Rocket Talk: When's the TTC Going to Roll Out More Fare Collection Methods?
Newsstand: November 9, 2009
Zack Taylor in Disney Mama Drama
Santa's Weston Workshop
The Daily Photoist: November 9, 2009
Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.
Monday
Tonight's Mythbusters is a personal favorite—it's the one where Adam and Jamie try to invent a "human slingshot" to test the myth that Mexicans are literally flinging themselves into the United States. Wheeeee! (Discovery Channel, 8 p.m.)
TVO is re-airing In Search of Shakespeare, which aired on PBS a couple months ago. Televisualist missed it then, so we watched an episode last week and—well, it's interesting, if classical English literature is your bag. The narration might be a bit off at times, but it's a good documentary special. (10 p.m.)
Tuesday
Sheer goddamned manliness, so manly it makes a cowboy shed a single tear in awe. James Coburn winning a gunfight with a knife. Yul Brynner's death stare. Steve McQueen getting all the good jokes. Charles Bronson, for crissake—Charles Bronson! The Magnificent Seven. Oh yes. (AMC, 8 p.m.)
Two weeks in a row I'm recommending a classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, but come on! It's "Relics!" The one with Scotty in it! How can you not want to see that one again? (Space, 9 p.m.)
Wednesday
If you aren't tired of it yet, there's yet another Democratic presidential candidates' debate, moderated by likely worthless television "journalists" trying to play their never-ending game of gotcha with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Of course, there is the distinct possibility that a great performance by Obama could make Hillary's likely victory in Pennsylvania either too weak or nonexistent and essentially give him the nomination. It could happen! Shut up! (ABC, 8 p.m.)
The Simpsons rerun of the week: "The Boy Who Knew Too Much," where Bart sees Mayor Quimby's asshole son assault a defenseless waiter. Or not. "It's pronounced chow-dah! CHOW-DAH!" (CFMT, 10 p.m.)
Thursday
So the tribes have merged on Survivor: Micronesia, Fans Versus Favorites (eesh, what a title), and if you haven't been following, the skinny is thus: most of the really appealing returning players have either been voted off or eliminated due to injury, leaving producer-favourites James and Ozzy as the only really fan-favourite players left. Ozzy has the hidden immunity idol and everybody knows it. In a shocking twist, the "fans" turned out to be the usual gang of struggling wannabe actors from California plus three older people from the Midwest who actually watch the show. And Jeff Probst is still a douche. (Global, 8 p.m.)
Major League. This is one of my "if it's on I'll inevitably sit down and watch the whole damn thing" movies, even though it's airing on Peachtree TV and therefore all the bad swears will be "modified" to protect the poor, innocent children who might not have figured out that baseball players swear a lot and scratch themselves. (9 p.m.)
Friday
Caro Diario ("Dear Diary") is one of my favorite foreign flicks: starring the Italian comedian Nanni Moretti as himself, it's essentially a set of three short movies, the first being about driving around on his motor scooter (and his obsession with Jennifer Beals), the second being about looking for the proper remote island to finish his film alongside a friend who strenuously hates television, and the third being about his real-life experiences with a zillion doctors who all thought he had cancer. It's an oddball little movie. Check it out. (TLN, 8 p.m.)
A new episode of Man Made Marvels tonight, focusing on the Taiwanese skyscraper "Taipei 101," which has apparently affected the geological makeup of Taiwan itself simply by being so big. But the CN Tower is still taller! And just you wait until a meteor hits that building in Dubai! And the other one in Chicago! And... (Discovery Channel, 8 p.m.)
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Televisualist is still missing the HD channels and the programming there that isn't seen on analog. Moreover, Televisualist has made no mention of the going HD of Globall and E! next week and what programming will be in HD.
Methinks, Televisualist needs to do some homework.
I could say something in response like "well, if you want to buy me an HDTV and pay for HD cable, I'll totally talk about HD programming."
But honestly, even if you did, I still wouldn't, because HD programming market penetration is less than four percent of all households, and ninety percent of HD programming is "hey, it's just like your regular TV, except you can see everybody's pocked skin" and strangely, I have better things to write about than that.
HD is an expensive scam.
I watch as much as I can in HD, and Bird is right in that almost all of it is simultaneously available in standard-definition, but the following things about it drive me bonkers (I'm on Rogers, but I'm assuming it's the same elsewhere):
1) It doesn't make that much of a difference unless you have a big TV.
2) The HD signal is degraded and compressed for transmission via the digital cable box, making it not particularly nicer-looking (depending on the channel—for example, American Idol looks great in HD). True, uncompressed HD looks a gazillion times better.
3) Half of the time, the program on the HD channel is just the SD feed, even if the show is supposed to be broadcasting in HD. Often, the network (or cable master control) mixes it up mid-program. So, you can start watching 24 in HD, and when it comes back from a commercial, it's the cruddy SD signal.
4) Because of the way digital and analog/SD and HD are mixed, the audio levels are all over the map. So, you'll hike up the volume for one show and then change the channel and it's ridiculously loud. This happens from commercial to commercial too.
5) The HD channels are buried not only in no man's land north of channel 100, but are also mixed in with the time-shifting SD feeds from affiliates. Networks pay the cable operators extra for premium (low number) rankings, and you can't find HD channels without organizing a team and going on a spelunking expedition. For example, Citytv is channel 7, but channel 134 in HD, and channel 135 is non-HD Citytv Vancouver. And how am I supposed to know from the channel ID that CBUT is CBC Vancouver and KCPQ is the west coast FOX affiliate, but in HD?
If you want all the HD channels together, they're up in the 500s, but don't bother trying to scroll through the standard-def channels from 2–70 to see what's on at the same time.
6) It's getting better in the last year or so as all shows switch to HD, but there's no way of knowing if a show is actually being shown in HD on the HD channel. Rogers tries to add an (HD) to the name of the show, but it's hit-and-miss.
7) Like regular digital cable channels, the highly compressed HD channels don't handle motion or flashing lights/quick movement very well, and will pixellate the picture during these types of visuals. This is particularly annoying for sports, which is what many people buy HD for. Again, it depends on the channel, since some are more compressed than others.
8) This'll never happen because it bugs the cable/satellite companies, but digital boxes and DVRs need to be customizable like televisions are, where you are able to block out channels you couldn't care less about. I would love to have a lean directory of only the channels I watch without having to scroll page after page through Real Estate Television, The Golf Channel, CMT, Food Network On Demand, blah blah blah... I would watch HD more often if the channels were at my fingertips.
I really prefer watching HD, although as Marc says quality can still be a bit of a crapshoot (apart from the issues Marc points out, there are older programs that were filmed in SD and then upressed to HD with varying degrees of success.)
That said, I spend most of my viewing time between 501 and 538 and I wouldn't go back to SD.
What? you don't like Food Network on Demand? Scandalous!