Messages

2131

Your Local Weather / Re: Chicagoland Weather

« on: May 30, 2008, 07:22:43 AM »

  Look at this.  Apparently, it's called a "pneumonia front" and involves a RAPID and SHARP temperature drop.  Going from upper 70s ahead of it to the upper 40s behind it.

It's so extreme, I was sweating 45 minutes ago.  Now I feel a chill 

I got to hear Stephanie Abrams's explanation of that the other day. It was right up there with the "lettuce layer" description.

2132

OCMs & Personalities / Re: Kim Perez moving to Day Planner?

« on: May 30, 2008, 07:17:20 AM »

I wonder who will be Kim's Replacement on FO?

My guess would be Cheryl Lemke.

That would be quite interesting. Would they be willing to give her another go, or will they move Jen to the anchor spot and make Cheryl the Travel Analyst? Maybe even Nicole Mitchell to the anchor spot and Jen to the YWT Travel Analyst spot?

2133

OCMs & Personalities / Re: Kim Perez moving to Day Planner?

« on: May 30, 2008, 07:15:21 AM »

Jennifer is already gone.  He bio from weather dot com has been gone since the last time I looked (a few days ago).  Of course, I havn't noticed if she has been on TWC as of late.  She very well could still be there, but they just took it off now.  I am pretty sure she is already gone, since she starts her new job next week.

Any guesses on who will replace Kim?

They actually took her bio down weeks ago; she has appeared on-air since then.

I thought she started in Dallas June 15th...

2134

Everything Else TWC / Re: The Weather Channel | HD Discussion

« on: May 30, 2008, 07:13:05 AM »

And so begins the last YWT in SD and the last YWT with the current package. *remembers when this package was drop-dead awesome before they butchered it last summer*

YWT better retool itself for the upcoming HD relaunch.

2135

OCMs & Personalities / Re: Kim Perez moving to Day Planner?

« on: May 30, 2008, 07:10:03 AM »

Figures that's the one hour I didn't record. Jennifer's contract is probably up at the end of the month, so either we've already seen the last of her, or the weekend's Weekend Now will be her last. Farewell Jennifer!

I wonder who will be Kim's Replacement on FO? ...and does that make the Kim/Jeff pairing one of the shortest in TWC history? (May 13-May 28)

2136

Everything Else TWC / Re: The Weather Channel | HD Discussion

« on: May 30, 2008, 04:01:31 AM »

There's a small difference. When they brought the blue pillar boxes back up after they had them down for technical difficulties, you could see a small portion of the text on each side of the radar disappear. Not a huge deal, though.

2137

Everything Else TWC / Re: TWC has started pillar boxing 4:3 programming

« on: May 30, 2008, 03:58:20 AM »

BTW, they've since changed the |HD| logos in the foreground from white to shades of blue. I guess they realized that the white was a little distracting. It looks better now.

2138

Everything Else TWC / Re: TWC has started pillar boxing 4:3 programming

« on: May 30, 2008, 12:17:53 AM »

It's not just lower thirds but any graphics that come out of the control room. The lower thirds on packages made in editing (i.e. recorded teasers) still have smooth text.

2139

Everything Else TWC / Re: TWC has started pillar boxing 4:3 programming

« on: May 29, 2008, 11:19:27 PM »

Here's a random question... since when did the "weather.com" tag disappear from the logo that briefly shows before opens?

It disappeared from the HD feed in December on the same day that the drop shadow was restored to the logo on the SD feed.

Oh, and Victor, the HD feed has always had amazingly good upconversion quality. The quality, I'd say, is just one step below actual HD.

In the past week or so, I noticed that the text being output on the chyrons has become jagged on the edges; I wonder if it has something to do with resources being devoted to the HD productions.

2140

Everything Else TWC / Re: TWC has started pillar boxing 4:3 programming

« on: May 29, 2008, 09:38:26 PM »

Here we go; first the image from its very first use today...



...and here's the video of the teaser and the opener that it was pulled from.

http://b.imagehost.org/download/0246/HDPillars.avi

See that small piece of wall between the left "column" in the studio and the big backdrop? The light shining on that has burned out since this morning.

2141

Everything Else TWC / Re: TWC has started pillar boxing 4:3 programming

« on: May 29, 2008, 09:22:24 PM »

Coming up...

2142

Everything Else TWC / Re: The Weather Channel | HD Discussion

« on: May 29, 2008, 06:04:01 PM »

Things have been screwed up for the start of every segment since then. They always wind up taking off the pillar boxes for a second and then putting them back on; everything runs smoothly after that for the rest of the segment.

At the start of the 5 PM CT segment, however, TWC did something I've never seen them do before; they started running the teaser in stretch-o-vision for a few seconds *with* the pillar boxes in place; then they fixed the image and brought it back to its proper pillar boxed format.

2143

Everything Else TWC / Re: The Weather Channel | HD Discussion

« on: May 29, 2008, 05:34:12 PM »

The problem came back again at the bottom of the hour when they brought the stylized pillar boxes back. Again, they fixed the problem by removing the pillar boxes and shifting the screen image down. Something's buggy with the new pillar boxes.

On another note, I think the new pillar boxes cover up some of the overscan area. I like seeing as wide of a picture as possible.

2144

Everything Else TWC / Re: The Weather Channel | HD Discussion

« on: May 29, 2008, 05:27:25 PM »

At around 4:24, they went back to the studio feed but without the pillar boxes; at first the audio was still static, but after several seconds, the image on the screen shifted a little, and suddenly the audio was fixed.

2145

Everything Else TWC / Re: The Weather Channel | HD Discussion

« on: May 29, 2008, 05:23:47 PM »

Now they just put the stylized pillar boxes up on the emergency feed.