Messages

106

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: Charter Communications Discussion

« on: July 30, 2014, 06:53:08 PM »

It became digital in my area last week. I don't like it, at all. Back to the early days of cable. You can't have cable without a cable box. It doesn't matter if the TV is cable ready.  Digital cable should be an option and not a necessity for cable TV. 

Analogue cable is really a waste of bandwidth.  Digital cable can carry multiple channels in the same bandwidth that one analogue channel takes.  Considering bandwidth is finite, digital cable means more channels are available for the cable company to offer and for the customer to watch.

Would it be nice if TVs with digital tuners could get at least a certain amount of channels without a box?  Certainly.  But unless someone wants to literally reinvent the entire cable TV infrastructure, it's not possible.  Same argument with satellite television.

The other alternative is to buy a TV antenna, which you will own, connect it to your TV, and enjoy the many free broadcast stations out there.

107

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: July 30, 2014, 05:52:16 PM »

We may have another relaunch in the works!

Judging from that page, it looks like it will be tweaking what already exists as opposed to a whole relaunch.  Time will tell...

108

IntelliStar 2 Discussion / Re: General IS2 Discussion

« on: July 28, 2014, 09:55:53 AM »

So, your Intellistar 2 thinks it's an old 4000, right?

109

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Show: "WXGeeks"

« on: July 16, 2014, 02:53:36 AM »

It has "Weather" in the title and it's legitimately weather-related.

I'm not complaining.

What about "Flick and a Forecast"? 

110

General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch

« on: July 16, 2014, 02:53:08 AM »

This will come as a shock to all of you, but I'm still here and still watching from afar.  I realize that I haven't posted in a couple months, and I'm sorry for being so idle.  However, I'm going through a difficult spell in life and really have to focus on making my own life better, including my current role in the NWS.  I hope all of you understand as I'm worried most of you do not and have been scared to approach me lately.  If you wish to reach me personally, my PM box is open and ready for concerns and questions.

I was alerted that a previously banned member came on to the forum today, and my investigation confirmed it to be true.  Thus, you may see some alterations and posts deleted, but I did not have a choice as it would be wrong to allow a previously banned member who committed a serious issue the last time to cause the permanent ban to come back on his own and lie and post everywhere out of control.

I hope everything's going well for you, and thanks for helping to keep this forum running smoothly.  We'll look forward to your return as a regular poster when you can.

111

General Discussion / Re: AccuWeather Channel

« on: July 15, 2014, 02:33:54 AM »

Are they trying to copy The Weather Channel's extreme minimalism or what?!

112

Local Forecast / Re: Generic Severe Wx Crawls?

« on: July 15, 2014, 02:33:05 AM »

I'm not sure if this is a new thing or not, but I don't seem to remember it being like this, so...

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for our area by the National Weather Service.  (Imagine that read by Allen Jackson.)  In the past, however, I seem to remember Watches using the NWS bulletin, I know the Warnings do.  Today the crawl for the Watch has just been this:

"A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for our area by the National Weather Service until 800PM EDT Monday.  Please stay tuned to The Weather Channel for further updates."

Don't remember it being generic like this.  Is it new or am I just imagining things?

It's been like that for years.  Watches are generally issued with very little text, as opposed to advisories or warnings, which are issued by the local NWS office and contain much more detail.  Therefore, The Weather Channel has to broadcast something, and this is what they do when a watch has been issued.

113

WeatherSTAR Tech Support / Re: No Star on ATT Uverse?

« on: July 09, 2014, 12:42:45 PM »

As far as I know, UVerse has no immediate plans to use Stars on its network because UVerse offers its own weather service.

I'm actually surprised The Weather Channel allows that situation to exist, but it obviously does.  One of the biggest selling points of The Weather Channel in the early 1980s was the ability to send local weather forecasts and, most importantly, weather bulletins and warnings, customized for each local viewing area.  It was even a requirement at one time for cable systems that carried The Weather Channel to purchase a Star and keep it running.

I don't know when or why that requirement was dropped, or whether it was simply allowed to fade into obscurity, but I still think it's taking away a major advantage of The Weather Channel by not having a Star.

I keep thinking about the differences between The Weather Channel and The Weather Network in Canada.  The Weather Network is actually considered a vital resource and is a must-carry channel for all cable and satellite providers in the country.  While the satellite feed is limited to showing national local forecast segments for the same reason The Weather Channel does, there's no choice in Canada about cable companies using PMX, the Canadian equivalent to the Stars: it's mandatory.  And the network's schedule is filled with, believe it or not, weather forecasts!

114

Everything Else Classic TWC / Re: 20th Anniversary special found

« on: July 06, 2014, 07:40:13 PM »

Thanks for the link!  Wow, was that really so long ago???

115

Hurricane Central / Re: Tropical Depression One

« on: July 01, 2014, 12:23:57 AM »

My area (Daytona Beach) is already under a tropical storm watch.  TWC's cell phone alert got to me about 10 minutes (!) before NOAA Weather Radio broadcast the alert.

116

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: June 26, 2014, 06:00:11 PM »

Today is the first day in the nearly two and a half years or so that my area has had the IS2 that we've had a local ad crawl.  The IS1 (until it was discontinued several months ago) always had one.

117

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: June 26, 2014, 02:24:37 AM »

Yep.  Believe it or not, green is the "loss of feed" image one sees.  Once upon a time The Weather Channel used blue chroma key walls instead, but we still saw green during a malfunction, since the green is computer-generated and has nothing to do with cameras.

118

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: June 25, 2014, 11:11:06 AM »

this happened almost 20 minutes ago.

That looks a lot like the green screen on my WeatherSTAR Junior unit, except since mine is decommissioned, it doesn't show any info on the LDL.

I remember a long time ago when our local WeatherStar III went into "rainbow mode."  Due to whatever technical problem, it showed the LDL on the usual dark blue background, but the rest of the screen had no text and cycled between every available color on the machine: the usual dark blue, grey, brown, and red, plus other colors The Weather Channel never used: light blue (like The Weather Network used), yellow, green...  It was interesting to watch, though disturbing at the same time because I was only getting the audio portion of the programming.

119

IntelliStar 2 Discussion / Re: General IS2 Discussion

« on: June 25, 2014, 11:09:00 AM »

Comcast in San Jose, CA finally has received the Intellistar 2!

Congratulations!  I think it was a bigger deal before last November, when there were actual graphical differences and the IS2 was a major step up, but it still must be very nice to be able to get local weather on the HD feed.

120

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: June 25, 2014, 10:09:32 AM »

this happened almost 20 minutes ago.

Looks like someone at the control room must of having a field day with the camera switch. 

It has nothing to do with cameras.  The Star just lost the satellite feed.  Instead of showing just black, Stars have shown green instead for as long as I can remember.  Heck, I even remember the WeatherStar III doing that back in the 1980s.