odd Couple" (1970-'75) with Jack Klugman and the late Tony Randall and "Quincy" (1976-'83), an NBC series centering around a Los Angeles medical examiner, also starring Klugman in the title role.

I would suggest that, once WWME does go off the air for whatever reason (if it does, which I doubt), you look for your favorite old shows on DVD; they are available through Netflix and Blockbuster Video, to name but two. These DVD rental services have very reasonable subscription rates (in fact, Netflix reduced my rate last year), and best of all, IMHO, no late fees, meaning you can take your time watching the shows, rather than having to rush to meet a 2-week deadline, as is common with some places (Blockbuster used to have late fees, but they don't any longer). I've had a subscription to Netflix since getting a DVD player for Christmas in 2005, and have enjoyed all but one of the movies and shows I have seen to date (1973's "Serpico", starring Al Pacino, which was the very first movie I rented from Netflix). I am currently watching the old "Adam-12" shows on DVD in the evenings and am enjoying every minute of them. Netflix and Blockbuster have 90,000+ titles available, so you can almost always find your favorites. Netflix has multiple distribution centers throughout the US as well, so it is rare that any given show cannot be found; if one distribution point doesn't have your movie, the chances are excellent another one will.

BTW (2): I wish there was a MeTV affiliate in my area near Cleveland. Oh well, maybe some station may elect to carry the channel on a DTV subchannel after digital TV has been around a while.

The worst part is when those pop-ups bock important information like subtitles.

Peeve #32642748976976 in life:

When they put subtitles on ENGLISH speaking folks.

Those "bugs" don't stop people from taping shows using VCRs. I tape the NBC Nightly News, which has a small transparent NBC peacock bug in the lower left corner of the screen, every now and then and the tape always comes out great. I think the bugs are meant to thwart digital recording on DVDs of the network programs. There is no law I am aware of that prohibits recording of network TV shows (digital or otherwise), or anything else on television, using analog devices such as VCRs.



This is true, but its hard(er) to sell the n-th season of the "mad raving idiot show" on pirate dvd (before the studios try to sell it) when its marked with some stations' logos and a network bug on the corner.

I too notice that the commercials are all synced on the U.S. networks. At least if you live near the borders the Canadians are out of sync with the U.S. ad breaks.

I too notice that the commercials are all synced on the U.S. networks. At least if you live near the borders the Canadians are out of sync with the U.S. ad breaks.

When you watch TV on DVDs you really see how many commercials there are. Most half hour shows don't make 22 minutes now!

I download a lot of BBC shows such as Top Gear because when they (eventually) show them on US TV they have to cut out more than a quarter of the show to fit the commercial in, and they plaster them with logos. Apart from the closing credits, they are all pretty much free of logos when they air in England. The only British channels that I've noticed logos on are the satellite channels.

When you watch TV on DVDs you really see how many commercials there are. Most half hour shows don't make 22 minutes now!

I agree. The number of commercials now shown during prime time network programming is nothing short of ridiculous, which is why I like watching my old favorite shows on DVD; the DVD versions show the entire program, minus the commercials. Also, 25-30 years ago or more there weren't as many commercials on TV as there are today; those that were there weren't nearly as crazy as some of the commercials we see nowadays. In the '60s-'70s, and likely prior to that as well, the FCC put strict limits on the number of commercials networks and local stations could run in an hour.

I think the commercial explosion is a direct result of the deregulation of the television industry in the mid-1980s. I also believe that, as the networks cram more and more commercials into their programming (cutting out parts of the shows to do so), more people are going to be watching their shows on DVD and via video on demand cable services, not to mention on the Internet (all three major networks, plus Fox, PBS, and The CW now offer at least part of their prime-time lineup on their websites via streaming video). The networks may be making more money these days than ever before, no thanks to those seemingly endless strings of commercials, but I think at the same time they are losing viewers who have become fed up with them. I'm not saying DVD, VOD, etc. will eventually kill network TV, but I will say that the Big Four networks may have far fewer viewers than they used to from now on.

Infomercials, IMHO, are just as bad as standard TV commercials, if not worse. I detest infomercials and paid commercial programs, which are nothing more than television commercials cleverly disguised as half-hour TV shows. (Needless to say, I avoid them like the plague.) I don't see how the local stations that run these can make any money from them, as hardly anyone watches them and no one, that I am aware of anyway, would tape them on a VCR or burn them to DVD for later viewing. Chad Hauris once mentioned in answer to one of my posts on this subject that TV stations do make money on infomercials, whether or not anyone watches them; however, I don't know for the life of me how that's possible. If few people watch a regular TV show, the program eventually flounders and is cancelled, meaning the station/network makes no money whatsoever (or very little, anyway) from it. Why should infomercials be any different?

Hmmm. :scratch2: It makes me wonder...

First of all, let's not mix "bugs" with ads. As mentioned earlier, the proper term should be "pop-up ad".

I'm pretty accustomed to station ID bugs in the lower right corner. What makes this new NBC pop-up so bad is that it's a 1/3 of the way up from the bottom, right in your main field of view. It's advertising another inane NBC show. It never goes away. The standard NBC identifier bug is there too.

It would be nice to think that "artistic integrity" still existed, and that some producers might have it written into their network contracts that their "art" is not to be plastered with screen bugs and other promotional trash throughout the entire show.

Yeah I know, dream on.

Hell, we're being subjected to re-runs and second rate garbage this season because the networks won't give up $.02 of a revenue stream that didn't even exist 10 years ago. (See also: Writer's strike)

As far as preventing people from taping network TV shows to resell... Who does that?? Hard to believe that pirating network TV is more than a multi-hundred-dollar racket! Dream on; it's just another thing for them to "BRAND".

If bugs are so objectionable for people who would like to watch a pirate DVD, why is it "OK" to subject your prime-time viewers to them?

Bah! If they ever produced a recent TV show I wanted to see more than once (if that), I'd go out of my way to find this mythical pirate DVD!

Who else has is tick'ed off at this garbage? That piece of junk in the left corner says, "Celebrity Apprentice Tomorrow 9/8 Central". :grumpy:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/1199326058.jpg

It doesn't go away. It stays there for the full hour. Except during commercials. Then it comes back. :mad:

I noticed this started during Christmas specials (nice way to ruin a SNL special) or movie.

Just when I thought TV couldn't get worse....:thumbsdn:

At least TV will go away soon. :sigh:


I'm with you. My Mom and I noticed the same thing when we watched "It's A Wonderful Life." That logo was on almost all the time.

It doesn't go away. It stays there for the full hour. Except during commercials. Then it comes back.

Funny how that happens doesn't it...

I've noticed that NBC is starting to use a neutral white/gray bug proclaiming their peacock on the right and some blurb pushing another re-run.

I thought I was losing it when I watched some re-run and found they very subtly re-dubbed the dialog (animated show) to clip down the running time by about 20%. When I watched the DVD, the show had the original dialog!

The commercials never have bugs. Shows where the priorities are.

If we didn't have all those commercials, how could we ever deal with the lower prices we'd be stuck with at the store?

Funny how that happens doesn't it...

I've noticed that NBC is starting to use a neutral white/gray bug proclaiming their peacock on the right and some blurb pushing another re-run.

I think NBC changed the peacock to whitish-gray to prevent the image from burning into the screens of LCD/plasma flat panels. I read a post recently where it was stated that, in a sports bar with several FPs tuned to ESPN, the ESPN logo had burned itself into every one of the sets after months or even years of constant use. (I also read a post here that said the screens of monitors used to display departure/arrival times in airports, bus terminals, etc. were irreparably damaged when the schedules eventually burned themselves onto the phosphors, due to the fact that these monitors were left on 24/7, often at full brightness.)

This is not uncommon with logos that remain on-screen for extended periods. Television manufacturers have been warning set owners for decades (starting long before FPs and high-definition) not to leave stationary images such as network IDs, telephone numbers and so on on the screen for any extended length of time, as the images would eventually permanently burn themselves into the phosphors. Once such damage occurs, of course, the TV is ruined. Worse, the set's warranty will not cover this type of damage, as it is considered abuse.