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Ban Internet news videos.

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Just joking, of course, but news videos are getting out of hand. Some subjects, such as the power of an F5 tornado can only be expressed visually - mere talk-talk about damage and injuries can't possibly have the impact of a visual image.

But, more and more often, I will find a news item headline that appears to be very interesting, don't notice the little camera icon and click on it, then realize that it is not an article, but a look-at-me movie. And not a video showing interesting... well, video stuff, but just one or two talking heads blabbing about the topic.

So I then google around trying to find a site with actual information about the news item, without the prima donna overlay.

If it were presented in a text article, I can read about what they are saying in one forth the time or less, don't have to wait for their server to finally hand out the stream - stopping at random intervals when it gets busy, don't have to listen to the fan in my Air start to overspeed trying to handle Flash, and... so on. Sometimes, the load time is longer than the length of the news item.

I assume that the reason is similar to politicians blabbing on TV, - in that case, usually on a topic that they have no clue about - they want face time, and this is a way to get it.

Lots of talking head time and (maybe) a few seconds of actual information.
 

bobtomay

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I hate the ones that make you wait through a 30 second commercial every time you want to watch a 15 second news clip.
 

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I hate the ones that make you wait through a 30 second commercial every time you want to watch a 15 second news clip.
Couldn't agree more. I see enough commercials on TV.
 
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Couldn't agree more. I see enough commercials on TV.

Commercials have totally destroyed FM radio. For decades before ipods and CDs, I would travel across the country always tuned to this or that station. The radio never got turned off.

Now it is just a solid stream of commercials interrupted by a bit of programming now and then.

TV has become the same. I finally gave up and sent my DirectTV receiver back. I realized that shortly the ad segments will add up to exactly half the broadcast time. Right now it is bad enough - sitting through one ad after another, saying to yourself that this one HAS to be the last, then come three more.

And if you like the old serials, (MASH comes to mind), to make the ad segments fit, they have to cut out more and more of the episode to make room. So you wind up looking at jokes without the punchline, punchlines without the joke, characters who suddenly appear with no intro, or disappear for no reason.

Movies are the same way. I have watched some that I remembered from years ago being really good, then decided that my tastes must have changed, since it was no longer very entertaining. Then realized that a forth of it was carved out to not only fit the time slot, but to sell more crap.

Netflix and stacks of 50 cent used DVDs are all I watch now, moviewise.

Of course, if aliens land on the White House lawn, I will go to my neighbors to watch their TV. Hopefully, when the part about "Take us to your leader" comes, they won't have cut to a soap commercial.
 
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Commercials

Commercials are why Netflix is my best friend!
 

Slydude

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There are three other things driving me to distraction with TV these days to the point that I even tried a couple of the Internet TV applications:

1. It was bad enough when station logos were static and took up part of one corner of the screen now some are larger, dynamic, and promote upcoming events/ One one History/Military channel show I was watching the subtitles were partially covered by these things.

2. Channels which are no longer about what they claim to be about. We have both the History Channel and H2. One used to focus on American History and the other tended to do international history. Recently both seem to be devoting more time to things that can't quite be called history.

3. In order to get the channels I like and watch I have to pay for a tier that includes many channels I never watch. Sorry Golf Channel, Soap Opera network etc.
 

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3. In order to get the channels I like and watch I have to pay for a tier that includes many channels I never watch. Sorry Golf Channel, Soap Opera network etc.

I subscribe to Verizon FIOS mainly for the high speed internet but we also have their TV service. I have something like 300 channels (not counting the music channels) of which only 25 or so are worth watching. If I could figure a way to get high speed internet without having to subscribe, I'd get rid of Verizon all together and put my rabbit ears back up.

And I agree with member "cptkrf" about FM radio. It's turned into pure commercials and junk. I was tempted for awhile to subscribe to "Sirius" satellite radio but am not sure if the monthly fee is worth it. Most of their channels are as bad as Verizon's.
 

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I was tempted for awhile to subscribe to "Sirius" satellite radio but am not sure if the monthly fee is worth it. Most of their channels are as bad as Verizon's.

Same here. Finally figured out that about the only time we would use it is traveling - which we don't do often. No point in getting the Sirius gizmo for my home stereo. There's enough in my iTunes open or I'm playing something from my collection.

I'm debating taking a serious look at the radio option Apple announced. Won't use it much on the iPhone (250 MB data plan). Besides, for most of the day I'm in the classroom so no need for radio there.
 
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Rant:
See post 1
See post 2

Rant over.

Thank goodness for the DVR! Doesn't help for online content, but it does cut more commercials out of my life. I've been known to watch two live football games at the same time. Pause one, watch the other (already paused) until a change of possession, switch back, etc.
 

bobtomay

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Love my Dish hopper for that - with auto skip over commercials on all the 4 major networks - don't even have to pick up the remote.
 
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1. It was bad enough when station logos were static and took up part of one corner of the screen now some are larger, dynamic, and promote upcoming events/ One one History/Military channel show I was watching the subtitles were partially covered by these things.

I had forgotten about that growing problem that made me check that I didn't have any heavy objects in reach.

Nothing like concentrating on a good movie, usually in a dark room, waiting for the dark monster to jump out of a dark cavity, then having a bright yellow logo or Coming Next splatter itself in a lower quarter of the screen. Or worse yet, march back and forth across the bottom.
 

bobtomay

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... Or worse yet, march back and forth across the bottom.

ala SYFY network - really, really obnoxious

Don't they get that we're already watching their channel - just who do they think they're advertising to?
 

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I knew this had gotten out of hand when I realized the commercials were taking over: They started taking precedence over severe weather information.

I was watching one of the networks a while back when a severe weather alert came across as a "crawler" on the screen. The first think I noticed is that the alert tone only beeps a couple of times before you don'r hear it anymore. Then I noticed that after a few minutes a commercial comes on and the "crawler" disappears. Did someone think the storm was going to pause until the commercial break was over. I realize that they con't forgo commercials for the entire time the storm warning is up but surely they can leave the crawler up during the commercial.
 
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... surely they can leave the crawler up during the commercial.

Well, technically, I'm sure it's possible. But contractually, maybe not.
 

Slydude

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But that is my point exactly. The various contractual obligations, and desire to sell as much commercial time as possible, appear to be taking precedence over more pressing concerns (in this case safety).
 
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Well of course. Greed. The most powerful force on Earth.

Ok, second most. XXX
 
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chas_m

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I gave up my cable television -- including some shows I really loved -- because of the excessive amount of advertising. Obviously I appreciate that the advertising makes those channels possible, but at some point most of them reach a level where the ads are so disruptive to the programming that it destroys the experience of the program in the first place, and at that point you just have to call it a day.

I wish there was a way I could just get Turner Classic Movies (which is ad-free), PBS and Knowledge Network (largely ad-free) and a few other channels that would go back to ads only in-between shows. Heck, I'd even go back to a handful of ad-laden channels if they would just pass a law that dictates that the ads have to be at the same volume as the shows! :)

I have to say I don't feel like I'm missing that much. I can catch up on The Daily Show through an iPad app, Rachel Maddow's show is available as a podcast, my local/national news broadcasts are available the same way, and there's the Global BBC iPlayer ($80/year subscription) for anything you want to watch from the UK. If HBO offered HBO Go for a set fee (bypassing the cable operators) I might do that as well. Now if I could just do the same for Turner and IFC ...
 
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Couldn't agree more. I see enough commercials on TV.

A friend pulled the plug on cable as his monthly bill started going through the roof for this reason:

He could accept commercials, since that's what paid for the broadcast. But why was he paying 'cable' so much more to stream commercials to his television.

Goodbye to cable tv.
 
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Heck, I'd even go back to a handful of ad-laden channels if they would just pass a law that dictates that the ads have to be at the same volume as the shows! :)

That supposedly happened here recently. Can't say that I've noticed the difference. I mean, what's the criteria? Yelling in a program and yelling in a commercial at the same decibel level?
 
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Commercials have totally destroyed FM radio. For decades before ipods and CDs, I would travel across the country always tuned to this or that station. .

Not here in Australia. The ABC (Government) funds a FM Radio station called Triple J that is TOTALLY add free and plays all the modern music but not the POP Top 40 type crap. Look up there Triple J Hottest 100 on iTunes to get a feel of the music. You won't be sorry, and any Aussie that travels overseas always has the Digital Freq/Player and App with them so they don't miss anything. I couldn't live without JJJ as i HATE commercial FM Stations

and there's the Global BBC iPlayer ($80/year subscription) for anything you want to watch from the UK.

And thats why i have the Aust ABC iView and SBS Apps to catch up or watch what i want. That ABC App has a lot of what the BBC show, but because we don't have to pay for TV licences, we don't have to pay to watch TV . . . . Silly POM's :p and SBS is a MultiNational Station that has some of the Best Documentaries and Comedy and Short films i have seen.
 

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