television – Page 5 – Observations Along the Road

Tales of My City and My State

Posted onMonday, January 7, 2013Authorcahwyguy

Huell-Howser Ralph-Story Jack-Smith userpic=california Today, my city and my state lost one of its greatest boosters, and his passing reminds me of other great journalistic boosters for my city and state. In their memory this post is dedicated.

Today’s news brings the sad report of the death of California icon Huell Howser. Howser, a transplant from Tennessee, grew to be one of the greatest booster of Los Angeles, Southern California, and all the quirks and oddities of California. Starting in the mid-1980s with Videolog, he rapidly developed a folksy style over a series of travelogue programs covering our great state. I know he was out to Orange Empire Railway Museum numerous times (which increased attendance every time), and even did a video report on the subway tunnels of the Pacific Electric. He was evidently as nice in person as he was on TV, and just enjoyed telling people about this wonderful state. I’m glad to see KCET will continue to air his shows.

Thinking of Huell made me remember another lost icon of Los Angeles, Ralph Story. Story died in 2006, and I wrote up some recollections then. Story worked for KCBS (then KNXT) and KABC. I remember Story from his award winning series “Ralph Story’s LA”, which explored the history of Los Angeles. I particularly remember the segment he did on the Pacific Electric Railway tunnels near Echo Park.

I tend to like to do things in 3s, so I wanted a third person who boosted LA and has passed away. My wife came up with the answer: Jack Smith of the Los Angeles Times. Smith was a columnist who did regular columns on Los Angeles and Southern California; many of these were collected into books such as “The Big Orange” (for you Bay Area folks, substitute Herb Caen). Smith died in 1996, and I’m not sure the Times has had a columnist like him since. About the closest is Steve Lopez.

While writing this remembrance up, one other booster came to mind, but it is neither dead or off-the-air… however, it hasn’t had the same impact. KABC’s program, Eye on L.A., is a long running travelogue series hosted by whomever KABC had on staff (I remember Chuck Henry hosting it, but there have been others). However, it hasn’t exclusively focused on Los Angeles, or even California.

So, Huell, we thank your for your love of Los Angeles and California, and for continuing in the tradition of Ralph Story and Jack Smith, bringing the stories of the people to the people. You will be missed.

My Thoroughly Disgusting Guilty Pleasure

Posted onMonday, December 17, 2012Authorcahwyguy2 Comments

userpic=television Last night, I indulged in my weekly guilty pleasure. It’s so bad, I hesitate to mention it because you will make fun of me. But I will anyway. I watched the season finale of … Survivor.

Yup, I”ve been watching Survivor since day 1. It is the only reality TV program I watch regularly. I enjoy it because it really is the best of the bunch: good casting, good editing, and a great setup that balances the survival aspects with the personal and social aspects. The notion of having to eliminate someone and then try to get them to support you creates such interplay.

Yes, some seasons are weaker than others. This season was particularly good, with Lisa Welchel (Blair, from The Facts of Life) being one of the contestants, along with a number of returning players. The ultimate balance was such that you would have been happy if any of the final four had won. I’m already looking forward to Season 26.

So that’s my guilty pleasure. What’s yours?

DirecTV: How To Turn a Usable Service Unusable [ETA: …. and Usable again.]

Posted onTuesday, November 20, 2012Wednesday, November 21, 2012Authorcahwyguy1 Comment

If you recall, a while back I wrote of problems we were having with DirecTV. The problems have continued: as of this morning, our DirecTV receiver was resetting at :28 and :58 of each hour, making it completely unusable. We’ve called DirecTV, and they are working on a technical fix… with no estimated time of application. As a SOP, they offered 3 months of Starz for 1c, and we can call for a credit once the problem is resolved. However, I’m looking at a daughter coming home who wants to watch TV, and going to a conference in a little over a week where I will be depending on the DVR to record stuff for me. Needless to say, I’m not happy. This problem isn’t just me. It’s made it to the Consumerist, there are now 26 pages of comments on the Tivo forum, and 11 pages of complaints at the DirecTV forum. However, DirecTV has not publicly said one word about this, other than a tweet that they are working on it. According to Weaknees, they are aware of it. Perhaps they don’t care and just want their customers to upgrade to new equipment–at least that is how they are acting.

[ETA @ 1:13p: DirecTV Says It Will Credit Accounts Of Customers With Rebooting Tivos] (h/t Carl K.)

[ETA @ 1:58p: Per the DirecTV forum: “The issue was due to some bad APG data and it’s has been corrected about an hour ago. folks may have seen one more reboot a bit ago but we believe the issue is now corrected … fingers crossed”]

[ETA @ 6:08p: Appears to be fixed. Called for service credit. Wow. A whopping $3.]

[ETA @ 1:08p the next day: Email from DirecTV: “This is an important message from DIRECTV about your TiVo receiver. We are aware that you may have experienced a software issue that was causing your TiVo to reboot frequently. We want to assure you that we worked diligently with TiVo and resolved the issue yesterday. Due to this inconvenience we will be applying a onetime $10 discount to your account; this will appear as a credit on an upcoming bill statement. Thanks again for being a loyal DIRECTV customer. We truly appreciate your business.”]

So, what to do. Here are the options as I see it — comments on the various providers are welcome: [ETA: As the problem is fixed, I’m not switching… but the analysis is useful in case I ever think about it again.]

DirecTV. What would it take us to stay with DirecTV? Easiest would be to fix the problem! Lacking that, I would insist on: (1) provision of the new HD Tivo that does not appear to be rebooting, for free, at the same monthly Tivo rates; (2) no HD charges until we actually upgrade to HD TVs; (3) we can keep the Samsung Tivo, disconnected from the satellites, until all the programs on it are watched. Those three items would be the minimum; compensation for lost service and the unnecessary Tivo repair would be a bonus. I would also be willing to accept a loan of an HD Tivo until the problem is fixed, on the proviso that there are no charges and they have a technician come out and install it–no shipping delays.
Dish Network. What I primarily know about Dish network, other than that it is a competitor to DirecTV, is that they tend to have longer disputes with various channels over carriage (such as the long running dispute with AMC). In terms of packages, it looks like the America’s Top 250 package is closest to what we have now. They are offering some good deals, such as saving $30/month for 12 months, a free “Hopper” DVR, free premiums for 3 months, and free installation. The Hopper DVR is whole-home and looks to record 6 channels, but is not Tivo. The other TVs would appear to require a Joey receiver; I’m not sure if that suffices. Looking at base prices, after the discount, DISH is slightly more expensive for (250+Showtime), but by under $2. I cannot find on the DISH website what other fees they would have: regional sports fees, monthly fees for the Hopper and Joeys, etc. Switching to DISH would also probably be the least infrastructure changes to the house — as we already have DirecTV, it would just be a new dish, possibly a new multiswitch, and some new wiring to the Hopper. It might also require them to install a network connection to the various rooms if they do not do wireless. I have emailed DISH to get specific pricing; their site made it easy to send the email.
Time Warner Cable. We’re primarily familiar with Time Warner Cable from use of their Roadrunner internet service. As for Cable TV, my experience goes back to the days of Theta Cable in West Los Angeles, and more recently Adelphia cable when we lived in North Hills. Translation: Bad experiences. As with the DISH website, the TWC site makes it hard to find the pricing. We would need the Choice tier. To get any pricing, you have to go to the order page (sigh). It looks like digital TV would be $39.99/mo, the whole house DVR would be $30.49, the additional outlets (HD, but we don’t really need HD) would be $20, Shotime would be $9.99… and there would be $40 for installation. It looks like the digital TV tier would include the Choice tier. There appear to be no free installation officers or other “goodies”. Given that the prices are only for 12 months, after a year, I believe we would be paying much more than DirecTV. The whole-home DVR can only record two shows at a time; it stores up to 75 hours of HD or over 200 hours of SD programming. In terms of infrastructure, we already have cable going to the house for the Internet; some rewiring within the house would be required. I have attempted to email TWC — their site does not make it easy to do so, and the only non-chat method is a “Leave Feedback” form. The presumption appears to be you always want live interactive chat, which is something I hate. Demerits to TWC for a poor website.
AT&T U-Verse. Currently, our only AT&T service is home phone. We would need the U300 package, at $87/month (although we could live with U200 at $72/month). The package includes a whole-home DVR and one wireless HD-ready receiver. There would be a discount of $28/mo the first six months, and the activation fee would be waived. The package would include the movie package. It would be an addition $7 for the 2nd receiver, and they do support wireless receivers (making it easier to add TVs to rooms without wiring, a plus). Unclear what the installation fee is. Their DVR can record 4 shows at once; 233 hours SD, 67 hours HD. It is not Tivo. Again, I attempted to email them with pricing questions, but AT&T Uverse provides no email mechanisms to contact them — there is only live chat or going to their stores. Double Demerits to AT&T for a very very poor website.

An Insidious Plot – A DirecTivo Update

Posted onTuesday, November 13, 2012Thursday, November 15, 2012Authorcahwyguy1 Comment

A quick lunchtime update on the DirecTivo situation: Just heard back from my wife, who spoke to Weaknees. They ran diagnostics on our DirecTivo Samsung DVR, and there are no disk problems, no tuner problems, and presumably no power problems. So what is causing the system to reboot? Seems they have been getting lots of calls from original DirecTivo owners complaining of these reboots. I just took a look at the DBSTalk forums, and there are lots of folks having the same problem. It is also being reported in the Tivo Community Forums and in the DirecTV forums on the DirecTV website. I just wish I had discovered this before I paid the diagnosis fee, but at least we are ending up with a larger disk, programming and such transferred, and knowledge that the tuners are good. ETA 11/15: Weaknees has also posted a blog entry on the problem (h/t Carl K.).

What is the answer to the problem? That’s harder. I’ve seen one comment that it might be a problem in the Guide Data stream. Someone else noted that there was a very similar problem about 2 years ago, starting in late September/October and lasting about a month. That time, the problem was with the software and a patch was required. Yet another person surmised that they are removing advanced EPG stream by end of year, and they could testing for that, resulting in the reboots. A number of people think it is a plot by DirecTV to force people to the new HD Tivos. In general, the notion appears to be to call DirecTV and complain, complain, complain.

One person on the forums called DirecTV and got more information. They learned from DirecTV corporate that there is a software issue with the older TiVo’s and that they were waiting on enough complaints to institute a software upgrade. As of 11/11, DirecTV was supposedly working on the software update; supposedly, if it does not work, they will replace those DVR’s with the software problem at no charge based upon what type of DVR you have (same for same). [Of course, that is useless for those with loads of saved programming and larger disks.] According to DirecTV, “If enough people with these TiVo’s complain about the reboots, a faster update will occur”

I hope DirecTV figures out the software fix. I’m annoyed enough that they forced me into a repair I didn’t need to make. I don’t want to lose the saved programs or have the upgraded disk capacity be for naught.

(ETA 11/14/12: I’ve submitted an email to DirecTV regarding this problem. Given I just paid almost $200 to repair/upgrade the Samsung, about the only offer I would accept would be a current DirecTivo, with no changes in fees (i.e., even if it is an HD Tivo, no HD fees as we don’t have an HDTV), and I would want to be able to keep the old Tivo until we watched all the programming stored on it.)

Taking Us To Our Knees

Posted onSunday, November 11, 2012Wednesday, November 14, 2012Authorcahwyguy2 Comments

When we moved into our current house in 2005, we got a present from DirecTV: A Samsung SIR-4080R DVR. We use it a lot (and I should note that we do not have HD service nor HDTVs, nor are they in our near future). We’ve had a fan go bad and a tuner go bad, and each time Weaknees has helped up repair the DVR. Recently the DVR has started to act up again — this time is it randomly rebooting while watching TV. According to the Weaknees FAQ, this is often due to a hard drive starting to fail. Given that (a) we do not have HD nor plan for it in the near futures, and (b) all the current DVRs from DirecTV are HD-DVRs (well, they do have one standard, but it isn’t Tivo), and (c) the new HD DirecTivos cost even more than DirecTV DVrs, we’d like to stick with the current box. So….

Tomorrow my wife is going down to Weaknees in Culver City, and bringing our box in. We’ll have them do the flat fee service (which will diagnose whether another tuner is failing), and have them upgrade the hard disk so we can hold more programs. Hopefully, they will be able to move the old settings over as well. However, there is a risk we’ll lose the saved programs.

P.S. to Erin: We have burned a DVD of Steel Magnolias for you just in case. I also walked through the settings menus after the movie so we have a record of our settings.

Friday News Chum: Periodic Table of Tech, USS Enterprise, Kickstarter, Disney+Lucas, Sitcom Spinoffs, and Robocalls

Posted onFriday, November 2, 2012Friday, November 2, 2012Authorcahwyguy4 Comments

Well, it’s Friday at lunch (well, really, it is Thursday evening, but you know how things go), and it is time to clear out the accumulated links of the week. There’s a bunch of real interesting stuff here folks, so let’s dive in…

Periodic Table of Tech. I think I found this through Slashdot, but I my memory could be off. This article goes through every element in the periodic table and discusses how it is used in technology. You’re probably aware of many of the common ones – O, C, Si, Al – but seeing how some of the more obscure elements are used is really interesting.
To Boldly Go. The mega-storm Sandy damaged the demonstration shuttle Enterprise, which was named after the USS (Starship) Enterprise, which was named after the US Navy Enterprise. Here’s a nice article on the various real ships that have born the name Enterprise, and how soon we might be without a USS Enterprise.
Helping Out. I’ve recently begun to explore Kickstarter; I participated in the funding of the Now. Hear. This. Cast Album and the new Big Daddy ’59 album with Songs of Stage and Screen. I’m thinking about funding the Dry Bones Passover Haggadah, and I keep suggesting that the Colony Theatre look to Kickstarter for its emergency fundraising (which they haven’t done to date). So I was amused with the Mentalfloss summary of 13 interesting Kickstarter projects. These include neat documentaries, books, games, and toys. Speaking of helping out… here’s a really neat story about some restauranteurs in New York, who are feeding the city with what they have on hand and their wood-fired ovens.
The Force is With Them. By now, you’ve heard Disney has bought LucasFilms. But what did they get for $4.05B? This article describes it in detail. A significant chunk is ILM and the theatre sound portions, which aren’t the glamorous parts. They got Star Wars (at least the characters and the future films; the released films are tied up with Fox for a few years, and the first (or is that fourth) is entirely Fox). They got Indie Jones (but that is also tied up with Paramount for a few years). They got a few other movies. They may get Clone Wars, depending on Cartoon Network. Related to this, an article in Wired Magazine (h/t andrewducker) explores how the House of Mouse valued Lucasfilm. My one problem with the analysis is that it doesn’t mention the value of the Lucasfilm ILM and sound technology arms; when you factor that into the analysis, it means that Disney valued the existing franchises even lower! (In other purchase news, Warren Buffet has purchased Oriental Trading)
Mork, Joey, Gloria, Rhoda, Frasier… What do these have in common? They are all spinoffs of sitcoms. When I was growing up, the sitcom spinoff was very common, and there were often branches of sitcom trees. Nowadays, we have “franchises“: NCIS, CSI, L&O, etc. … and none of them are sitcoms. Why? This article from Vulture explores why the sitcom spinoff might be dead.
Reading Too Much Into It. Andrewducker also alerted me to an interesting analysis of the Rocky Horror Show as a deep metaphor for the battle of the Glam movement of the 1970s against the “pure” rock and roll era of the 1950s. This analysis finds all sorts of parallels and allegories and makes some interesting points, but I also if the author was just thinking too much about it — in other words, whether they were finding more than the original author intended.
Dreading the Call. We’ve all gotten the call, usually while we are cooking dinner, from Rachel at CardServices with an important announcement about our credit card. Try and track those down, and you get into the 5th ring of hell. Good news. The FTC is shutting down those robocall services. See, your government is on your side and trying to do good things for you. Now if they can just go after those political pollsters that call during dinner…

I Shouldn’t Have Done That…

Posted onTuesday, July 17, 2012Tuesday, July 17, 2012Authorcahwyguy

I made a mistake tonight (I say “tonight” to distinguish it from my stupid o’ the weekend, when I carried a 75-lb bag from Costco with one hand, and ended up really bruising the back of my hand). What did I do? Well, I was collecting another 100 links to TV themes on YouTube to record on the weekend when it isn’t in a buffering mood… and I made the mistake of thinking about Shari Lewis… and Lamb Chops Playhouse.

Yup.

It’s stuck in my head.

“This is the song that doesn’t end,
yes it goes on and on my friend.
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was,
and they’ll continue singing it forever just because…”

Sitcom Observations

Posted onMonday, July 16, 2012Authorcahwyguy

As I’ve mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve been thinking about television of the past as a side effect of recording TV themes. Today, a few sitcom observations:

Sitcom Openings. I’ve been doing my recording of themes by finding TV show openings on YouTube and capturing the audio. This means I’ve been watching loads of sitcom openings. You don’t see many of these today, except for really short sequences. In the past, these openings served two purposes: to provide the basic expositional setup (the best examples of this are any Sherwood Schwartz sitcom (think Brady Bunch or Gilligans Island) or a show such as The Nanny. The other thing they did was to introduce the cast. This typically involved having “funny scenes”, and then freezing on the actor smiling for the camera. Want a good example? Look at this opening from the second season of Angie. This is something you rarely see these days. If you have good examples of this style of opening, please mention them.
Sitcom Focus. While on the van, I was thinking more and more about 80s and 90s sitcoms such as Blossom, Step by Step,Full House, &c. This was a style of sitcom where the focus was on the cute kids. These were everywhere in the 80s and 90s. Look at broadcast TV sitcoms of today. Generally, the focus is not on the kids, but on the interactions and reactions of the adults. Where have the kids gone? Their sitcoms have moved to ABC Family and the Disney channel, and off of Broadcast TV. Could this be why broadcast TV has lost the family audience (similarly, I’ll claim the P.I.s have moved to USA and TNT).
Reaction Shots. One thing I’ve really noticed about sitcoms is the cinematography. Watch a sitcom closely. They are typically very stylized, especially the 3-camera ones. In particular, note that whenever someone gives a “laugh line”, there is typically a cutaway shot to another characters reaction. This is your signal that there was a joke and you should laugh. Seriously. Watch closely and suddenly you’ll see the reaction shot everywhere.

Lastly, I may be doing another round of TV Theme grabs. So what are your favorite TV themes?