This is the first time that I have seen this. During last night's (7/5) airing of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, they were airing commercials during the movie. This was during Spock's burial in space scene near the end of the movie. The movie video with no audio was showing on the right 1/3 of the 16:9 screen. The left 2/3's of the screen was SyFy advertising upcoming programs. This went on for at least 60 seconds, and half of Kirk's eulogy was cut off This is common practice during movie credits but I have never seen this done during the actual movie.
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SyFy is unwatchable
- Thread starter gbranch
- Start date
Why do people still try watching feature length movies on cable/sat? They are almost always edited, chopped up and plastered with on-screen bugs. How great a movie experience is that?
It doesn't cost but pennies to rent or download these same movies and enjoy them commercial and bug-free. And if you drop cable and subscribe to one of the online movie services you might spend less in the long run. Seems like a no brainer to me.
It doesn't cost but pennies to rent or download these same movies and enjoy them commercial and bug-free. And if you drop cable and subscribe to one of the online movie services you might spend less in the long run. Seems like a no brainer to me.
I sometimes watch movies on basic cable because at the time there is nothing else on and my internet service where I live is not fast enough to download full length movies in a reasonable time. I am tired from working all day and don't feel like driving 15 minutes back into town to rent a DVD at a video store or Redbox.
Not all of us have a big, fat 15Mbps internet service that we can tap into and download movies at a whim. I am lucky to get 1Mbps on my wireless ISP, and at that rate it can take an hour or more to download a movie via Directv on Demand.
I did not post to debate the intelligence of those who still watch movies on basic cable. My post was an observation on how bad SyFy has become. And I didn't even watch the entire showing of STII. I just happened to catch the tail end.
Not all of us have a big, fat 15Mbps internet service that we can tap into and download movies at a whim. I am lucky to get 1Mbps on my wireless ISP, and at that rate it can take an hour or more to download a movie via Directv on Demand.
I did not post to debate the intelligence of those who still watch movies on basic cable. My post was an observation on how bad SyFy has become. And I didn't even watch the entire showing of STII. I just happened to catch the tail end.
Episodes of the Twilight Zone marathon this weekend seemed more chopped up, and there were no full length episodes run in prime time this time around. But now that I can get TZ on Netflix online any time I want who needs SyFy?
In a slightly unrelated note, I've been watching a series that originally aired on MTV over Netflix IW. It was a half hour show, which is typically 22-23 minutes without commercials. With MTV, apparently you can shave another 3 minutes off, because these were only 20 minutes long.
I think this is crazy that not only do cable channels charge per viewer to the cable companies (even if your not watching their channel), but now they also even have a heavier spot load than the broadcast channels.
I think this is crazy that not only do cable channels charge per viewer to the cable companies (even if your not watching their channel), but now they also even have a heavier spot load than the broadcast channels.
Greg Branch said:
If you had included those comments in your original post I would have not responded as I did. However, I was not questioning your intelligence. It appeared from your post as if you were looking for an experience and not getting it. That is a bit different from viewing a partial movie as a time-filler. Sorry to have offended you.
But to add a bit to my previous....your experience with SyFy is one of the reasons I killed cable/sat in my house two years ago. It simply wasn't worth trying to watch with all the screen clutter the programmers feel necessary. I spend about $8 or so for a Netflix account and I'm good to go. There are even less expensive or even free ways to watch movies and TV shows if you spend a bit of time investigating. That's a whole lot less than cable. Oh, and I'm running on a 1.5Mbps DSL connection. I'd say that is probably the minimum you need if you stream.
L
Laurence Glavin
Guest
I watched the presentation of "It's A Good Life", and whoever edited it was a really BAD man (or woman). In one scene, Anthony gathered the family and neighbors into a room that for a short time at least had electricity AND television. Then in the original version, he forces them to watch video of dinosaurs fighting for a minute or so. On SyFy that night, just after the commercial break, all you saw was literally one or two seconds of the dinosaurs. If you missed it, you wouldn't get the dialogue that ensued. In the original the adults squirmed and looked aghast at what was on the screen, then were forced to say that Anthony's TV was better than the old TV. When they said that on SyFy, it had no punch.
landtuna said:
SyFy was once my favorite channel, but all they show is junk. I too killed satellite once I hooked up an outdoor antenna and saw the huge difference in picture quality. I get 12 stations including MeTV wich shows Twilight zone and soon original star trek. The antenna with a FTA dish and Nexflix costs me less than $10.00 a month.
Greg Branch said:
There's also the issue of bandwidth caps that certain U.S. ISPs have started to enforce. Then you might as well forget about using the internet for that purpose.
My only complaint about TZ on Netflix online is that they skip the 4th season, which had the hour long episodes. There aren't any big favorite episodes of mine in that season, but I'd still like to have access to them.
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
BlueWanderer said:
If the ISP's want to kill-off a burgeoning industry in it's infancy, then others will find ways to go around them.
There is simply too much demand for downloadable video entertainment. Where there is money to be made,
a way will be found.
Syfy has been unwatchable since they took off GOOD classic Scifi programs!
Haven't watched that channel since they cancelled MST3K
I haven't watched since they trashed the channel.I did like the original.
nomadcowatbk said:
I miss that show. Imagine if they aired the reruns now, the silhouettes that the show is known for would be covered up with multiple promo bugs running around. Or those awful picture-in-picture type ads that channels like ABC Family just love to use constantly.
where'd the subject go?
Not exactly true, they want a bit or the pie. The way AT&T is claiming (in the name of network neutrality) the bandwidth hogs (2% of all users?!?!?) are using so much that the other users on the network don't get a fair share of the bandwidth, so they put in 2 caps. The first cap is 150GB/month for regular internet users, the second is 250GB for the users who also have u-verse (possibly as incentive for more to switch) the penalty is if you go over these levels, you get 3 warnings, (I've already hit 161GB as of last month and got my first one, I'm a sucker for watching streamed TV from Japan) after the 3rd warning it's $10 tacked onto the bill for every 50GB over the limit, which doesn't seem so bad in my case except for the fact that prior to the cap, I was hitting 450GB each month this year (again, alot of streamed tv, I really miss watching winamp channels like MST3k, Oldfashionedtv, retroEDU and so on). They know the users are against this and even before the cap was turned on there were reports all over (especially on G4TV) about how calling and complaining could lead to disconnection and possibly harrassment suits?!? (draconian methods that seem very unnecessary)
Not too many other options though, I haven't heard of any (I wonder how this one guy I know of who figured he was doing 800GB+/month is doing?)
I've been trying to closely monitor my use and keeping things under 4gb a day (just in case) and I have yet to see how bad I have done for this past month. I think AT&T and the other ISP's have really screwed up with this cap idea, they instead should have initiated different monthy levels and allow users to subscribe to those levels much like the speed rates they already have. I understand they are allowing users to switch to a small-business account for about $80/month but I have never had a phone bill over $75 before (monthly service) and don't want one close to twice that.
FreddyE1977 said:
Not exactly true, they want a bit or the pie. The way AT&T is claiming (in the name of network neutrality) the bandwidth hogs (2% of all users?!?!?) are using so much that the other users on the network don't get a fair share of the bandwidth, so they put in 2 caps. The first cap is 150GB/month for regular internet users, the second is 250GB for the users who also have u-verse (possibly as incentive for more to switch) the penalty is if you go over these levels, you get 3 warnings, (I've already hit 161GB as of last month and got my first one, I'm a sucker for watching streamed TV from Japan) after the 3rd warning it's $10 tacked onto the bill for every 50GB over the limit, which doesn't seem so bad in my case except for the fact that prior to the cap, I was hitting 450GB each month this year (again, alot of streamed tv, I really miss watching winamp channels like MST3k, Oldfashionedtv, retroEDU and so on). They know the users are against this and even before the cap was turned on there were reports all over (especially on G4TV) about how calling and complaining could lead to disconnection and possibly harrassment suits?!? (draconian methods that seem very unnecessary)
Not too many other options though, I haven't heard of any (I wonder how this one guy I know of who figured he was doing 800GB+/month is doing?)
I've been trying to closely monitor my use and keeping things under 4gb a day (just in case) and I have yet to see how bad I have done for this past month. I think AT&T and the other ISP's have really screwed up with this cap idea, they instead should have initiated different monthy levels and allow users to subscribe to those levels much like the speed rates they already have. I understand they are allowing users to switch to a small-business account for about $80/month but I have never had a phone bill over $75 before (monthly service) and don't want one close to twice that.
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