Messages

16

General Weather Chat / Re: What's the weather in your area?

« on: January 06, 2017, 11:49:52 PM »

Today it was partly cloudy in the 50s/60s for my area on the central coast of California. We're expecting anywhere from 3-5" total for part two of this "pacific river" weather event. As far as the first part of this went, we got about 2.6" of rain. So if we could get a storm total of 7.5"+ of rain... that would be great for the drought situation!

17

Local Forecast / Re: Intellistar Renderer?

« on: August 31, 2016, 01:09:55 PM »

This is just based off of previous knowledge, which means I may be wrong. But I'll take a stab at it and share my ideas.

The IS1 and the I2 will render graphics in real time. Unlike the XL, there is no "pre-rendering" with the graphics. Technically, every STAR rendered in real time except for the XL due to TWC's in house presentation engine. Cool concept at the time, but the XL got a little messy and isn't the most efficient in a number of ways (although it still is one of my favorites). The IS1 used an in-house presentation engine from TWC.

You are correct with the I2 using the Viz Engine... absolutely no question about it, and it does use the XML format to process data. I have reason to suspect that the version of Viz Engine that TWC utilized on the I2 was customized explicitly for TWCs vision, and isn't exactly back compatible with your typical Viz ecosystem. This isn't proven, but it is a theory that I think is viable. If people are concerned about the costs of TWC getting customized software like this... it's likely chump change to them in my opinion.

As far as the satellite communication goes, there is no talking back to the transponder. What TWC beams up to their transponder is the only thing that is going through that transponder; there is no talking back, again. This is where I believe that Viz Engine is capable of running stand alone without any other equipment in the headen. This may only work if the STAR is authorized by TWC through the back channel (ethernet connection that talks back to TWCs servers). My disclaimer with this idea is that the STAR may be capable of running without calling TWC to activate it as long as data is properly flowing from the IRD/descrambler (which typically needs authorization from TWC). It should also be noted that data isn't transmitted to the STAR over the internet, except for SCMT (Star Configuration Management Tool) information. It should be noted that SCMT can't be accessed by anyone other than a headend tech as it is password protected.

I do have two questions, however.

• How did you come up with the $8000 price tag? If you are talking about machines that Viz is dependent on, it will not cost a headend that much money as the headend doesn't need this equipment. As far as things at TWC HQ, I wouldn't know. I'm sure they've invested hundreds of thousands into development. As far as the headend goes... I'd be floored if it costs anything over $700 to be honest.
• Two motherboards? The IS1, I2HD and I2Jr all have daughter boards that the software is dependent on. The I2XD is the exception with the complicated graphics processing as it appears to be using MPEG video streams that is sent down through the IRD/descrambler. What do you mean by two motherboards?

18

General Discussion / Re: Gas prices in your area

« on: August 17, 2016, 12:54:37 PM »

$2.90 in San Luis Obispo, CA at a Chevron station. So expensive

19

General Discussion / Re: Is WeatherNation content allowed here?

« on: March 02, 2016, 12:05:37 AM »

I have WN on my Roku. I also cut my cable since it's too expensive for a bunch of stuff I hardly ever watch.

20

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

« on: February 24, 2016, 01:33:44 PM »

Looks awful to me. Having just switched off my cable, this isn't going to be a TWC alternative for me. I'll stick to WeatherNation. If they make this look more professional, then maybe I'll consider using this.

21

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: February 24, 2016, 01:30:21 PM »

That does NOT resemble a government site at all. I hope their other sites won't follow suit.

I actually really like it. Looks a lot better than what it used to in my opinion, and it's nice to see the government modernizing their websites. They can't stay in the 1990s or 2000s forever lol

22

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: January 30, 2016, 03:01:10 PM »

It seems that TWC has added a new product to the LDL: Air Quality Forecast.
! No longer available

Not seeing that AQ forecast product on my Jr. I guess maybe this is exclusive to the STARs in more populous areas (that have ozone) similar to the traffic product. 

I have the AQ on my LDL. Granted, my I2Jr is located in Southern California. Difference between my area and Los Angeles is my area the air quality doesn't get all that bad.

23

General Weather Chat / Re: Lack of cold east of the Rockies

« on: December 15, 2015, 02:22:20 AM »

Although this is relatively unrelated to the weather pattern east of the Rockies, here on the central coast of California (more near Los Angeles) it's been cooler than normal and we've actually been getting the occasional rain. Meanwhile on my Facebook, I see a ton of posts about the record high temperatures back in Michigan.

24

TWC Today News / Re: Martin's passing and the future of TWC Today

« on: December 15, 2015, 02:19:59 AM »

Do we know yet the cause of his death?

Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything. I am interested in knowing this as well.

25

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: December 07, 2015, 08:24:14 PM »

Not sure if anyone caught this... but at 12:17PT/3:17ET on December 4th, there was an interesting commercial that aired before the LF... it was the original WUWA commercial from back in the day, then at the end it said "Wake up with Al is brought to you by (some) law office"... anyone else catch that or was it just me? Wish I recorded that. Really bizarre.

Wasn't that a local cable commercial? That sounded like one of those local cable company-produced commercials promoting not only with the featured local business or sponsor, but also TWC. Some national cable networks like TWC would sometimes promote some of their participating cable affiliates to do their own local business tie-in promos with various cable companies. The cable company would edit the local promo by combining it with the national network promo to promote with their featured businesses. Your local cable company must have aired the local commercial during the national commercial break before automatically switching back to the national feed even if it wasn't tuned to TWC.

For example, one cable system back in 2008 with an IntelliStar v2 still continued to air an old TWC promo (likely produced back in the "Live by It" era). And the funny thing is, is that the cable company still aired the old promo as late as 2008!

Here's the video I was talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfmkthCQxCc&feature=player_embedded

And here is the "raw" version of that same promo (without the local cable company produced sponsor):


There was also another one that was produced circa 1998-99 that also had a "Sponsored locally by..." insert.


Another one from around 2004-early 2005 that features Jim Cantore (still with some hair back then) and an obviously fake IntelliStar v1 warning crawl:


There was even one for PrimeTime Tonight that was promoted way back in 1991:


Lastly, here's a more recent one from last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDjNa003KIQ

Doh. For some reason I didn't think to see if the LDL was still up on the IS2Jr. You're likely right about it being a locally inserted commercial. Now I feel like a dope!

26

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: December 04, 2015, 03:29:11 PM »

Not sure if anyone caught this... but at 12:17PT/3:17ET on December 4th, there was an interesting commercial that aired before the LF... it was the original WUWA commercial from back in the day, then at the end it said "Wake up with Al is brought to you by (some) law office"... anyone else catch that or was it just me? Wish I recorded that. Really bizarre.

27

General Discussion / Re: Gas prices in your area

« on: November 11, 2015, 03:06:16 AM »

Thought I'd bring a once fairly active thread back to life... let's hear what the gas prices are like around the country!

I saw $3.19/gal earlier today in SoCal.

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Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: November 05, 2015, 07:16:27 PM »

Now that it's November 5th, five weeks after TWC's alleged 'deadline' to replace all remaining IntelliSTAR 1 units, I find it amazing how there are still very few IS1 units left out there including mine.    I wonder what will happen if all IS1 cable headends fail to acquire an IntelliSTAR 2 XD or Jr within 11 days from now, when TWC is supposed to discontinue IS1 service. 

Mine was replaced not too long ago... probably about a week ago with an IS2Jr.

29

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: October 31, 2015, 12:06:45 AM »

I found out earlier today about this... so tragic. Him and I talked last week for a little bit... I think the part that really hits me is when he said he really missed talking to me and said he "I never forgot about you"... and some other stuff.

I'm really melting. So sad

If anyone finds out what the cause of death was, can someone please please PLEASE let me know?

30

General Discussion / Re: Playstation/Wii -Video Games

« on: October 28, 2015, 03:35:09 PM »

Well, I bought Halo 5: Guardians last night for my Xbox One (as it's an exclusive). I'm very impressed... there's some great additions to the game since Halo 4 and the frame rate is substantially better, and I can tell just from playing. If anyone has an Xbox One on here and is contemplating buying it... I say go for it. It's a lot of fun