Weather Closings & Delays | Local Station Graphics

[Scott]

Although I loathed the days when HD was an afterthought for local stations in Columbus; but, there is one thing I miss--when the HD channels were not susceptible to the annoying weather alerts and voting result graphics.

Now, we get it all in HD glory. I know they have to keep the aspect ratio for 16x9 (thanks for this); but, do the graphics and imagery need to be so brightly colored and HUGE :dunno:

I swear, it made watching TV last night almost unbearable. Frank (WBNS) is there anything we can do about this? :p

Does this bother anyone else??

[Thombil]

I agree.:agree:

I plan to hook up my laptop to my 50 inch Samsung DPL so I can rewatch CSI. Just hope cbs.com has it in their version of HD. As this kind of option becomes more readily available, cable and ota become less valuable. I've been thinking more and more about using the network websites, cable channel websites, HULU, TV.Com, Sling.Com and other online options as a primary viewing source. My laptop has an HDMI out so it isn't too much of a hassle. PQ isn't perfect but it is watchable.

[nicholc2]

Yes, it is annoying. Also for those that have plasma and older RPTVs, it can be damaging. Having those bright almost stationary images like that can cause burnin. Not cool.

[mikegodwin]

Agreed. Make it smaller or only show it during the news or put a small web link so people that have kids in school can just login and check.

[Robbiee19]

Although I loathed the days when HD was an afterthought for local stations in Columbus; but, there is one thing I miss--when the HD channels were not susceptible to the annoying weather alerts and voting result graphics.

Now, we get it all in HD glory. I know they have to keep the aspect ratio for 16x9 (thanks for this); but, do the graphics and imagery need to be so brightly colored and HUGE :dunno:

I swear, it made watching TV last night almost unbearable. Frank (WBNS) is there anything we can do about this? :p

Does this bother anyone else??Totally agree! Bother's the hell out of me.

[aaronod]

I agree, it is rather distracting. I just bought a new 52 inch Sharp Aquos (52d85u) and the graphics are rather large and garish on my new television. Being a soon to be Masters graduate of the Infomation Science field I really understand the importance of the accessibility of this information, but it could be implemented much more effectively. I figure that at least the quarter of the screen is taken up by the graphics, and I would think this could be easily fixed.

[bspvette86]

Hmmmm... Maybe next time I'll try using the zoom feature on my TV to block it out. I always forget it's there....

[Scott]

Hmmmm... Maybe next time I'll try using the zoom feature on my TV to block it out. I always forget it's there....

Tried this last night while watching a CSI recording and it did not work for me.

[jpdublin]

It was horrible trying to watch The Office and 30 Rock with NBC4 doing an entire blue screen around the shows. Something needs to change. Can't people just watch the news or check online?

[Thombil]

It was horrible trying to watch The Office and 30 Rock with NBC4 doing an entire blue screen around the shows. Something needs to change. Can't people just watch the news or check online?

I agree that it as hard to watch and I wish they would do it differently, but it is a public service and is the reason the public lets them use the public airwaves.

[snodgrass23]

I think its fine that they have it there for the people that need it, but it needs to be A LOT smaller. It was taking up 1/3 of the screen. The could probably only have it pop up every 15 minutes or so, especially when it's the night before.

[jpdublin]

I know, I was just venting my disgust about it. Making it smaller would be a great idea. Maybe the scroll like the NFL games, News (Fox, CNN), and ESPN does across the bottom would be much better.

[Scott]

I think its fine that they have it there for the people that need it, but it needs to be A LOT smaller. It was taking up 1/3 of the screen. The could probably only have it pop up every 15 minutes or so, especially when it's the night before.

Posting from your i-phone @ school? :ninja:

[festivus]

I'll add to this. Yes, it was extremely annoying for these closings to take up so much of the screen. While I know that the stations probably have to show them, I agree that they need to be smaller. How about smaller, scrolling characters within the bottom of the picture instead of a bright border?

It really did make TV almost unwatchable.

[bspvette86]

I hate to say it, but the sizing probably has to do with all those SD 4:3 TVs out there. The text has to be legible on all the old sets too. :doh: They get everything on the screen between the Sidebars. To maintain the widescreen aspect ratio of the standard programming, they shrink it verically by however much they are ripping off the sides rather than squishing the picture... <sigh> :eek:

[Scott]

I hate to say it, but the sizing probably has to do with all those SD 4:3 TVs out there. The text has to be legible on all the old sets too. :doh: They get everything on the screen between the Sidebars. To maintain the widescreen aspect ratio of the standard programming, they shrink it verically by however much they are ripping off the sides rather than squishing the picture... <sigh> :eek:

They could accomplish everything they needed by just cropping (maybe adding a little transparency) like any football game. That text isn't super huge--and it is much easier to ignore :twocents:

[nicjimbass]

... at the way NBC4 shows closings and delays? It takes up a good part of the screen (50%?) but the information is only like 5-10% of that area. They could do like everyone else and run a small strip at the bottom, but instead shrink the whole show for something they could do on a much smaller footprint.

[Thombil]

You might want to check out the discussion on this thread.


http://www.hdcolumbus.net/vb-hdtv/showthread.php?t=5199

[Scott]

Threads merged. WTTE & WSYX --- You're DOING IT RIGHT!

[nicjimbass]

Hey guys, I emailed WCMH last night about this issue. I was surprised to receive what looks to be an actual response, not just a canned mass-email. Check it out:

My email:

Good evening!


I'm not sure if this is the correct avenue to adress this observation, so if it's not, I apologize.



Lately anytime there are closings or delays in the area, I dread having a show I love on NBC. This is simply because of the fact that the screen seems to be 50% blank space and 50% actual programming. Of the 50% blank space, only a small portion is used to give the delays and closings. I look on other channels, and they have a small strip on the bottom, which is minimally invasive and leaves the show pretty well in tact. I'm just curious as to why so much space is wasted, and why the programming has to be shrunk in order to do so. My TV isn't super big to begin with, and with all the blank space, it only gets smaller. Hopefully I'm not the only one who has commented on this, as it's pretty annoying. That's my 2 cents. Thanks!



Nick Smith

Lancaster

The response:

Hi Nick,

Thanks for taking the time to contact us and for sharing your feedback.

I agree with your concern regarding screen size during school and business closings. To explain the process we go through, I am including a note from our Director of Engineering and Operations that was sent to me in response to my questions:

“We have been looking at this especially over the last three weeks. Here are the issues: First, there’s the amount of information. We use four cells for the county, school system, primary info, and secondary info. Everything has to be easily read on an average screen. We would have to devise a look to compensate for the safe title. We can reduce the font size of the text, allowing us to increase our video window. If we decrease the font size, the sponsor logos must be reduced in size, too. When we used a smaller font size, we had viewer complaints that the info was hard to read.The second is the video window size. We have to ensure what we build fits with 4x3 and 16x9 screens.”

As you can see, our talented team is working on this issue. We are committed to constant improvement and exceeding your expectations and rest assured we will keep working to improve your viewing experience.

Thanks again for your input. I have shared it with our team. If I can answer any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact directly using the contact information provided below.

All the best… and stay warm, dry and safe!

Rick Rogala
VP/General Manager
WCMH-TV NBC4 Columbus

[Rob052067]

Just to chime in my two-cents, I also find the weather and election crawls very annoying and far too large. And, they just repeat the same info over and over. All of which is available online for anyone who really wants to get the information.

I think they shrink the program window far too much just to add one-line word crawls at the bottom of the screen. It seems that they just want to make sure that the logo for the sponsors of the weather crawl is big and noticible.

My best guess is that we lose at least 30% of the picture size when they shrink the picture window by cropping the bottom and both sides. I don't see why they can't just super-impose the crawl over the picture at the top of the screen like was always done in the past. Or at least just shrink the picture window no more than 15% by moving it up and over in one direction. There's no need for all that blank space on both sides of the picture, and the aspect-ratio can still be maintained.

Last night, I tried out both the 'stretch' and 'zoom' features of the TWC and the DishNetwork boxes (I didn't bother digging out the TV's remote). The stretch feature at least removed the blank side bars, but nearly 1/3rd of the bottom of the screen was still taken up by the weather crawl. Zooming reduced the crawl to about 10% of the bottom of the screen, but also cut off about 15% of the top of the picture. The Dish box has a 'partial-zoom' feature that was almost a happy-medium between stretch and zoom, but still lost some of the top of the screen.

There's got to be a better solution that would enable the networks to pass olong information, while still maintaining more viewable picture space for those of us that care more about the program than if some kids don't have school tomorrow.

[bspvette86]

There you go. It all has to do with all them dadburn SD 4:3 tvs... :doh:

[MontanaXVI]

I complained about this very issue on Craigslist in the rants and raves and someone flagged and got it deleted TWICE!!

Guess you can't bash the local TV stations on there or they remove the posting.

[bspvette86]

I complained about this very issue on Craigslist in the rants and raves and someone flagged and got it deleted TWICE!!

Guess you can't bash the local TV stations on there or they remove the posting.

That's why we have cool places like this! :ecstatic:

[Rob052067]

WTTE & WSYX --- You're DOING IT RIGHT!

Agreed! I paid closer attention tonite, and 6 & 28 do a good job! They are only compromising about 15% of the screen along the bottom and not cutting off the sides at all.

But on 4 and 10, they are compromising nearly 50% of the screen for their weather crawl (much worse than the 30% I estimated above).

[MontanaXVI]

I was bugged by the fact that 10 had it running last night starting around 8pm or so...all the way through the 11 o'clock news, THEN STILL HAD IT UP at 3am all the while telling us how we get an early edition of the 5am news at 4:30.

Seriously? If they didn't know at 11 last night it was a snow day, then running it at 3am wouldn't change anything, let alone the morning news half an hour earlier.


I have been playing games most of the night tonight but I did watch a little bit of the Duke/Wake game on ESPN so I didn't get to see how much the tickers were taking up tonight.

[nicjimbass]

It looks to me like WSYX is compressing the programming up in order to fit the closings on the bottom. Still get the whole show AND the info we so desperately need (apparently).

[snodgrass23]

It looks to me like WSYX is compressing the programming up in order to fit the closings on the bottom. Still get the whole show AND the info we so desperately need (apparently).

I generally hate it when they squeeze programming in any direction, but if they keep it minimal, it's a whole lot better option than shrinking the whole thing the huge amounts they are.

[bucks17]

WSYX ran it more like the ticker that you see during games. They took up just enough space at the bottom of the screen and didn't touch the sides. The text was centered so it would show up on a 4:3 screen.

Much better than WBNS version of reducing the entire program on 3 sides while only showing lines of text at the bottom. It's almost as if they took their 4:3 feed and squished it up for the information scroll.

[DublinDoodah]

Perhaps, after the digital transition, they could just set up a separate subchannel to communicate closings. A minimally obtrusive graphic on the main channel could direct viewers to the subchannel. Since the whole screen would be available, they could cycle through the whole list much faster. They would also have room to direct the viewer to their web site.

[MontanaXVI]

I liked how Fox was doing it, a full list in alphabetical order.

WBNS has them broken down by company/school name in alphabetical order, but only once they get your your county also in alphabetical order.

I think the one long list works better.

[nicjimbass]

Perhaps, after the digital transition, they could just set up a separate subchannel to communicate closings. A minimally obtrusive graphic on the main channel could direct viewers to the subchannel. Since the whole screen would be available, they could cycle through the whole list much faster. They would also have room to direct the viewer to their web site.

I like this idea, alot.

What I don't get is this- these people are in the business of broadcasting, and they can't seem to figure this out. Here we are, abunch of nobodies, and I think we're giving reasonable and feasible solutions.

Oh, and I just measured my screen vs. programming. My modest 32" tv is 31.5" from corner to corner. The actual programming size is 23.25" corner to corner. If my math is correct, that is 36-37% of the screen being used to show information. The info takes up approximately 28.5 square inches, which is about 6% of the picture compared to the 426.25 square inches of my entire screen. That, my friends, is unacceptable. Perhaps we should start a (civil) email campaign to get things changed?

EDIT: I posted something on craiglist locally to get the word out a bit. Anyone else have local forums they frequent that we can share our frustration on?

[MontanaXVI]

I am curious what you put on Craigslist as I noted my posting got flagged and removed TWICE in one day in the rants and rave section.

Amazing to me since most of what goes up in there is just utter and pure bullshit but a nice written, non violent and no bad language post gets removed just hours after posting it.

[nicjimbass]

I put it in the local news section, which is in the community sub-heading. It's still there.

I frequent the musician section, and it's the same thing. A bunch of nonsense. Good thing CL isn't a forum or it'd be worse. At least as is, you have to jump through some hoops to post something.