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Old 04-24-2014, 12:39 PM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
Posts: 4,035
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric H View Post
It will no doubt look incredible, true film quality in your own living room!
I doubt there will be many sources though, the bandwidth required would break the internet, Netflix struggles as it is to deliver 1080p, but there's always Disc or Flash Drive for content.

I would like to see a resurgence of physical media, at least you actually own and control that compared to streaming.

Physical media hasn't disappeared yet. It is still possible to get DVDs and CDs; Netflix still ships physical DVDs in addition to its streaming video service (not to mention DVDs of older shows and past seasons of shows still running on the networks still selling well), and audio CDs are still available in stores.

As to "true film quality in your own living room", who needs it? This is just another attempt to reinvent television yet again (!), and eventually put movie theaters out of business. It is bad enough the FCC forced people to throw out their old TVs and replace them with flat screens; who can ever forget the pitch that was made here in northern Ohio (and likely elsewhere as well) for "The Big Switch" from analog to digital TV in 2009? There was one TV station in Cleveland which pitched that technology switch every chance it got--during commercial breaks, station breaks, during the evening news . . . as if anyone watching really cared. As has been mentioned by others, much of today's TV programming was garbage in 4:3 standard definition; it is still garbage and worse in 16:9 HD. That won't change if and when 4K becomes the standard for video transmission; the technology may change, but until the TV studios in Hollywood start making better programming, television will still be as bad as it has always been if it doesn't get worse, as it will.

Hollywood is running out of ideas for TV shows anyway; most programming today is, at best, 1950s-'60s programming warmed over or made over with the addition of violence and indecent language (think remakes of classic TV series such as "Ironside" which lasted only one or, at best, two seasons). The sometimes extreme violence on today's TV shows has caused the television industry to require content ratings on all shows except news and sports, in an effort to shield children from sex and violence, which is also why the FCC forced TV manufacturers to incorporate the so-called "V-chip" in all televisions made after 1993.

These efforts are not doing the job. Children are exposed to off-color language and violence every day of their lives on the streets, in public places, and so on; eliminating or curbing so-called "blue" language and violence on television is not going to "shield" children from what goes on in the real world. The V-chip is not working out because most people don't know how to use it, or even that it is present in their TVs; most people just take the set out of the box, connect it to a signal source, plug it into the wall, and enjoy (?) the garbage that passes for most 21st-century TV programming. There are a few good shows, many of them on ABC, but the other two major networks, NBC in particular, still program largely garbage, which is one of several reasons why NBC is still in last place in the ratings--good grief, I can remember when NBC was the top-rated network in America, but that was before VHS, DVD, streaming video . . . I see NBC going out of business before long if this trend continues any length of time. They are going down the tubes as it is since Microsoft got into the act.

Please don't get me started on the problems the upstart video service Aereo is having as of late. I recently read online, in a TV-industry newsletter I get in my email daily, that the very future of the CBS television network may depend on the success or failure of Aereo as a TV program source. Indeed, the other networks could be forced into oblivion as well if Aereo wins its court battles and CBS disappears.

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh! What a mess.
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Jeff, WB8NHV

Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.

Last edited by Jeffhs; 04-24-2014 at 01:02 PM.
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