'DFW Nonstop' opinions??

[easttxtv]

I can sorta almost see where a channel like this would work if someone has no cable/sat, but from what little I've seen, there's just a lot of network fluff and local fluff. Guess they haven't sold much yet on spots, mostly PSAs and station imaging. I haven't gotten to see the Jane-cast yet to see if it's any different than the main channel news. Would be nice to see more weather but it looks like I'm asking for too much.

 

[Scotpfv]

As a viewer without cable or Sat I think it is off to a good start. As someone who awakes around 7 am I especially like the 7-10am repeat of the local news from earlier in the morning. (Not a big fan of KDFW's newscast so I never watch 4).

The late sunday night replays of "Meet The Press" and "The Chris Matthews Show" are also welcome additions.

I think the concept has a lot of promise thus far. Let's see where NBC goes with it.

I still think utilizing sub-channels is an untapped revenue stream.

 

[DToTheJ]

Re: "... utilizing subchannels is an untapped revenue stream."

In a way, television stations' subchannels could be compared to radio stations' subchannels. Of course, there was a visibility factor that lacked for the latter for most of the time. Apparently, people have seem to found it in the form of FM translators simulcasting them. Similarly, cable systems' carriage of TV stations' subchannels are in the same vein (though people may need to pay for cable, there are likely more cable homes than broadcast TV homes).

 

[fredcantu]

Unfortunately some broadcasters want the cable company to give them a channel for every subchannel they have-- even when the additional subchannels are nothing but the same informercials and brokered-time shows running on a different schedule.

 

[MikeShannon914]

My opinion? IT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!

I *need* my weather radio and NOAA broadcasts back. I never realized how much I relied on that until the last round of storms earlier this week. Sure, I have weatheradios + an Android phone and a laptop for radar, but having it in one easy-to-find place that's mostly reliable on my OTA TV setup at the house...priceless.

And with Ch 8.2 giving away their former news/weather channel to this silly Accuweather company...equally as dumb. I know there are occasional cut-ins from Ch 8, but their little weather "bar" on the left of the screen runs off my TV screen and I can't see it. Sure, I'm still using analog TVs, but even the settings for 16:9 and similar still leave half of the tiny bar out of view. 8 also stretches the bar vertically...so impending storms' footprints are not on a common scale. (UPDATE: I just checked it on my portable HDTV, and it IS indeed viewable...but still stretched, and doesn't show anything outside Dallas or Tarrant counties. What's far west usually ends up moving east...a bigger range is pretty mandatory.) For me, it's completely useless. Suffice to say that I was no fan of The Weather Channel when it signed on 29 years ago this week...and not much of a fan still today. With "Texas weather," we really need a reliable, LOCAL resource. I don't want the last words I ever hear to be, "It's a bright sunny day in Bangor, Maine, today..." as a tornado rips through my house. Then again, I can always tune into my favorite CBS shows and be guaranteed that the local weatherman will break into the broadcast right at the climax and go back to the show right when the credits roll.

Back to 5.2, if I have to see that stupid Steve Lamb/Deb Ferguson commercial again, I'm going to throw up.

 

[arnoldevns]

I watched the "Nonstop Nightly" on Monday night and was not impressed. Jane McGarry said at the outset that the show would focus on topics and go more in depth than their regular newscasts. She was right, but that wasn't a good thing. They spent the first 13 minutes of the newscast on the guy who had the face transplant. Had it been 5 minutes I would have been okay with that. As it was, they ran a pkg, talked to a reporter about it, talked to a doctor about it and then ran extended sound from a news conference with the patient. I suppose if you were REALLY interested in the topic you would stick around. I just wasn't that interested in this topic. Then they had some weather with Finfrock. That was fine. Then the real disaster hit: Jane McGarry talking about what people were tweeting about regarding the opening of In-n-out burger. This was after a week old pkg on the topic. This talk by McGarry where she was saying things like "yum, I can't wait to get my hands on a double double animal style" was just awful television. Later then went to a decent story about lighting problems on Woodall Rodgers, but then sadly went back to more tweets about the burger place. Who cares?

I have not seen some of the other shows, but I'm not impressed with what I've seen so far.

 

[easttxtv]

I *need* my weather radio and NOAA broadcasts back.

Would be nice...I agree w/ you about 8.2's redo, sure is different, and they don't have their flow down right when they transition between 8's weather segments and Accu's segments and the map/NOAA part.

Back to 5.2, if I have to see that stupid Steve Lamb/Deb Ferguson commercial again, I'm going to throw up.

I'm surprised that those self-promos aren't the digital version of WORN OUT yet!! At least I haven't worn out that mute button on my remote yet ...The only exception is David Finfrock's ad. I was pleasantly surprised to hear he likes maps (a sometime hobby of mine as well).

The other Deborah Ferguson ad where she's at Trimble Tech looking thru the yearbook is interesting, as she is thumbing thru it, she's quoted on a page where she references Iola Johnson. Funny that that part of the page is shown on a channel that Iola *didn't* work for.

 

[JHBrandt]

Despite being fully automated and lacking any voluptuous spokesmodels , I preferred the old NBC Plus weather to AccuWeather on 8.2. NBC Plus provided a lot more info. But AccuWeather is still an improvement over the previous offering on 8.2.

BTW, to deal with 8.2's 16:9 aspect ratio on older TVs, try setting your DVR or converter box to letterbox or "stretch" mode. A few boxes will remember your zoom preference for each channel, but with most boxes you'll have to change the setting back when you change channels again.

You might also swap converter boxes between TVs to find the best match. Some boxes zoom much more aggressively than others.

At eskipper's suggestion I downloaded the Weather Channel app for my Black Berry. It's something of a memory hog (2 meg) but it does work - although it's better when I'm in a WiFi hotspot so I don't have to rely on slow 3G communications. (I don't have one of those newer 4G smart phones.)

 

[Megapsycle]

My opinion? IT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!

I *need* my weather radio and NOAA broadcasts back. I never realized how much I relied on that until the last round of storms earlier this week...

All I've seen on 8.2 this evening is radar with NOAA Weather Radio audio. No cuts to AccuWeather at all. I just wish Ch 8 would keep the animation active on the radar. I like to be able to see which way and how fast this stuff is moving.

 

[KERCAlum]

I get most of my weather info from the TWC app for iPhone, the MyRadar app (which mostly works very well, despite the ads on the free version) and KDFW/WFAA/KTVT. (I still really like Finfrock, but I can't stand KXAS.) On my PC, I really like the Weather Underground WUndermap (you can go fullscreen with it and when you hit F11 to put your browser in kiosk mode I can have the radar fullscreen uninterrupted, which is really nice). As far as the subchannels, I've watched 5.2 for about 30 seconds, and can't stand it. 8.2 is pretty lame, but at least AccuWeather and the local radar are bigger on the screen than they were in the old version (and I never understood why we needed the Victory Park towercam in an inset on the screen). Wish 11 would employ a subchannel, but it'd probably be more of the same old dreck. A poster on the DFW radio board suggested, during severe weather, moving the network programming to the subs and running W2W weather on the main channel, which is not a half-bad idea.

But for the most part much of my weather info comes off of my iPhone or my PC. Sorry, OTA stations.

 

[JHBrandt]

I did appreciate the old 5.2 weather. It amazed me how much info they packed into that "L" format. Current conditions on the left, 12-hour and 5-day forecasts at the bottom, and a good variety of radar, satellite, and temperature maps in the main portion of the screen. Most of the time you didn't even need the audio!

AccuWeather is an improvement from what 8.2 was before, and I have the Weather Channel BlackBerry app (not to mention a few NOAA weather radios), but I still miss the old 5.2.

The new 5.2? To be blunt, I really haven't watched it that much since the format change, so I can't really say whether it's cool or it sucks; only that nothing's grabbed my attention (or my wife's) so far.

 

[DToTheJ]

I watched the "Nonstop Nightly" on Monday night and was not impressed... Then the real disaster hit: Jane McGarry talking about what people were tweeting about regarding the opening of In-n-out burger. This was after a week old pkg on the topic. This talk by McGarry where she was saying things like "yum, I can't wait to get my hands on a double double animal style" was just awful television...

What one calls "awful television," the YouTube audience calls "viral". :