azcentral.com— Here is a list of 10 ways for networks to make TV not suck anymore. I do hope the networks read this and pay close attention.
Jul 23, 2006View in Crawl 4
There is no free lunch. It may be "free" to watch but you still pay for it by sitting through commercials. I'd rather see a list of ways they could change advertising to make it more bearable for the customer while still being useful.
@Yez70 and daleallenbaker:"Let me 'watch' and/or browse the internet on my TV - NOW."In 1995, there was a device called WebTV. And it sucked (still lives on as MSN TV, though)In 1996, there was the Sega Saturn NetLink. And it sucked worse.In 1999, there was the Sega Dreamcast (came out of the box with web browsing capability). And it sucked (markedly less).Why? I'll let the WebTV wikipedia entry explain (AFAIK since I have a Dreamcast, it does more-or-less the same thing except for the mouse part):"As an ease-of-use design consideration, WebTV early decided to reformat pages rather than have users doing sideways scrolling. As garden-variety PCs evolved from VGA resolution of 640x480 to SVGA resolution of 800x600, reformatting to fit the 560-pixel width of a television screen[*] became less satisfactory. The WebTV browser also translated HTML frames as tables in order to avoid the need for a mouse."[*] = this may be slightly inaccurate: <a class="user" href="http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidres.htm#PcRes">http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidres.htm#PcRes</a>Not to mention it's a little tough, so to speak, to upgrade the software on those (i.e. does YouTube work on MSN TV or DreamCast?). At least the DreamCast had upgraded web browser discs.A smarter solution would be to get a halfway decent computer (even an Athlon-era computer will do), get a nice video card (doesn't have to be the latest ATI or nVidia OMGWTFSLI 9000GTXPi Type-R card), get a nice DVR card (Hauppage rocks as long as you stay away from the "Lite" crippled versions), get a nice large flatscreen monitor, get lotsa hard drive space, take a look at the MythDVR FAQ (or your DVR card's manual) and presto!: a computer+TV viewing solution for much less than a cost of a humunculus "HDTV-Ready" big screen with the overpriced TiVo from your cable or satellite provider. (Though your cable box may still need to be used for digital content.)
You're right, in Germany people pay a TV tax, which is distributed among the public TV channels.We're talking about a ridiculous $15 a YEAR which is results in about EIGHT HIGH QUALITY INDEPENDENT PUBLIC TV STATIONS. We're talking loads of great documentaries, independent movies, mainstream movies, high quality news, etc.And yes, in a feature film, they do have one (max two) blocks of commercials (although the commercials are the same crap as they are everywhere).Aside from this, there are also cable channels just like in the US, and many of them.So you can choose.I think it's an awesome model.
@globalhead I agree with globalhead, females are too commonly depicted in powerful positions to be more interesting or whatever, but even in those shows, they are shown as too emotional to do the job well. There are positions in life where you just have to hide your emotions and take it like a man.
Im amazed everytime i watch some Dr who some kind brit has recorded and sent over the ocean to my waiting hard drive. when the credits start to role, they dont push them to the side and run some crap commercial or something. a pleasent las comes on over the outro music and informs me what's coming up next and other chit-chat..WE NEED THAT! SO RELAXING!
Easy fix. No more reality shows. Who the hell is watching these? More programs that don't make me say "There goes 30 or 60 minutes of my life that I will never get back." Give us viewing audience A LITTLE credit for having some intelligence.
severtskigccJul 23, 2006
There is no free lunch. It may be "free" to watch but you still pay for it by sitting through commercials. I'd rather see a list of ways they could change advertising to make it more bearable for the customer while still being useful.
techidnaJul 23, 2006
@Yez70 and daleallenbaker:"Let me 'watch' and/or browse the internet on my TV - NOW."In 1995, there was a device called WebTV. And it sucked (still lives on as MSN TV, though)In 1996, there was the Sega Saturn NetLink. And it sucked worse.In 1999, there was the Sega Dreamcast (came out of the box with web browsing capability). And it sucked (markedly less).Why? I'll let the WebTV wikipedia entry explain (AFAIK since I have a Dreamcast, it does more-or-less the same thing except for the mouse part):"As an ease-of-use design consideration, WebTV early decided to reformat pages rather than have users doing sideways scrolling. As garden-variety PCs evolved from VGA resolution of 640x480 to SVGA resolution of 800x600, reformatting to fit the 560-pixel width of a television screen[*] became less satisfactory. The WebTV browser also translated HTML frames as tables in order to avoid the need for a mouse."[*] = this may be slightly inaccurate: <a class="user" href="http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidres.htm#PcRes">http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidres.htm#PcRes</a>Not to mention it's a little tough, so to speak, to upgrade the software on those (i.e. does YouTube work on MSN TV or DreamCast?). At least the DreamCast had upgraded web browser discs.A smarter solution would be to get a halfway decent computer (even an Athlon-era computer will do), get a nice video card (doesn't have to be the latest ATI or nVidia OMGWTFSLI 9000GTXPi Type-R card), get a nice DVR card (Hauppage rocks as long as you stay away from the "Lite" crippled versions), get a nice large flatscreen monitor, get lotsa hard drive space, take a look at the MythDVR FAQ (or your DVR card's manual) and presto!: a computer+TV viewing solution for much less than a cost of a humunculus "HDTV-Ready" big screen with the overpriced TiVo from your cable or satellite provider. (Though your cable box may still need to be used for digital content.)
globalheadJul 24, 2006
You're right, in Germany people pay a TV tax, which is distributed among the public TV channels.We're talking about a ridiculous $15 a YEAR which is results in about EIGHT HIGH QUALITY INDEPENDENT PUBLIC TV STATIONS. We're talking loads of great documentaries, independent movies, mainstream movies, high quality news, etc.And yes, in a feature film, they do have one (max two) blocks of commercials (although the commercials are the same crap as they are everywhere).Aside from this, there are also cable channels just like in the US, and many of them.So you can choose.I think it's an awesome model.
ghatidJul 24, 2006
@globalhead I agree with globalhead, females are too commonly depicted in powerful positions to be more interesting or whatever, but even in those shows, they are shown as too emotional to do the job well. There are positions in life where you just have to hide your emotions and take it like a man.
zreitanJul 26, 2006
Im amazed everytime i watch some Dr who some kind brit has recorded and sent over the ocean to my waiting hard drive. when the credits start to role, they dont push them to the side and run some crap commercial or something. a pleasent las comes on over the outro music and informs me what's coming up next and other chit-chat..WE NEED THAT! SO RELAXING!
bobocopyJul 26, 2006
No kidding. If a show has a laugh track or follows the fat-guy-skinny-wife formula, it insults my intelligence.
crickitAug 18, 2006
Easy fix. No more reality shows. Who the hell is watching these? More programs that don't make me say "There goes 30 or 60 minutes of my life that I will never get back." Give us viewing audience A LITTLE credit for having some intelligence.