I hate you NBC!

[colorfixer]

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.

[RetroHacker]

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

[jimmymagick]

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

[RCAkid]

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

[andy]

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.

[MRX37]

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

[jonman]

Originally Posted by MRX37

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.

[MRX37]

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

[Big Dave]

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.

[wa2ise]

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....

[Unican_Eric]

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.

[MRX37]

Originally Posted by Unican_Eric

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...

[drh4683]

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

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.

[Keefla]

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.

[dr.ido]

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.