What IS after ATSC

[Titan1a]

Why, WHY upgrade to better pictures when the programming hasn't improved in DECADES? Broadcast TV is mediocre and cable TV is HUNDREDS of SUCKEY programs! I don't need higher definition or better sound. I'll stick with DVD, Amazon or the subchannels.

[benman94]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

Why, WHY upgrade to better pictures when the programming hasn't improved in DECADES? Broadcast TV is mediocre and cable TV is HUNDREDS of SUCKEY programs! I don't need higher definition or better sound. I'll stick with DVD, Amazon or the subchannels.

Hear! Hear!

My parents wouldn't watch "Two Broke Girls" in 4K, HD, SD, or on a 32 line mechanical set; they find it repulsive, period.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by benman94

Hear! Hear!

My parents wouldn't watch "Two Broke Girls" in 4K, HD, SD, or on a 32 line mechanical set; they find it repulsive, period.

I am 60 years old (will be 61 in July) and have no use whatsoever for the newer TV shows (Two Broke Girls or any other), either. I watch the subchannels of channels 19 and 8 in Cleveland (MeTV and Antenna TV, respectively), plus my own collection of classic TV shows on DVD and VHS, as those are the shows I grew up with in the '60s-'70s. The only network programs I watch anymore are the NBC Nightly News and, on rare occasions, Dateline, on channel 3 in Cleveland.

The quality of today's network TV shows has gone right down the drain as far as I am concerned. Those shows wouldn't look any better in any of the newer formats than they look now. I am reminded of something I read in an old issue of, IIRC, the (now defunct) Electronics Illustrated magazine years ago, in its letters to the editor department, in which someone wondered what the violence on TV shows of that time (late sixties) would look like on a 50+-inch wall-mounted TV. The writer went on: "Heck, even a (TV) station (test) pattern (shown on a standard TV) will frighten our children!" There was a fictional cartoon picture near the letter of a baby in a playpen, with a large-screen TV on the wall. The set was showing a test pattern from a fictional TV station, "WNVI", bigger than life, and the baby was screaming its heart out, scared to death. I can remember (in fact, I will never forget) seeing a Conelrad test on TV when I was seven years old, in 1963. We had a 21-inch b&w Crosley TV at that time, and I was watching a program that had just gone to a commercial. The Conelrad test came on after that commercial; when I saw that huge Civil Defense logo on our 21-inch TV screen, I jumped up, scared out of my wits, and ran down the hall from our living room to the back of our house--that's how frightened I was. I was sure something awful or even horrible was about to happen.

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by benman94

Hear! Hear!

My parents wouldn't watch "Two Broke Girls" in 4K, HD, SD, or on a 32 line mechanical set; they find it repulsive, period.

"Two Broke Girls" is kinda funny, now "The Big Bang Theory" is repulsive...

[centralradio]

Why bother upgrading since the rubbish programming content sucks.The Sports and movie fans would benefit from it.Its useless to view mindless reality shows and crappy boring poor written sitcoms and fake news shows. . 35 plus years age I would be for it.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

Why, WHY upgrade to better pictures when the programming hasn't improved in DECADES? Broadcast TV is mediocre and cable TV is HUNDREDS of SUCKEY programs! I don't need higher definition or better sound. I'll stick with DVD, Amazon or the subchannels.

No kidding. From what I heard the first TV shows were reality-based, so it's come full-circle except there are a heck of a lot more channels with that crap.

I'm not familiar with programming on Amazon or the subchannels, I just use DVDs.

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

Why, WHY upgrade to better pictures when the programming hasn't improved in DECADES? Broadcast TV is mediocre and cable TV is HUNDREDS of SUCKEY programs! I don't need higher definition or better sound. I'll stick with DVD, Amazon or the subchannels.

Originally Posted by Jon A.

No kidding. From what I heard the first TV shows were reality-based, so it's come full-circle except there are a heck of a lot more channels with that crap.

I'm not familiar with programming on Amazon or the subchannels, I just use DVDs.

Great points guys.If this DTV happen 35 plus years ago.Shows were great then and would enjoy watching Knightrider,Six Million Dollar Man . ETC in full Hidef when it was first aired.I probably wont be complaining about it.With todays TV with junk programing like reality shows,crap talk shows,fake news shows on the big four nets.I'm glad that I rid of extended basic cable .

If I was a sports fan I would be happy for the upgrades since its only useful for plus movies too. .

I always had the feeling that the reason why they are shrinking the TV band in resent years because TV sucks and the ratings are dropping like flies in the resent years.Why bother with all the extra channels and nobody is watching them.The only good shows are the CSI series .The new Hawaii Five O,New McGyver and similar drama shows.Sitcoms are not funny and boring.

[Jeffhs]

I agree that TV isn't what it once was before cable, satellite, etc., and is getting worse by the day. Like VK member Titan1a, I don't watch much standard TV these days, only certain shows on the broadcast networks (I have Time Warner Starter TV service, which is local broadcast channels only), their subchannels, and DVDs/VHS tapes. Time was when I watched a lot more TV than I do now; however, the only things I watch on broadcast TV these days are the evening news (NBC Nightly News and, occasionally, Dateline) and an occasional network program.

NBC's Dateline news magazine is not what it used to be, either. This was once a respectable magazine program, but it, like most of NBC's recent programming, has gone so far downhill, IMHO, that it isn't funny. One thing I don't care for with Dateline is the promotional announcement the network runs for it; it always ends with the phrase "#Don't Watch Alone", which appears just below the NBC peacock. This phrase implies that every edition of Dateline has stories with the potential to scare viewers half to death (I personally think this is simply overblown hype, like most advertising for TV shows these days), which is not my idea of what a TV news magazine should be and certainly not what NBC's news magazines once were.

I remember when NBC's news magazines of the '70s such as Chronolog, Weekend, Comment!, Monitor (the TV adaptation of the old NBC Monitor Beacon radio program, which aired from 1955-1975 over the former NBC Radio Network; "Monitor" on TV lasted only one season, IIRC), et al. were on a par with, and just as good as, CBS' Sixty Minutes at that time; they aren't any longer. No wonder NBC's ratings are so low these days, unless the network has sunk so low that all it cares about now is delivering junk programming to its 200+ affiliates across the US. They even had a jingle which was a takeoff on their "NBC - We're Proud!" slogan of about ten years or more ago. The new jingle replaced the word "proud" with "LOUD", and the network actually seemed proud that their ratings were, at the time, about two years ago (and are, even as I write this) lower than a snake's belly and are probably dropping almost daily. IMHO, they had better darn well watch their step, as they are skating on thin ice at this moment and could find themselves in real ratings trouble, if they aren't in such trouble already. I recently read online somewhere, I don't remember where, a comment (probably, even likely, in regard to the network's programming) in which a viewer stated, "NBC = Nothing But Crap!"


While I personally don't think NBC's programming is that bad (yet, anyway), it may be and probably is headed in that direction. I can see a day coming, again if the network doesn't shape up, and soon, when NBC will cease to exist as a television network, leaving America with just two commercial broadcast networks. NBC may be feeling the pressure from today's wide variety of viewing choices not available 50 years ago, such as cable networks, video on demand, DVDs, and so on, and may have reached the point where they simply don't care anymore about ratings or what happens to the network. Perhaps the only real ratings draws in the 21st century for this network are its sports programs on weekends; most weekends there is nothing but sports on NBC, beginning as early as noon Eastern time, often preempting local affiliates' early (6 p.m. Eastern time) news broadcasts and NBC Nightly News; this is due to the literally unpredictable nature of sports contests which can and often do run overtime, often slopping over into the 6:30 hour and beyond. I don't know about NBC affiliates in other areas, but here in northeastern Ohio near Cleveland, the NBC affiliate will almost always air its local news after NBC's sports programming if the latter runs more than 15 minutes past 6:30 PM EST, instead of showing NBC Nightly News on a tape delay.

I guess the reason Cleveland's NBC station does not show the NBC world news at all after a sporting event that runs more than five or ten (15 at the outside) minutes overtime may have to do with the availability these days of such platforms as video on demand, or even NBC's rerun of their world news broadcast at 3 a. m. (!) Eastern time. The station's programming minions may think these are easier to schedule than taping and showing the broadcast a half-hour later, after the sports event itself ends (assuming it ends right at 6:30 PM ET, which many sporting events rarely do due to overtime). Video on demand allows viewing of a program, in this case NBC's world news, literally any time of the day or night, but these programs are always shown the day after they air on the network, so it is nearly impossible to watch them when the news is actually new.

[Jeffhs]

I agree that TV isn't what it once was before cable, satellite, etc., and is getting worse by the day. Like VK member Titan1a, I don't watch much standard TV these days, only certain shows on the broadcast networks (I have Time Warner Starter TV service, which is local broadcast channels only), their subchannels, and DVDs/VHS tapes. Time was when I would watch a lot more TV than I do now; however, the only things I watch on broadcast TV these days are the evening news (NBC Nightly News and, occasionally, Dateline) and an occasional network program.

NBC's Dateline news magazine is not what it used to be, either. This was once a respectable magazine program, but it, like most of NBC's recent programming, has gone so far downhill, IMHO, that it isn't funny. One thing I don't care for with Dateline is the promotional announcement the network runs for it; it always end with the phrase "#Don't Watch Alone", which appears just below the NBC peacock before the promo ends. This phrase, which I personally believe is overblown hype, implies that every edition of Dateline has stories with the potential to scare viewers half to death. I do not agree with that reasoning; in fact, I think most Dateline segments are the result of well-done reporting, meant to inform viewers of current events and issues--not to scare them.

I remember when NBC's news magazines such as Chronolog, Weekend, Comment!, Monitor (the TV adaptation of the old NBC Monitor Beacon radio program, which aired from 1955-1975 over the former NBC Radio Network; "Monitor" on TV lasted only one season, IIRC), et al. were on a par with, and just as good as, CBS' Sixty Minutes in the '70s; they aren't any longer. No wonder NBC's ratings are so low these days, unless the network has sunk so low that all it cares about now is delivering junk programming to its 200+ affiliates across the US. They even had a jingle which was a takeoff on their "NBC - We're Proud!" slogan of about five years ago. The new jingle replaced the word "proud" with "LOUD", and the network actually seemed proud that their ratings were, at the time, about two years ago (and are, even as I write this) lower than a snake's belly and are probably dropping almost daily.

IMHO, they had better darn well watch their step, as they are skating on thin ice at this moment and could find themselves in real ratings trouble, if they aren't in such trouble already. I read online somewhere, I don't remember where, a comment (probably, even likely, in regard to the network's programming) in which a viewer stated, "NBC = Nothing But Crap!"

While I personally don't think NBC's programming is that bad--yet, anyway, it may be and probably is headed in that direction. I can see a day coming, again if the network doesn't shape up, and soon, when NBC will cease to exist as a television network, leaving America with just two commercial broadcast networks. NBC may be feeling the pressure from today's wide variety of viewing choices not available 50 years ago, such as cable networks, video on demand, DVDs, and so on, and may have reached the point where they simply don't care anymore about ratings or what happens to the network.

No wonder NBC retired its "Proud N" logo some years ago; that, and the issues over the network's "N" logo of the time ('80s) being identical to a similar logo in current use by an educational TV network in Nebraska. There was a time when NBC had a right to be proud of its programming; unfortunately, however, that time is long gone, and the peacock's only significance these days is its value as an iconic identifier of NBC, which was, after all, America's first broadcast network (NBC radio from 1926-'86, NBC television from 1948 to the present day and, hopefully, well into the future).

The NBC peacock is known world-wide, and the network has no intention of scrapping it any time soon, even though it has done away with such iconic symbols as the NBC color peacock, which was shown in the '60s-mid-'70s before every NBC color program, the "NBC snake" which was shown, again through the '60s until 1975, after every NBC-TV program, and other artifacts of the network as it was in its glory days. The NBC peacock is still shown, after NBC shows, in a much smaller form these days, often with the bird's feathers all one color, although the network still uses a peacock logo with the bird's feathers of different colors, especially as a network "bug" in the lower left corner of your TV screen. The peacock's colors disappear seconds later, and a nearly transparent version of this iconic NBC logo appears for the duration of whatever program is being shown on the network at the time.