Do animated popups during tv shows annoy you?

[ZAPPER]

Very annoying! I will bow out without the three pages that I could fill with profanity on this subject. I want to vent on this one, but I would be preaching to the choir and you fine folks don't deserve to even here what I want to scream!

[usually_quiet]

As I recall, at one time the FCC here in the USA required network affiliates and cable stations to periodically identifying themselves. This was originally done with announcements during commercial breaks. Later, the FCC allowed them to display logos while the programs themselves were being shown as an alternative means to fulfill this requirement.

What I am not certain about, is whether or not the FCC also required the identification of the program being shown at various intervals too, and this is why we have the banners and pop-ups doing that now. I do remember announcements during commercials telling me which show was on. Maybe somebody else knows for sure.

[mgy999a]

As I recall, at one time the FCC here in the USA required network affiliates and cable stations to periodically identifying themselves. This was originally done with announcements during commercial breaks. Later, the FCC allowed them to display logos while the programs themselves were being shown as an alternative means to fulfill this requirement.

What I am not certain about, is whether or not the FCC also required the identification of the program being shown at various intervals too, and this is why we have the banners and pop-ups doing that now. I do remember announcements during commercials telling me which show was on. Maybe somebody else knows for sure.

Good memory. Yes, they were called "station identification breaks". Twice each hour (every 30 min), each broadcast station was required by the FCC to identify what station they were and which network they were affliated with (if any). Each break was roughly five seconds long with the station/network symbol and a voice would say something like "This is CBS" or whatever.

Yes, the logo in the corner was an accepted alternative. That saved ten or so seconds per hour for more commercials. Little did the FCC know that stations would use the logo in the corner against the viewers. Another good idea gone wrong.

I personally don't know of any FCC requirement to periodically identify the program being shown (or include banners or pop-ups). There are still channels that don't do that. TCM, Encore and the Fox Movie channel are the first three that come to mind. And none of the "paid programming" shows I have surfed across do it either. I'd love to blame a bureaucrat but this time I don't think that they are at fault.

Well, there are plenty of other things to blame them for, of course.

Thanks
mgy999a

[TBoneit]

Channel surfing with digital? Nah takes to long to display not like analog where it is pretty much instant. Keep in mind they can make the delay between tuning and display of the channel longer or shorter depending on the way it is encoded.

MGY999a
As far as I'm concerned they already have ruined DVDs with all the user prohibitions. If I watch a DVD nowdays I put it in and watch something else for a little while until all the nonsense is done and it is at the main menu.

[Stoptvpopups]

Hi All,
I have created a site just on this topic, I too am sick and tired of those television pop up ads.

I Don't know If I can post a link here, but its worth a try. the name of the site is www.Stoptvpopups.com
Please feel free to vent your thoughts, or just sign the form.
I'm hoping the site will get big enough and the right people will see it and stop the ads.
Also I apologize if I'm not allowed to post a link.

Thanks All!,
Stop[/url]

[EddyH]

DESTROY!!

I would like to slap around the person who thought up this little gem. If I cared enough about my TV scheduling as to whether 10 Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter was on following whatever i'm watching, I'd have a damn TV guide already. As I don't, I couldn't really care as I'm just killing time and I'm not your target audience. Kindly shut up and let me see whatever it is that your silly ticker bar is currently covering, as it might be important.

(these things, the modern huuuuuuuuuuuge bumper graphics on MTV & the like, and security stickers on CD cases all have one thing in common - whoever applies them doesn't give the slightest crap for what actual content, e.g. the tracklisting and copyright date (and in some cases the title!), or some vital part of the carefully directed video, they obscure... they just slap it on. For that reason alone it needs blowing up.

That and the trick where they shrink down the credits you were trying to read to find some familiar looking actors name to the point where they're unreadable, so some out-of-context clip of an upcoming show, or a talking head presenter can blare out and try to command your attention. Christ almighty.

[DereX888]

just don't watch tv - anyways there's nothing new, only names, places and faces do change

1 - Arabs are fighting Jews in Middle East
2 - 3rd world hates West and especially America
3 - many in Africa are dying or starving
4 - someone (again) found another cure for cancer that won't work (again)
5 - Tornado, earthquake, volcano etc etc happened somewhere and there were many casualties

Have I missed any news?
Same ol' same ol' ...

[TBoneit]

Well being so feeble minded I can not remember what show I'm watching unless they tell mevery time a commercial break ends I welcome them telling me.

OOPs sarcasm leaked out again!

[DereX888]

Channel surfing with digital? Nah takes to long to display not like analog where it is pretty much instant. Keep in mind they can make the delay between tuning and display of the channel longer or shorter depending on the way it is encoded.

MGY999a
As far as I'm concerned they already have ruined DVDs with all the user prohibitions. If I watch a DVD nowdays I put it in and watch something else for a little while until all the nonsense is done and it is at the main menu.

It can only get worse - once technology is cheap enough, our TVs *will* scan the viewer's RFIDs (or maybe just plain old retinas), then "call home" and check with the (Propaganda) Ministry of Culture are they allowed to watch certain channels.
Youre ie 17yrs old male? Sorry, no nude female beauty for you - but yes, you can watch scenes of shootings, chopping, grinding and other kinds of mutilating other human beings...

I don't even put original DVDs in my players.
First thing I do when I get home with new DVDs: I make a copy (with all crap disabled or removed, usually just a movie - rarely I care about "extras").

Sarcasm aside - no one is going to tell me how should i watch, and what should I watch, at MY home.

[TBoneit]

I was just playing around last night and I did a A B comprison of WLIW on satellite, cable and cable HD. The sat and SD cable looked pretty much the same. Strangely enough I could swear that the HD cable feed showed more than the SD feed even though the SD feed was letterboxed.

One of the HD subchannels was so bit starved that any movement and it looked like total dreck. From one of the Major networks NYC stations too.

Some of the bit channels according to my TV were 480i and were 16:9 and looked pretty good quality. Most were approx SD quality. The Tube shows as 480i and mono? What good is a music channel in Mono? Note that I am in a major market, NYC, NY.

Then is the 2 channels that look like they are sending a oscilloscope display over the cable. Monitoring maybe.

Yup from what I see the change over to digital will be business as usual with the government having given the stations new channels for free for the stations to make money off of.

Why am I not surprised?

[DereX888]

I was just playing around last night and I did a A B comprison of WLIW on satellite, cable and cable HD. The sat and SD cable looked pretty much the same. Strangely enough I could swear that the HD cable feed showed more than the SD feed even though the SD feed was letterboxed.

One of the HD subchannels was so bit starved that any movement and it looked like total dreck. From one of the Major networks NYC stations too.

Some of the bit channels according to my TV were 480i and were 16:9 and looked pretty good quality. Most were approx SD quality. The Tube shows as 480i and mono? What good is a music channel in Mono? Note that I am in a major market, NYC, NY.

Then is the 2 channels that look like they are sending a oscilloscope display over the cable. Monitoring maybe.

Yup from what I see the change over to digital will be business as usual with the government having given the stations new channels for free for the stations to make money off of.

Why am I not surprised?

They got them FOR FREE?!
Youre talking about OTA frequencies, right?
If so, I honestly didn't knew that :O
That is like giving away public property, holy shit.
Not even a scandal. Just a plain crooked legislation at least!

[vhelp]

My vote goes to, yes..

I vote, yes, I pretty much hate it also. But, I don't think that they are promoting
their shows so much though as to what I really feel they have intended it for.. to
slow-down warz/pirating of videos. I think that is the main driving force behind
all these pop-ups, plus a little payback and what-not. But now that they have
been doing this for a while now, *new* ideas has since popped into broadcaster's
and ( what-do-you call them.. clients? ) "commercials" -and- promoters.

-- Sorry, I gotta OT a bit here --

TBoneit, (fello New Yorker)

I've got a question that's been on my mind. Maybe you have a better theory or
answer. K. Back in 1998/1999/2000/2001, I used get all the primary stations.. ie,
CBS; NBC; FOX; ABC; WOR-9; Thirteen-13; WB11; etc., Then, later on in 2001, I
got hooked onto Cable and then, Satellite.
Today, I can not get a single one of those stations on my antenna. I use to get
them with just Rabbit-Ears. But even with my out-door antenna (inside my apt)
I still can't get of those channels.
I'm wondering, (its been my theory) that the possible reason is on account of
Sept/11, because the anntennas on the twin-buildings were destroyed, and no
replacement was considered.

Can you comment on this, if this is true or some other cause of missing chans ??
Thanks,

-vhelp 4305

[TBoneit]

Well the Towers were where all the antenna were moved as I remember it. When the fell then they went back to the Empire state building. I guess it would depend on if your locations line of sight to the empire stste building is blocked and your LOS to the WTC towers wasn't.

You don't get anything? Have you tried making sure that your antenna is pointed to the Empire Stae building? LOS not blocked?

We are talking about strong transmitters. Could you be getting so much signal it is overloading your TVs tuner? Bad cable connecting antenna and TV? If you are in the 5 boroughs a rabbit ears should work AFAIK.

I don't know. I know I can't use rabbit ears because of the aluminum coating on foam under the walls seems to really kill the signal. I can get one station and it wasn't reliable.

[TBoneit]

I was just playing around last night and I did a A B comprison of WLIW on satellite, cable and cable HD. The sat and SD cable looked pretty much the same. Strangely enough I could swear that the HD cable feed showed more than the SD feed even though the SD feed was letterboxed.

One of the HD subchannels was so bit starved that any movement and it looked like total dreck. From one of the Major networks NYC stations too.

Some of the bit channels according to my TV were 480i and were 16:9 and looked pretty good quality. Most were approx SD quality. The Tube shows as 480i and mono? What good is a music channel in Mono? Note that I am in a major market, NYC, NY.

Then is the 2 channels that look like they are sending a oscilloscope display over the cable. Monitoring maybe.

Yup from what I see the change over to digital will be business as usual with the government having given the stations new channels for free for the stations to make money off of.

Why am I not surprised?

They got them FOR FREE?!
Youre talking about OTA frequencies, right?
If so, I honestly didn't knew that :O
That is like giving away public property, holy shit.
Not even a scandal. Just a plain crooked legislation at least!

AFAIK and I'm working from memory. They get the new digital channel as a swap for the old analog channel.

How they use that one digital channel is up to them. They could have one really high quality HD feed or four lower quality feeds or any mix as I understand it. Since they are all on the one channel you could say that they got the others for free.

OTOH it is only one channels bandwidth. It isn't like they get 4 channels worth of bandwidth for free. I should have said the sations get the possibility to have subchannels for free

[DereX888]

I was just playing around last night and I did a A B comprison of WLIW on satellite, cable and cable HD. The sat and SD cable looked pretty much the same. Strangely enough I could swear that the HD cable feed showed more than the SD feed even though the SD feed was letterboxed.

One of the HD subchannels was so bit starved that any movement and it looked like total dreck. From one of the Major networks NYC stations too.

Some of the bit channels according to my TV were 480i and were 16:9 and looked pretty good quality. Most were approx SD quality. The Tube shows as 480i and mono? What good is a music channel in Mono? Note that I am in a major market, NYC, NY.

Then is the 2 channels that look like they are sending a oscilloscope display over the cable. Monitoring maybe.

Yup from what I see the change over to digital will be business as usual with the government having given the stations new channels for free for the stations to make money off of.

Why am I not surprised?

They got them FOR FREE?!
Youre talking about OTA frequencies, right?
If so, I honestly didn't knew that :O
That is like giving away public property, holy shit.
Not even a scandal. Just a plain crooked legislation at least!

AFAIK and I'm working from memory. They get the new digital channel as a swap for the old analog channel.

How they use that one digital channel is up to them. They could have one really high quality HD feed or four lower quality feeds or any mix as I understand it. Since they are all on the one channel you could say that they got the others for free.

OTOH it is only one channels bandwidth. It isn't like they get 4 channels worth of bandwidth for free. I should have said the sations get the possibility to have subchannels for free

Yeah I found the info about it too.
Thats fine.
I thought they got more bandwidth for free.
Of course, what they do with their bandwidth should be entirely up to them - to have either 1 superquality hd channel or 100 crappy quality 'digital subchannels' instead.

[vhelp]

Evening guys.

Sorry to be OT -- one last time..

TBoneit, LOS (line of site) is same. I still have my older tv set that I use to watch
cbs;abc;nbc; thirteen; etc etc, but nothing comes in. All is the familiar, "snow" over here!
Like someone turned out the set down there. Anyway. I'm 30 plus miles from the BIG APPLE
and never had chan rec. problems till (after) 2001. When I first realized this, it was sometime
in 2003 'ish, and still current, and I'm still living in the house, save floor, same everything.
Oh well. I was just curious on the cause, and I think you help clarify the cause, I think. Tanks!

-vhelp 4312

[ZFix2000]

I have a couple of friends that have satelite and they say there is no pop up ads during the shows. Which tell me it is the cable companies doing it. aaaaasince we now have to pay for our tv veiwing, due to digital, I belive they need to stop interupting what we are paying for or give it to us for free.

I have missed very important subtitles on shows and have had my viewing pleasure disrupted by these pop ups. Only to have 10 minutes of the comercials advertise the same stupid shows.

If they want to interupt our shows, then we should not have to pay. When they give it to us for free, then they can do what they want. The reason behind this is they say because of TIVO and DVRs there ads will not get seen. Well, tough cookies. We have to live with their half baked 'digital' that scrambles and locks every 4-5 min. but their oun tech. makes us pay.

Stan

[zoobie]

they blow...
and make recording a rediculous endeavor with some guy forever dancing around on the bottom of your screen right in the middle of the movie...until the next popup appears...which is even worse

If I ever get my hands on the ad exec that had the revelation of running ads at the bottom of the screen 24/7...

incidently, they're showing classic star trek with new graphics these days...

[theo_9999]

You know large network logos are annoying enough while watching tv but the advent of animated popup advertisement for other shows just really annoys me. Especially if its shows I haven't seen a whole lot of. Know I can handle it during Star Trek reruns since I know them so well. But I mean to have ones that take up a huge chunk of the screen really grates me.....

What about you???

HEy lets boycott one station to prove a point. I'm going to post this message on every internet site I can find to start a movement to show that the viewer is mightier than any television station.
Did CNN instigate war? I think so. Its time we take back our power over network and cable TV, and I want to start with just one station that involves just one problem, that being TNT pop-up ads during movies and other shows as they play. please help me spread the word- boycott TNT, ask your cable company to remove the station from your programing list, and spread the news. Thanks guys

[sambat]

Odd how an 'Amber Alert' can scroll through a show, but quits during the commercial.
You would swear that those creepy Ikea ads were more important than a missing child.

[painkiller]

I despise such advertising during the program's transmission.

I used to be interested in saving television shows, now can't even obliterate commercial interruptions at all.

I wait for the DVDs of the shows I want to watch.

When they start doing this for programs on DVD/BR - then watch the sales plummet.

[ZAPPER]

Who is the moron that blocks subtitles with pop-ups? Yes it happens!