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Author Topic: General LF Discussion  (Read 1115521 times)

Offline WeatherSTARIII

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5400 on: July 25, 2015, 06:33:31 PM »
I still wish cable systems would stop down converting their IS2s to make a fake digital MPEG-2 "SD feed" that's fully letterboxed and use the IS2 only on the actual MPEG-4 HD feed. I also wish cable systems would combine both the IS2 for the HD simulcast and the IS2Jr. for the SD simulcast so that way, the actual SD simulcast wouldn't be letterboxed and still have the main IS2 shown only on the actual HD simulcast plus the IS2Jr. on the SD simulcast. It's still a waste of bandwidth.

The thing is, most headends prefer to just having the IS2 and the HD feed simulcast alone, primarily to avoid the time and money maintaining another STAR (i.e. the IS2 Jr). The acquisition of a STAR system isn't exactly priority number one for a lot of cable headends (e.g. think of Comcast and their X1 DVR systems) even though The Weather Channel requires headends with the TV network to do so.

Also, I do like the idea of running the IS2 Jr through an IS2/HD feed simulcast, but that idea seems technologically impossible IMO. :no:  Even if it was possible, the trouble is that headends would have to program the IS2 to not display LFs and only LDLs, vice versa for the IS2 Jr. Another problem is that you'd probably be hearing Cantore's narrations twice during LFs like an echo effect, because the IS2 HD would be simultaneously running in the background behind the IS2 Jr. So, the thought of running an IS2 Jr through a letterboxed HD feed simulcast may sound great, but as I said, that idea is technologically impossible.
But personally, (especially with older 4:3 only SD TVs), I've always hated widescreen mainly because of the cost of getting a new HDTV. I've always had preferred backwards compatibility with older TVs in the post analog cable era. Even back in the early days of cable networks broadcasting in HD back in the late 2000s, networks like CNN, ESPN, MSNBC, and even Fox News used to provide 4:3-safe crop-friendly compatibility, but in recent years however, they all eventually jumped on the widescreen heavy bandwagon. Even an old 1950's era Zenith B/W TV or even a mid-2000s era Sony Trinitron SD TV would now have to deal with what media conglomerates are doing by letterboxing their broadcasts. Again, I have nothing against HDTVs in general; it's just that it's still expensive to this very day.

But after all, TWC is even one of the last networks to still have 4:3-safe broadcasts on their actual SD feed along with CNBC's SD feed as well as most NBC News programs (like Today, NBC Nightly News, and Meet the Press). ABC and CBS News also still have 4:3-safe broadcasts on all of their newscasts and even C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2, HSN, and QVC also still have 4:3-safe broadcasts.

If TWC were to eventually go permanently widescreen only on their actual SD feed like on most other cable networks, then the IS2Jr. would already be considered obsolete.
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Offline Eric

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5401 on: July 26, 2015, 02:30:03 AM »
I can understand the letterboxing, though.

To keep a 4:3 safe area means the extra benefit of widescreen is basically wasted because nothing of any importance can be put on the sides of the screen.  Basically, it's like watching a square screen with just window dressing on the sides.  I prefer widescreen to actually mean widescreen, meaning there's stuff going on all throughout the picture.  Then again, I've been watching HDTV nearly exclusively since 2010 and entirely exclusively a year later.

Of course, it must be getting really annoying if you're watching an analogue set to have pretty much everything letterboxed these days, except for (maybe) local news and a small handful of other programs.  Back in the day I spent a lot of effort looking for widescreen movies on VHS instead of pan-and-scan simply because I didn't want to miss what was going on in the rest of the picture in the original version.  Yes, the resolution suffered - VHS had less resolution than broadcast television, and letterbox made the picture even smaller, but, the videophile I am, I thought it was worth it just to see the entire picture.  Of course, I probably would have started to go insane seeing everything in letterbox on nearly every channel.  So much wasted space.

That said, widescreen and HDTV are certainly the present of television broadcasting, and maintaining compatibility with old technology can only go on for so long.  Digital adapters for antennas and analogue-compatible cable boxes and satellite receivers still allow analogue sets to continue living instead of having to die before their time, and TV sets aren't so cheap that they can be readily discarded on a whim.  (I just got lucky in 2010 when my 17-year-old set finally bit the bullet.  And 17 years is pretty darn good for a TV set!  If it hadn't have died I'd probably still be using it, but I took the fortuitous timing to ugrade to HDTV, especially it had since become impossible to buy an analogue CRT set.)

Then again, maybe there's still an option other than forced letterboxing.  Most digital adapters I know of (and I sell them for a living) allow you to choose between 4:3 and 16:9, regardless of the original aspect of the program, so you can choose to have empty space at the top and bottom of the screen, or you can fill the screen and simply miss what's taking place on the sides.  (I even saw one that will compress the width of 16:9 to fill a 4:3 screen in both directions, but that just looks odd.)  Cable boxes differ widely, but, out of curiosity, I decided to see what options were available on mine for analogue sets.  Before a year and a half ago it was possible to choose between 4:3 and 16:9 on the analogue channels, but now that my cable company has gone all-digital that option appears to have disappeared.  (I have no means of testing it one way or the other, however.)

As I said, I can understand not wanting to get rid of a TV set that's still in perfect working order, even if it is considered "obsolete" by today's standards.  But the price of HDTV sets is dropping.  The cheapest 20" set that I sell is already $119.99.  I'm not saying it's the greatest model in the world, but it's a sign of how prices are slowly but steadily going down.  I bought a 40" set a couple of years ago for just over $200 online, and that was considered a steal at the time.  I didn't need it at the time, since I already had a 32" in the living room and 20" in the bedroom, but it was such a steal that I couldn't let it pass me by.  It's possible now - just a couple of years later - to get the same size on sale for nearly the same amount that I paid.

Offline gt1racerlHDl

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5402 on: July 29, 2015, 01:08:48 PM »
Hi Blue  Radar!

Offline Tyler

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5403 on: July 29, 2015, 02:30:26 PM »
Is this an update or was that some type of error?

Offline gt1racerlHDl

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5404 on: July 29, 2015, 03:43:19 PM »
Is this an update or was that some type of error?

I just tuned in today and I was wondering the same thing

Offline gt1racerlHDl

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5405 on: July 29, 2015, 03:45:28 PM »
Still on as of 3:38pm eastern

Offline luesjo12

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5406 on: July 29, 2015, 04:39:45 PM »
It's a bug. That's not happening to my radar.

Offline iKJames

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5407 on: August 04, 2015, 05:17:28 PM »
I have a friend who's been sharing various Local on the 8s he's seen at hotels on his vacation with me; IntelliSTAR #22568 (Cox/Norfolk, VA) still survives from what I can tell, and appears there's an Intellistar 2 Jr. in use down in NC that's serving Marion, NC forecasts which has no previous records from what I can find.

Offline Weatherman99

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5408 on: August 06, 2015, 08:44:05 PM »
Hi Blue  Radar!
This just happened to Orlando's IS2 unit. During the 7:28 PM LF. When the local Doppler radar (zoomed in) map was shown. I waited for the next LF and it was normalized. Very strange glitch though.  :dunno:

This happened again during the 10:18 PM LF. Only this time the regional radar map was blue.

« Last Edit: August 07, 2015, 12:58:29 PM by Weatherman99 »

Offline luesjo12

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5409 on: August 08, 2015, 10:28:17 PM »
I guess I spoke too soon. :P It just showed up on McAllen's IS2 at 9:18PM. Strangely enough, the previous LF showed a frozen radar screen. I included a screenshot of a video I took of it.

EDIT: Here's an LF I recorded on my PVR
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« Last Edit: August 09, 2015, 08:22:12 AM by luesjo12 »

Offline TWCKelby

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5410 on: August 09, 2015, 08:46:35 AM »
My IS 2 got bitten by the blue bug too this morning

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Offline WeatherSTAR

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5411 on: August 11, 2015, 05:39:16 PM »
I think my local headend really hated the i2jr, as they've ditched it for the i2XD!   :lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci666k5sP6Y

Offline tpirfan28

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5412 on: August 15, 2015, 08:51:00 AM »
Those with Comcast/Xfinity headends please post if you get the HD Local when your SD Star changes, please.
Heh, I now have the HD Local.  Looks even better in HD to be honest.

Offline Localonthe8s

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5413 on: August 19, 2015, 08:07:47 PM »
Are they EVER gonna change the LOT8s music??

Offline Tyler

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Re: General LF Discussion
« Reply #5414 on: August 19, 2015, 10:01:21 PM »
Are they EVER gonna change the LOT8s music??
I'll take this over Taylor Swift any day.