Messages

16

Weatherscan Discussion / Re: When will all Xfinity Weatherscan units be back?

« on: December 26, 2017, 08:21:37 PM »

It's all because of that "Local Now" bullshit.

Local Now has nothing to do with Weatherscan going away. They're two entirely different services. Weatherscan is shutting down because of all the other points made so far: outdated equipment, lack of maintenance and support, old graphics, smartphones, etc.; again, it wouldn't matter if LN existed or not, Weatherscan would be gone regardless.

Personally, I think the FCC requiring audible readouts of warnings is what killed Weatherscan. The IS units that are used for it were being pushed to their limits as it is; putting a TTS package on them would be overkill. Also, there's a pretty good chance the IS units haven't had a major hardware, kernel, or OS upgrade since they were shipped out.

At this point, it's probably a mercy killing in TWC's eyes.

17

Everything Else TWC / Re: Local Now - The Weather Channel's New Over-The-Top Network

« on: December 04, 2017, 06:53:09 PM »

Recently switched to Sling. I'll post my thoughts on Local Now:
1. It's slowly focusing more on weather. That's a good thing. Still, a few of the segments need to go bye-bye, like Tasty Stuff, 60! Showbiz, etc.; it seems as if they're just there to fill time, nothing more.
2. They're finally doing Weather Across America more frequently. Also noticed on the Detroit feed they're actually doing local video segments w/ TWC meteorologists now. Good.
3. There's now a 30-second radar loop. It shows a regional loop for the first 15 seconds, then switches to a metro view for the remainder. I think it should be extended to a minute, myself.
4. It needs a severe weather mode function, like what Weatherscan has. Loop the weather segment or run a radar loop - just do something.

Overall, I'd say given what it is, I'll give it a B-. Still plenty of room for improvement, but I think it's come a long way since it launched last year.

18

TWC Fan Art / Re: weatherfan_2013's TWC Fan Art

« on: November 21, 2017, 04:51:50 PM »

With WeatherScan to be discontinued, I have decided to plan a new design scheme to add to a unit if I ever got my hands on one.

What I would give to see Weatherscan look like that...but you BETTER leave the music alone

Also, and I'm just nitpicking here, but why not make the black ticker fit in w/ the rest of the graphics? It seemed a bit out of place there. Otherwise, I'm blown away. Great job.

19

Beta Testing/Issues Discussion / Re: Oct 4 2017 - Former Member Beta Testing Begins

« on: October 07, 2017, 04:11:52 PM »

remember that it might also take some time before Brian gets everything working so we can start using it. just be patient, I'm sure it'll be ready for us soon

20

Beta Testing/Issues Discussion / Re: Oct 4 2017 - Former Member Beta Testing Begins

« on: October 04, 2017, 05:18:24 PM »

I'd love to volunteer, but I deleted my Discord account not that long ago. Will that be needed to become a beta tester? I can make a new one if I have to.

This shouldn't be an issue.. I welcome you to follow up with me via PM message to get set up.

Excellent. I'll send one asap.

21

Beta Testing/Issues Discussion / Re: Oct 4 2017 - Former Member Beta Testing Begins

« on: October 04, 2017, 04:00:37 PM »

I'd love to volunteer, but I deleted my Discord account not that long ago. Will that be needed to become a beta tester? I can make a new one if I have to.

22

Weatherscan Discussion / Re: Weatherscan Topic

« on: September 28, 2017, 05:08:20 PM »

I saw it coming... to be honest, I don't really care anymore... I'll be switching to Verizon soon, and plus isn't that what the emulator's for?

Well, of course. I'm just posting this stuff for people who aren't in the loop, that's all

23

Weatherscan Discussion / Re: Weatherscan Topic

« on: September 26, 2017, 06:05:32 AM »

If Local Now didn't exist, I would agree. Is there any possibility that service could replace Weatherscan? It's obviously not exactly the same, but I wouldn't be too surprised if that happened.

I don't think it would work. Local Now, despite the name, isn't as localized as most people would like it. Weatherscan on the other hand can be localized heavily.

24

Weatherscan Discussion / Re: Weatherscan Topic

« on: September 25, 2017, 09:42:09 PM »

Guess we can keep piling it on - apparently ALL remaining Xfinity headends that still carry Weatherscan are dropping it on Nov. 6th. Saw some, *ahem*, rather colorful posts on Xfinity's Facebook page and forum about it.

Still going with my theory that it'll die off when other cable companies drop it, or when the IS units begin to croak. I highly doubt TWC's going to put in the effort to shut it down themselves.

25

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: September 21, 2017, 08:31:26 PM »

Hey folks! Update since the last time I posted, I have been able to bring the Bulletin Crawl into full operation inside the Emulator. The principle of how it works is extremely basic:

On the server end, when a message is received from the NWS, we update a file specific to the WFO of your local office who issued the message.

On the client end, every minute, the Emulator will poll the server to check the latest message from your WFO. At that point, if the file is new, the Emulator will challenge that message with your Zone or County code. If your Zone or County is found to be inside this message, it will present the emulator with this text, and ONLY the text pertaining to your Zone or County. Once this has been received by the Emulator, it will then scroll across the bottom of the screen for a pre-determined length of time. (At this moment, it is set for 10 minutes but I may change this to 15.)

Currently, I am testing this to make sure it works properly. Through testing, I have fixed a few bugs along the way, but this system appears to be working.

At the present moment, I am hosting a YouTube Live running the Emulator over Puerto Rico, and if there is a Bulletin issued, you will see it crawl across the bottom of the screen. Tune in at http://youtube.com/cc17926 ..

Looks great Brian!

Question about the crawl: does it still require a separate program, or is it built into the emulator?

26

TWC Fan Art / Re: WeatherSTAR XL Animated Icons

« on: September 21, 2017, 08:28:45 PM »

Those Icons Are Property Of TWC. You Can't Get Your Hands On Them. Sorry.

There are plenty of fan-made renditions around, and while they aren't animated, they'll work just fine.

27

Weatherscan Discussion / Re: Weatherscan Topic

« on: September 16, 2017, 10:23:29 PM »

So when my cable company re-did their major contracts in 2010, they signed a then-10-year deal for rights to Weatherscan. Then, in 2015, they signed a new agreement to carry The Weather Channel and at that same time, opted into the NCTC agreement for Weatherscan, where they previously dealt directly with TWC. It would appear that that agreement is up on February 28, 2019. I'd be interested to see if TWC is simply letting the units continue on until the last carriage agreement expires and not including it in new ones or if they will begin to actively retire them over the coming months.

I'm surprised they even have it as an option still. That threw me for a loop.

Seeing as how TWC couldn't care less about Weatherscan, I don't think they know what they're going to do with it. I'm guessing they'll leave it up to the cable co's. Would make much more sense than retiring every Weatherscan unit at once like they did with the domestic IS1's, IMO.

28

TWC Fan Art / Re: Jonathon's Artwork

« on: September 06, 2017, 08:00:18 PM »

Thank you! 
In all honesty, I'm not too pleased with my earlier stuff, because I was quite young and didn't really have much experience with GIMP, PowerPoint, etc.; but now that I've gotten more accustomed to them, I think it's been a LOT better than I ever expected.
Just for the hell of it, here's a kinda realistic pic I worked on of how the original IS looked back after the graphics update back in 2007. I'm not doing the 2013 design - I cannot figure out how to make it look anything like it does in real life.

EDIT: Oh great. The LDL was off center. I'll adjust that in the next pic.

29

Weatherscan Discussion / Re: Weatherscan Topic

« on: September 05, 2017, 06:47:50 PM »

Apologies for the double post, but I just read that Xfinity is dropping Weatherscan from the rest of their systems towards the end of October. Can anybody verify this?

There are two cases of what could potentially be a retirement of Weatherscan on Xfinity on October 10, 2017. I am not sure if these are limited to these two users' headends or if this is a universal retirement. Still something to watch, this could be bad

http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Customer-Service/Weatherscan/td-p/2955481
http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Customer-Service/Channel-lineup-update-WeatherScan/td-p/2947330

Thanks for those links. I read this on DSLReports originally, where a user posted a channel update and mentioned it'd be gone either on the 10th or the 30th. I wasn't thrilled about this when I read it, but looking at it from TWC's point of view - except for a few rare cases, ratings for it are in the toilet (why the hell do they measure ratings for it anyway? that's just moronic). Barely any revenue, lack of popularity, smartphones (big factor in this), people getting rid of cable, and of course, it being dropped practically everywhere - I wouldn't be shocked if it was killed off after this.

Looking at it from a nostalgic point of view - I'd be completely upset if Weatherscan was shut down. At least we have Brian's emulator to help fill the void.

30

Hurricane Central / Re: The Ressurection of Harvey

« on: September 02, 2017, 10:30:31 PM »

Those pics are just surreal. Glad you made it out okay.