Lost Finale NOT Going to be in HD?

[Milwaukee12]

The SD viewers aren't and they were screwed over too.

No one ever complained before now.  BTW, I am working on something.  I'll show you when I am done.  I think you all will like it.

[SRW1000]

Parts of my email to Tim Cuprisin was quoted in his blog entry tonight.  (Try and guess which quote is mine. )

The odd comment is that 12 has upgraded their weather graphics.  I don't know, but to my eyes they look to be on par with what we were seeing five years ago.

If they want to be the Milwaukee weather station, so be it.  But I know at least one home that will not be tuning in for their "severe" weather updates.

I find it amazing that Milwaukee area viewers really want to see this.

Scott

[Joseph S]

That's clearly a throwaway comment. You can't even make out the letters on their pathetic graphics. They are not "updated" beyond anything that hasn't been around for 20+ yers.

[Milwaukee12]

They should all adopt this:

[SRW1000]

They should all adopt this:

That would be fine with me, as long as it's only used for legitimate severe weather conditions.

The problem is that the map would be cut off for the viewers with 4x3 sets who aren't watching the letterboxed version of the show.  My guess is that the map would have to line up with the NBC/Olympics logo in the picture you posted.

Still, that would be much less intrusive than what we witnessed tonight.

Scott

[SRW1000]

http://www.weatherhype.com

Now updated with contact info for the Wiz and graphic.

Thanks for adding the contact information for Frank Biancuzzo.  I have sent him an email, letting him know how disappointed I was in the handling of Lost tonight.

Scott

P.S.  I never received a response to the email I sent WISN earlier tonight.

[Milwaukee12]

So then it would go something like this:

[StarvingForHDTV]

All content produced in HD should be required to be broadcast to the viewers in HD.  That was absolutely brutal.  I hope some day the stations will end the torture.  They got me addicted to their 5.1 surround sound and stunning visuals, and then last night they left me feeling like a crackhead without the pipe.

[tbuiler]

That was absolutely brutal!  Here is the email I sent to fbiancuzzo@hearst.com.  I don't expect a response:

Hello,

I would like to lodge a complaint about WISN's handling of the weather updating between 7:00pm and 8:45pm on May 24th, 2006.  

Being a Time-Warner cable subscriber, I pay extra money to have my Television Content delivered in High Definition.  Because of an arbitrary, weather-related decision made at WISN, not only did I have to watch a much lower quality Standard Definition signal, but you actually distort the content itself by squishing the picture into 3/4th's it's intended size.

This is unacceptable.  Were it not for the excellent programming that ABC offers, I would no longer tune in to WISN due to this type of behavior.  I would also point out, that your competitor, FOX 6 did not share your need to warp a nationally broadcast event.

Thank you for your time, but not for your service,

[beeper]

The local stations admittedly have a public service responsibility to report on adverse weather affecting viewers in their broadcast area.

How each local station decides to present the adverse weather information,
or not present it at all is also a responsibility that will evolve with HDTV broadcasting. Obviously, nothing is currently in place to properly present this
temporary information.  

As I was planning on watching American Idol and record Lost, I applauded Fox 6
for making the decision to not include obvious pre-forcasted weather information
during a season finale. Not really a gutsy decision, just a logical responsible one.
On the down side, Fox 6 once again had various annoying technical flaws with broadcast quality during American Idol. (Network and local problems.)

I was extremely disappointed in 12's decision to annoy analog and HD viewers starting at 7PM with an information bar using more than 20 percent of the screen area and then horizontally squeezing the picture more than 20 percent.
Whom ever decided to do this for as long as it was done during a season finale,
made a bad desision.

The storm troopers at TMJ used even more screen real estate with an L shaped
information area, in order to maintain the aspect ratio. (Lesser of two evils?)
Someone at TMJ had the fore thought to decide if their viewers would prefer viewing a smaller picture with a correct aspect ratio vs. a distorted aspect ratio.

58 presented the information area across the bottom of the screen and sqeezed the picture vertically. Once again, not acceptable to many viewers (if anyone would have been watching 58 at that time).

With HD multi-channel capability, maybe in the future weather information will be presented on a channel with less priority. Then again, maybe not. I tuned in channel 10-6 several times and did hear audio weather info, but didn't ever see
the radar video presented.

Beeper

[Joseph S]

With HD multi-channel capability, maybe in the future weather information will be presented on a channel with less priority. Then again, maybe not. I tuned in channel 10-6 several times and did hear audio weather info, but didn't ever see
the radar video presented.

What's the point of weather negative if all it does is ruin HD picture quality 24x7? There's clearly no effort being made to use it to preserve HD during any weather or non-weather events. I've called and asked them this point and they have no defense. The local NBC affiliate has no loyalty to their employees or their viewers. They've proved it over and over this past year. Fortunately, I never have to watch their broadcasts for NBC HD or SD content again.

[Steve Mann]

... Although I wouldn't know as I DVR'ed it (and American Idol), both of which stopped recording at 8:07 when we had a power flash. Did you know that when that happens, and the DVR comes back up, it doesn't resume recording?  

What DVR are we talking about? My Tivo's have always started recording again after a reboot.

[Matt Heebner]

With as cheap as battery back up surge protectors are, why doesn't everyone have one for any kind of Tivo or dvr ? I bought one for each Tivo in my house just because it is such a pain to reprogram the hacks for the 30 second skip, etc. after a power loss.

Matt

[SRW1000]

I just thought I'd let everyone know that I did receive a generic response from Mr. Biancuzzo.

I would urge everyone that found last night's broadcast to be disappointing, distracting, and unnecessary to send him an email expressing your opinion.  If enough emails are sent, it could make a difference for the future.

Please keep the brief and polite.

The address Joseph posted was FBiancuzzo@hearst.com.

Scott

[SRW1000]

I should also mention that I got a nice follow up email from Tim Cuprisin on a question I had on 12 upgraded weather graphics.

He's reading the forums here, or at least this post.  It's cool to know that someone is noticing.

Scott