Afred wrote:
> the usual Hulu bug was in the lower right quadrant; no big deal. But in the left quadrant, there was a bug for "6 ABC". <
That would kill it for me. Screen clutter is something I'm trying to get rid of. Not add to, by putting Hulu's up along with the local broadcaster's. (BTW, I had no problem with the size or position of the hulu logo, which for me was very tiny, and in the lower-left corner.)
In addition to viewing on my PC, I could easily watch Hulu in my living room as well, just by taking a few minutes to set up Tversity on my PC, and then network streaming to the LG BD390 Blu-ray media player in the living room. Unfortunately, the last time I checked, Hulu still maxed out at 480p, which doesn't cut it in the PQ dept. on any of my viewscreens (any of the 6 24" HD monitors around the house, the 37" in the bedroom, 61" in the LR, or 8-foot wide screen (CRT projector) in the media room (all 1080p capable).
Upscaled DVDs look vastly superior to anything I've ever seen on Hulu. Unless something has changed recently, you couldn't pay me enough to watch Hulu, even without adverts.
- Tim
HDTV Almanac - How Much Can You Stand?
-
videograbber
- Major Contributor
- Posts: 146
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2004 7:10 am
How much can we stand?
Getting back to Alfred's original commentary...
> Content providers worry that they’re leaving money on the table, and Turner Broadcasting intends to find out. <
Wow. I'm shocked that Turner would be involved in this... NOT! When I think of Turner (TBS, TNT) the term "scum-sucking pigs" comes to mind, for some reason. But I certainly wouldn't call them that on a national forum.
When we first got TNT-HD and TBS-HD here via cable, I was very happy to see the new HD channels arrive. That was, until I had a chance to actually watch them. There are NO channels, anywhere in the known universe, that have LESS respect for their viewers than the Turner channels.
- they will heavily promote a movie airing, then hack 20-30 minutes out of a film, to squeeze in EXTRA advertising (beyond the normal 30-50% viewing tax). I'm talking about "edited for time", not for content, which also destroys the integrity of many films.
- they will chop off the sides of a scope film, losing 25% of the content.
- in addition to their own logo on the right, they'll also run other promotional advertising of the lower left, during the majority of a film. ("The LOPEZ Show is coming!, with dates & times, occupying more than half the lower-left quadrant, or about 15-20% of the whole screen.)
- to top it all off, they'll run obnoxious "pop-up" advertising (mostly for their own TV series) right over the film itself. Gotta love it when in the middle of a tension-filled suspense film, a yellow crime-scene tape pops up across the bottom of the movie, then The Closer pops up and shines a flashlight in your eyes, wanders across the screen, then disappears, stage-right. Fan-freaking-tastic!
The Turner channels are the absolute worst channels in the history of mankind. They have no respect for viewers whatsoever. Besides the fact that they lie and commit FRAUD on a daily basis. I always thought we had something here in the US called "truth in advertising" laws. Not so... or at least Turner has found some way to avoid complying with them. All of the content they air is labeled and promoted as "HD", when in reality, a large portion of it is NOT HD at all! I'm sorry, but when you take SD source content, upconvert it, and then STRETCH it out to fill a 16x9 screen, THAT'S NOT HD! And yes, I know I'm "yelling" here. HD is content that originated as 720p or 1080i. Period. End of story. No amount of upconversion will ever turn SD content into HD, and Turner should not be allowed to get away with calling it so. No other channel does this... not even premium movie channels. If content is in SD, they don't claim it's HD, even when it's being transmitted in "HD mode".
> The company has indicated that episodes of the popular TNT show, “The Closer”, will be provided to cable companies’ “TV Everywhere” experiements with the full load of about 18 commercials per episode that are included in the broadcast airings of the show. <
Good for them. I watched a single episode of The Closer (which was pretty decent), before the "flashlight in the eyes" promotion. At which point I vowed never to watch it again. And I haven't.
> According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, cable company Cox Communications has research that they say indicates viewers will tolerate the full complement of ads. I don’t know how this is going to play out. Clearly, some viewers would rather not watch commercials and will go to great lengths to avoid them. <
What this all comes down to is "how much can we get away with?". I.e., how badly can we screw over the viewing public (aka, guinea pigs) before they get disgusted enough to call it quits, and tune out? To find that out, they have to do 2 things: make viewer-unfriendly changes slowly, so as not to be too jarring on the lab rats. And push things beyond all reasonableness, to find out where the breaking point is. Then, back off from that, just a bit. That way, they can be certain that they're delivering the worst possible viewing experience, and not be leaving even one penny of potential money "on the table".
On my TiVo, TNT-HD and TBS-HD are the only 2 HD channels on my cable service I have flagged as "Do not receive". So I don't even know they're there any more, and any searches I do never find any content there. For me, they don't even exist, except as a nightmarish reminder of how bad things can get if people are willing to let them.
- Tim
> Content providers worry that they’re leaving money on the table, and Turner Broadcasting intends to find out. <
Wow. I'm shocked that Turner would be involved in this... NOT! When I think of Turner (TBS, TNT) the term "scum-sucking pigs" comes to mind, for some reason. But I certainly wouldn't call them that on a national forum.
When we first got TNT-HD and TBS-HD here via cable, I was very happy to see the new HD channels arrive. That was, until I had a chance to actually watch them. There are NO channels, anywhere in the known universe, that have LESS respect for their viewers than the Turner channels.
- they will heavily promote a movie airing, then hack 20-30 minutes out of a film, to squeeze in EXTRA advertising (beyond the normal 30-50% viewing tax). I'm talking about "edited for time", not for content, which also destroys the integrity of many films.
- they will chop off the sides of a scope film, losing 25% of the content.
- in addition to their own logo on the right, they'll also run other promotional advertising of the lower left, during the majority of a film. ("The LOPEZ Show is coming!, with dates & times, occupying more than half the lower-left quadrant, or about 15-20% of the whole screen.)
- to top it all off, they'll run obnoxious "pop-up" advertising (mostly for their own TV series) right over the film itself. Gotta love it when in the middle of a tension-filled suspense film, a yellow crime-scene tape pops up across the bottom of the movie, then The Closer pops up and shines a flashlight in your eyes, wanders across the screen, then disappears, stage-right. Fan-freaking-tastic!
The Turner channels are the absolute worst channels in the history of mankind. They have no respect for viewers whatsoever. Besides the fact that they lie and commit FRAUD on a daily basis. I always thought we had something here in the US called "truth in advertising" laws. Not so... or at least Turner has found some way to avoid complying with them. All of the content they air is labeled and promoted as "HD", when in reality, a large portion of it is NOT HD at all! I'm sorry, but when you take SD source content, upconvert it, and then STRETCH it out to fill a 16x9 screen, THAT'S NOT HD! And yes, I know I'm "yelling" here. HD is content that originated as 720p or 1080i. Period. End of story. No amount of upconversion will ever turn SD content into HD, and Turner should not be allowed to get away with calling it so. No other channel does this... not even premium movie channels. If content is in SD, they don't claim it's HD, even when it's being transmitted in "HD mode".
> The company has indicated that episodes of the popular TNT show, “The Closer”, will be provided to cable companies’ “TV Everywhere” experiements with the full load of about 18 commercials per episode that are included in the broadcast airings of the show. <
Good for them. I watched a single episode of The Closer (which was pretty decent), before the "flashlight in the eyes" promotion. At which point I vowed never to watch it again. And I haven't.
> According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, cable company Cox Communications has research that they say indicates viewers will tolerate the full complement of ads. I don’t know how this is going to play out. Clearly, some viewers would rather not watch commercials and will go to great lengths to avoid them. <
What this all comes down to is "how much can we get away with?". I.e., how badly can we screw over the viewing public (aka, guinea pigs) before they get disgusted enough to call it quits, and tune out? To find that out, they have to do 2 things: make viewer-unfriendly changes slowly, so as not to be too jarring on the lab rats. And push things beyond all reasonableness, to find out where the breaking point is. Then, back off from that, just a bit. That way, they can be certain that they're delivering the worst possible viewing experience, and not be leaving even one penny of potential money "on the table".
On my TiVo, TNT-HD and TBS-HD are the only 2 HD channels on my cable service I have flagged as "Do not receive". So I don't even know they're there any more, and any searches I do never find any content there. For me, they don't even exist, except as a nightmarish reminder of how bad things can get if people are willing to let them.
- Tim
-
Roger Halstead
- Major Contributor
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 4:13 pm
Value per view.
I'd take issue with the value of viewing or even purchasing a movie compared to a book. Although the movie has a much, much higher production cost it also have a huge Return on Investment (ROI) compared to the book, so when looked at it per view and a reasonable profit margin, they movie should be absolutely cheap...er inexpensive compared to the book. Each film or tape at the theater has thousands of viewers while a book may have one or two readers except for those in libraries so I'll stick with the "no movie is worth more than $3 per copy/DVD.
Considering what I currently pay for satellite and cable along with the investment (and installation work) for a TV antenna system I could purchase a LOT of complete series and movies for over $2,000 a year that I spend now.
Considering what I currently pay for satellite and cable along with the investment (and installation work) for a TV antenna system I could purchase a LOT of complete series and movies for over $2,000 a year that I spend now.