I'm happy to say I didn't really mmiss anything last night. There's more on the Charlotte board, but for purposes of this market, WXLV came through for me. What they did may in fact have been irresponsible, though.
I think I finally have my converter box postioned properly, though I had a lot of trouble with WXLV last night during the storms. I would go for long periods of time with no trouble, and then sometimes I'd miss an entire joke from Tom Bergeron. In one case I think he said the show was like an Easter basket. I think he said the videos owere the eggs but I missed the rest. Another time he said, "Fool me once, shame on you." The part I missed must have been, "Fool me twice, shame on me." What I heard after that was "won't get fooled again." I was relieved when they didn't play that song.
I missed only one video. I could see what was happening, but the sound went out and without Tom's commentary, I couldn't tell what was funny. It's amazing how little the frequent glitches affected my ability to follow what was happening. I'm glad I didn't have to find out if the same was true for "Desperate Housewives". Even before Mary Alice was finished I knew that was a rerun. And the glitches seemed worse.
One man was jumping into a pool and I never saw him jump. He was in the air, and then all of a sudden he was on the ground. And it happened twice! They replayed the video for "Honorable mentions" and it happened again! The weirdest thing was the guy swinging a golf club and then all of a sudden there was smoke like there had been an explosion or something. Digital TV gives a whole new dimension to "editing" for comic effect.
Last summer this station never gave me any trouble, though I imagine in stormy weather there'd be a few of these glitches. Getting a new TV required moving the converter box off the old one and putting it on the new one, and that's when the trouble began. But I was aware of some real problems last week and a fiddled with the thing. During good weather it's usually fine, though I keep it on WMYV for "The Simpsons" usually.
Ordinarily I'd watch ABC on cable, but last night ...
I had another TV on WFMY (it's on cable for some strange reason) waiting for them to end their storm coverage. I wanted to see Andy Rooney, and I had the TV on simply because the VCR would run at that time of day if it was off. So I could hear when someone said "it's on the ground". WXLV had exactly one crawl about a warning during the hour I watched. And the crawl they had after the report on WFMY was about a WATCH, not a WARNING.
The CBS and Fox stations in Charlotte used crawls and occasionally broke into programming. I tried WBTV to see if the Duke game was over; WFMY said the game was on their digital channel, so I figured "60 Minutes" would be too, but I was stuck with a digital channel for ABC. WBTV had "60 Minutes" once I was free, so I never had to find out, and I was TiVoing "The Simpsons". I couldn't tape off the digital channel because I was close to the end of the tape, so I was also rewinding through "Simpsons" episodes I had seen. Yes, now even WMYV is showing the same few episodes we've all seen. Actually, I never saw Charlotte's Fox station break in. They had a map with their crawl. As for WGHP, I have a converter box set on that and I heard some interesting commentary as I waited for Andy Rooney. A crawl looks really interesting with a digital signal. It looks like it's being hand cranked by a machine that needs oil. In good weather that doesn't happen.
I think I finally have my converter box postioned properly, though I had a lot of trouble with WXLV last night during the storms. I would go for long periods of time with no trouble, and then sometimes I'd miss an entire joke from Tom Bergeron. In one case I think he said the show was like an Easter basket. I think he said the videos owere the eggs but I missed the rest. Another time he said, "Fool me once, shame on you." The part I missed must have been, "Fool me twice, shame on me." What I heard after that was "won't get fooled again." I was relieved when they didn't play that song.
I missed only one video. I could see what was happening, but the sound went out and without Tom's commentary, I couldn't tell what was funny. It's amazing how little the frequent glitches affected my ability to follow what was happening. I'm glad I didn't have to find out if the same was true for "Desperate Housewives". Even before Mary Alice was finished I knew that was a rerun. And the glitches seemed worse.
One man was jumping into a pool and I never saw him jump. He was in the air, and then all of a sudden he was on the ground. And it happened twice! They replayed the video for "Honorable mentions" and it happened again! The weirdest thing was the guy swinging a golf club and then all of a sudden there was smoke like there had been an explosion or something. Digital TV gives a whole new dimension to "editing" for comic effect.
Last summer this station never gave me any trouble, though I imagine in stormy weather there'd be a few of these glitches. Getting a new TV required moving the converter box off the old one and putting it on the new one, and that's when the trouble began. But I was aware of some real problems last week and a fiddled with the thing. During good weather it's usually fine, though I keep it on WMYV for "The Simpsons" usually.
Ordinarily I'd watch ABC on cable, but last night ...
I had another TV on WFMY (it's on cable for some strange reason) waiting for them to end their storm coverage. I wanted to see Andy Rooney, and I had the TV on simply because the VCR would run at that time of day if it was off. So I could hear when someone said "it's on the ground". WXLV had exactly one crawl about a warning during the hour I watched. And the crawl they had after the report on WFMY was about a WATCH, not a WARNING.
The CBS and Fox stations in Charlotte used crawls and occasionally broke into programming. I tried WBTV to see if the Duke game was over; WFMY said the game was on their digital channel, so I figured "60 Minutes" would be too, but I was stuck with a digital channel for ABC. WBTV had "60 Minutes" once I was free, so I never had to find out, and I was TiVoing "The Simpsons". I couldn't tape off the digital channel because I was close to the end of the tape, so I was also rewinding through "Simpsons" episodes I had seen. Yes, now even WMYV is showing the same few episodes we've all seen. Actually, I never saw Charlotte's Fox station break in. They had a map with their crawl. As for WGHP, I have a converter box set on that and I heard some interesting commentary as I waited for Andy Rooney. A crawl looks really interesting with a digital signal. It looks like it's being hand cranked by a machine that needs oil. In good weather that doesn't happen.
But it's their own fault for continuing to air weather bulletins once "Jeopardy" supposedly started. And they have a reputation for not caring about the rest of us, so who knew?