#301240 - 03/08/2007 21:15
Masters of Science Fiction
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Masters of Science Fiction starts airing on ABC tomorrow, Saturday August 4. It's to feature filmed versions of stories by well-respected science fiction authors like Harlan Ellison, Robert Sheckley, and Robert Heinlein. The first episode is actually based on a short story by an old college professor of mine, John Kessel. The series promises to be reasonably intelligent. Which is why they've scheduled it for Saturdays during August. Check it out.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301241 - 03/08/2007 21:23
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31565
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
The first episode is actually based on a short story by an old college professor of mine, John Kessel.
Can he make his run in less than 12 parsecs? 
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#301242 - 03/08/2007 21:31
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: wfaulk]
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addict
Registered: 18/02/2002
Posts: 658
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Maybe you were listening to the same review I was on NPR's Fresh Air. I'm going to totally DVR it as it sounded really interesting. The last show I remember that ever had new episodes on Saturday night was Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman. The only good thing about that show was Horace the post office dude. Just lookin at him made me laugh.  lol!
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#301243 - 06/08/2007 11:17
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Sounds interesting. Is it related to the Masters of Horror series? If so, then I'm less optimistic. I saw two of those and they had to be the worst television I've ever seen in my life.
I don't know, maybe I was missing something. The internets seem to indicate that that episode was really good (and the whole series in general), but all I remember was how absolutely terrible it was.
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Matt
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#301244 - 06/08/2007 12:45
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Same producers and vague general concept, but that's about it. Importantly, the "masters of horror" are directors, while the "masters of science fiction" are writers, and book writers, at that, not screenplay writers. Of course, that means that the stories are adapted by screenplay writers and not directly by the original authors (in most cases). And the directors that they have tend to be TV directors, not film directors, so there's probably going to be some smallness to the cinematography, which is too bad.
Still, the first episode was reasonably well produced. It would have been nice if they'd done something better with the credits titles.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301245 - 06/08/2007 15:18
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31565
Loc: Seattle, WA
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The first episode was kinda "meh". I'll still watch the others, though.  The local Seattle affiliate (KOMO 4) screwed up the high-def OTA version of the broadcast. They've done this mistake before: Messing up the audio of the broadcast so that the center channel (all the dialogue) is missing. Usually, when they do it on popular shows like "Lost", they fix it before the first commercial. It seems no one was paying attention on Saturday night, and it was that way through the whole show. I'm wise to this, though, so I always Tivo both channels: The high def OTA feed, and the standard def version from the satellite. Thank God for dual-tuner Tivo.
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#301246 - 06/08/2007 15:21
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Yeah, honestly, it's not Kessel's best short story. He doesn't generally do that Philip K. Dick/Twilight Zone thing, and he doesn't really do it all that well.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301247 - 12/08/2007 18:40
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Quote:
Messing up the audio of the broadcast so that the center channel (all the dialogue) is missing.
Amazingly, I'd never encountered this problem before. Until last night's episode of MoSF. The entire damned program was dialogue-free.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301248 - 13/08/2007 15:05
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31565
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Interesting. What was the signal source? I'm trying to determine if it's ABC or the local afiliates or whatnot.
I haven't looked at my tivo'd episodes from last Saturday yet to see if I have the same issue.
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#301249 - 13/08/2007 16:12
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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My local ABC affiliate, WTVD, which happens to be corporate-owned, over Time-Warner cable via my TiVo Series 3. The commercials were fine, although I doubt they're recorded in DD.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301250 - 13/08/2007 17:01
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31565
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Was it a high-def feed? Did you happen to also tape a standard-def feed as a backup, and if so did it have the same problem?
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#301251 - 13/08/2007 17:12
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Yes. No, I did not.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301252 - 15/08/2007 01:21
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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Based on two episodes, I'm sort of thinking it's got to get better. So far it seems to be mostly fiction with out much in the way of science. The last was pretty lame.
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Glenn
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#301253 - 15/08/2007 13:50
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31565
Loc: Seattle, WA
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I checked last Saturday's episode, my high def feed was fine, no problems with the audio. Haven't watched the show yet, just checked the first few minutes.
Interesting how local stations seem to screw this kind of thing up a lot.
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#301254 - 15/08/2007 23:43
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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Not enough subscribers that their cries of pain can be heard. Yet!
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Glenn
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#301255 - 16/08/2007 02:00
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Quote:
Based on two episodes, I'm sort of thinking it's got to get better. So far it seems to be mostly fiction with out much in the way of science. The last was pretty lame.
I was all ready to argue with you, assuming that you were complaining about lack of action or spaceships or lasers or something, but, yeah, that last one was pure fantasy.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301256 - 16/08/2007 21:10
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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I don't know if they could make it work in a 1 hour episode but Stephen Baxter's "The Light of Other Days", is a novel that delved into how the ability to review past events, near or far, by any one, might change how society works.
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Glenn
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#301257 - 19/08/2007 23:55
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Well, this most recent one was definitely science-fiction. Too bad it was lousy. Sadly, I'm now thinking to myself, "at least there's only one more to sit through." It will be a Harlan Ellison story, though, so maybe it has some hope.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301258 - 20/08/2007 02:56
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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You stole my post.
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Glenn
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#301259 - 21/08/2007 01:31
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/07/1999
Posts: 5539
Loc: Ajijic, Mexico
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Quote:
Based on two episodes, I'm sort of thinking it's got to get better
I wouldn't know.
I have recorded (TiVo) all three episodes so far, and deleted them without watching them because my local TV station delay-broadcasts them (pretty much a necessity because Alaska is four hours earlier than East coast time where the feed originates) and in order to cram more commercials in, by the time 10 o'clock rolls around they are running about four or five minutes late.
This means that I have the last five minutes of the previous show, and only the first 55 minutes of the show I want.
I always check the end of any show my TiVo records before watching the show, and if they're not rolling screen credits or commercials, I delete it unwatched.
tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"
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#301260 - 21/08/2007 02:13
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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In this case, you're not missing much. I'd say that the first episode was the best by far, and it was just okay.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301261 - 21/08/2007 09:20
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2489
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I thought you could tell Tivo to start recording 5 minutes beforehand and to stop 5 minutes after the end time?
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#301262 - 21/08/2007 11:56
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: CrackersMcCheese]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14478
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
I thought you could tell Tivo to start recording 5 minutes beforehand and to stop 5 minutes after the end time?
That's pretty much what my Myth box does for me. It does help to have more than one tuner though, in case of back-to-back recordings in the schedule.
Cheers
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#301263 - 21/08/2007 12:53
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: mlord]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Of course, even that scenario assumes that you don't have yet another show scheduled to be recorded at the same time. For example, if I have a two-tuner PVR and I have one show that I want to record that airs from 8 to 9, one that airs 9 to 10, and another that airs 9 to 10, I can record all of those shows, but if I want to extend the recording of the 8 to 9 show by five minutes, then I have three things that I want to record from 9:00 to 9:05. I think newer TiVos finally added the ability to just start recording one of the 9 to 10 shows five minutes late, but it used to be that one show took priority and the other got cancelled. I don't know what MythTV does, but, at best, you're still missing 5 minutes of your scheduled recordings.
And it's not like I watch all that much TV; it's just that network executives seem to want to beat their opponents by airing shows with similar audiences at the same time rather than maximizing their ratings.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301265 - 22/08/2007 02:44
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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If I'm not mistaken, the latest version of the software ignores any pre and postfix time extensions, when there are conflicts.
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Glenn
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#301266 - 23/08/2007 00:34
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: gbeer]
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new poster
Registered: 15/04/2007
Posts: 15
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Back to the original topic, yeah, so far the show has been ok-dokey. Last episode was not just out there, I thought it was really dumb. Anyway, my Tivo cut off the end because it had to switch to another channel to record another program which must have listed in the guide as starting 5 minutes early, but in reality it didn't. So I lost the last 5 minutes and pretty much didn't care.....which says a lot.
But what really irritates me is the computerized narration which reminds me of the Speak and Spell I had as a child. Geez, you'd think they could come up with something better than that! It's certainly not really that "sci-fi" to put in a throw back to the late 70's early 80's........
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#301267 - 23/08/2007 13:03
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: Seth]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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But what really irritates me is the computerized narration which reminds me of the Speak and Spell I had as a child. Geez, you'd think they could come up with something better than that! It's certainly not really that "sci-fi" to put in a throw back to the late 70's early 80's........
I don't know if you're being facetious or not, but that's Stephen Hawking.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301268 - 23/08/2007 18:57
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/07/1999
Posts: 5539
Loc: Ajijic, Mexico
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Quote:
If I'm not mistaken, the latest version of the software ignores any pre and postfix time extensions, when there are conflicts.
Hmmm... I don't think my software does that, but I have an old series 1 single-tuner TiVo, maybe it doesn't get updated?
In any case, that would hardly solve the problem. If it ignores the extensions, then I would be right where I am now, missing the last five minutes of the show.
tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"
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#301269 - 23/08/2007 19:01
Re: Masters of Science Fiction
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31565
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
Hmmm... I don't think my software does that, but I have an old series 1 single-tuner TiVo, maybe it doesn't get updated?
Correct. It's only the series-2 units that are getting the fancy new features. And that's a fairly recent feature.
Quote:
In any case, that would hardly solve the problem. If it ignores the extensions, then I would be right where I am now, missing the last five minutes of the show.
Actually, it would cut off the first five minutes of the conflicted show, if I understand the feature description.
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